Loading...
The fictitious audience of 1 Peter
Robinson, Will Llewelyn, Stephen R.
Robinson, Will
Llewelyn, Stephen R.
Abstract
Recent scholarship has argued that Simon Peter is not the author of 1 Peter, whilst maintaining that the addressees in 1:1 are the real recipients of the letter. We contend that both the stated author and the stated audience are part of the author’s deception. We propose instead that the author may have simply argued that this text was an older letter from Peter. This proposal is consistent with the widely-held view that pseudepigraphical letters were not knowingly accepted in early Christian circles, as well as the ancient tradition that Peter was believed to be the real author of the text and offers a simple solution as to how the letter escaped the scrutiny that came with pseudepigraphical works. If this thesis is followed, scholarship concerned with uncovering the socio-economic status of the Christians in Asia Minor based on this text is therefore misguided.
Keywords
Date
2020
Type
Journal article
Journal
The Heythrop Journal
Book
Volume
61
Issue
Page Range
939-950
Article Number
ACU Department
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled