SPECIAL INTRODUCTION

TO THE

FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER.

1. The Author of the Epistle. The author describes himself as "an Apostle of Jesus Christ " (i. 1), and it has been the universal belief of the Christian Church of all ages, that the writer of the Epistle was Simon Peter, one of the twelve. The life of Peter as given in the Gospels is familiar to all. At first a disciple of John the Baptist, he was brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew (John i. 41, 42). He, as well as the rest of the twelve, was gradually prepared for his work, receiving his first call at the beginning of the second year of our Lord's ministry (Matt. iv. 18-22; Mark i. 16-20; Luke v. I-II), and his formal call, a few months later, in midsummer (Mark iii. 13-19; Luke vi. 12-16). Christ was especially drawn to Peter, for He saw in him a man with capabilities of character fitted to hold the place of leader among the Apostles, in the trying times that should follow after His own death. From the very beginning Peter's enthusiasm and impetuosity led him to be a natural leader among the Apostles, and he soon acted as spokesman for them. When some at the close of the second year of our Lord's ministry threatened to desert Him, it was Peter who made answer in behalf of the twelve, "Lord, to whom shall we go? . . . We know that thou art the Holy One of God" (John vi. 68, 69). A few months later, at

Cæsarea Philippi, in answer to Christ's question to the twelve, "But who say ye that I am?" Peter, in the name of the twelve, but with a special confidence of personal conviction, made that memorable confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi. 16), which gained for him the special approbation of our Lord. As an answer came those gracious words of our Saviour, which have been the occasion of endless controversies between Romish and Protestant theologians, "Blessed art thou, Simon, Bar-Jonah: ... And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (petra) I will build my Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it " (Matt. xvi. 17-19). (See Excursus I. at the close of this Epistle.) In Peter, Jesus saw that one among the Apostles whose activity would give the Church its greatest stability and consistency, and he was one of the most highly favored of the twelve, being privileged along with James and John to be the only witnesses of the healing of the daughter of Jairus (Mark v. 37), of the Transfiguration (Mark ix. 2), and of the agony in Gethsemane (Mark xiv. 33). Like many impulsive men, there was in him a rashness and forwardness bordering upon presumption, and he did not stand the test at the hour of trial and danger. He represents, more completely perhaps than any in the N. T., the weakness of the natural and the strength of the spiritual man. Thrice, each time with greater vehemence, he denied his Lord in the hall of Caiaphas, but it needed only the glance of his Saviour's eye to bring him to himself. Although he had sinned. deeply, he repented sincerely. On the morning of the resurrection, he who first among the Apostles needed the comfort was the first who received it, and the Lord as an assurance of forgiveness honored Peter with a special

appearance (Luke xxiv. 34; 1 Cor. xv. 5); and as Peter had thrice denied Him, so Jesus by His thrice repeated question, "Lovest thou Me?" restored him fully as the leader of the Apostolic band, and gave him the commission to feed His sheep (John xxi. 15–17).

In the first twelve chapters of the Acts, Peter stands forth as the recognized leader of the Apostles. In accordance with the position assigned to him by Christ, it was Peter who suggests the choice of a twelfth Apostle to succeed Judas (Acts i. 16–22), it was his sermon on the day of Pentecost which added 3,000 souls to the Church (Acts ii. 41), and he also was permitted to preach the first sermon to the Gentiles and to receive them into the Church (Acts x. 1-48). In fact it is Peter who almost on all occasions takes the lead,—and we are justified in recognizing him as the leader of the twelve during the first fifteen years after the founding of the Church, before Paul began his successful career, and before James became the head of the church at Jerusalem. In the persecution raised by Herod Agrippa (A. D. 44), in which James the brother of John was killed (Acts xii. 2), Peter was cast into prison, from which he was miraculously released (Acts xii. 3-17), and for a time quitted Jerusalem.1 Six years later (A. D. 50) we find Peter again in Jerusalem in attendance at the Council, but we find that Peter did not exercise the power which Romanists would attach to the primacy of Peter, for he neither presided at the Council, nor summoned it, nor dismissed it, and it was James who presided, and who passed final judgment (Acts xv. 13-21). At this council it was also decided

1 Acts xii. 17, “And he (Peter) departed, and went to another place." There is no evidence whatever for the view that Peter at this time went to Rome and there founded the Christian Church to which Paul afterwards wrote his letter. The Epistle to the Romans is decidedly opposed to any such legend,

that Paul should work among the Gentiles and Peter chiefly among the Jews (Gál. ii. 7-9). Shortly after took place that memorable meeting when, through an error of judgment, Peter brought upon himself the merited reproof of Paul (Gal. ii. 11-14). Paul grounds his reproof upon the inconsistencies of Peter, not upon his Judaizing tendencies. In this narrative we must admire Peter's singular humility in submitting to public reproof, as much as the earnestness and wisdom displayed by Paul. From I Cor. i. 12 we infer that there were some Jewish converts in the church at Corinth, of a Judaizing character, who wished to impose the observance of the Mosaic law on the Gentiles, and who falsely regarded Peter as their leader, but Peter distinctly repudiates the idea that the Gentiles should be compelled to keep the Mosaic law (Acts xv. 10),1 and there is no reason to question his entire harmony at all times with the decision of the Apostolic Council (Acts xv. 23-29).

We have no record of Peter's missionary journeys, but from his first Epistle we learn that he resided some time at Babylon, the ancient capital of the East (1 Pet. v. 13), which at this time, and for several centuries later, was a chief seat of Jewish culture, and it was probably through the influence of the labors of Peter in the East that the great Christian schools at Edessa and Nisibis were finally established. It is most likely that he visited Corinth, and it may be considered a settled point that he did not visit Rome before the last year of his life.2 The Roman tradition of Peter's twenty years' episcopate in Rome cannot

It is equally true, however, that all the Apostles, including Barnabas and Paul, acknowledged allegiance to the Mosaic law, and considered it prudent for Jews to keep it (Acts xviii. 18-21; xx. 16; especially xxi. 1824), for the sake of not giving offence to weak brethren.

2 Some writers of great learning (like Spanheim, DeWette, Baur, Zeller, Schwegler, Hase, Holtzmann, Lipsius, Winer, Pfleiderer, Hausrath, David