Introduction. 373 



A study of the five theories which have 

 been proposed concerning the persecutions alluded to in I Peter, 

 in the light of the data at hand, has led the present writer to the 

 conclusion that those scholars are correct who claim that the " fier\' 

 trial," which the Christians were undergoing when the Epistle was 

 written, was caused by Domitian. Assuming the correctness of this 

 conclusion we should be required to date I Peter somewhere between 

 81 and 95. 



The internal conditions of the Church are quite clearly reflected 

 in I Peter. There is a distinct advance over the doctrine as presented 

 by Paul. Though Pauhne to the core, I Peter seems to be Post- 

 Pauline in its stage of doctrinal development. " The Christian's 

 freedom from the Law is assumed in a genuine PauUne fashion in 

 2 ; 16. The tendency is present to give to the ethical side of the 

 Christian life an independent value which it lacks in Paul, who 

 always lays chief stress upon its religious basis. There is a tendency 

 also to emphasize the future and to treat faith as almost synonymous 

 with hope which looks forward to the glory of Christ and his saints, 

 and thus furnishes an incentive to Christian living, instead of making 

 it as clearly and distinctly as it is in Paul the mystical oneness of the 

 believer with Christ. And so baptism in the same way takes on the 

 aspect rather of a pledge of right conduct than a bond between the 

 Christian and his Lord. Similarly the sufferings of Christ are looked 

 upon not simply in their redemptive value, as effecting the death 

 of the flesh, and thus the believer's release from its bondage, but 

 also in their moral value as an example for the Christian. This 

 Epistle bears testimony to the survival after Paul's death of his 

 conception of Christianity in a somewhat modified, but stiU compa- 

 ratively pure form." (McGiffert's Apostolic Age p. 486 f.) " Christ, 

 grace, faith — these are the foundations of Christianity. The threefold 

 formula even appears : chosen by God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, 

 reconciled by Christ. The struggle against Jewish legalism is alto- 

 gether past and yet Paul's main dogma remains, that redemption is 

 through God's grace alone. It is not difficult to discover many 

 points in which the author of the First Epistle of St. Peter diverges 

 from St. Paul and betrays a tendency to interpret his epistles in a 

 catholic sense." (Wernle's Beg. of Christianity, Eng. tr. Vol. I.) 

 The sinless Christ who died for our redemption is here thought of 

 as the "Suffering Servant" of II Isaiah. This thought is foreign 

 to Paul, but common in later literature. The Pauline doctrine of the 

 preexistence of Christ may be imphed if not expressed in 1; 11, 20. 

 Though many scholars think that this doctrine is not implied here, 



