1 Peter Introduction

1 Peter

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. - 1 Peter 2:18

1 Peter for Skeptics

The author claims to be the apostle Peter (1:1), but most scholars think it was forged. Illiterate (Acts 4.13), Aramaic-speaking, first century, Palestinian Jews didn't write letters in Greek.

There are a few things in First Peter that should be of interest to skeptics. Slavery is approved in 2:18, women are insulted in 3:1-7, and believers are told not to run away from skeptics in 3:15.

Here are the highlights.

We are all predestined to be saved or damned. We have no say in the matter. It was all determined by "the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 1:2
The author believed that he was living in the "last times." 1:5, 1:7, 1:20, 4:7
"Gird up the loins of your mind." 1:13
"The precious blood of Christ ... was foreordained before the foundation of the world." 1:19-20
"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." 1:24
"Submit yourselves ... to the king." 2:13, 17
Slaves should "be subject to [their] masters with all fear," to the bad and cruel as well as the good and gentle. 2:18
"Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands." 3:1
They should use "chaste conversation, coupled with fear." 3:2
They are not to braid their hair, wear gold, or put on any "apparel." 3:3
A wife should call her husband "Lord" as Sarah did. 3:6
In relation to her husband, the wife is "the weaker vessel." 3:7
"Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." 3:15
God drowned everyone on earth except for Noah and his family. 3:20
Things may get rough for Christians, but it will really be hell for nonbelievers. 4:17-18
"The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 5:8

1 Peter

1 Peter for Skeptics

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