1 Peter 1: 1 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,”

So, I am named for an apostle.  So this starts a blog of personal analysis of the bible books I am named after.  They are meant to be personal study, personal reflection, a personal brain dump.  People are invited to follow and comment. 

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…” 1 Peter 1:1 

He is an Apostle, ‘one who serves’, promoted from disciple, ‘one who follows’.  The twelve were the Apostles, and later Paul was appointed to their midst as well, by special vision and testimony of Jesus himself.  There are, in the New Testament canon, these capital “A” apostles and lower case “a” apostles.

There is an argument made that Apostle was a role only of the first generation after Jesus, that as the twelve (13) passed on, those who followed did not have that ‘eye-witness’ authority.  Peter writing “an apostle of Jesus Christ” is supposed to be an acknowledgement of that ‘unique’ authority.  I don’t buy into that argument’s entire premise. 

But I do accept a part of the premise.  The original apostles, the thirteen, were unique leadership in the life of the church.  Theirs was the only generation when the Church was truly one in spirit and structure, centered in Jerusalem.

And Peter had a role of leadership within the apostles.  He is perhaps the most written about apostle in the gospel accounts, the most conflicted personality, swinging back and forth between faith and doubt.  From water-walker to thrice-denier, one of the three of the ‘inner circle’, with John and James, given the keys of the kingdom (symbolically or politically-depending on your denominational point of view).

Unlike Paul, Peter was not a grand writer, at least not in what has been preserved in the Biblical canon.  As will become apparent, these letters are meant to be circulated over a region of personal involvement and commitment.