INTRODUCTION 



by 

 Professor Benjamin W. Bacon. 



There are few writings, if any, besides First Peter, the accurate 

 determination of whose date is a matter of greater moment to the 

 student of Christian origins. Datings vary from before A.D. 50 

 to 115, or later ; and with the question of date that of authenticity 

 is inextricably bound up. Early tradition is unanimous in placing 

 the death of Peter under Nero. Yet Ramsay, stalwart defender as 

 he is of the Petrine authorship, feels compelled to date it under 

 Domitian, compelled by the imphcations of the Epistle itself regard- 

 ing official treatment of Christianity. For First Peter speaks of 

 " sufferings accomplished among the brethren throughout the world, 

 penalties appropriate to murderers and thieves visited upon them 

 " for the name of Christ." In fact this " fiery trial " which has 

 come upon the church through the work of Satan, who prowls 

 about it like a roaring lion " seeking whom he may devour " seems 

 to be the one chief occasion of the writing. It stands practically 

 alone among the epistles in its complete silence as to doctrinal 

 differences. Ramsay sees no alternative but to add a score of years 

 more or less to the traditional life-time of Peter, recognizing the 

 extreme difficulty of identifjdng these general persecutions " for 

 the name " with the local onslaught of Nero in Rome, of which 

 the distinctive feature was prosecution for flagitia cohaerentia 

 nomini. 



Even were it found for any reason impossible to maintain the 

 Petrine authorship, accurate determination of the date of First 

 Peter would be of immense advantage for the settlement of a great 

 number of disputed points of criticism ; for scarcely any writing 

 of the canon has so many points of literary connection with others. 

 Itself widely used from an extremely early date it employs to an 

 extraordinary extent the thought and phraseology of others. It 

 stands in the very midst of the stream of literary development. 

 Almost every writing of the New Testament has lines of dependence 

 leading either to it, or from it. And the period within which 



