Quote of the Day

In many ways, what makes 1 Peter difficult to read as Christian Scripture is this initial attempt on the part of Peter to identify his audience. First Peter is addressed to folks who do not belong, who eke out their lives on the periphery of acceptable society, whose deepest loyalties and inclinations do not line up very well with what matters most in the world in which they live. This is not the sort of life that most people find attractive. In terms of our ability to genuinely understand 1 Peter, all of the linguistic skills we might develop, all of the material on historical background we might accumulate-none of this will make up for the basic reality that, as a whole, we resist the possibility that this letter is addressed to us, that we might be cast as "nobodies in the world." The problem is theological. What separates us from 1 Peter is not "the strange world of the Bible" as much as its unhandy, inconvenient claims on our lives...1 Peter invites a reading among those who are ready to embrace the identity and status of exiles in dispersion. (Joel B. Green, 1 Peter, The Two Horizons New Testament Commentary, [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007] 18.)