Introduction

On the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter

The authorship of the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter—sometimes contested by Western biblical scholars in modern times—is established first of all not only by the reference to the second Catholic Epistle of the same Apostle (2 Pet 3:1), but also by the unanimous witness of the early Christian tradition, going back to the apostolic age itself, and also by internal characteristics contained within the content of the epistle. Regarding the evidence of tradition, it is worth noting that Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, an apostolic figure and student of Saint John the Theologian, in his epistle to the Philippians, as Eusebius attests (Church History IV, 14), “cites certain witnesses from the first epistle of Peter,” and this is fully confirmed by comparing Polycarp’s epistle to the Philippians with the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter (from the latter we find in Saint Polycarp: I 8, 13, 21, II 11, 12, 22, 24, III 9, 4, 7). Equally clear evidence for the authenticity of the Apostle Peter’s first epistle is found in Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, who also cites passages from the epistle with attribution to the Apostle Peter (Adv. haeres. IV, 9, 2, 16, 5), in Eusebius (Church History V, 8), in Tertullian (“Against the Jews”), in Clement of Alexandria (Strom. IV, 20). In general, Origen and Eusebius call 1 Peter indisputably authentic (ἐπιστολή ὁμολογουμένη, Church History VI, 25). The discovery of this epistle in the Syriac translation of the second century, the Peshitta, is evidence of the common faith of the ancient Church of the first two centuries in the authenticity of 1 Peter. And in all subsequent centuries both the Eastern and Western ecumenical Church unanimously recognized this epistle as Peter’s.

The same authorship to the Apostle Peter is also attested by internal characteristics found in the very content of the epistle.

The general tone or accent of the sacred writer’s views in the epistle, the character of his theology, moral teaching, and exhortation correspond entirely to the qualities and peculiarities of the personality of the great chief Apostle Peter, as he is known from gospel and apostolic history. Two main characteristic features stand out in the spiritual image of Saint Apostle Peter: 1) a living, concrete mode of thinking, inclined, given the hotheadedness distinguishing the Apostle Peter, to easily pass into a stimulus to action, and 2) a constant connection of the Apostle’s worldview with the teaching and hopes of the Old Testament. The first distinctive trait of the Apostle Peter comes out with complete clarity in the gospel mentions of him; (see Luke 5:8; Matt 14:25-33; John 6:68; Mark 9:5; John 13:9; Luke 22:31-33 and others); the second is confirmed by his calling as the Apostle of the circumcision (Gal 2:7); both of these features are likewise reflected in the speeches of the Apostle Peter, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The theology and writings of the Apostle Peter are distinguished in general by a predominance of images and conceptions over abstract reasoning. In the Apostle Peter we do not encounter either such lofty metaphysical contemplations as in the Apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, nor such subtle clarification of the logical relationship of Christian ideas and dogmas as in the Apostle Paul. The attention of Saint Peter is concentrated chiefly on the events of history, primarily Christian, in part also Old Testament: illuminating Christianity mainly as a historical fact, the Apostle Peter appears, one might say, as a theologian-historian, or in his own expression, as a witness of Christ: he understands apostolic calling as being a witness to everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did, and especially to his resurrection. This is spoken of repeatedly in the speeches of the Apostle (Acts 1:22), and the same is affirmed in his epistles (1 Pet 5:1; 2 Pet 1:16-18). Equally characteristic for the Apostle Peter is the connection of his teaching with the Old Testament. This trait is quite noticeable in the writings of Saint Apostle Peter. He illuminates Christianity everywhere mainly from the perspective of its connection with the Old Testament, in as much as the Old Testament predictions and hopes were fulfilled in it: it suffices, for example, to compare the passage from the speech of the Apostle Peter concerning the healing of the lame man Acts 3:18-25 and the words 1 Pet 1:10-12, in order to see that all the judgments and arguments of the Apostle proceed from the fact of Old Testament revelation and everywhere presuppose Old Testament prophecy, preparation, and New Testament fulfillment. In connection with this, the idea of Divine foreknowledge and predestination occupies a very prominent place in the teaching of the Apostle Peter (the very word πρόγνωσις, foreknowledge, foresight, apart from the speeches and epistle of the Apostle Peter – Acts 2:23; 1 Pet 1:2 – is found nowhere else in the New Testament). Both in his speeches and epistles the Apostle Peter frequently speaks of the predestined nature of one or another New Testament event (Acts 1:16; 1 Pet 1:1). But unlike the Apostle Paul, who fully developed the doctrine of predestination (Rom 8:9), the Apostle Peter, while not giving a theoretical clarification of the idea of Divine foreknowledge and predestination, offers the most thorough exposition of the factual manifestation of Divine foreknowledge and predestination in history—about prophecy. The doctrine of prophecy, of the inspiration of the prophets by the Holy Spirit, of the revelation to them of God’s mysteries, of their independent penetration into these mysteries, etc.—is expounded in the Apostle Peter with such fullness and clarity as in none of the sacred writers,—and this doctrine is equally expressed both in the epistles and in the speeches (1 Pet 1:10-12; 2 Pet 1:19-21, see Acts 1:16).

Finally, a characteristic feature of the epistles, as also the speeches of the Apostle Peter, consists in an abundance of direct quotations from the Old Testament. According to the opinion of the scholar A. Clement (Der Gebrauch des Alt. Testam. in d. neutest. Schriften. Guetersloh 1895, p. 144), “no New Testament writing is so rich in references to the Old Testament as the first epistle of the Apostle Peter: in 105 verses of the epistle there are 23 verses of Old Testament citations.”

This close coincidence in the spirit, direction, and fundamental points of teaching between the speeches and epistles of the Apostle Peter, as well as between the peculiarities of content and the characteristics of the Apostle Peter’s personality and activity known from the Gospel, provides convincing proof of the authorship of the two Catholic Epistles by that same great chief Apostle Peter, whose speeches are recorded also in the Acts of the Apostles, namely in the first part of that book (Acts 1-12). After the speech at the apostolic Council (Acts 15:7-11), the further activity of Saint Peter becomes known from church traditions, which are not always sufficiently clear (see Menology, June 29). As for now the original purpose and first readers of the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter, the Apostle writes his epistle to the chosen pilgrims of the dispersion (ἐκλέκτοις παρεπιδήμοις διασποράς) of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1 Pet 1:1). Given that “dispersion,” διασπορα, often denotes in Scripture (Jas 1:1; 2 Macc 1:27; Jdt 5:19) the entirety of Jews living in the dispersion, outside Palestine, in pagan countries,—many ancient and modern interpreters of the epistle of Saint Apostle Peter believed that it was written to Christians (ἐκλέκτοις, the chosen) from among the Jews. Such a view was held in ancient times by Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History III 4), Epiphanius of Cyprus (Against Heresies XXVII 6), Saint Jerome (On Famous Men, chapter I), Oecumenius, Saint Theophylact; in modern times—by Berthald, Gütch, Weiss, Kühl, and others. But this opinion cannot be accepted in its exclusive form: in the epistle there are passages which could be attributed to Christian gentiles, but by no means to Jewish Christians. Such are, for example, the words of the Apostle in 1 Pet 1:14, where the reason for the former fleshly and sinful life of the readers is ἐν τῇ ἀγνοίᾳ, in ignorance of God and His holy law, and their very previous life is called a “futile (ματαία) life inherited from fathers”: both the one and the other apply only to the religious and moral condition of pagans, but in no way to Jews. The same must be said of such passages as 1 Pet 2:10. Therefore, one should 1) accept a mixed composition of readers—Jewish Christians and gentile Christians; 2) understand “dispersion” to mean Christians in general without distinction of nationality; 3) “chosen pilgrims”—not individual Christians, but entire Christian church communities, as seen from the concluding greeting from the whole Church 1 Pet 5:13-14. If in the list of geographic names 1 Pet 1:1 some saw an indication of the existence in Asia Minor of Jewish Christian communities, founded here earlier and independently of the gospel preaching of the Apostle Paul, and attributed the founding of these communities to the Apostle Peter, all of this is not supported by New Testament data, which, on the contrary, attribute the first introduction of Christianity in the provinces of Asia Minor to the Apostle Paul (Rom 15:20; Acts 13; cf. Acts 14, etc.). Equally, church tradition tells us nothing definite about the preaching of the Apostle Peter in the localities named by him 1 Pet 1:1.

What then prompted the Apostle Peter to address his epistle to the Christians of these provinces? The general purpose of the epistle, as is evident from its content, was the intention of the Apostle to strengthen the readers of various social positions in faith and the rules of Christian life, to eliminate certain internal disorders, to bring peace amid external sorrows, to warn against the seductions of false teachers,—in short, to plant in the life of the Christians of Asia Minor those true spiritual goods, the lack of which in the life and behavior was felt and became known to the Apostle Peter, perhaps through the mediation of the zealous co-worker of Paul, Silas, who was with him at that time (1 Pet 5:12; 2 Thess 1:1; 2 Cor 1:19). We can only note that both the teachings, and especially the warnings of the Apostle Peter, are characterized by a more general character than the teachings and warnings in Paul’s epistles, which is natural given that the Apostle Paul was the founder of the churches of Asia Minor and knew their living conditions more closely from personal direct experience.

The place of writing of the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter is Babylon, from where in the name of the local Christian community the Apostle sends greeting to the churches in Asia Minor to which he addresses the epistle (1 Pet 5:13). But what is to be understood here by Babylon, opinions of interpreters differ. Some (Keil, Neander, Weiss, etc.) see here the famous Babylon on the Euphrates in ancient times. But against this speaks already the fact that by the time of the gospel, this Babylon lay in ruins, appearing as a vast desert (ἔρημος πολλή—Strabo, Geograph. 16, 736), and moreover, the complete absence of evidence from church tradition of the residence of the Apostle Peter in Mesopotamia and his preaching there. Others (among them Bishop Michael) understand Babylon of Egypt—a small city on the right bank of the Nile, almost opposite Memphis: here there was a Christian church (Menology, June 4). But tradition tells nothing of the residence of the Apostle Peter in Egyptian Babylon either, it only considers the evangelist Mark, a student of the Apostle Peter, as the founder of the church of Alexandria (Eusebius, Church History II 16). There remains the third opinion, expressed in ancient times by Eusebius (Church History II 15) and now dominant in scholarship, according to which Babylon (1 Pet 5:13) should be understood in an allegorical sense, namely: understood as Rome (Cornely, Hofmann, Zahn, Farrar, Harnack, Professor Bogdashevsky). Besides Eusebius, among ancient interpreters Saint Jerome, Saint Theophylact, and Oecumenius understood Rome by Babylon. In favor of this understanding speaks also textual tradition: many minuscule manuscripts have the gloss: ἐγράφη ἀπὸ Ῥώμης. If it was objected that before the writing of the Apocalypse (see Rev 16:19), an allegorical name for Rome as Babylon could not have developed, in reality such a connection of the first with the latter occurred, according to Schettgen’s testimony (Horae hebr. p. 1050), significantly earlier, being prompted by the analogy between the ancient oppression of the Jews by the Chaldeans and the later oppression by the Romans. And the fact that in the concluding greetings of Paul’s epistles, written from Rome (to the Philippians, Colossians, Timothy, Philemon), the latter is not called Babylon, does not exclude the possibility of such usage by the Apostle Peter, to whom allegory is generally characteristic (for example, the word διασπορα in 1 Pet 1:1 has a spiritual, figurative sense). Thus, the place of writing of the 1 Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter was Rome.

It is difficult to determine precisely the time of writing of the epistle. Many ancient church writers (Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatius the God-bearer, Dionysius of Corinth, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Origen, the Muratorian canon) testify to the residence of the Apostle Peter in Rome, but all of them do not date his arrival in Rome even with approximate precision, but speak mostly of the martyrdom of the chief apostles, again without precise dating of this event. Therefore, the question of the time of origin of the epistle in question should be resolved on the basis of New Testament data. The epistle presupposes the establishment of churches in Asia Minor by the Apostle Paul, which took place, as is known, in the third great missionary journey of the Apostle to the Gentiles, around 56–57 AD; consequently, the first Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter could not have been written before this time. Then in this epistle many have not without reason noted signs of similarity with Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Ephesians (compare, for example, 1 Pet 1:14 and Rom 12:2; 1 Pet 2:13 and Rom 13:1-6; 1 Pet 3:9 and Rom 12:17, and also: 1 Pet 2:4 and Eph 2:20-22; 1 Pet 1:10-11 and Eph 2:5 and others), but the first appeared not before 53 AD, and the second—not before 61 AD. In favor of a relatively late appearance of the epistle in question also speaks the aforementioned fact known from the epistle (1 Pet 5:12) of Silas, the companion of the Apostle Paul, being with the Apostle Peter. On the basis of all this, one can consider probable the writing of the epistle after the time when the missionary activity of the Apostle Paul with respect to the churches of Asia Minor had ceased,—when he was sent from Caesarea as a prisoner to Rome for trial before Caesar (Acts 26:1). It was precisely then that it was natural for the Apostle Peter to address his epistle to the churches of Asia Minor, bereft of their great herald, and to impart to them instruction in faith and piety and encouragement in life’s sorrows. Thus, the probable time of writing of the epistle is the period between 62–64 AD (soon after the first epistle, not long before his martyrdom the Apostle wrote also the second epistle).

By the peculiarities of his personal spiritual life, and also by the special purpose of the epistle, the Apostle Peter teaches the readers Christian hope in God and the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation in Him more than anything else and repeatedly. As the Apostle James is the preacher of righteousness, and the evangelist John—of the love of Christ, so the Apostle Peter is preeminently the Apostle of Christian hope.

The exegetical and expository literature on the Epistles of the Apostle Peter in the West is very significant, such as, for example, the works of Hofmann, Weisinger, Kühl, Osten, Sieffert, and others. In Russian biblical literature there is no special scholarly monograph on the Epistles of Saint Apostle Peter. But very valuable exegetical and expository information on the subject is contained in the works of 1) Professor Archpriest D. I. Bogdashevsky. Epistle of Saint Apostle Paul to the Ephesians. Kiev 1904 and 2) Professor O. I. Mishenko. The Speeches of the Holy Apostle Peter in the Book of Acts. Kiev 1907. Also deserving full attention is the pamphlet of Bishop George. Explanation of the Most Difficult Passages of the First Epistle of Saint Apostle Peter. 1902. Most closely aiding in the explanation of the Epistles of the Apostle Peter, as well as other Catholic Epistles, serves the classical work of His Grace Bishop Michael “Expository Apostle,” book 2, ed. Kiev, 1906. Also of some significance are the “Popular Expositions” of the Catholic Epistles by Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Nikanor. Kazan, 1889.