1 Peter 2:9
9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Peter takes us to a throwback to the
first chapter of the gospel of John.
Actually, it may not be a throwback.
One of the great arguments of the New Testament scholarship community is
when all the books were written. They
were not arranged in chronological order in the New Testament. Paul’s letters are probably the earliest
pieces written down, followed by the rest.
In this regard, it is possible that
Peter published this activity of Jesus, that He called us out of darkness and
into his marvelous light, ahead of the publishing of the gospel of John, where
this comes in the first chapter. Such
arguments are the stuff of doctrinal theses and scholarly debates, and they carry with them the risk of putting us to sleep.
The downside of those arguments, of
which was written first, is when a value judgement is attached to the
chronology, i.e. the earlier is better or more “original” to Jesus. That implies that Jesus’ words and deeds were
somehow padded by the later authors, maybe ‘edited’ more to make a point, maybe
not as ‘original’ as the stuff Jesus really did. Scholars don’t come out and say that too often,
but the implication is there.
The trouble is, there is no way, two
thousand years later, to really know for sure.
And the trouble is engaging in this argument in the first place. What I mean is that the WHOLE bible is useful
for teaching, for uplifting, for preparing us for what God wants. The fact is that Jesus called us out of
darkness into His marvelous light. Don’t
dim the light with semantic arguments that chip away at the great truths of
thousands of years of our faith.
Besides, we accept Jesus on faith, not "academic certainty".
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