This is part 2 of a 5-part blog series. In the previous blog, we explored 1Peter 1:1-2, particularly the possibility of discovering what event or state of being happened or exists that was “according to the foreknowledge of God.” Our goal has been to discover the grammatical object of the verb “foreknow’ and to answer the question “What or Who is it that God “foreknew?” in 1Peter 1:1-2.
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."
We noted previously that “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.” We also noted that 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.
At the end of our previous blog, we concluded that perhaps the object of whom God “foreknew,” those to whom Peter is writing, those who are the “elect” “according to the foreknowledge of God” is a group of Jewish people living in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. The Old Testament theme of Israel being God’s “chosen” or “elect” people provides a solid foundation for such a suggestion.
What was it Peter knew that God foreknew? Was it the "elect”, the “chosen” people of God?” Did God foreknow that He would “elect” the Jewish nation for His very own possession? It seems so.
But wait…there’s more. How does “exiles” fit into this perspective since?
We now turn to the next word in Peter’s introduction, the word “exiles.” Just as we noticed with the previous word “elect”, the word, “exiles,” also grammatically refers to the group of people to whom
Peter is writing. There is no question about that. Grammatically, the word “exiles” is in the dative case signifying that the “exiles“ are the recipients of Peter’s letter.
The question is, “How does one interpret the word “exiles?” Who exactly are they?
According to the possible objects of who or what could be the object of the “foreknowledge of God”, the “exiles” could be that object. That means that God foreknew that the people to whom Peter writes would be “exiled.” And 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, those living in the diaspora areas Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia …”
We also noticed in the previous blog that the noun “elect” was in the plural number and in the dative case. Here “exiles” is also in the plural number and in the dative case.
Because both are in the dative case, this creates a double noun-phrase, and more so, a double dative noun phrase “elect exiles.” As such, there is a good evidence to assume that Peter is using the double dative noun phrase “elect exiles” as co-referents, meaning both words, “elect” and “exiles” are combined into one whole idea with both parts having significant meaning to the identity of the whole.
And since we suggested that the word “elect” was a referent for the chosen nation of Israel, it would follow then here that the double dative noun phrase “elect exiles,” serving as co-referents to the one identity, would also suggest that the single noun “exile” would also refer to the nation of Israel.
How so?
Well, not only did we look at the possibility that the idea of Israel as God’s “elect”/chosen” people was a major Old Testament theme, but here too, the idea of the Jews being conquered, “exiled,” and “dispersed” throughout the world is also a major Old Testament theme. Again, there might be a consistent connection between both the current text of 1 Peter 1:1-2 and the Old Testament theme of the nation of Israel being “exiled” from their homeland.
We know that in 800BC-600BC the Israelites were conquered, and “exiled” from their homeland by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and “dispersed” all over the world. Those two exiles are the predominant exiles that identify the nation of Israel as aliens, sojourners, strangers, refugees, and “exiles” throughout scripture.
So much so was “exile” an Old Testament theme, there is an over-arching them in the Old Testament that God promised to bring all the Israelites back from exile as a demonstration of His love and care for the nation.
Deuteronomy 30 is an example of this thematic occurrence in the Old Testament…
“…the Lord, your God, will bring back you exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations, where the Lord, your God, had dispersed you....you exiles are at the end of the heavens, the Lord, your God, will gather you from there, and He will take you from there.”
David writes of the Babylonian exile in Psalm 137:1…
“By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.”
And later in the same psalm in verse 4, David writes of the depression and trauma of being “exiled”…
“How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?”
In Hebrews 11:9, the writer refers to Abraham saying…
“By faith Abraham lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.”
Not only does Peter here (1:1) refer to his readers as “exiles” but later in his letter, (2:11), he refers to them as strangers and refugees.
“I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world!'
The Jewish nation throughout their history have been referred to by a number of nouns to indicate their “exile” status: as sojourners, strangers, refugees and as living in a foreign land.
Historical pictographs also tell the story of the Jewish nation existing as “exiles”. See the examples below that depict the Jewish nation in exile.
Peter, in this case in 1Peter, refers to his readers as “exiles.”
So just as it could be the possibility that Peter used the noun, “elect” as an historical reference to Israel as His possession, so also it could be the possibility that Peter uses the noun, “exiles” as an historical reference to the Jewish nation being exiled and dispersed throughout the world.
And if that is the case individually for each of those nouns, then it is only logical to assume that the doubling grammatical phrase “elect exiles”, is an emphatic double entendre that Peter uses as reference for the Jewish people. Technically it could read, “Jewish people-Jewish people” for emphasis.
Peter here in the first verse may have used this double dative noun-phrase, “elect exiles”, to refer to the historical developments of the Jewish nation being exiled and scattered around the word and now living as foreigners in foreign lands through the centuries.
So, to conclude, we can be safe to assume that Peter’s use of “elect exiles” is most likely an intentional reference to the historical event of the exiled Jewish people, and Peter uses as such to identify his readers.
In our discussion of “elect” and “exiles,” we have noticed that it is quite possible and even probable that Peter is using those two terms interchangeably at the least, if not emphatically at best, by doubling them to clearly identify his readers as those Jewish people who were “exiled” “according to the “foreknowledge of God.”
And if neither of those two words, “elect” and “exiles,” are convincing enough to be considered the object of God’s “foreknowledge,” then perhaps Peter’s inclusion of the word, “diaspora” following the double dative “electexiles” in the first verse will help.
In the next blog we will focus on “diaspora” as another possible option for the object of God’s “foreknowledge.”
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