Raymond E. Brown, The Churches the Apostles Left Behind.
Chapter 5: The Petrine Heritage in I Peter: The People of God, p. 75-83

(Detailed summary)

This letter was written in Rome by a disciple of Peter, probably around the 80s or 90s. The significant parallels between the First Epistle of Peter and Paul's Epistle to the Romans may be explained by the fact that Paul sought to make his theology acceptable to the Christian community in Rome. This Church was strongly attached to its Jewish origins and closer to the missionary work of James and Peter than to Paul's mission. The main idea of the ecclesiology of 1 Peter differs from that of the three post-Pauline ecclesiologies we discussed in the previous chapters, as it emphasizes the description of the Church in the context of Israel, a difference that corresponds to the image of Roman Christianity attached to its Jewish roots.

The first epistle of Peter (1:1) is addressed “to the elect exiles in the diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Based on the content of the letter, the recipients are pagans who have recently converted to Christianity. It is likely that most of the designated region was north of the boundaries of Paul's mission. Three of the five names (Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia) appear in the list in Acts 2:9, a list that could describe the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem; this region could therefore have been evangelized by missionaries loyal to James and Peter. This would explain why the region is mentioned in Peter's name from Rome, as it is plausible that Peter was more closely associated with the push into pagan regions of the Jerusalem mission. Rome, the place of Peter's death, seemed to consider itself responsible for continuing this mission.

1. The proposed solution: the Church as the people of God
   1. A metaphor taken from the story of the exodus of Israel

      The story of the Exodus, recounting Israel's wandering in the desert and its journey to the Promised Land, is used to describe the conversion of the pagans and present the foundations of Christianity. If this experience in the desert turned the slave tribes of Egypt into a people, indeed the people of God, Christian conversion turned the pagans, who were formerly no people at all, into the people of God. In this way, the author of the letter draws a close parallel between the Exodus and the situation of his audience.

      • While the Hebrews who left Egypt were ordered to prepare to leave quickly (Ex 12:11), Christians are invited to prepare themselves mentally (1 Pet 1:13).
      • While in the desert the Israelites murmured and wanted to return to the meat pots of Egypt (Ex 16:2-3), Christians of pagan origin are warned against desires to return to their former ignorance (1 Pet 1:14).
      • Just as Israel wandered in the desert before reaching its inheritance in the Promised Land, so Christian life is a time of exile or sojourn in the hope of an inheritance yet to be acquired (1 Peter 1:17; 1:4).
      • Just as the Old Testament (Ex 6:5-6; Dt 7:8; Is 52:3) describes Israel's redemption from Egypt with the image of the payment of a ransom, so in 1 Pet 1:18 we read: “You know that you were redeemed from the futile traditions of your fathers.”
      • If the Hebrews were spared from the tenth plague of Egypt (Ex 11:2) after worshipping the calf made of silver and gold, thanks to the blood of the spotless Passover lamb that marked their houses (Ex 12:5-7), so too were the Christians of the community "... redeemed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

   2. A metaphor about Christ as a stone

      The second chapter of 1 Peter, where he discusses worship, uses the metaphor of Christ as a stone to challenge his audience: “You yourselves, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Further on, he specifies that these spiritual sacrifices consist in part of good conduct that will bear witness to the pagans (1 Pet 2:12). However, even though 1 Peter is familiar with the presbyteral structure, he does not use it to encourage his audience, who are undergoing a fiery trial (1 Pet 4:12). For him, Israelite imagery centered on God's people is what matters in meeting the needs of Gentile Christians.

2. The strengths and weaknesses of this solution

   To answer this question properly, we must first reconstruct the situation in which the recipients of the letter found themselves. It is likely that their real problem was alienation and ostracism. Indeed, in the remote regions of northern Asia Minor, those who had become Christians felt cut off from the surrounding society. In the eyes of their pagan neighbors, they formed a strange and secret sect. Later Roman accounts mention accusations of atheism, because Christians did not worship the civil gods, and accusations of antisocial behavior, because they organized meals and meetings behind closed doors. There was inevitably a risk that converts, feeling this contempt, would return to the “passions of their former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14).

   1. The strength of this solution: giving a sense of belonging

      The author of the letter assures converts from paganism that they have found a new family, a new home, a new status that makes them a special people with an imperishable heritage, as was the case with the Israelites. Instilling this proud sense of belonging is a challenge, because among the Jews there is a form of blood union, while these pagan converts were of diverse origins with little in common. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy (from God), but now you have received that mercy” (1 Peter 2:10). In other words, as Christians, the converts were told that they had found something better: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people” (1 Peter 2:9).

      This ecclesiology, centered on a sense of belonging to the Church, has real advantages. If people feel they are getting something worthwhile out of belonging to a church, that church will survive the passing of Peter and the other apostles. The more undefined the family or social context from which new members of a community come, the more deeply they will be attracted to loving attention that gives them a new identity or dignity. Today, we see this reflected in the appeal that religious sects or various types of charismatic communities have for those who are dissatisfied with their families, their Church, civil order, or the world in general. This appeal poses a particular challenge to traditional churches where Sunday attendance has been a matter of obligation or social expectation. In the past, in rural or agricultural areas of the country, the church or chapel to which one belonged was the center of life. Ways must be found to divide parishes into smaller groups that provide a sense of belonging, allow for active participation in the liturgy, friendship among peers, and a healthy social life for a highly marginalized age group.

      As a corollary, the ecclesiology of 1 Peter recalls the “priesthood” of all the baptized. It is unfortunate that today we only talk about the ordained priesthood. It is precisely because much of Protestantism has ceased to refer to Christian ministry as a priesthood (based on the New Testament, where presbyters and bishops are never called “priests”) that Roman Catholic theology has reinforced the ordained priesthood. Even Vatican II insisted that the difference between the ordained and the non-ordained was a difference in nature and not simply in degree. As a result, Catholicism has placed little emphasis on the priesthood of believers. It is essential to restore to the people a sense of the priestly dignity and spiritual sacrifices spoken of in 1 Peter, precisely in order to emphasize the status conferred on all Christians. Similarly, holiness has been too strongly associated with particular forms of Catholic life, such as religious vocations and the observance of vows. The unique status of holiness given by baptism to all believers must be emphasized.

   2. The weakness of this solution: creating a sense of elitism

      This feeling stems from the designation of a group as belonging more closely to God. Let us remember that while the awareness of being God's chosen people enabled Israel and the Jews to survive for more than 3,000 years of world history, it also explains some of the aversion and hatred directed against the Jews. If Christian converts in northern Asia Minor needed 1 Peter to reaffirm their special status in order to sustain them against the ostracism and contempt of their pagan compatriots, we can be sure that this sense of special status inevitably led to even greater hatred of Christians by pagans.

      Even if the idea of “God's people” includes the recognition of God's choice by pure grace, we must recognize that, in an increasingly pluralistic society, the exclusive nature inherent in this concept is inevitably poorly perceived by outsiders and embarrassing for many members of the community. This is one aspect of the problem of “outside the Church, there is no salvation.” Whatever the original meaning of this statement, most Christians have an instinctive feeling that it cannot be true that only Christians are saved. Unfortunately, Christians have never found a satisfactory way to reconcile the unique gift of God's grace through Christ with God's merciful love for all.

      Corollaries

      1. Are the Jews no longer God's people?

         With supreme confidence, Peter writes to pagan Christians: “You are God's people,” without mentioning that another group had previously claimed this title, namely the Jews. Perhaps the author believed that, through faith in Christ, pagans joined the existing people of God, Israel, and could thus appropriate Israelite symbolism. But 1 Peter never mentions Israel or the Jews, nor the union of the two into one people. It is as if there had never been any other claimants to the title than Christians! Following this implication but going further, in the following century, Christians would explicitly deny that the Jews were still the people of God, because they had been replaced by Christians. Today, some Christians are revisiting this decision, asserting that there are two peoples of God or two groups within the one people of God: his children of Israel and his children through Christ. But other Christians categorically refuse to grant the title of “people of God” to the Jews. Such is the exclusivity inherent in this concept.

      2. No holiness among non-believers?

         In the ecclesiology of 1 Peter, the status of holiness was acquired by coming to Christ or entering the Church. There is no reference to the existence of holiness among outsiders or to the need to reach out to non-Christians by appreciating the goodness they already possess. In Vatican II, the document “On the Church in the Modern World” called on Christians to appreciate the possibilities and structures of the world around them, even if they are not Christian. Curiously, this call was made at a time when the image of the “people of God” was widely adopted. In emphasizing the pastoral value of this image, its negative side may have been overlooked, unless the intention was to create a bond between Christians and others in this world. Yet, biblically, the status of God's people reduces all others to the status of non-people.