1 Peter 1:1

ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς, elect sojourners of dispersion, a combination of titles of Israel appropriated to Christians in accordance with the universal principle of the early Church. (1.) The Jews were the chosen race (1 Peter 2:9 from Isaiah 43:20) as Moses said, Because He loved thy fathers therefore He chose their seed after them (Deuteronomy 4:37; cf. Romans 11:28). So Jesus said to His disciples, I have chosen you (John 15:16; John 15:19, etc.), and refers to them in the eschatological discourse as the elect (Mark 13:20). (2.) Being chosen out of the world in the world, indeed, but not of it, John 15:16 ff. Christians are alien sojourners during their life on earth. Their fatherland is the city that hath foundations (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 13:14; Philippians 3:20). In Hebrews 11:9-13 the Patriarchs are credited with the same idea and Philo says that the sages of Moses' school are all introduced as sojourners (p. 416 M). So Abraham said to the Sons of Heth, “I am a stranger and sojourner (πάροικος καὶ παρεπίδημος = גר ותושב) with you” (Genesis 23:4); Jacob speaks of the days of the years of my pilgrimage (מגורי ἃς παροικῶ); and the psalmist anticipates peter and Heb. in the generalisation I am a stranger and sojourner (πάροικος καὶ παρεπίδημος) in the earth as all my fathers were (Psalms 39:13). Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 149) quotes two examples of παρεπίδημος from wills of the third century B.C., one of a Jew resident in the Fayyüm (Ἀπολλώνιον [παρεπ] ίδημον ὃς καὶ συριστὶ Ἰωνάθας). In P. Tor. 8 (B.C. 118) παρεπιδημοῦντες and κατοικοῦντες are contrasted. (3.) Moses said to Israel thou shalt be scattered among the kingdoms of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:25); and the rendering of the LXX διασπορά is probably the earliest example of the technical designation (cf. John 7:35) of the Jews, who for whatever reason lived outside the Holy Land. The collective term (Rabbinic גולה) implies the real unity of these scattered communities, whose scattering is no longer regarded as God's punishment for sin. It thus serves well the purpose of one, who, like St. Paul, insists on the unity of the whole brotherhood of Christians (e.g., 1 Peter 5:9); but this application of the principle that the Church is the Israel of God is subordinate to others which imply that there is no earthly correlative to it. When St. James addresses the twelve tribes which are in Dispersion, he may on the other hand be contrasting the saints of Jerusalem with those abroad (as St. Paul did in the matter of the Collection) if indeed he is not speaking simply to his fellow-countrymen as a Jew to Jews. But St. Peter writes from “Babylon” and the capital of Christendom is no longer Jerusalem. The collocation of παρεπιδήμοις and διασπορᾶς implies that this scattering, which in the case of the type was God's punishment for sin, will not be permanent for the antitype. For the Christian Church the Jewish hope of the ingathering will be fulfilled, as is indicated by the emphatic ἐκλεκτοῖς for Jesus said, “The Son of Man … shall gather together his elect … from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven” (Mark 13:26-27; cf. Deuteronomy 30:4). Compare Didache ix. 4, “For as this was broken [bread] scattered over the hills and being gathered together became one, so may thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom ” and Justin Martyr, Dial. 113, “As Moses … so also Jesus the Christ (corresponding to J., the Son of Nun) shall turn again the Dispersion of the People … shall give us the possession eternally”.

Πόντου … Ἀσίας. The order indicates the route of the messenger, who landed presumably at Sinope or Amastris and, if the omission of καὶ Βιθυνίας be accepted, left the country at Ephesus or Smyrna. The (Armenian) Acta of Phocas (Martyr of Sinope under Trajan) are addressed to the brethren dwelling in Pontus and Bithynia in Paphlagonia and in Mysia in Galatia and in Cappadocia and in Armenia (Conybeare, Monuments of Early Christianity, p. 103). See Introduction.