“chosen and destined”, Redundant or Something Else?

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:

“…chosen and destined by God the Father…”-referring back to the exiles of the Dispersion, but now narrowing the audience.  It is part of a Trinitarian formula of greeting, identifying these exiles as picked, moved, and blessed by Father, Spirit, and Son.  Spirit before Son is an interesting consideration.

God the Father, God of the Old Testament, God shared by Christianity and Judaism (and Islam…a question for another study…), all powerful creator-being that transcends our understanding, who, in this case ‘chose’ and ‘destined’ certain exiles of the Diaspora for receipt of Peter’s letter.

Is this phrase simply a literary doublet, synonyms connected for emphasis, literarily commendable but theologically redundant?  Or is there a deliberate selection of these two words?

If we go back to the Greek…well, we are not!  One of the rules of this study is that it has to be pretty significant to the text to go back to original languages, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic.  For example, where we might is in the name Peter, in Greek 'Cephas', which means “rock”, something Jesus deliberately plays with when he calls Peter the “rock” on which He will build His church. (It goes to show that Jesus likes puns, but that is another discussion). 

Peter speaks to the exiles of the Diaspora, Jewish folks scattered to a region of the Roman Empire.  They are chosen and destined, well, some of them are.  I believe Peter uses these two words to identify them deliberately, that there is common meaning but also distinct meaning in them.

First, God’s “chosen people” are the Jews, going back through the Bible, living out the promises God set for them.  Abraham was chosen by God, his family line became the nation of Israel.  They received the Promised Land.  That they are identified as exiles begs the question, exiled from what-the Promised Land of the Chosen People.   

Behind being chosen however is an entire history of covenants, promises made by God and by His ‘chosen people’.  Prosperity was connected to obedience, power tied to right service, with punishment when obedience and right service were not forthcoming from the people.

To be destined by God, to me, implies something more than being chosen.  Destiny implies a fixed endpoint, an inevitability of what is to come.  How many movies revolve around the paradox of “changing one’s destiny”?  It feels to me that Peter is identifying there is another step after being chosen, to being destined by God as well.

As the greeting develops, we’ll see the distinctions between ‘chosen’ and ‘destined’ played out.  The implication is that all the exiles are chosen by God, by virtue of being Jewish, but something more is required to be destined by God for the virtues and benefits of the faith.