apostle was one who had been with Jesus and who had the authority to teach his truth. Peter was one of the disciples called out by Jesus, close to Jesus, loved by Jesus, severely rebuked by Jesus, and even failing miserably to follow Jesus—but finally forgiven, restored, and personally commissioned by Jesus, sent out to feed his sheep (cf. John 21:15–17). In this epistle Peter is doing some substantive feeding of some really needy sheep. Most scholars believe Peter wrote this letter from Rome during