The College Press Niv Commentary

1 & 2 PETER

ALLEN BLACK

1 Peter

MARK C. BLACK

2 Peter

New Testament Series Co-Editors

Copyright 1998 College Press Publishing Co.

All Rights Reserved

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from the holy bible: new international version.

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

All rights reserved.

A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER

Years ago a movement was begun with the dream of uniting all Christians on the basis of a common purpose (world evangelism) under a common authority (The Word of God). The College Press NIV Commentary Series is a serious effort to join the scholarship of two branches of this unity movement so as to speak with one voice concerning the Word of God. Our desire is to provide a resource for your study of the New Testament that will benefit you whether you are preparing a Bible School lesson, a sermon, a college course or your own personal devotions. Today as we survey the wreckage of a broken world, we must turn again to the Lord and his Word, unite under his banner and communicate the life-giving message to those who are in desperate need. This is our purpose.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We want to thank College Press for the opportunity to write this commentary. We also want to thank those who read the manuscripts or sections thereof for their help. Allen thanks his colleagues Rick Oster and John Mark Hicks for their advice concerning 1 Peter. Mark thanks his colleague Gary Holloway and his student assistant Eric Simon.

We both thank our wives and daughters for patience while we took time away for another book.

We also thank Bob and Peggy Black. We and our sister Ginne owe so much to the wonderful Christian home in which they raised us. Our father was a great man of God, faithfully serving churches in Alabama and Georgia as an elder and Bible teacher. Our mother, who survives him, is a model of Christian womanhood and motherhood. The best parts of our life goals and achievements have their roots in their loving, Christian parenthood.

THE BOOK OF

1 PETER

Allen Black

INTRODUCTION

This commentary is written for the general reader with a serious interest in Scripture. Its purpose is to provide a historical interpretation of 1 Peter; that is, an interpretation of what Peter meant to say to his ancient audience. I write with the conviction that modern readers can only determine God’s message to us after and on the basis of a determination of Peter’s message to his ancient contemporaries. Because I believe God worked through Peter and inspired his work, I believe it has great relevance to every reader in every age. But we can only determine what it means to us if we have first determined what it meant when Peter wrote it. It is this latter task that is the focus of most commentaries, including ...