1: 1-2
- Most important thing it tells us – this is a letter
- Letters have common outlines – true from Jude to Revelation
- Sender
- Receiver
- Grace and Peace
- Thanksgiving/Blessing
- Body
- First 3 in these two verses
- Letters have common characteristics
- Written by someone specific to someone specific at a specific time for a specific purpose
- Issue with letters – things that are common/obvious to sender and receiver may not make sense to a third party
- Who – Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
- Seems obvious, but not so fast
- 2 potential issues
- Talks about church structure in away that makes people think it has to be later
- Response – groups order themselves quickly
- 3rd graders playing kickball will know to pick captains
- Response – groups order themselves quickly
- Best Greek in the New Testament – no way a Galilean fisherman could write this Greek
- Counter Arguments
- Greek was the universal language, everyone spoke and wrote it
- Mark Twain, Jack London, Maya Angelou, Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury – never went to college. You don’t need formal training to write well
- Greek was the universal language, everyone spoke and wrote it
- Peter may not have been as backwards as we think
- Question of how big Zebedee’s business was
- Multiple ships, employees, Peter seems to know people other places (Antioch, Rome)
- If Peter was raised to lead a major family business then he would have a better grasp of Greek than we might otherwise expect
- Question of how big Zebedee’s business was
- Peter spoke and Silvanus wrote
- We know that happened in the NT
- Counter Arguments
- Fact – in the ancient world people wrote under more famous people’s names – way you learned rhetoric – learn famous voices before you got your own
- Chance that someone wrote later as an appeal to what Peter would say in the face of adversity
- Ex. Like we do with founding fathers, what would “they” want/do
- Does it matter: if you believe that the Holy Spirit guided the process of making the canon then the author becomes less significant
- Chance that someone wrote later as an appeal to what Peter would say in the face of adversity
- Talks about church structure in away that makes people think it has to be later
- When – depends on the author
- Peter died mid 60s so if he wrote it was earlier than that, if he didn’t then it was later
- Arguments for later:
- Knows Jesus traditions – makes reference to gospel stuff in a way Paul doesn’t
- Elements of Paul and James are addressed in the letter
- Response to both – Peter would have known all that
- Arguments for later:
- Peter died mid 60s so if he wrote it was earlier than that, if he didn’t then it was later
- Who it was written to – churches in verse 1
- Regions in northwest Turkey
- All under Roman rule
- Believers
- Former gentiles – 1: 14, 1: 18
- “Exiles”
- Literal Translations – Exiles of the dispersion” – OT reference
- Assyrians disperse the 10 northern tribes
- What does it mean – folks who aren’t at home
- Sojourner, ex-pats, they aren’t where they belong
- Where’s their home – heaven
- Literal Translations – Exiles of the dispersion” – OT reference
- Righteous Sufferers – under some kind of pressure – 1:6
- Recurring theme of this letter – how do we face and respond to sufferin
Why is the letter written- two main themes
- Response to suffering
- What’s happening to them?
- Letter from Pleni – what do I do with these Christians, the rest of the people are turning against them
- Economy – wealth at very top and then poverty for the rest
- To survive you needed patrons
- They gave money, you gave support
- Went all the way up to the emperor who was everyone’s patron and whose patrons were the gods
- To survive you needed patrons
- People had patrons, cities had patrons
- Artemis = Ephesus
- Athena = Athens
- These gods demanded loyalty from everyone, and when bad things happened it was a sign of their displeasure
- Christians were a problem because they didn’t play along
- These gods demanded loyalty from everyone, and when bad things happened it was a sign of their displeasure
- Economy – wealth at very top and then poverty for the rest
- Letter from Pleni – what do I do with these Christians, the rest of the people are turning against them
- What’s happening to them?
- Honor and Shame
- What society ran on – everything increases one or the other
- Only so much honor to go around
- Has to be taken
- Crucifixion was the ultimate shaming mechanism
- Public, slow, the person is naked and exposed
- Choosing to follow Jesus is to choose to follow a shamed one which shames them
- Peter is going to flip that – suffering and shame now will be riches and honor later
Big idea of the letter: how do we live in this new situation and why are we going through all this?
- Leave you with this – questions of suffering and how to react to culture aren’t new. Christians have always faced them. Our times aren’t as unique and scary as we might think
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church 