When Was this Letter Written?
This letter was apparently written just before or shortly after the beginning of the systematic persecution of Christians in the later years of Nero (around AD 64). The acquaintance that Peter had with Paul’s letters, even those written during Paul’s imprisonment at Rome (ending in AD 63), would indicate that this letter was written after Paul’s prison letters.
Since Peter referred to the government as still functioning (an institution which commends those who do right and punishes those who do wrong; 1Peter 2:13, 14), some believe that the church was not yet facing an organized Roman persecution. Evidently repressive laws had not yet been enacted specifically against Christians. It was still possible for Peter’s readers to “honor the king” (1Peter 2:17).
Peter speaks of the end of all things being at hand, and of the fiery trial just coming on them, and of judgment beginning at the house of God, (1Peter 4:7). However, Peter seemed to indicate that greater persecution was imminent. He assured his readers (1Peter 1:6) that they could rejoice though they “may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Peter exhorted them to prepare, to be self-controlled (1Peter 1:13), possibly to suffer as Christians according to God’s will (1Peter 4:19). So it is possible that Nero’s severe persecution had already begun in Rome and was spreading to the provinces to which Peter was writing. This would place the date of the letter in late AD 64 or early AD 65.
From Where Was this Letter Written?
Peter states that he is in Babylon (1Peter 5:13), apparently with his wife (1Corinthians 9:5). It is not certain whether he means actual Babylon, where Jews had been numerous, or mystical Babylon (Rome) as in the Apocalypse. We do not know when Rome began to be called Babylon. It may have started as a result of Nero’s persecution of the Christians after the burning of Rome. The Christians were called “evil-doers” (1Peter 2:12) in the time of Nero. So some scholars think of Rome as the place of writing and that Peter uses “Babylon” to hide his actual location from Nero. Whether Peter came to Rome while Paul was still there we do not know, though John Mark was there with Paul (Colossians 4:10).
However, there is sufficient evidence that points to the place of writing as Babylon on the Euphrates (1Peter 5:13). It is unlikely that in the midst of writing matter-of-fact communications and salutations in a remarkably plain Epistle, the symbolical language of prophecy (namely, “Babylon” for Rome) should be used. Josephus states that there was a great multitude of Jews in the Chaldean Babylon; it is therefore likely that “the apostle of the circumcision” (Galatians 2:7, Galatians 2:8) would at some time or other visit them. Moreover, the order in which the countries are enumerated, from northeast to south and west, is such as would be adopted by one writing from the Oriental Babylon on the Euphrates, not from Rome.
It is the most natural and obvious interpretation. It is that which would occur to the great mass of the readers of the New Testament now, and is that which would have been naturally adopted by those to whom the Epistle was sent. The word Babylon, without something to give it a different application, would have been understood anywhere to denote the well-known place on the Euphrates.
To Whom Was this Letter Written?
First Peter is addressed to Christians scattered throughout five Roman provinces of the peninsula of Asia Minor (the area that is northern Turkey today). These five Roman provinces are listed from the standpoint of Babylon. (See section above “From Where Was This Letter Written.) The Apostle Paul had already been in Galatia and Asia, though not all over these provinces.
The churches in these provinces were made up of both Jews and Gentiles who had been converted to the Christian faith. This epistle is rich in references to and quotations from the Old Testament. Jewish Christians would have found special significance in the term diasporas, translated “scattered,” used in the salutation (1Peter 1:1). Jews who lived outside of Jerusalem were referred to as living in the diaspora.
Gentile readers would have noted Peter’s exhortation to holy living in light of their background of complete ignorance of God’s Word (1Peter 1:14). Gentile Christians also would have been greatly encouraged by the fact that though they were in ignorance, they were now considered “the people of God” (1Peter 2:10). Clearly Peter carefully included both Jewish and Gentile Christians in his letter of encouragement to the churches of Asia Minor.
In God's service, for His glory,
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