THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER - THE GREEK TEXT WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

Oxford: Blackwell. Good. 1947. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo Remains of dust jacket. Blue cloth gilt lettering on spine. Water damage to cover. 184 pages clean and tight. In this commentary, First Peter is treated as a post-Apostolic work composed by a leader of the church in Asia Minor about the beginning of the second century. It is interpreted on the basis of the theory (advocated by the late Canon Streeter and others) that it is a composite work: a Baptismal Discourse (1:3 to 4:11), which has for its primary theme the nature of the Christian life as lived in the midst of a pagan society, is incorporated in a brief circular letter addressed to the Asian churches at the outbreak of a fearful persecution-probably the persecution which began in Bithynia and Pontus when Pliny was sent out by Trajan as governor of that province. The Introduction deals chiefly with the historical setting and literary relationships of the Epistle, and with the theology of its author. The commentary, though based on the Greek text, is intended not for scholars alone, but for the wider circle of students and preaching clergy who seek to base their interpretations of New Testament teaching on a sound exegesis. The results of subsidiary studies, especially in the field of the History of Religions, are employed wherever relevant, to indicate the relation between the Christian thought of the Epistle and the contemporary paganism. .