CHAPTER XII THE NEW TESTAMENT 343 future trials and persecutions. It is eminently practical belongs to the later life of the apostle, when his ardent and free from subtle theological questions. It preaches natural temper was deeply humbled, softened, and sanca religion of good works which commends itself to the tified by the work of grace. It was written to churches approval of God and all good men. It represents the pri- in several provinces of Asia Minor, composed of Jewish mary stage of Christian doctrine. It takes no notice of the and Gentile Christians together, and planted mainly by circumcision controversy, the Jerusalem compromise, Paul and his fellow-laborers; and was sent by the hands and the later conflicts of the apostolic age. Its doctrine of Silvanus, a former companion of Paul. It consists of of justification is no protest against that of Paul, but pri- precious consolations, and exhortations to a holy walk or to it, and presents the subject from a less developed, after the example of Christ, to joyful hope of the heavyet eminently practical aspect, and against the error of enly inheritance, to patience under the persecutions ala barren monotheism rather than Pharisaical legalism, ready raging or impending. It gives us the fruit of a rich which Paul had in view. It is probably the oldest of the spiritual experience, and is altogether worthy of Peter New Testament books, meagre in doctrine, but rich in and his mission to tend the flock of God under Christ, comfort and lessons of holy living based on faith in Je- the chief shepherd of souls.1085 sus Christ, “the Lord of glory.” It contains more reminisIt attests also the essential agreement of Peter with cences of the words of Christ than any other epistle.1083 the doctrine of the Gentile apostle, in which the readIts leading idea is “the perfect law of freedom,” or the law ers had been before instructed (1 Pet. 5:12). This accords of love revealed in Christ. with the principle of Peter professed at the Council in JeLuther’s harsh, unjust, and unwise judgment of this rusalem (Acts 15:11) that we are saved without the yoke Epistle has been condemned by his own church, and re- of the law, “through the grace of the Lord Jesus.” His docveals a defect in his conception of the doctrine of justi- trinal system, however, precedes that of Paul and is indefication which was the natural result of his radical war pendent of it, standing between James and Paul. Peculiar with the Romish error. which has been discussed in § 26. On the date of composiPeter. tion commentators are likewise divided, as they differ in their See on the lit., biography, and theology of Peter, §§ views on the relation of Peter’s Epistle to Romans, Ephesians, 25, 26, and 70. and James, and on the character of the persecution alluded to The First Epistle of Peter, dated from Babylon,1084 in the Epistle. Weiss, who denies that Peter used the Epistles 1083 Reuss (Gesch. d. heil. Schriften N. Testaments, 5th ed., I. 138): “Thatsache ist, dass die Ep. Jacobi für sich allein mehr wörtliche Reminiscenzen aus den Reden Jesu enthält als alle übrigen Apost. Schriften zusammen .... Insofern dieselben offenbar nicht aus schriftlichen Quellen geflossen sind, mögen sie mit das höhere Alter deg Briefs verbürgen.” Beyschlag (in the new ed. of Huther in Meyer, 1881) and Erdmann (1881), the most recent commentators of James, agree with Schneckenburger, Neander, and Thiersch in assigning the Epistle to the earliest date of Christian literature, against the Tübingen school, which makes it a polemical treatise against Paul. Reuss occupies a middle position. The undeveloped state of Christian doctrine, the use of συναγωγὴ for a Christian assembly (James 2:2), the want of a clear distinction between Jews and Jewish Christians, who are addressed as “the twelve tribes,” and the expectation of the approaching parousia (5:8), concur as signs of the high antiquity. 1084 Commentators are divided on the meaning of Babylon, 1 Pet. 5:13, whether it be the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, i.e., heathen Rome, as a persecuting power (the fathers, Roman Catholic divines, also Thiersch, Baur, Renan), or Babylon on the Euphrates, or Babylon in Egypt (old Cairo). The question is connected with Peter’s presence in Rome,
of Paul, dates it back as far as 54; the Tübingen critics bring it down to the age of Trajan (Volkmar even to 140!), but most critics assign it to the time between 63 and 67, Renan to 63, shortly before the Neronian persecution. For once I agree with him. See Huther (in the Meyer series), 4th ed., pp. 30 sqq.; Weiss, Die Petrinische Frage (1865); Renan, L’Antechrist, p. vi and 110; and, on the part of the Tübingen school, Pfleiderer, Paulinismus, pp. 417 sqq.; Hilgenfeld, Einleitung, pp. 625 sqq.; Holtzmann, Einleitung, pp. 514 sqq. (2d ed.). 1085 “This excellent Epistle,” says Archbishop Leighton, whose Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle General of St. Peter is still unsurpassed for spirituality and unction, “is a brief and yet very clear summary both of the consolations and instructions needful for the encouragement and direction of a Christian in his journey to heaven, elevating his thoughts and desires to that happiness, and strengthening him against all opposition in the way, both that of corruption within and temptations and afflictions from without.” Bengel: “Mirabilis est gravitas et alacritas Petrini sermonis, lectorem suavissime retinens.” Alford: “There is no Epistle in the sacred canon, the language and spirit of which come more directly home to the personal trials and wants and weaknesses of the Christian life.”
