1 Peter: A Commentary

By Craig S. Keener

Leading New Testament scholar Craig Keener, one of the most trusted exegetes working today, is widely respected for his thorough research, sound judgments, and knowledge of ancient sources. His four-volume magnum opus on Acts has received high praise from all quarters. This commentary on 1 Peter features Keener's meticulous and comprehensive research and offers a wealth of fresh insights. It will benefit students, pastors, and church leaders alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781493429318

Craig S. Keener

Craig S. Keener (PhD, Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, The Historical Jesus of the Gospels, and commentaries on Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Revelation. Especially known for his work on the New Testament in its early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings, Craig is the author of award-winning IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament and the New Testament editor for the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible.

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Keener has done us all a great service by his careful evaluation of 1 Peter, taking us systematically through all aspects of the letter, not least its disputed authorship. His extensive scholarly apparatus only contributes to the clarity of the core text, without ever losing the thread of his arguments. This is a book which will assist anyone seriously interested in coming to grips with this particular epistle.

—Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Keener has complemented his massive four volumes on Acts with one nearly as weighty on the brief epistle from the aging Peter in Rome to those in the vast diaspora of provinces in northern Asia Minor. He shows that Paul’s letters and echoes of gospel traditions in the epistle reflect the early formulation of a shared Christian faith. Keener also presents a translation—or ‘articulation’—of 1 Peter that will jar readers into taking a close look at his treatment of semantics and syntax. Admitting that Peter himself was unlikely to be familiar with more than part of the Jewish and early Christian material, Keener employs the massive encyclopedia of ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and religion from his work on Acts to provide a broader cultural context for words, images, and possible overtones in each phrase.

—Pheme Perkins, Joseph Professor of Catholic Spirituality, Boston College

Keener’s commentary pays attention to theology and hermeneutics, to history and social description, to literary and genre analysis, and more. Keener provides a compendium of 1 Peter scholarship and possibilities that is both informative and enlightening. This is an exciting project on 1 Peter and one that I highly recommend to be used not only by pastors and laypeople but also in seminary classrooms. This commentary provides more than just an interpretation of 1 Peter: it is a thorough immersion in its discourse, rhetoric, history, imagery, theology, and meaning potential. I commend this work to any serious student of 1 Peter and beyond.

—Shively T. J. Smith, assistant professor of New Testament, Boston University

Keener’s commentary provides wonderful access to both Jewish and Greco-Roman primary sources, allowing the text of 1 Peter to be better understood within its first-century setting. The author’s original translation and comments are highly readable and thought-provoking. An important new resource for students of 1 Peter.

—Ruth Anne Reese, professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary

© 2021 by Craig S. Keener

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-2931-8

Unless indicated otherwise, translations of Scripture are those of the author.

Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

Scripture quotations labeled NEB are from the New English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1961, 1970. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To my fellow St. Augustine Seminar

members and our hosts,

gathered at Lambeth Palace to discuss 1 Peter,

London, November 23–25, 2018

Contents

Cover    i

Endorsements    ii

Title Page    iii

Copyright Page    iv

Dedication    v

Excursuses: A Closer Look      ix

Preface    xi

Abbreviations    xiii

Translation of 1 Peter    xxxvii

Introduction to 1 Peter    1

Structure    3

Outline    4

Authorship    8

External Attestation    16

Date    25

Provenance and Destination    31

Setting    32

Hope in Suffering    38

1. Epistolary Prescript (1:1–2)    42

2. Praising God for Salvation (1:3–12)    63

3. Live for God’s Eternal Values (1:13–2:3)    91

4. God’s People (2:4–10)    127

5. Behave Honorably, Refuting Slanders (2:11–17)    146

6. Slaves to Slaveholders (2:18–25)    177

7. Wives and Husbands (3:1–7)    208

8. General Exhortation before God (3:8–12)    252

9. Behave Honorably, Refuting Slanders (3:13–17)    257

10. Christ’s Example (3:18–4:6)    266

11. General Exhortation: Serve Fellow Believers (4:7–11)    312

12. Suffering for and with Christ (4:12–19)    334

13. Elders and the Younger (5:1–7)    352

14. General Exhortation (5:8–11)    381

15. Epistolary Postscript/Closing (5:12–14)    392

Bibliography    415

Index of Subjects    510

Index of Authors and Selected Names    512

Index of Scripture    530

Index of Other Ancient Sources    547

Back Cover    609

Excursuses: A Closer Look

Some Ancient Jewish Views of Suffering    38

Providence, Fate, and Predestination in Antiquity    48

Rebirth, Conversion, Inheritance    67

The Supreme Deity as Father in Ancient Thought    100

Physical Passions (2:11)    150

Roman Aristocratic Fears of Anti-traditional Groups    163

Household Codes    167

Ancient Images of Freedom and Slavery    172

Slavery in the Early Empire    179

Shepherds as Benevolent Rulers    201

Overseers    206

Marriage Expectations in Greco-Roman Antiquity    210

Women’s Weakness in Ancient Sources    247

Ancient Baptism    279

Christ’s Ascension in Its Ancient Context    284

Gentile Sexual Practices    293

Drunkenness    298

Idolatry    301

Hospitality    317

Prophetic Speech    324

Elders    355

Avoiding Greed in Antiquity    364

Satan / the Devil in Early Jewish Understanding    383

Silvanus’s Role in Peter’s Letter    393

The Kiss of Love    407

Preface

It is the task of publishers to market commentaries but the task of the scholars who author them to be forthright about their limitations. While I hope to make valuable contributions in this work, I recognize that this commentary is nowhere as comprehensive as my four-volume commentary on Acts. Although I seek to make fresh contributions from primary sources (despite some inevitable overlapping with what others have also found there), I engage much less secondary scholarship here than in my Acts volumes.

This is not from lack of appreciation for Petrine scholarship, but for a personal, pragmatic reason. Usually it takes me about a year to catch up on the recent secondary literature on any book that I write a commentary on (often at forty hours a week), and the demands of schedule with other publications have precluded that full engagement in this case. Rather than cite only the older secondary literature that I had already assimilated in the past, I have chosen to engage the secondary literature in general only lightly.1 To confess this deficiency is not to diminish the importance of such engagement; it is to apologize in advance for this limitation, to refer the reader to other commentaries for such engagement, and to suggest that the contributions I hope to offer are in other areas.

First Peter might have been a much later project, if indeed I would have gotten to it in my lifetime, because I had other major projects scheduled ahead of it. But when Canon Jennifer Strawbridge graciously included me in Archbishop Justin Welby’s invitation to scholars to work on 1 Peter, I decided to prepare by collecting my background material on 1 Peter. Thinking that I might never have the opportunity to publish it myself, I made the most important material available for the other members of the St. Augustine Seminar that gathered at Lambeth Palace on November 23–25, 2018.

Especially in small groups, members—a mix of both Anglican and non-Anglican scholars from around the world—engaged one another vigorously and charitably. (The small group to which my colleagues and I contributed addressed especially the fourth chapter of 1 Peter.) Archbishop Justin Welby and his wife, Caroline, were astonishingly gracious and available, and the worship in the chapel services, at the same time both liturgical and Spirit-filled, was renewing. Likewise, more courteous a facilitator than Professor Strawbridge is difficult to imagine, as she both welcomed and shepherded the range of contributions toward productive and pastorally relevant studies.

When Jim Kinney at Baker and I discussed potential projects, I observed that even the condensed version of my material on 1 Peter seemed sufficient and useful for a modest book. With Dr. Strawbridge’s blessing, then, I have proceeded with the present commentary. I do so, however, with the recognition that it is intended only to complement and supplement, rather than to supplant, other commentaries available. (Commentaries rarely supplant their predecessors anyway, or at least, not for very long.)

I am grateful to my editors on this project at various levels: Jim Kinney for acquisitions; and Tim West and Robert Maccini on the details.

My thanks to Baker Academic for permission to use excerpts from the following: Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 1, by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2012; Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 2, by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2013; Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 3, by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2014; Galatians by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2019; The Gospel of John by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2003; The Mind of the Spirit by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 2016; and Paul, Women, and Wives by Craig S. Keener, copyright © 1992. All material is used by permission of Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

1. With grateful help from New Testament Abstracts. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I note here surveys of earlier research; see, e.g., Elliott, Rehabilitation (1976); Sylva, Studies (1980); Sylva, Bibliography (1982); Cothenet, Première (1988); Martin, Metaphor (1992); Casurella, Bibliography (1996, with more than 1,500 sources); Boring, Recent Study (2004); Pakala, Comments (2005); Dubis, Research (2006). Many commentaries also include extensive bibliographies—e.g., Schlosser, Épître, 15–27; esp. extensive, Elliott, Peter, 155–304. For some recent approaches from various and often complementary angles, see, e.g., Green, Modernity (2001); Webb and Bauman-Martin, New Eyes (2007); Horn, Christen (2017); Himes, Theology (2018).

Abbreviations

General

Old Testament

New Testament

Ancient Texts, Text Types, and Versions

Modern Versions

Apocrypha and Septuagint

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts

Josephus and Philo

Mishnah, Talmud, and Related Literature

Targumic Texts

Other Rabbinic Works

Apostolic Fathers

Nag Hammadi Texts

New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

Patristic and Other Early Christian Sources

Other Greek and Latin Works

1

Other Ancient and Medieval Sources

Papyri, Inscriptions, and Fragment Collections

Journals, Periodicals, Major Reference Works, and Series

1. Note that works are normally classified under the name of their putative author without necessarily implying authenticity. This is because too many cases are disputed to make this distinction useful, and readers will normally find works in collections of the putative author.

Translation of 1 Peter

Part of my strategy in this translation is to experiment with ways to articulate the text that often differ from standard translations, simply to provide a complementary perspective on texts that may seem too familiar to some readers. Thus I have used simpler language in many texts but have made some others less readable in an effort to bring out nuances often missed. All translations involve compromises, obscuring some nuances in the effort to highlight others. Thus this translation is designed to work for this commentary, not as a typical translation.

From Peter to God’s Chosen in Asia Minor

Assured of Future Salvation

More Than the Prophets Knew

Live Wholly for God

Ransomed from the World by the Precious Lamb

Transformed by God’s Eternal Message

Chosen Foundation for a Chosen People

Don’t Act like the World

Submit to the World’s Authorities