Digital Logos Edition
The use of Scripture in 1 Peter has been subject to much extensive analysis in the last 30 years. In Written to Serve Benjamin Sargent offers an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of how 1 Pet 1.10-12 offers a ‘hermeneutic,’ providing an insight into how Scripture is interpreted in the letter. Sargent also argues that the relation of 1.10-12 has been misunderstood. Rather than offering a Christological hermeneutic with a focus on the suffering and glories of Christ, Sargent asserts that the primary importance of 1.10-12 is its orientation of the prophetic witness towards the eschatological community as an act of service. Similarly, rather than offering a theological narrative of continuity between Israel and Christian communities, 1.10-12 may be seen to suggest a narrative of profound discontinuity in which the community in the present is elevated above God’s people of the past.
“Danker, Frederick W., ‘1 Peter 1 24–2 17—A Consolatory Pericope’, ZNW 58 (1967), pp. 93–102.” (Page 198)
“Peter has a firm grasp of the literary context of each of his citations, all of which are chosen because the same dynamic of suffering and divine deliverance is present within each text in its context.” (Page 70)
Benjamin Sargent is research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, United Kingdom.