First Epistle of Peter
In Christianity, the First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author identifies himself in the opening verse as "Peter, an apostle of Jesus", but modern scholars are sceptical that the apostle Peter, the fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, actually wrote it, due to the cultured style of the Greek and the lack of any personal detail suggesting contact with the historical Jesus of Nazareth.One theory is that it was written by Silvanus, who is mentioned towards the end (5:12) of the epistle. In the following verse the author includes greetings from "she that is in Babylon, elect together with you," taken for the church "in Babylon", which may be an early use of this Christian title for Rome, familiar from the Apocalypse of John. If Rome is its true origin, then that fact would strengthen the case that it was actually written by Peter, and if by Peter, then written around AD 60. Some scholars reject both Peter and Silvanus as authors, and date its composition during the reign of the emperor Domitian (AD 81 - 91) from its reference to persecution of Christians.
If Silvanus himself wrote this work, then it could have been written much later, but because bishop Polycarp(Phil 1:3; 8:1; 10:2) and Papias allude to this letter, it must have been written before the mid-2nd century. Though it is cited by Irenaeus and Tertullian in the West, the First Epistle of Peter is missing from the Muratorian Canon. The obvious inference is that it was not yet being read in the Western churches.
This epistle is addressed to "the strangers scattered abroad", though it appears to be addressed to Gentiles rather than to the Jews of the Diaspora. Five of the provinces of Asia Minor are listed. The author counsels (1) to steadfastness and perseverance under persecution (1-2:10); (2) to the practical duties of a holy life (2:11-3:13); (3) he adduces the example of Christ and other motives to patience and holiness (3:14-4:19); and (4) concludes with counsels to pastors and people (ch. 5).
Its object is to confirm its readers in the Pauline doctrines they had already been taught. Peter has been called "the apostle of hope," because this epistle abounds with words of comfort and encouragement fitted to sustain a "lively hope." It contains about thirty-five references to the Old Testament, all of which come from the Septuagint translation, an inconceivable source for historical Peter the apostle.
The Epistle contains the remarkable assertion "For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (4:6) This passage, which has no support or parallel anywhere else in the New Testament, occasioned the later interpolation into the Apostles Creed, "He descended into Hell" which was not in any of the early versions quoted by Tertullian, and which eventually gave rise to the Christian myth of the "Harrowing of Hell" which flowered in elaborated anecdotal medieval imagery.
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This article uses text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897.