Gentiles and Israel in 1 Peter's ethnic imagination

Thesis

This thesis is a focused study of the ideas associated with ethnicity in 1 Peter, such as ἀναστροφὴ πατροπαράδοτος (1.18), γένος ἐκλεκτόν (2.9), and τὰ ἔθνη (2.12; 4.3). I argue that these terms reveal something important about the letter’s non-Jewish Christ-followers: They have been incorporated into Israel in a manner akin to the incorporation of non-Israelites in the Old Testament. They are not a “new ethnicity”, but they have been redeemed from the ancestral traditions of their former peoples and transferred into YHWH’s ancient and holy people.

The study is organised into five main themes connected to ethnicity:

1) The Use of Israel’s Titles

2) Resident Foreigners and Non-Native Insiders

3) “Gentiles” as an Outsider Label

4) Motifs of Family and Kinship

5) “Christians” as a Collective Name

In engaging these five areas, this thesis seeks to provide a more comprehensive study of ethnicity in 1 Peter than existing publications. Individually, each of these five themes contain arguments which shed new light on 1 Peter’s ethnic discourse, such as the interpolation of the readers into Israel’s family tree in 1 Pet 3.6 by describing them as “Sarah’s children”, a concept with rabbinic parallels. Collectively, my findings across all five themes indicate that many discussions on 1 Peter wrongly present the Church as a replacement or copy of Israel. On the contrary, the letter’s ethnic language invites us to see Christ-followers as a people incorporated into Israel’s ongoing story.

Authors: Cheong, N

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-a49deggyv
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: 1 Peter; conversion; ethnicity; gentiles
• Subjects: Christianity; Religion