called you, He, after your brief space ering, ren, re. (4) 61914, Commendation of the bearer of the letter.
VIII. Doctrine OF THE EPIsTLe.—In this sec- tion an attempt will be made to indicate in outline the doctrinal teaching contained in the Epistle. The letter is a λόγος παρακλήσεως, and contains no systematic exposition of - oe of the Christian faith. But in the mind of the writer there is a
* The history of Cornelius (Ac 10% ΣΙ. 47) is the best com- mentary on the phrase imipernua εἰς ϑεόν in this connexion.
consistent and comprehensive theology which finds incidental and instinctive expression.
_ The Petrine speeches in the Acts were called forth by special circumstances, and (except the s es recorded in Ac 1042 157-11) were all addressed to non-Christian Jews at Jerusalem. We have no right, therefore, to look to them for the full cycle of Christian doctrine which even ‘in the beginning of the Gospel‘ St. Peter had 5 yar The following coincidences, how- ever, between 1 P and the Petrine speeches recorded in the Acts are noteworthy :—1 P 110 (πσροφητα,) | Ac 314 21 34 108, cf. Q16M. 9567. B22 2; 111. Ul y OA. 32. give. 410 GS0L 19H; 12} αὶ 816; Φ7 |] 411 (Ps) ; 224 (ξύλον) ἢ 589 1089; 45 § 1042 (see also 2 ΤΊ 4!); δὶ αὶ 122 282 315 1089. 41, Of these coincidences, the parallel between 1 P 12) (τοὺς δι᾽ αὐτοῦ wierois) and Ac 316 (ἡ πίστις ἡ δ᾽ αὐτοῦ) is very remarkable. It is the kind of coincidence which suggests direct connexion of some kind. Mere literary dependence on the one side or the other is not supported by coincidences between 1 P and portions of the Acts other than the Petrine speeches. The suggestion made on other grounds (see above,
. 762n.), that St. Peter and St. Luke may well have met in
me, should in this connexion be kept in mind.
(1) The doctrine of God.—(a) The Holy Trinity. —As elsewhere in the NT (2 Th 24, 1 Co 12%, 2 Co 13%, Eph 81:45. 43%, Jude ™-, cf. Rev 14), the Three Persons are revealed in their several rela- tions to the complete redemption of man(1l*). The fact that the Three Names are not given in the order of historical manifestation is an indication that the Persons are De ares as ‘coequal’ (cf. 2 Co 13"). The mystery of the essential relation of the Three Persons is not otherwise touched upon. In regard to their relation κατ᾽ οἰκονομίαν, the Father is spoken of as ‘the God and Father’ of the incarnate Lord (‘Jesus Christ,’ 15), and as the object of His un- failing trust in the extremity of humiliation (2%), while the temporal mission ot the Spirit is referred to (113). (δ) The Father. Theunique phrase πιστὸς κτίστης (4.9) implies that the relation of God to man as Creator is the final basis of trust (ef. Mt 6®, He 12%). The spiritual Fatherhood of God, i.e. the regeneration of men through the revelation in Christ and the Divine act of the resurrection, is a root-thought in the Epistle (1**), and from it springs the social teaching as to φιλαδελφία, (c) The Son. Is the eyetn Sper of Christ asserted or postulated in the Epistle? In the phrase τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς [sc. τοῖς προφήται:)] πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ (1"), the reference in Χριστοῦ is ποῦ primarily personal; the word rather alludes to the conception of the Messiah progressivel revealed and apprehended (see Hort’s note). Again, in 1” φανερωθέντος is laced in antithesis to προεγνωσμένου, and therefore ἜΣ not necessarily imply personal pre-existence. The words, however, in 3" appear to be decisive. The personality of Him whose actions are de- scribed resided neither in the σάρξ (cf. 44) nor in the πνεῦμα. Clothed in that human spirit (ἐν ¢), when the flesh had been laid aside in death, Ἧς carried out His ministry among the dead. Thus the passage distinctly implies that He who worked on earth and in Hades was a superhuman Person, assuming all the elements of human nature, and therefore existing before the beginning of the human life. (ὦ) The Spirit. The Spirit is men- tioned in 1*™ 4% In 4" the words, an echo of Is 11°, are a Christian adaptation of the thought and language of the OT. The Spirit of God which rested on Messiah is the portion of those also who suffer for Messiah’s sake, The earlier passage (14) is, as was seen above, warped connected with the ancient Messianic hope. ‘The Spirit of Mes- siah’ was ‘in the Prophets.’ But the mention of the Spirit in v." cannot be disconnected from the mention of the Spirit in v.4. The Spirit was the power through which the witness of the ancient prophets and the witness of Christian evangelists were rendered. Thus the two verses together emphasize the continuity of revelation (cf. the ‘Constantinopolitan’ Creed). For in v.¥ (da τῶν εὐαγγ. ὑμᾶς πνεύματι ἁγίῳ ἀποσταλέντι ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ the reference is definite, not to a but to the Holy
PETER, FIRST EPISTLE
794
PETER, FIRST EPISTLE
Spirit. The absence of the article aay brings out the character of the power—‘ through no less a wer than the Holy Spirit’; compare, ¢.g., Ro 1-16 and the anarthrous but definite use of θεός, Χριστός, κύριος, vids (He 1. The addition of door. dx’ οὐρανοῦ can hardly be taken otherwise than as an allusion to the historical gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.