The First Letter of Peter
Witnesses to Hope
Grave threats darken the horizon for the Churches located in Asia Minor. For the most part, these communities have been founded by Paul and his coworkers. They bring together in one assembly, one faith, and one conception of life Jews and Gentiles who have become Christian. Such a union could appear strange to people on the outside. In addition, these men and women have broken away from the ways of life and thought of those who surround them. Christians are thus suspected of subversive behavior and morals.
If persecution has not struck as yet, it is just around the corner. We can think of the Emperor Nero, who gave rise to the first persecutions in A.D. 64. We have the impression that for the moment Christians are being subjected mainly to pressures, vexations, scorn, and suspicions, and they are despised and ostracized from the social life of their area.
In such circumstances, could Christians forget that, according to the Old Testament and the Gospel, the onset of opposition announces the last times and that Christ has promised persecution as an advance sign of his return (see Mt 5:11f; 10:22; Lk 21:12-19)? Believers must not be frozen in fear. The moment must inspire a renewal of hope. They must remain filled with courage, joy, simplicity, and loyalty, keeping their eyes on the future, the great future of the encounter with Jesus (see 1 Pet 1:5, 13, 20; 2:12; 4:5, 13, 17; 5:1-4, 10). This is not a case of minimizing the judgment that is also coming, for Christians regard it with hope, not fear.
The First Letter of Peter seems to be an excellent example of catechesis as practiced around the sixties of the first century. Here and there, the author seems to have read Paul, the discourses in Acts, or passages of the Gospels; we have in this document part of the patrimony of Christian initiation and instruction.
In addition to giving us a theology of Baptism, a teaching about the baptismal life, this document is also one of the texts best suited for conveying an understanding of the mystery of the Church, the community that carries out God’s plan in the midst of the world, the new human race that is maturing in Christ. The theology of the Church is in this case a spirituality of joy.
In this Christian milieu one places the Gospel into evidence when one speaks of salvation, hope, and the time of God for humanity. One must focus on the mystery of Christ: the innocent, humble, and suffering Christ, in whose footsteps believers must walk, exposed to all kinds of attacks (see 1 Pet 2:9, 21-23).
Appeal is always made to this Letter when the topic is Christ’s descent to the netherworld (see 1 Pet 3:19f; 4:6). The theme can receive diverse interpretations, among which it is difficult to navigate. It certainly stresses Christ’s sovereignty over all humanity from its origin as well as his sovereignty over the universe, and it demonstrates the universal efficacy of his redemptive work.
This Letter presents the Christian life as something simple and right, without any complicated rule of life but with the sense of love and loyalty. When they are threatened by persecution and when they live in a perspective of the end of the world, these Christians do not construct any new project for society. They accept the structures and conditions of life that form part of their world. However, in this real context, they want to bear witness to righteousness, loyalty, and the meaning of human duties. It is in this sense that we must read the passage concerning slaves, women, and public officials (see 1 Pet 2:13—3:7). In the face of persecution, they reflect on the meaning of suffering and on the Beatitudes. They must remember that the servant is not greater than the Master, as Christ declared (see Mt 10:24).
A very ancient tradition, the first attestations of which go back to the end of the first century, attributes this Letter to Peter, the head of the Apostles. Critical studies often cast doubt on the attribution because of the difficulties it raises, but good arguments for it are not lacking. The text is written in simple and correct Greek; Peter was linked with the family of Zebedee, which ran a fishing business in Galilee, and so would have known the language. Moreover, in its final redaction, the Letter may have been fine-tuned by the writer’s secretary, Silvanus or Silas, a Greek by birth and found more than once in the company of Paul (see Acts 15:22; 17:4; 2 Cor 1:19).
Peter would have written this Letter from “Rome,” which was the most current interpretation of “Babylon” (1 Pet 5:13). For in Judaism this name signified the power that from time to time oppressed the Jewish faith and scattered the people, and from the first century B.C. onward that power was Rome.
In a more dramatic context, the Book of Revelation (18:2, 10, 21) uses the same image for the public authority that persecutes. On the other hand, we also know that Peter was martyred in Rome, under Nero, in A.D. 64 or 67.
The First Letter of Peter may be divided as follows:
I: Salutation (1:1-2)
II: The Privileges and Responsibilities of Salvation (1:3—2:10)
III: God’s People in a Hostile World (2:11—3:12)
IV: Christian Conduct in Suffering and Persecution (3:13—5:11)
V: Conclusion (5:12-14)