The Jewish Annotated New Testament (120 page)

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Above all, my beloved,
^*
do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

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Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.
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Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.
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The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
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Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
¹⁷
Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
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Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

¹⁹
My brothers and sisters,
^*
if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,
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you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s
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soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

THE FIRST LETTER OF PETER

AUTHORSHIP, DATE, AND LITERARY HISTORY

This work is included as one of the seven “catholic” letters mentioned by the fourth-century church historian Eusebius [
Hist. eccl
. 2.23.25]; “catholic” (Gk “for the whole” or universal) indicates a text that spoke to the whole church. Its form is a letter by Peter, the most prominent of the twelve men in Jesus’ inner circle, written from prison in Rome (the “Babylon” in 5.13) to believers in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). More likely one of Peter’s followers wrote this epistle, imitating Paul’s letter form, after Peter’s death in 64 CE. Reasons for doubting Peter’s authorship include the letter’s excellent literary Greek, which would be surprising from a Galilean fisherman; the salutation from Peter, a nickname, rather than his given name Simon or Simon bar Jonah; the use of “Babylon” for Rome, which became common in Jewish and Christian literature only after Rome destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE; and the use of terms such as “presbyteros” (“elder,” 5.1), which were in use at a later stage of church development.

The letter is addressed to Gentiles, suggested by references that they formerly were ignorant of God (1.14), were not God’s people (1.18; 2.10), and engaged in idolatry, drunkenness, and sexual immorality (4.2–4).

PETER IN CHRISTIAN TRADITION

If Peter did not write the work, it nevertheless remains “Petrine” in that it gathers traditions associated with him. Peter is the only one of the Twelve to whom the Gospels accord significant speaking parts and actions (although John’s Gospel reveres the unspecified “beloved disciple”). Readers often warm to him because he shows human weakness in his failure to understand Jesus (Mk 8.31–33) and his denial of Jesus at his arrest (Mk 14.66–72 and parallels) despite his promise of fidelity (Mk 14.29). Flawed as he is, Peter is the “rock” (Gk “petra”) upon which Jesus builds his church, to whom he gives the keys to the kingdom and the power to forgive sins (Mt 16.17–19). Early Christian tradition, such as
1 Clem
. 5.1–4 (written ca. 90 CE from Rome) reports that Peter died a martyr’s death, probably in the persecutions by Nero in the 60s.

Peter is quickly appropriated by others. Acts of the Apostles, probably written in the early second century, shows that Peter has already developed a powerful image in the church as a preacher, healer, and wonder-worker. He is also depicted as preaching to Gentiles (Acts 10.1–11.1; see also Mt 28.19), accepting them into the church. The legend that he dispatched the fraudulent magician Simon Magus (Acts 8.9–24) continues in the apocryphal
Acts of Peter
(second–third century). Peter is put forward by Christians who continued to observe a form of Jewish law that emphasized purity regulations and ritual immersion as related in
The Pseudo-Clementines
. Peter and James are early church heroes in this literature, against Paul, who preached the law-free gospel. Even some Gnostic works (e.g.,
Apocalypse of Peter
) claim him. Peter is appropriated by every group as a symbol of legitimacy and connection to the historical Jesus.

READING GUIDE

The believers addressed are not at ease or well understood by the surrounding society. They suffer a lack of social status, but the writer uses Israel’s history and traditions—through creative use of verses from the Septuagint—to make sense of their separateness and suffering. The chain or catena of connected verses is reminiscent of rabbinic midrash and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The addressees are, like the Jews, a kingdom of priests and a holy people who live within a broader society, which rejects their theology, their morality, and their history.

JEWISH/CHRISTIAN/PAGAN RELATIONS

First Peter shows the shaky status of Christians in the Roman Empire. They could no longer trade on the antiquity of the Jews nor on the limited privileges Rome granted the Jews. As a disparaged group, believers in Jesus created an alternative identity as “the household of God.” They looked to biblical Israel as a model. Although aliens, wanderers, and outsiders, Israelites (identified as the addressees of 1 Peter) are the people of God. The author deftly claims the identity of Israel for all believers in Jesus.

Claudia Setzer

1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
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who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
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and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
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who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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In this you rejoice,
^*
even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
⁷
so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
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Although you have not seen
^*
him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
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for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

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Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry,
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inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory.
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It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look!

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Therefore prepare your minds for action;
^*
discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.
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Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.
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Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;
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for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

SUFFERING UNDER PERSECUTION

The letter makes numerous references to alienation and unjust suffering. Nero killed Christians in 64 to deflect blame for Rome’s burning. Even Tacitus, no admirer of Christians, is repelled by his cruelty (
Ann
. 15.44): Nero crucified some and burned others alive as human torches. According to early church tradition, Peter is martyred (Jn 21.18–19) at Rome under Nero.
First Clement
4–5, written about the same time as 1 Peter, indicates Peter and Paul are martyred, while Eusebius, a third-century church historian, adds that Peter is killed in Rome in the Neronic persecutions (
Hist. eccl
. 2.25). There is no empirewide persecution of Christians until the mid-third century.

The audience’s suffering probably comes not from Roman officials but from neighbors. Followers of Jesus had become an irritant: because they emerged from a Jewish group, adhered to its scriptures (in Gk translation, the LXX), and had Jewish members, they inherited many of the stereotypes associated with the Jews. Believers in Jesus were said to worship an ass (or in one graffito on the wall of the Imperial Palace on Rome’s Palatine Hill, a crucified ass). Like the Jews, they were accused of
odium hu ma ni generis
, hatred of humanity (Tacitus,
Ann
. 15.44). Christian separatism at different points included avoiding Roman spectacles and festivals, or avoiding certain professions like the military, and therefore looked to outsiders like misanthropy. Like the Jews, they were considered unpatriotic because they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods and emperors (Jews were exempt, thanks to an earlier decree from Julius Caesar). City deities needed to be mollified, lest they send misfortune. Like the Jews, Christians were accused of strange rituals, of being oversexed, and of engaging in lewd acts (Tacitus,
Hist
. 5.1–13 [Jews]; Athenagoras,
Plea
36.1; Minucius Felix,
Octavius
9.4–6; Tertullian,
Apol
. 2.1; 4.1–2).

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If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.
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You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold,
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but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.
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He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.
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Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

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Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth
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so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply
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from the heart.
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23
You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
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24
For

“All flesh is like grass
        and all its glory like the flower of grass.
     The grass withers,
        and the flower falls,
   
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but the word of the Lord endures
              forever.”