If you’ve seen the hilarious comedy routine Who’s on First by Laurel and Hardy (Abbott & Costello), then you might agree that trying to understand the introduction to Peter’s first letter may make you feel like you’re one of the characters in that comedy skit. Reading Peter’s introduction is like pondering the Who?, What?, Why?, and I Don’t Know! of that comedy routine. And if there is frustration and confusion at our attempt to understand to whom Peter is writing or if we don’t get relevant answers to our questions, then ultimately, our view of scripture may end up as the routine ends up; with a final declaration of “I Don’t Care.”
In the initial greeting to his readers (1Peter 1:1-2) Peter refers to an event or a state of being that happened or is exists “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
1Peter 1:1-2 reads as follows…
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you."
“Foreknowledge” is a noun in the text, but the act of foreknowing is a verb; to foreknow. In order to determine what happened or existed "according to what God foreknew," we need to know what is the grammatical referent to the word “foreknow.” Since the word “foreknow” is a verb, we should be looking for an object to inform us what event or state of being it was that God “foreknew.”
Usually in English, the object of an utterance is somewhere in close proximity to the verb, so it is fairly easy to identify the object of a verb. (i.e. “Johnny ate the sandwich,” with sandwich functioning as the object of the verb “ate.”) The difficulty, here in 1Peter 1, is that the phrase “according to the foreknowledge of God” follows a string of names of regions in Asia Minor, with a list of eight potential objects. So, the question to be asked is “What or Who is the object?” And like the “Who’s on First” comedy skit, my answer is “I Don’t Know!” But I really do care! And I do want to know!!
From the context of the short paragraph, the choices for What or Who is the object to the prepositional phrase, “according to the foreknowledge of God” are as follows…
1. Peter himself is existing at that time and that place “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew Peter and placed him in the situation to write his letter.
Therefore, the translation would read, “According to the foreknowledge of God I Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ am writing this letter. I am writing to those who are elect exiles living in the diaspora areas of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
2. Peter is writing “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew Peter would write his letter.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ am writing this letter according to the foreknowledge of God. I am writing to those who are elect exiles living in the diaspora areas of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
3. Peter is/became an apostle “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew Peter would become an apostle.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I Peter, am an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the foreknowledge of God. I am writing this letter to those who are elect exiles living in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
4. The exiles are the elect “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew He would elect the exiles.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I am Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing this letter to those exiles who are elected according to the foreknowledge of God, and living in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
5. The exiles have become exiled “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew that the people to whom Peter writes would be exiled.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I am Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ writing this letter to those who were exiled according to the foreknowledge of God, the elect, living in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
6. The exiles have been dispersed“ according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew that the people to whom Peter writes would be dispersed.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I am Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ writing this letter to those elect exiles who, according to the foreknowledge of God were dispersed, those in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
7. The exiles have been dispersed specifically to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew that the people to whom Peter writes would be dispersed to the exact locations Peter mentions in the text.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I am Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ writing this letter to those elect exiles who, have been dispersed in the diaspora according to the foreknowledge of God specifically to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
8. The entirety of the situation has happened “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
i.e., God foreknew that the people to whom Peter writes would be elected and exiled and dispersed to the exact locations Peter mentions in the text.
Therefore, the translation would read, “I am Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ writing this letter to those who according to the foreknowledge of God have been elected and exiled and who, have been dispersed in the diaspora specifically to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
In this 5-part blog series, we will not attempt to discuss all eight options for understanding What or Who God “foreknew.” We will only attempt to propose just one meaningful solution.
This first episode will be an attempt to untangle What or Who Peter understands God to “foreknow” by suggesting that the “elect” is the object and refers to the Jewish nation following the Old Testament them of Israel as the “elect”/“chosen” people of God.
According to the possibilities listed above, the exiles are the elect“ according to the foreknowledge of God.” That means that God foreknew He would "elect” the exiles. And therefore, the translation would read,
“I am Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing this letter to those exiles who are elected according to the foreknowledge of God, and living in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
The word “elect,” grammatically, does refer to the group of people to whom Peter is writing. There is no question about that. Grammatically, the word “elect” is in the dative case signifying that the “elect“ are the recipients of Peter’s letter. The question is how does one interpret the word “elect?” Who are they exactly?
The word “elect” is a synonym for “chosen” and both words are used interchangeably in the Bible. There are occasions when the words “elect/chosen” are used in scripture, and when they are used, some readers tend to associate those words with a specific theological position and infer that the wording refers to specific individuals whom God “foreknew” and specifically selected for salvation. Some people could have that tendency in mind here in 1Peter 1:1, especially since “elect” occurs in the same sentence as the word “foreknowledge.”
If this were the case, then the text would be referring to a group of individuals whom God “foreknew” and “elected” for salvation, and then dispersed, and who are now living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. It could be those people, elected for salvation to whom Peter is writing.
There is, however, another view that might be more consistent with connecting both the current text of 1 Peter 1:1-2 with the Old Testament theme of the nation of Israel being the “elected/chosen” people of God.
In the Old Testament we see that the Jewish people are God's choice, God's elected people to be the light to the Gentiles to communicate that the Messiah would shed his “blood” on the cross for them and by their “obedience” to Him, God would “sanctify” them. This Old Testament theme runs throughout the scriptures as the plan God “foreknew” from time immemorial, and it just so happens also to be consistent with the content of 1Peter 1:1-2.
Let’s venture into the Old Testament for a bit to show you this idea.
In Deuteronomy, as Moses attempts to shape the identity of the newly forming Jewish nation, Moses specifically tells the Jewish people that they are God’s chosen people.
“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deut 7:6)
What’s most interesting about this admission is that in the very next verse, Moses tells them why God has chosen them – as a means of fulfilling His promise that He made to the forefathers of the Jewish nation.
The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the promise which He swore to your forefathers… (Deut 7:7-8)
We can conclude from a general overview of scripture that God’s plan of salvation included the progressive revealing of His love, grace and forgiveness in world history through the history of the Jewish nation. We learn here from Deuteronomy 7 that God “chose” the nation of Israel for a very specific purpose; to keep a promise He made to the forefathers of the nation of Israel.
We know from scripture that God initially made a promise to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, and then extended that promise to four consecutive generations, to “the forefathers,” Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. This promise was to bless all nations through the nation of Israel whom He “elected”/“chose” as His agent to fulfill that promise. God swore this promise to all the forefathers of Israel, and then on to all of Israel as we will see the verses indicate below.
· God made His original promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3…
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
· Then God confirmed His promise again to Abraham in Genesis 22:17-18…
“I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”
· Afterward, God again restated His promise to Abraham’s son Isaac in Genesis 26:3-4
“I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.”
· And then again, God further confirmed His promise to Isaac’s son Jacob in Genesis 28:13-14
Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
· And then God further restated His promise to Jacob’s son, Joseph by implication in Genesis 50:24-25
But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
· Then, finally by implication God confirmed His promise to Joseph…
“made the Israelites swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
So, we see that through the generations from Abraham to Moses, God had “chosen” the nation of Israel for a specific purpose, and then He swore to each successive generation that He would keep that promise; to bless all nations of the earth through their lineage through the eventual appearing of the Messiah in Jewish history. See also Psalm 105:8-15 for a recounting of God’s promises to the Jewish forefathers.
It is interesting to note that the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, tells us that the “gospel is the power of salvation to the Jew first and then to the Gentile,” (1:16) that “God foreknew his people and not rejected them.” (Romans 11:2). So, can we conclude that God foreknew Israel, specifically foreknew the choosing of Israel as the first to receive the gospel message and who were chosen as God’s agents to reach the nations with that gospel?
It seems that the most biblically consistent interpretation of “elect/chosen” in 1Peter 1:1 is to understand that Peter is referring to the Old Testament thematic version of the Jewish people chosen by God, those to whom He confirmed His promise from generation to generation.
Therefore, making application to Peter, can we then also assume that Peter is writing to Jewish readers as his audience here who have been “elected” and entrusted with that same generational promise? (Rom 4:16, 9:4)
What’s more, this promise, we know from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, this promise of blessing all nations is (according to Paul) the Gospel message, which God not only foreknew, but also foresaw, and also announced in the Old Testament in advance before the promise came to fruition in the New Testament. We read in Galatians 3:8…
“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” And see also Acts 2:23, 3:18.
So, it seems pretty clear that this promise, given to the nation of Israel is what Paul refers to as the gospel. It also seems pretty clear that the nation of Israel, through whom the blessing of the nations would come, was foreseen or foreknown by God. It is the Jewish nation who are the “elect” or “chosen” nation to bring salvation to all nations by faith, those living in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. It would be those “elected” people to whom Peter is writing.
Therefore, if we can we conclude that the object of whom God “foreknew,” those who are the “elected/chosen” “according to the foreknowledge of God”, then that group is a group of Jewish people, the “elect” or “chosen” people of God who happen to be living in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
In the next blog we will investigate further evidence that Peter is writing to Jewish people by turning our attention to his use of “exiles” as the object of What happened or Who existed "according to the foreknowledge of God."
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