When was I Peter written? It's a question that might seem straightforward, but like many things in ancient texts, it requires a bit of digging. When we dive into this letter, understanding the context of its creation is key to grasping its message for its original readers, and then, of course, for us today. It’s a bit like trying to understand a conversation without knowing who’s talking or where they are – the meaning can get muddled.
Scholars, like Wayne Grudem, emphasize that there's one original meaning to a text, and then we can explore many applications. Botching that original meaning can lead us down some serious rabbit holes. The evidence for interpretation, they say, shouldn't just be an expert's opinion, but something we can see for ourselves, perhaps by looking at how words are used elsewhere.
So, when Peter penned this letter, his original audience was going through some pretty tough times – significant persecution, in fact. The timeframe scholars generally point to is somewhere around A.D. 62-64. And interestingly, soon after this letter reached those scattered believers, a major judgment fell upon their persecutors.
What else do we know that helps us pinpoint this? Well, the Apostle Paul gives us a clue in Galatians. He talks about how he was entrusted with the gospel for the Gentiles, while Peter had the gospel for the circumcised, the Jews. Peter's primary focus was making disciples among the Jewish people, with Jerusalem as his home base. This is important because Peter and the other apostles were deeply aware of something significant happening in Jerusalem.
Jesus himself spoke about it, as recorded in Matthew 24. He predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, stating not one stone would be left upon another. When his disciples asked about the timing and the signs of his coming and the end of the age, Jesus indicated it would happen within their generation. In the Jewish understanding, a generation was roughly 40 years. And indeed, within 40 years of Jesus speaking those words, the temple was utterly destroyed in A.D. 70.
What’s fascinating is that the destruction of the temple was seen not just as a physical event, but also as a sign of Christ's coming and the end of an age. The disciples were living in the Old Covenant Age, characterized by animal sacrifices and the stone temple. The New Covenant, with Christ as the perfect sacrifice, hadn't fully ushered in its new era yet. So, the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 marked the official end of the Old Covenant Age.
Considering all this, when Peter wrote his letter around A.D. 62-64, the end of the Old Covenant Age was looming large. Why would the temple's destruction be linked to Christ's coming? Because it was seen as a divine judgment against apostate Israel for their unfaithfulness, their rejection of the Messiah, and their persecution of God's people. In Old Testament times, God's judgment on nations was often referred to as a 'day of the Lord' or a 'coming of the Lord.' So, the fall of Jerusalem was a powerful, divinely ordained event, deeply intertwined with the spiritual and historical landscape Peter was writing into.
