text-i. 1.) Without this supposition it is difficult to understand why he should have written to Asia Minor from the Euphrates, or how he could have had knowledge of Pauline epistles, or occasion to use them.

Destination. The elect sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia' were probably Jewish Christians, since the term Dispersion denoted Jews beyond the limits of Palestine (compare John vii. 35, James i. 1). If the words be thus interpreted, it may be inferred that the writer was true to the character of the Apostle to whom was committed the gospel of the circumcision,' though, for some reason, he adopted Pauline ideas and phrases in communicating with men among whom, as a class, the Apostle of the Gentiles was little revered. In spite of the address, however, it may be said that 'the elect sojourners' were not mainly Jews. There are passages, indeed, which indicate Gentile readers :-'Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance' (i. 14); 'For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles' (iv. 3), (see also i. 18, ii. 9, 10, iii. 6). If, then, St. Peter wrote the epistle, we are forced to the conclusion that he addressed a communication to men, perhaps Jews, but more likely Gentiles, sojourning in regions in some of which St. Paul had laboured.

Date. The prophetic note the end of all things is at hand' (iv. 7), points to a time when the Messianic kingdom was still expected, as the exercise of the gift' (iv. 10) indicates that a primitive condition of ministering had not disappeared. These passages favour the idea that the letter could have been written

in the lifetime of St. Peter, but a precise date cannot be determined. The author made use of Romans and Ephesians; and if these were the works of St. Paul, they, of course, preceded his death. The time of that death, however, is unknown, though it is a fashion with many recent critics to name 58 A.D. On the other hand, St. Peter's association in later life with St. Paul, his residence in Rome, and the year and circumstance of his death, having no verification in history, furnish no clue to the date of the composition of the epistle. Different theories of the date have been built on the circumstances which the writing reveals. The Christians were subject to temptations (i. 6) involving searches made for them (v. 8), formal trials (iii. 15), and reproaches for the name of Christ, with sufferings as Christians (iv. 14-16). This persecution, we are told, points to an imperial procedure in Vespasian's, or Domitian's, or Trajan's reign. Each reign has had its advocates, and there are others who maintain that the persecution took place in the time of Nero. Milton, in A Defence of the People of England, wrote :'But it is not certain that this epistle was writ in Nero's reign: it is as likely to have been in Claudius's time.' The upholders of the theory of the Petrine authorship of the letter are required to conclude that it was written before the reign of Vespasian, since it is unlikely that St. Peter's life stretched so late into the century.

Characteristics. In 1 Peter there is no trace of that controversy between Jew and Gentile which called forth Galatians and other New Testament writings. The author, however, was a Paulinist in the sense that to his thinking Christianity had no national exclusiveness, and felt no prejudice for Jew or Gentile. St. Peter, to suppose him the author, does

not appear as the Apostle of the circumcision, but as the liberalminded man whose speeches were reported in Acts (chaps. x., xi.). He adopted ideas and phrases from Pauline writings, and, according to some critics, with eclectic sympathy made use of James; though it is more probable that I Peter may be traced in James. (Compare, e.g., James i. 2, 3, 10, 11, 18, iv. 6-10, v. 20 with 1 Peter i. 6, 7, 23, 24, iv. 5, 6, 8.) Fore-knowledge, election, divine calling (i. 2, 15, ii. 9) are words found in the epistle, though they were characteristic terms in the theology of St. Paul. Many though the debts were, in thought and style, which the writer owed especially to Romans and Ephesians, he was not destitute of originality. Certain testimonies and revelations, to take examples, were named as ‘things the angels desire to look into’(i. 12): preaching ‘unto the spirits in prison' (iii. 19) was mentioned of Christ; the flood was used as a figure for baptism (iii. 21), and Christ was styled 'the Chief Shepherd' (v. 4). But neither the literary debts nor the original expressions constituted the real value of the epistle, which was a message of hope and an exhortation. It was addressed to men whom a fiery trial was to try (iv. 12), and the writer, conscious of serious issues, spoke with becoming solemnity. There were no ecclesiastical controversies to settle. Peter, by Roman interpretation, the rock on which the Church was built, found no occasion to discourse on ecclesiastical unity, or to give the notes of a true ministry. It was not the work of 'the pilot of the Galilean lake' to quench the arrogance of heresy or to furnish a theology to men in search of a creed. But with wisdom which came down from above he advised : 'As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace

of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ' (iv. 10, 11).

The difficulties surrounding the theory of the Petrine authorship are grave, but there is no impediment to the conjecture that St. Peter was a man to write this address on conduct; and, ceasing to trouble about dates and authorship, and passing from criticism to religion, we do not err if we take the epistle as a guide to action amidst the trials of life, as a Christian hand-book to righteousness. 'Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind?' he wrote-and the words illustrate the teaching which made for Christian manliness-' be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation' (i. 13-15) The writer did not forget that his readers were to be subjected to severe trial, and to strengthen them he showed them the dignity of their experience. They were happy, if they suffered for righteousness' sake (iii. 14). They were called to suffering, 'because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example' (ii. 21). And there was a note of comfort and a suggestion of compensation in the words, 'he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin' (iv. 1).

I Peter has been the subject of a commentary by Archbishop Leighton, which, according to Dean Stanley, 'alone of ancient Scottish works of theology is read on the south of the Tweed.' Aphorisms from this commentary formed the basis of Coleridge's Aids to Reflection.

SECOND PETER

Authorship. In the judgment of the vast majority of scholars the epistle was not written by St. Peter. No reference to it is to be found in literature till the close of the second or the beginning of the third century, and it is hardly conceivable that a genuine Petrine composition should have remained so long unrecognised. There is no doubt, however, that the author used the name and authority of St. Peter (i. I, 14, 15, 16, iii. 1, 15), though in one place he failed to identify himself as an Apostle (iii. 2, 'through your Apostles,' as in R.V.). It is worthy of note that the references to the Gospel narrative are not, as might have been expected from a witness to the resurrection, to the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, but are to events in which St. Peter had a part. The author evidently wrote as one assuming a name. But, further, any indications of time show that the writing was not the work of the Apostle. St. Paul's epistles are associated with the other Scriptures' (iii. 16) in a fashion impossible in the Apostolic age, when they were neither collected nor generally recognised as authoritative. The phrase 'since the fathers fell asleep' (iii. 4) could not have been used, nor the descriptions of the false teachers made (ii. 1) in that age. The false teachers, it is true, were to come (ii. I, iii. 3), but none the less were described as living (ii. 10). A further proof of the non-Petrine authorship may be found in the fact that the writer had before him Jude, and, perhaps, Hebrews and James. Scholars very generally agree that Jude was anterior to 2 Peter, and the probability is that Jude was composed long after the death of St. Peter. The Greek texts also show that the