From: Over 50 Interpreters Explain First Peter Return to Home
By
Roland H. Worth, Jr. © 2018
Over 50 Interpreters
Explain First Peter
A COMPENDIUM OF THE MOST INSIGHTFUL MATERIAL FROM COMMENTARIES
AND OTHER WORKS
NOW IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Compiled and Edited
By
Roland H. Worth, Jr.
Copyright © 2018 by author
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The primary text of this work is the traditional King
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Scripture taken from the New King
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List of All Sources
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2018 Preface
Those who have already used the
entry in this series on the gospel of Luke may recall that the strong majority
of that text had already been researched when I finally decided to finish that
lengthy work. In contrast only about a
quarter had been done for 1 Peter and 2 Peter/Jude. None had been done on the epistles of John,
which had to be researched "from scratch," thereby permitting an
entire significant "section" of the New Testament to be completed and
presented together.
In the years since Mark and Luke
were done, a tremendous amount of material has been made available in internet
editions, facilitating the speed and ease of research immensely. In these compilations that come afterwards
these titles are typically only noted as coming from an "Internet
edition" or a similar phrase. A few
books have been available in pdf form--another
wonderful research tool--and in those cases full bibliographical information
has been provided.
Individuals quoted are often edited in regard
to length but never in a manner to alter the point they intend to make--which
will vary to different degrees from one commentator to another. Alterations on two minor matters also deserve
to be noticed. I typically remove the
bulk of the “
I hope these new entries in the
series will be useful to their readers.
I encourage you to "copy out" the entire volume--and all of
the others I have on my website--to assure they will remain available to you
and friends. In my mid-70s, death is no
longer an abstract possibility, especially when I carry with me such things as
a quadruple heart bypass and a double bypass.
On the optimistic side, the first heart attack a decade ago should
have killed me but God has blessed me well and I'm a stubborn soul so far as
getting more gospel work accomplished. A highly desirable combination in my opinion.
Roland
H. Worth, Jr.
Fall
2017
INTRODUCTORY MATTERS
Authorship
The Biblical
Peter: His Family Background and Early
Life [38]. The early years of the Apostle whose writings
are now before us appear to have been passed in the
The
name which [he and his wife gave their son was] Symeon
(Acts
The
date of the Apostle’s birth cannot be fixed with certainty, but as we find him
married and probably with children (compare Matthew
The absence of any mention of that father in the
Gospel history suggests the inference that the two brothers had been left
orphans at a comparatively early age, and had begun their career as fishermen
under the protection of Zebedćus and his wife Salome
(Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; Mark 16:1), with whose sons, James and John (Joannes and Jacôbus), we find them in partnership, himself also
probably of Bethsaida or of some neighboring
village. Zebedćus
appears to have been a man of some wealth.
He had his “hired servants” to assist his sons and their partners (Mark
When
the Gospel history opens Peter was living not at
The Biblical Peter: His relationship to Jesus and role in the early church as recorded in Acts [47]. No person, who has read with attention the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, can be unacquainted with the character of St. Peter, whether as a follower of Christ, or as an apostle. He and his brother Andrew were the first two that were called by the Lord Jesus to be his disciples, John 1:41; Matthew 4:18-20. And in all the passages in which the names of the twelve apostles are recorded, Peter is mentioned first.
He was one of the three whom Jesus admitted to witness the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter; before whom he was transfigured, and with whom he retired to pray in the garden, the night before he suffered. And although afterward, in an hour of sore temptation, termed by Jesus “the hour and power of darkness,” Peter gave a sad proof of human weakness, in denying three times, and that with oaths, that very Master with whom, a few hours before, he had declared his readiness to go to prison and to death; yet in consequence of the deep remorse he felt for his crime, Jesus, having pardoned him, ordered the women, to whom he first “showed himself alive after his passion,” to carry the news of his resurrection to Peter by name; and appeared to him before he appeared to any other of his apostles.
And at another appearance, (John 21:15-17), he confirmed him in his apostolical office, by giving him a special commission to “feed his sheep;” and soon after judged him worthy, under the impulse and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to open the gospel dispensation in all its glory, and first to preach salvation through a crucified Redeemer to Jews (Acts 2) and Gentiles, Acts 10.
When he and John were brought before the Jewish council, to be examined concerning the miracle wrought on the impotent man, Peter boldly testified that the man had been healed in the name, and by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, but whom God had raised from the dead; assuring them that there was salvation in no other.
It was Peter who questioned Ananias
and Sapphira about the price of their lands; and for
their lying in that matter [God] punished them miraculously with death. And, what is yet more remarkable, although by
the hands of all the apostles many signs and wonders were wrought, it was by
Peter’s shadow only, that the sick, who were laid in
the streets of
Soon after, when, to please the Jews, enraged at his zeal and success in preaching the gospel, Herod Agrippa, who had lately killed James, the brother of John, with the sword, had cast Peter into prison, intending to put him to death also, he was delivered by an angel.
From these and many other facts, recorded in the gospel history, and well known to every Christian reader, it appears that Peter was very early distinguished as an apostle, and that his Master highly esteemed him for his courage, zeal, and various other good qualities, and conferred on him various marks of his favor, in common with James and John; who likewise distinguished themselves by their fortitude, zeal, and faithfulness in the execution of their apostolic office.
But, that Peter received from Christ any authority
over his brethren, or possessed any superior dignity as an
apostle, as the Romanists contend he did, there is no reason for
believing. All the apostles were equal
in office and authority, as is plain from our Lord’s declaration, “One
is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” And it appears, from Peter’s epistles, that
he did not think himself superior in authority to the other apostles; for if he
had entertained any imagination of that sort, insinuations of his superiority,
if not direct assertions thereof, might have been expected in his epistles, and
especially in their inscriptions; yet there is nothing of that sort in either
of his letters. On the contrary, the
highest title he takes to himself, in writing to the elders of the churches, is
that of their “fellow-elder,” 1 Peter 5:1.
The Biblical Peter:
His Later Life [1]. The Apostle
Peter is not mentioned in the Acts after the council at
The apostle
Peter after the Biblical record stops [45]. He is not mentioned in the account of Paul’s
last visit to
There are a very large number of traditions about Peter, in which history and legend are so intertwined that they cannot be disentangled with any certainty. The Clementine literature—a collection of apocryphal writings written in the name of, but certainly not by, Clement of Rome, about A.D. 200--contains unhistorical legends concerning a series of contests between Peter and Simon Magus. Clement of Alexandria, writing about the same time (Stromateis, iii) tells us that Peter’s wife anticipated the modern Zenana Mission, thus: “Peter and Philip had children, and both took about their wives, who helped them by ministering to women in their own homes [i.e. the women’s]; by their means the doctrine of the Lord penetrated without scandal into the privacy of women’s apartments.”
Tradition,
however, does not throw any clear light on the questions when the Apostle left
It
is a natural conjecture that, at some time or other, he visited the churches in
the north-east of
Dionysius,
bishop of Corinth, writing about A.D. 180, speaks of Peter as having taught at
Corinth (Eusebius, Church History, ii.25); and some have seen allusions
to such teaching in 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:22).
But this tradition may have arisen from the anxiety of the
If the term “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13 denotes either the great city on the Euphrates, or the town of that name near the modern Cairo, Peter must have exercised his ministry at one or other of these places.
But
there is an early and widespread tradition that
But several early authorities (Dionysius of Corinth, l. c.; Tertullian, Scorp. 15; Caius, c. A.D. 220; Lactantius, c. A.D. 300; Eusebius, etc.) agree that Peter preached at Rome; and that, like Paul, he suffered martyrdom in the Neronian persecution.
Origen (circa A.D. 250, Eusebius, Church History, iii. 1) tells us that, being condemned to be crucified, he asked to be allowed to suffer head downwards, because he was not worthy to die in the same way as his Master; and that his request was granted.
A
picturesque legend (found in some editions of the works of St. Ambrose, bishop
of Milan, A.D. 374-397) tells us that the Christians of Rome, on the strength
of our Lord’s words, “If they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another,”
persuaded the Apostle to leave Rome to escape the persecution. But at the gate Christ met him; and Peter
asked, “Lord, whither goest thou?” (Quo vadis?) “I go to
An early second-century tradition (Papias, etc.) tells us that the second Gospel is Mark’s record of the preaching of Peter. The contents of the Gospel are consistent with this account of its origin, and the tradition is accepted by very many scholars.
In the first four centuries there were current
several apocryphal works, bearing the name of the Apostle, viz., The Acts of
Peter, The Gospel According to Peter, The
Doctrine (or) Preaching of Peter, and The Revelation of Peter.
Case against the apostle Peter being the author of this epistle [16]. The fact that the form and thought of the Epistle are Pauline, that the apostle’s ideas are not only presupposed, but also hospitably appropriated, stands unquestionably against the supposition that Peter was its author. There is little probability that Peter could have been so well-read in the Pauline literature as the author of the Epistle, evidently, was that he could so far have forgotten the fundamental ideas of Jesus’ teaching as to give them little place in an Epistle to the churches—the conceptions of “the kingdom of God, Son of God, Son of Man.”
The
man who was one of the “pillars” at
A
Jewish fisherman who was an apostle required an interpreter, according to Papias, could not write in a Greek style like that of this
Epistle. The style shows no evidences of
a translation from Aramaic into Greek, and the supposition that it was written
by Mark or Silas after the dictation of Peter is totally unsupported.
Case
for a Petrine authorship—A brief survey [23]. Peter no doubt knew and read the Epistles of
Paul; in fact he speaks of them in his second letter (2 Peter
The Holy Spirit who guided Paul’s pen guided also the hand of Peter; all is the direct work of the Holy Spirit. If Peter uses some of the great truths found in the Epistles of Paul it was because the Spirit of God desired to have them restated.
If we examine these parallels closely we discover that they cover the most essential truths of Christianity and are used for practical exhortations. Those whom Peter addressed needed these truths and the practical application.
On the other hand there are many internal evidences
which prove that none but Peter wrote this Epistle. It has been pointed out that there is a
similarity between Peter’s statements in the book of Acts and in this first
Epistle. Compare Acts
Furthermore, the writer speaks of having been an eyewitness of the Lord’s sufferings (1 Peter 5:1). He describes these sufferings, how He was reviled and reviled not, how He suffered and threatened not. And Peter was an eyewitness of all this.
Nor is it without significance that in this Epistle
alone the Lord Jesus Christ is called “the chief Shepherd.” On the shores of
Weakness of internal arguments against a Petrine authorship [45]. As regards internal evidence, we have already shown that the Epistle has some points of contact with the Synoptic Gospels and the speeches of Peter, such as we should look for in an Epistle written by that Apostle. But neither in these respects nor generally is the Epistle so characteristically Petrine as to afford conclusive proof that Peter was its author.
On the other hand, certain objections to the Petrine authorship have been based on the contents of the Epistle. Some of these are trivial.
It is urged that the Apostle could not have written such good Greek; but we have no exact information as to how far Greek was spoken amongst the Jews of Galilee, or as to the linguistic attainments of Peter, or as to what use he may have made of secretarial assistance.
Peter
at
Again, it is pointed out that the quotations in this Epistle mostly follow the LXX, and some critics suppose that Peter, as a Palestinian Jew, would have translated for himself from the Hebrew; but the LXX was the one Greek Bible of the times, and it was as natural for a Jew writing in Greek to take his quotations from the LXX, as it is for any one writing today in English to use the Authorized or Revised Version. Even Paul usually follows the LXX, except where he finds it necessary to correct its renderings, and Peter had not the scholarly training and attainment of the pupil of Gamaliel.
Again,
our Epistle is addressed to the churches of
[Would anyone
like to conjecture what would be the proper protocol of one apostle
writing to an area where some of the congregations were founded or had the
apostle Paul working among them at some point—while others (quite possibly the
majority) had not? How should he
word himself? How does he avoid sounding
like he was making a distinction between a spiritually elite (those who had
heard Paul) versus the "unwashed masses" (who had not)? He simply
chose the manner that seemed best to him to cover both situations. rw]
Similar considerations may explain the absence of
personal reminiscences of the sayings and doings of our Lord. [Of
course the inclusion would not be enough to satisfy a significant number of
critics. We have mention of the
Transfiguration in the Second epistle and yet that does little or nothing to
change the minds of many who are convinced it is a counterfeit epistle! rw]
There are, however, two serious difficulties in the way of accepting the Petrine authorship—first, certain features which are said to point to a late date, and the large use of the Pauline Epistles.
First,
the alleged indications of a late date.
The use of the Pauline Epistles implies that 1 Peter must have been
written after A.D. 62. The same
conclusion seems to follow from
Another special
point of raised by Prof. Ramsay. The
Epistle speaks of its readers “being reproached for the name of Christ” and
suffering as Christians. The motive of
the first persecutions was hatred of Christianity, but the pretext was
put forward that the persecuted were disturbers of the public peace. Nero, for instance, tortured and burnt the
Christians because he charged them with having set fire to
Such a view is improbable on the face of it, and sets aside the weighty traditional evidence which points to A.D. 66 as the approximate date of Peter’s death. Prof. Ramsay’s criterion is not decisive; whatever pretexts for persecution were put forward, both Christians and persecutors were aware of the distinction between martyrs whose only crime was their religion, and malefactors who had broken the ordinary law.
Hence, while the indications of date fix the Epistle as near to A.D. 66 as possible, they are consistent with authorship by Peter about A.D. 64-66.
The second main objection is the large dependence of the Epistle on the Pauline writings. Can we believe that the chief of the Apostles of the Circumcision, the teacher regarded by Paul’s opponents as their leader, the Cephas of whom Paul wrote, in an Epistle used by the author of 1 Peter, “I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned” (Galatians 2:11)—can we believe that he would write as if he were a disciple of the Apostle of the Gentiles?
At first sight the difficulty seems insuperable; yet it may fairly be maintained that after a careful consideration of Peter’s character and history this objection ceases to be serious. The Apostle was impulsive and generous, too impulsive to harden into the slave of any stereotyped set of dogmatic phrases, too generous to ignore the power and truth of the Pauline teaching, or to resist its influence, either on account of an ancient grudge, or because of sectarian bitterness towards a teacher of another school, or through jealousy of a rival apostle.
Conclusion. Thus these objections do not seem fatal to
the traditional view, and we may follow [= embrace the claim of] the opening
verse, and the opinion known to have been held by the church since about A.D.
150, in accepting the Petrine authorship.
There are internal references which make the most sense if this was a genuine epistle of the apostle Peter [51]. There are not a few things in the Epistle which become all the more natural and intelligible if it was written by Peter the Apostle. There are various points of affinity between it and the discourses of Peter which are recorded in the Book of Acts.
These are of a kind to suggest an argument in favor of the Petrine authorship from undesigned coincidences. There is a habit of immediate personal appeal. There is an abundant use of direct terms of address, such as "to you," "for you" etc., which sharpen general statements into distinct personal applications to the readers. This is seen in passages like 1 Peter 1:4, 20, 25; 2:7; 3:6, etc.
There is also the habit of repeating Christ’s own words, or of using expressions which show that these were in the writer’s mind, as in 1 Peter 3:9, 14, etc. And at several points, in a simple and unstudied style, the Epistle gives a singular reflection of Peter’s personal history. It contains much that is quite in character, if Peter is the author.
Note on why Peter almost had to have a greater acquaintance with Greek than many have
supposed.
Place of Writing
The Roman Option
. Either
The probability of the epistle being written from
His journey to Rome to oppose Simon Magus arose from
Justin's story of the statue found at Rome (really the statue of the Sabine
god, Semo Sanctus, or Hercules,
mistaken as if Simon Magus were worshipped by that name, “Simoni
Deo Sancto), combined with
the account in Acts 8:9-24. The
twenty-five years' bishopric is chronologically impossible, as it would make
Peter, at the interview with Paul at
His crucifixion is certain from Christ‘s prophecy,
John 21:18-19. Dionysius of Corinth (in Eusebius [Ecclesiastical History,
2.25]) asserted in an epistle to the Romans, that Paul and Peter planted both
the Roman and Corinthian churches, and endured martyrdom in Italy at the same
time. So Tertullian
[Against Marcion, 4.5, and The
Prescription Against Heretics, 36, 38].
Also Caius, the presbyter of
What is certain is, that Peter was not there before
the writing of the Epistle to the Romans (A.D. 58), otherwise he would have
been mentioned in it; nor during Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, otherwise
he would have been mentioned in some one of Paul's many other Epistles written
from Rome; nor during Paul's second imprisonment, at least when he was writing
the Second Epistle to Timothy, just before his martyrdom. He may have gone to
Ambrose [Epistles, 33 (Edition Paris, 1586),
p. 1022] relates that St. Peter, not long before his death, being overcome by
the solicitations of his fellow Christians to save himself, was fleeing from
Rome when he was met by our Lord, and on asking, “Lord, whither goest Thou?” received the answer, “I go to be crucified
afresh.” On this he returned and joyfully went to martyrdom. The church called
“Domine quo vadis”
on the
Paul’s silence as evidence that
Peter never went to
Finally, when Paul penned his very last Epistle from
Other
objections to the Roman interpretation [31]. [1] As has been already observed, the apostles,
when they sent an epistle to the churches, and mentioned a place as the one
where the Epistle was written, were accustomed to mention the real place. [2] It would be hardly consistent with the
dignity of an apostle, or any grave writer, to make use of what would be
regarded as a nickname, when suggesting the name of a place where he then
was. [3] If
Ancient
sources on the length of Peter’s alleged stay in
The Chronicon of Eusebius (?based upon Julian Africanus, c. 221 A.D.) in the Armenian version assigns St. Peter’s visit to Rome to the third year of Caius 39-40 A.D. and adds that he remained there as “antistes” of the Church twenty years, but in a later passage the martyrdom of Peter and Paul at Rome is placed in the 13th year of Nero, i.e., 67-68 A.D.
Jerome places St. Peter’s arrival in the second year of Claudius 42-43 A.D. and says that he held the bishopric 25 years, placing the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in 68 A.D.
The Liberian Catalogue of Roman Bishops (354
A.D.) describes St. Peter as Bishop of Rome for 25 years but dates it 30-55
A.D., apparently assuming that he was made a Bishop by our Lord and that his
see must have been
The Liber Pontificalis has several contradictory notices: (1) that St. Peter held the Bishopric of Antioich for 7 years, (b) that he entered Rome in the reign of Nero and held the Bishopric of Rome for 25 years, (c) that he was in the reigns of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius and Nero, (d) that he suffered martyrdom together with St. Paul in the 38th year after the Crucifixion, i.e., 67 A.D.
It would seem therefore that there is no mention of
St. Peter as Bishop of Rome until the fourth century, and the earlier lists of
Bishops all reckon Linus as the first bishop. The 25 year episcopate may perhaps have been
based upon a legend that our Lord ordered the Apostles to wait 12 years before
going out into the world. This story was
contained in the Preaching of Peter, probably an early second century
book, quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vi. 5), and also in the
Gnostic Acts of Peter, which represented St. Peter as coming to Rome
when the 12 years had expired and there contending with Simon Magus. But the story is placed after
The evidence of the first three centuries suggests a comparatively late date for St. Peter’s work in Rome, placing it after previous work in Antioch, Corinth or Asia Minor, coupling it with St. Paul’s work in Rome which certainly did not begin until about 59 A.D., and connecting it with the issue of Gospels by St. Matthew and St. Mark or with the Neronian persecution.
This later date is far more consistent with the
language of
In the Epistles of his first Roman Captivity St. Paul mentions numerous fellow-workers, including St. Mark and others “of the circumcision,” but is absolutely silent about St. Peter.
Therefore it is most difficult to believe that St.
Peter worked in
[The reader may
well note that in this paragraph the author passes from the summary of the
evidence and evaluation of it, into presenting his own evaluation without
the presentation of any early supporting evidence to back it up beyond his own
reconstruction of events. rw] On the other hand there is considerable
evidence that St. Peter did work in
If however the traditional date 67 or 68 A.D. is accepted
for St. Peter’s martyrdom, we must assume that he was absent from
The “first trial” and protracted remand of
The mission work implied in the Pastoral Epistles
demands a longer period of liberty than would be the case if
The Babylonian Option
Case for
We know
that in the latter part of the first century and in the second the Rabbinical schools of
It is equally out of the question to assert that
Peter in a plain, matter of fact letter, speaks of
The Egyptian Option
Barnes’ analysis [31]. [There is] the opinion that the “
That there was such a place in
As Lardner well remarks, if Peter had written an
Epistle from
It may be added, also, that as there was another
place of that name on the
The
Barnes’ analysis [31]. Others have supposed that
(a) There is no evidence that the name
(b) There is every reason to suppose that an apostle in writing a letter, if he mentioned the place at all where it was written, would mention the real name. So Paul uniformly does.
(c) The name
(d) If the Epistle had been written there, there
is no conceivable reason why the name of the place should not have been
mentioned.
Date of Writing
The
date of the epistle is uncertain.
Some place it in 61 A.D., before Paul’s Roman imprisonment; others, in
63 or 64 A.D., after the release of that apostle. The probabilities are slightly in favor of
the latter date. It was addressed to
Christians in certain regions of
Alternatives: The date of the Epistle has been
brought down by some as late as the period of Trajan’s
persecution. But if the Epistle is by
Peter, the persecution in view, as now in action, or as casting its shadow over
them, must be the Neronic. Some suppose it to have been written at the
beginning of Paul’s third missionary journey; others, at the end of that;
others, during the latter part of Paul’s captivity; others, immediately after
Paul’s release from his two years’ imprisonment at
Intended Audience
One approach: The intended audience is primarily Jewish Christians though Gentiles are not excluded [4]. He writes especially to the dispersion of the Jews, to whom the word “strangers,” or foreigners, here chiefly doth belong; but not to them only, for he speaks to them also who in time past had “walked according to the will of the gentiles, in abominable idolatries” (4:3), and of them who “formerly were not the people of God, and had not found mercy:” we therefore are to understand that among them were many devout Greeks and proselytes of the gentiles, converted with them to the Christian faith.
Thus when Paul and Barnabas preached in the synagogue
of the Jews at Iconium,” a great multitude both of
Jews and Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1):
and Paul preaching at
In the days of Artaxerxes,
we are told, that [in Greek], “many of the heathens were circumcised, and
turned Jews” (Esther
Another approach: The intended audience is primarily Gentile
Christians and traditional Jewish language is used, in effect, to show that
this new spiritual combination represents the modern fulfillment of Jewish
aspirations [27]. The words
rendered “strangers scattered” are literally "sojourners of the
Dispersion," and are so rendered in the Revised Version. The Dispersion was the recognized name for
the Jews dwelling in Gentile countries; as, for instance, it is employed in
John’s Gospel, when the people in
Now if we look at the letter we find such words as these—“The times of your ignorance”—“your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers”—“in time past were not a people”—“the time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles”--all of which, as you see, can only be accommodated to Jewish believers by a little gentle violence, but all of which find a proper significance if we suppose them addressed to Gentiles.
If we
understand them so, we have here an instance of what runs all through the
letter; the taking hold of Jewish ideas for the purpose of lifting them into a
loftier region, and transfiguring them into the expression of Christian
truth. For example, we read in it: “Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation”; and again: “Ye are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.”
These and other similar passages are instances of precisely the same
transference of Jewish ideas as I find, in accordance with many good
commentators, in the words of my text.
Detailed nternal evidence that both ethnically Jewish and Gentile converts to Christianity are addressed and, therefore, the epistle intentionally targets all Christians [31]. Nothing can be plainer than that the apostle, while in the main he addresses Christians as such, whether they had been Jews or pagan, yet occasionally makes such allusions, and uses such language, as to show that he had his eye, at one time, on some who had been Jews, and again on some who had been pagans. This is clear, I think, from the following considerations:
(1) The address of the Epistle is general, not directed particularly either to the Jews or to the Gentiles. Thus, in 1 Peter 5:14, he says, “Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus.” From this it would seem that the Epistle was addressed to all true Christians in the region designated in 1 Peter 1:1. But no one can doubt that there were Christians there who had been Jews, and also those who had been Gentiles.
The
same thing is apparent from the Second Epistle; for it is certain, from 2 Peter
3:2, that the Second Epistle was addressed to the same persons as the
First. But the address in the Second
Epistle is to Christians residing in
The same thing is apparent also from the address of
the First Epistle: “To the elect
strangers scattered throughout
(2) Yet there
are some allusions in the Epistle which look as if a part of them at least had
been Jews before their conversion, or such as a Jew would better understand
than a Gentile would. Indeed, nothing is
more probable than that there were Jewish converts in that region. We know that there were many Jews in
Of the allusions of the kind referred to in the Epistle, the following may be taken as specimens: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,” 1 Peter 2:9. This is such language as was commonly used by the Jews when addressing their own countrymen as the people of God; and would seem to imply that to some of those at least to whom the Epistle was addressed, it was language which would be familiar. See also 1 Peter 3:6. It should be said, however, it is also true that it is such language as one who had himself been educated as an Hebrew would not unnaturally employ when addressing any whom he regarded as the people of God.
(3) The
passages in the Epistle which imply that many of those to whom it was addressed
had been Gentiles or idolaters, are still more
clear. Such passages are the
following: “As obedient children, not
fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance,” 1
Peter
So in 1 Peter 2:9, Peter speaks of them as “having been called out of darkness into marvelous light.” The word “darkness” is one which would be naturally applied to those who had been pagans, but would not be likely to be applied to those who had had the knowledge of God as revealed in the Jewish Scriptures. So in 1 Peter 2:10, it is expressly said of them, “which in time past was not a people, but are now the people of God”--language which would not be applied to those who had been Jews.
So also 1 Peter 4:3, “For the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” Though the apostle here uses the word “us,”
grouping himself with them, yet it cannot be supposed
that he means to charge himself with these things. It is a mild and gentle way of speech,
adopted not to give offence, and is such language as a minister of the gospel
would now use, who felt that he was himself a sinner, in addressing a church
made up of many individuals.
Purpose / Reason for Writing
The
occasion of the epistle was impending trial, probably
With emphasis on the oppression as already underway [45]. The occasion of the Epistle was some special outbreak of persecution, whereby the Christians of Asia Minor “had been put to grief in manifold trials,” and were exposed to a “fiery trial” which “came upon” them “to prove” them (1:6; 4:4). The Apostle wrote to comfort and encourage them in their distress, and to urge them to remain loyal to Christ in spite of persecution.
Probably
these persecutions were the sequel to that instituted by Nero at
Those
who reject the Petrine authorship have found the
occasion of the Epistle in the persecution under Domitian,
or in that under Hadrian.
[Of Nero in particular: Although this is a quite reasonable
reconstruction based upon the “practical politics” of local rulers wishing to engrate themselves with the Emperor, there remain serious
problems with it. However odious their
faith might be to Nero, what they were being punished for was their supposed
role in burning much of the city to the ground.
And that charge was only made to try to blot out the popular
suspicion that Nero himself was behind the fire!
[Barring some
local inflammatory incident to use as an excuse, would the area administrators really
feel comfortable exchanging a stable local situation for one in which deep
rooted passions were stirred up, whose long-term control they could not
guarantee? Civic disruption could
encourage actions against or between other hated local groups and impede the
peaceful functioning of the local city or province. Did they really wish to run that risk
when their own political future was best served by stability within their
realm?
[To be brutally
candid, by 64 A.D. there were suspicions about what to make of Nero—the
accusations of starting and spreading the fire would never have had any
credibility at all without a track record of personal excess. With this background, would even pro-Nero
elements wish to go this far out on a limb without official encouragement or
orders? rw]
Assuming
that Paul was now dead—to offer the encouragement that the pioneer preacher in
this region was no longer able to provide [51]. The
First Epistle of Peter, like that of John, explains its own intention. The latter is declared to be written in order
that its readers’ "joy may be full" (1 John 1:4), that they may know
that they "have eternal life," and that they may "believe on the
name of the Son of God" (1 Peter
It was not to Peter himself that they owed their
introduction to the
The faith which they had received through this channel had now to be maintained in the face of trials arising from the threatenings or persecutions of the heathen world. It was essential that these scattered believers should see that the Christian vocation for which they might be called to suffer, was worth the suffering for, and that the grace which had been made known to them was the true grace of God. If there was no Paul to do this service for them, Peter was the man to take his place. Could not he set his seal upon his "beloved brother’s" teaching? Could not he testify as none other of the "living hope," and of the sureness of the things in which they had been instructed?
He had confessed Christ. Upon that confession, and what it proved him capable of becoming, the Church itself was to be built. He had denied Christ, and knew by experience what manner of adversary these Christians had to cope with. As a witness of Christ, he can urge them to witness a good confession in evil times. As once threatened, he can speak to those who are now threatened.
So in this letter he carries out the commission given him by Christ in reference to Satan’s sifting of himself—"when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). And the sum of his exhortations in it is an unfolding of the meaning of that simple, piercing question, at once reproof, expostulation, and counsel, and never to be forgotten when once heard, which his suffering Lord had spoken into his drowsy ear in the garden of Gethsemane—"What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40).
The voice of the Epistle, therefore, has been correctly recognized to be the voice of animation. It is not enough, however, to say of it that it is a letter of strength and confirmation. It is eminently one of reminiscence. It strengthens and confirms by putting in remembrance. It recalls the great facts of grace which had made these believers what they are.
It makes the warm colors of the doctrine in which
they had been trained by Paul and their first teachers,
revive again. The spiritual truths which
they had once received, were the only things which could
illumine the dark night of trial which was closing in about them. On these, as on so many tracks of heavenly
light shot across the gloom, Peter concentrates their fading attention.
Similarities of 1 Peter with Other New
Testament Epistles
Similarities to James and Paul: A Chart [2]. The resemblance, both in ideas and expressions, to passages in the epistles of Paul and James is marked, especially in the first epistle. It will be instructive to compare the following:
James 1 Peter
i. 2, 3 i. 6, 7
i. 10, 11 i. 24
i. 18 i. 23
iv. 6, 10 v. 5, 6
v. 20 iv. 8
Paul 1 Peter
Rom. xii. 2 i. 14
Rom. iv. 24 i. 21
Rom. xii. 1 ii. 5
Rom. ix. 33 ii. 6-8
Rom. ix. 25, 26 ii. 10
Rom. xiii. 1-4 ii. 13, 14
Gal. v. 13 ii. 16
Rom. vi. 18 ii. 24
Rom. xii. 17 iii. 9
Rom. xii. 6, 7 iv. 10, 11
Rom. viii. 18 v. i
Rom. ii. 7, 10 i. 7
Rom. viii. 17 iv. 13
Rom. xii. 13 iv. 9
Rom. xiii. 13 iv. 3
Rom. xiii. 14 iv. 1
1 Thess. v. 6 v. 8
1 Cor. xvi. 20 v. 14
Importance of Pauline “reliance” as an indication of when written [16]. The relation of the Epistle to other New Testament writings is of importance with reference to the question of its date. A literary dependence upon Romans is almost universally conceded. Especially does the section of Romans 12:1-13:14 furnish material which the writer of 1 Peter has in several passages reproduced. Weiss is the only scholar of note who maintains that Romans shows dependence on 1 Peter.
Have the
similarities actually crossed the line into reliance
of one author on the other [40]? Some ingenious critics have detected
numerous resemblances in thought and style between this epistle and the epistles
of Paul, and also between this epistle and the epistle of James, and have
inferred that one must have been copied, or imitated, or borrowed from the
other. But these parallelisms as also
between the epistles of Peter and those of John are due to the possession of a
common stock of Christian ideas and facts with which all the apostles were
familiar and upon which no doubt they had conferred together, and which they
would naturally express in similar and sometimes identical terms. The same fact is [a] matter of frequent
observation in poets and other writers, that when engaged upon the same
subjects they naturally fall into similar trains of expression and
imagery.
There Are Both Similarities and Uniqueness when Comparing 1 Peter with the Epistles of Other New Testament Writers [51]. The Epistle was rightly described by Luther as one of the noblest in the New Testament. It is strange that its individuality and independence should have been denied, and that some should still speak of it as a compilation of other men’s thoughts, a [combination] of other men’s modes of expression.
It is true that there are unmistakable resemblances between it and others of the New Testament Epistles. There are some decided points of conjunction, for example, between it and the Epistle of James. These are so remarkable, indeed, that some regard Peter as reiterating James’s teaching, and preparing the way for Paul’s. Both James and Peter have a peculiar term for trial; both speak of the manifold temptations; both introduce the grass as a figure of human glory; both cite or echo the same passage from Proverbs; both adopt similar forms of exhortation (cf. James 1:21; 1 Peter 2:1).
There are things again which this Epistle has in common with the First Epistle of John. Both speak, for example, of Christ as the righteous, of believers being begotten or born again, purifying themselves, etc.
Above all, there are striking similarities between Peter and Paul, in the use made of the Old Testament, in the counsels on the subject of the relative duties, in the doctrine of civil and political obligation, and in other matters. These are of a kind to indicate that Peter must have written with familiar knowledge of much that Paul had written before him. They make it difficult not to suppose that he had the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians in particular before him or in his mind. They have induced some, indeed, to suppose that his First Epistle was purposely constructed to some extent, as regards the introductory greeting and the exhortations to various orders of society, on the plan of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
But there is nothing wonderful in such resemblances. As the Book of Acts shows, Peter must have been well acquainted with the views and methods of statement characteristic of James. John and Peter, again, were usually together, as long as that was possible. They were to each other what Mary and Martha were to one another.
And as to Paul, his system of teaching was certainly not unknown to Peter. Paul is careful to tell us himself how he laid it before the Apostles (Galatians 2:2). Nor do these apparent repetitions take from the distinct character of the Epistle. They are affinities, not borrowings. Peter puts all in a form of his own.
Even when he most reminds us of Paul, he has an independent method of expression. The Pauline formula live to God becomes in Peter live to righteousness. The Pauline idea of dying to sin receives in Peter a notably different phraseology.
The individuality of the Epistle appears in many things. Not a few of its conceptions and terms are peculiar to Peter. Among these may be named the "kiss of charity" (1 Peter 5:14), the "conscience toward God" (1 Peter 2:19), the "living hope," and the whole description of the inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-4), the declaration that baptism is "the answer of a good conscience toward God" (1 Peter 3:21), the phrase "gone into heaven" applied to Christ (1 Peter 3:22), the sections on the preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19-20), and the gospel preached to them that are dead (1 Peter 4:6), etc.
He has his own modes of expounding the doctrines of Christianity, and of illustrating the Christian life. Thus it has been noticed that good works, which appear in John as the fruits of love, in James as the substance of the Christian life, and in Paul as the results of faith, are in Peter rather the "tests of the soundness and stability of a faith which rests on the resurrection of Christ and looks to the future" (Cook).
He has his own way of looking at the Person and Work of Christ. It has been rightly observed that the prominent thing with him is the mediatorial position of his Lord, and that this is made to turn upon His resurrection. He presents this in great breadth. Christ is the medium of our regeneration (1 Peter 1:3), of our belief in God (1 Peter 1:21), of acceptable sacrifice (1 Peter 2:5), of baptism (1 Peter 3:21), of the glorifying of God (1 Peter 4:11); and it is through His resurrection that we are begotten again to a lively hope (1 Peter 1:3), and that we come to have faith and hope in God (1 Peter 2:1).
There is a remarkable fondness for dwelling on the character of Christ, and bringing out the power of His example. He is our Pattern in suffering, in respect at once of the unmerited nature of His sufferings and of His sinlessness and patience in enduring them. The Christ, too, with whom Peter connects the great deeds of grace is all the while not so much the Christ of history as the Christ of glory, in the might of His ascension, exaltation, sitting at God’s right hand, headship over the Church and all angels, and Second Coming.
The Epistle is distinguished, too, by its comparatively non-systematic form. It is less dialectical by far than any of the greater Pauline Epistles. It is not without its plan. But its unity is not a reasoned unity. The logical particles, which abound in Paul’s writings, are rare in Peter. Here the method is simply to let the one sentence suggest the next.
There is the habit, too, of insisting on the same truths in repeated forms. Thus the trial of faith like gold tried with fire (1 Peter 1:7) reappears in the "fiery trial" of 1 Peter 4:12; the "be sober" of 1 Peter 1:13 rings out again in the "be ye therefore sober" of 1 Peter 4:7, and the "be sober," etc., of 1 Peter 5:8; the injunction not to fashion themselves "according to the former lusts in their ignorance" (1 Peter 1:14) is repeated in 1 Peter 2:11 as a charge to "abstain from fleshly lusts," and in 1 Peter 4:2 as a warning not to "live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men;" the idea of the well-doing of the Christian as the best argument for silencing the slanderous Gentile (1 Peter 2:15), meets us again in the conversation [= lifestyle] of the wives which wins over the husbands (1 Peter 3:1), and in the good conversation in Christ which puts to shame the false accusers (1 Peter 3:16); the thankworthiness of suffering wrongfully (1 Peter 2:19) rises again in the happiness of suffering for righteousness’ sake (1 Peter 3:14), and in the blessedness of being reproached for the name of Christ (1 Peter 4:14).
It has its pointed warnings against the lusts of the flesh. But we find little in it like the Pauline representations of the struggle between two kingdoms in the soul, or the profound experiences of a competition between the evil that the man would not and yet does, and the good which he would and yet does not. Still less do we see of anything like a conflict between intellect and faith.
And almost as little of the deep intuition of John. What Peter dwells on is not the subjective but the objective, not the mysteries of the work of grace within us, but the gifts which grace brings to us, and the obligations it lays us under. It is the acts of God that he sets forth,—His foreordaining of Christ, His calling a people, His raising Christ from the dead, etc.
And with all this the attitude of the Epistle is distinctively prospective. It lives in the future. What has arrested the attention of most expositors is the fact that its face is turned so steadily to the future. Everything is seen in the light of the end.
The "appearing" of Jesus Christ fills the view. The present life of the believer recedes into the background, or is read in terms of what it shall be when Christ returns. Glory and honour are the keynotes of the Epistle. It regards salvation itself as something "ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5), and as the end of faith (1 Peter 1:9). It is engaged with the contents of Christian hope, where Paul might occupy himself with the gladness of the present life of justification, or with the seriousness of the present struggle between grace and nature in the individual.
"In this Epistle," says Wordsworth,
"Peter views all the sufferings of
Canonicity
A positive overview of the evidence [37]. With the exception of the First Epistle of St. John, the First Epistle of St. Peter is the only one among the Catholic Epistles “of whose authority there never was any doubt in the Church.”
It was rejected by the heretic Marcion because he only accepted the Pauline books of the N.T. Theodore of Mopsuestia is also said by Leontius to have rejected “the Epistle of St. James and the other Catholic Epistles in order,” but probably this only means 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter and Jude, which were not accepted by the Syrian Churches. There is, however some evidence which tends to show that originally none of the Catholic Epistles were included in the Syrian Canon, but 1 John, 1 Peter and James had been accepted by them long before Theodore’s time.
It is also omitted in the present text of the Muratorian fragment, which gives a list, possibly drawn up by Hippolytus, of the books accepted in the Church of Rome at the end of the second century. But this list, as we have it, is admitted to be incomplete. Some suggest that St. Peter and his Epistle may have been mentioned in the lost portion dealing with St. Mark’s Gospel, while Zahn thinks that a passage, which in the existing text deals with the Apocalypse of Peter, may have originally referred to his first Epistle
With these insignificant and doubtful exceptions the evidence for the reception of 1 Peter by the Church is extraordinarily strong.
In the fourth century Eusebius includes it among those books which are “generally received” (H.E. iii. 25. 2) and says that “the Fathers of former days quoted it in their writings as indisputably authentic. This statement is amply supported by facts.
In
the third century Origin (quoted by Eisebius, H.E.
vi. 25) says “Peter has left one acknowledged
Epistle,” and he quotes Matthew
Clement
of
Tertullian at
Hippolytus (on Daniel 4:29), writing in Rome or the neighborhood, quotes the words “which things the angels desire to look into” side by side with quotations from St. Paul.
In the second century Irenaeus, who was brought up in Asia Minor and afterwards came to Lyons and Rome, and who therefore represents three of the chief centers of Christendom besides being closely connected with Polycarp and other survivors of the Apostolic age, is the earliest writer who quotes the Epistle by name.
We also have numerous traces of the Epistle:
(a) In
Martyrdoms such as the Acts of the Scillitan
Martyrs (c. 180) and the letter of the Churches of Lyons and
(b) In Apologists. Theophilus (ad Autolycum ii. 34) and Justin Martyr (Dial. 103) have apparent quotations from it.
(c) Heretics such as the Valentinians both Western (Marcosians quoted by Irenaeus i. 18) and Eastern (in Clem. Al.) and Basilides (Clem. Al. Strom. iv.) seem to quote the Epistle.
(d) The writer to Diognetus certainly and the Didache probably quote words from 1 Peter.
(e) There are possible allusions to it in The Shepherd of Hermas.
(f) Papias Bishop of
(g) Polycarp (c. 115 A.D.) is stated by Eusebius to have
used 1 Peter, and in the extant Epistle of Polycarp
to the Philippians there are at least eight direct quotations from 1
Peter. It is true that they are not by
name nor are they introduced by the formula which Polycarp
frequently employs in quoting from
(h) Clement of Rome (c. 95 A.D.) has several words and phrases from 1 Peter, e.g., “the precious blood” of Christ, “his marvelous light,” Christ’s humility (illustrated by Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22) [cited as] our example, [utilizing] a [Greek] word which is peculiar to St. Peter in the N.T. Besides this Clement has quotations with the same variation from the LXX as 1 Peter, viz. “Love covers a multitude of sins” and “God resisteth the proud.” This however also occurs in the same form in St. James and in Igantius, Eph. v.
(i) In 2 Peter 3:1 the writer says “this is the second
Epistle which I am writing to you beloved.”
This book, even if it is not authentic, is admitted to be extremely
early, and if we could be certain that the words refer to our 1 Peter it would
show that it was already known as the work of the Apostle. But if 2 Peter is not genuine it might of
course be referring to some previous epistle by the same writer which is now
lost.
Validity of place in the canon—argued from the viewpoint that the epistle was not written by the apostle Peter [16]. Testimonies to the existence of the Epistle very early in the second century are doubtful. The second Epistle of Peter refers to it (3:1), and apparent contacts with one or two expressions contained in it are found in Clement of Rome, the Ignatian letters, and Barnabas. But these contacts are too doubtful to warrant the affirmation that the writers in question were acquainted with it. The common expressions may have been current in the religious language of the time, so that they may as reasonably be supposed to indicate the contemporaneous origin of the several writings as the one of one of them by the writers of another.
The writer of Hermas is thought by Zahn to have been acquainted with the Epistle, but this scholar’s argument is not conclusive. Eusebius found traces of a knowledge of it in Papias (about A.D. 140), and thought that Polycarp, who died after the middle of the second century, had read it. Neither he nor Justin Martyr, however, expressly quotes it.
It is
wanting in the Canon of Muratori—a list of received
New Testament books made by an unknown writer toward the end of the second
century. It is accepted as a writing of
Peter’s by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, and Origen called it,
“an acknowledged Epistle.”
Defended
from the standpoint that it was
written by the apostle Peter [41]. The First Epistle of Peter is placed by
Eusebius among among the books said never to
have been disputed [as to deserving a place in the Biblical canon]. Clement of
Irenaeus quotes Peter by name (“Against Heresies,”
iv.9.2): “And Peter says in his Epistle,
‘Whom not seeing ye love; in whom, though now ye see
him not, ye have believed, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable.” Again (ii.17.9): “Rehearsers of
those super-celestial mysteries ‘which the angels desire to look into’ ” (1
Peter
Clement
of
In Tertullian, in an index I have now before me, I find
thirty-three references to 1 Peter. Thus
“Scorpiace,” 14:
“Peter no doubt had likewise said that the king, indeed, must be
honored” (1 Peter
Additional
Evidence of reliance on the epistle in the early centuries [45]: Apostolic
Fathers: There are
numerous more or less striking parallels between 1 Peter and the Apostolic
Fathers. According to
Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. iii. 39), Papias,
bishop of
Many other parallels with Hermas, Clement of Rome, &c., are like those already illustrated in connexion with James, and do not materially help us to determine the date of the Epistle. But Polycarp, bishop of Smjyrna, in his Epistle to the Philippians written just before his martyrdom in A.D. 155, clearly makes use of 1 Peter, e.g.—“Whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy speakable and fully of glory.” 1 Peter 1:8.
“Which things angels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:12.
“On whom, not having seen (him), ye believe
with joy unspeakable and full of glory, which many desire to enter into.” Polycarp, i. 3.
“Wherefore girding up the loins of your minds.” 1 Peter 1:13.
“Believers in God, which raised him from the dead, and gave him glory.” 1 Peter 1:21.
“Wherefore girding up your loins, serve God
in fear and truth . . . believing on him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from
the dead, and gave him glory and a throne at his right hand.” Polycarp, ii. 1.
(Doubts have been cast upon the genuineness of this letter of Polycarp, but it is now generally accepted.)
Later
Literature: The various
Christian documents of the close of the second and the beginning of the third
century show clearly that the Epistle was universally known and accepted as the
Apostle’s after about A.D. 200. It is
contained in the Old Latin and Syriac versions; it is
expressly quoted as Peter’s by Irenaeus, Clement of
On the other hand, there is no mention of this Epistle in the Muratorian Canon; there is, however, nothing in that document which implies that the Epistle was known to the author and rejected; moreover, the Canon, as it has reached us, is incomplete in parts; and in its original form it may have mentioned 1 Peter.
Thus,
as far as external evidence is concerned, the early witnesses show that our
Epistle was in existence in the first half of the second century and that it
was universally accepted as Peter’s at the close of that century, unless indeed
it was unknown to certain Italian churches represented by the Muratorian Canon.
This branch of the evidence therefore is strongly in favor of the Petrine authorship.
BOOKS/COMMENTARIES
UTILIZED IN THIS STUDY:
1 [Anonymous]. Teacher’s Testament/Nelson’s Explanatory
Testament
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2 Marvin
R. Vincent, D.D. Word
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Charles
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Young. Commentary
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4 Daniel
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Paraphrase
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5 Matthew
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6 Rev. Dr
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7 Charles
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8 Joh. Ed. Huther, Th. D., Critical
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9 Professor
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10 Charles
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and Ball, 1833.
11 Rev. S.
T. Bloomfield, M.A. Recensio
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[
12 George
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13 Howard
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14 Anonymous [Justin
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37
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