It remains to notice the evidence supplied by the Epistle as to the intended journey 0 dear On the questions suggested if 1P Ι΄ see especially Hort's dissertation, ‘The Provinces of Asia Minor included in St. Peter’s address’ (1 Peter pp. 157- 184; cf. p. 17). Hort shows that (1) the position of Asia neither first nor last in the list, (2) the fact ‘that Pontus and Bithynia stand at opposite ends of the list, sayin they together formed but a single province, the title of which combined both names, indicate that in that list we have presented the projected course of the journey. Silvanus ‘was to enter Asia Minor by a seaport of Pontus, and thence to make a circuit till [he] reached the neigh- bourhood of the Euxine once more.’ Why he purposed to land in Pontus it is vain to conjec- ture. The condition of the Christian communities, or some special call to evangelistic work in that district or in the districts to which he would thus best gain access, may have been the determinine motive. It is probable that Silvanus was to lan at Sinope, the most important of the towns on the seaboard of Pontus. arHemed he would visit the northern portion of the vast province of Galatia, probably making its capital Ancyra his head.
Sruits of this σωτηρία in life. (a) Vv. 13-21, Seriousness.
— Θ στ θ . ᾳ{ΨᾳΦῃῃΕΝ
PETER, FIRST EPISTLE
quarters. At Ancyra he would find more than one road by which he could reach Ceesarea, the one town of considerable importance in Cappadocia. Taking at this point the great road running west- ward to Ephesus, he would be able to visit the Churches in South Galatia, and so to enter the province of Asia. Northwards there lay Christian communities through which he would pass on his way to Bithynia, where it seems to have been the intention that he should again take ship. ‘In thus following by natural and simple routes the order of provinces which stands in the first sentence of the Epistle, Silvanus would be brought into con- tact with every considerable district north of the Taurus in which there is reason to suppose that Christian communities would be found’ (Hort p. 184).
VII. SUMMARY OF THE EPISTLE.—The openin, of a new section in the Epistle is marked in 2" 4 by the appeal conveyed by the word ἀγαπητοί. Thus the letter has three main divisions of which the several topics may be thus approximately repre- sented—(I.) 11-2" the ῬΕΙΠΙ͂ΘΒΕΕ ἀπ ap to the redeemed family of God ; (II.) 211-41 ᾧ e duties of ‘the brethren’; (III.) 415-60} the trials of ‘the brethren.’ The different sections, however, over- isp in regard to their subjects, and the thought of the Epistle is too spontaneous and (in a literary sense) too unpremeditated to admit of any formal analysis. The following paraphrase is an attempt. to bring out the sequence and general treatment οὐ ideas :—
I. 11-210, The privileges belonging to the redeemed familp of God.—{1) 110 Salutation. (2) 1842, The joy of σωτηρία. (aj Vy.35, Benediction of the Father for the new birth and the heavenly inheritance. (ὁ) Vv.69, This joy in Christ is main- tained by you in the midst of present sorrows, the issue of which will be seen at ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Faith in an unseen Lord is the spring whence comes this joy of σωτηρία. (©) Vv.10-12, This σωτηρία was the subject of the prophets’ search, as they foretold the facts which evangelists proclaimed to you, and which angels desire to discern. (3) 1 me ae
ἊΝ being your position, do you, with minds alert and passions in control, set your hope on the Divine ever supplied to you, as Jesus Christ is gradually revealed to you. Not your sinful but the holiness of God must be the standard of your life. You must be solemnized by («) the remembrance that your ‘Father in heaven’ is a strict Judge; (β) the thought of the greatness of the price paid for your redemption from an inheritance of vanity. (ὁ) Vv.22-2, Love towards the members a the spiritual family. The self-purification involved in re-
emption leads on to the cultivation of love towards the members of the spiritual family—genuine, deep, active. This is a duty which flows from the fact of ἀναγέννησις,. (c) 21. Growth. It (on the negative side) you have stripped off from yourselves malice and such unchildlike vices, you must (on the positive side) surrender yourselves to your true spiritual instincts and live by the spiritual milk, the spiritual sustenance which is the direct gift of God. So you will grow up unto σωτηρία. (d) 2410, Privilege. Christ is the living stone, rejected by the act of mea but in God’s sight ἔντιμος. He is the foundation on which you are being built up asa spiritual house for spiritual acts of wor- ship. This view of Christ (i.e. as the foundation stone) finds expression in the very letter of Scripture (Is 2816), It has a double aspect. On the one hand, it is for you who believe that He is ἔντιμος. On the other hand, for those who disbelieve, the Psalmist’s words about the stone of stumbling are true, their very stumbling being within the limits of the Divine purpose. ay you are the true Israel, with all the privileges of the λαὸς tov.