TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

particular way. The particularity of the letter form corresponds to
the scandalous particularity (not to be confused with
"individualism") of the Christian faith.
More than Personal Communication. Both letters are written by
church leaders to congregations of Christian people, but both
represent more than a personal communication from one individual
The UCCCD letter bears the signature of a single member of the
congregation, the campaign chairperson, Denny Alexander.
Although this letter was composed primarily by one person, it was
the result of the committee process, with the names of the entire
committee appearing on the letterhead. This letter represents not just
an individual but the church. We are familiar with this accepted
form of communication, including documents that are entirely the
work of a committee sent "over the signature" of its chair or some
other individual. No one called the church office and inquired
whether the letter was composed entirely by the person whose
signature it bore. The question was whether or not it represented the
church.
First Peter was long assumed to have been written by the Apostle
Peter, whose name it bears as its first word. But we now know that
in the first century it was common to compose letters in the name of
well-known leaders in order to perpetuate their message. The vast
majority of scholars who have studied 1 Peter critically have
concluded that it is such a pseudonymous letter. 4
There is an important connection with Simon Peter, however,
which may be outlined as follows: 5
a. There was a real person named Simeon ("Simon"), a man in
the fishing business in Galilee, who had known the human Jesus
personally and had been called by Jesus during his lifetime to be an
apostle. Jesus renamed him "Cephas," Aramaic for "rock," which
is "Peter" in Greek. He had his ups and downs as a disciple and
finally denied and rejected Jesus at the time of his arrest.
b. The risen Jesus appeared to Peter, reconstituted him as an
apostle, and Peter became a leader in one wing of the new Christian
community, the somewhat conservative Jewish-Christian wing,
which looked back to the earthly Jesus and communicated the faith
by handing on his sayings and told stories about him.
c Peter and his wife, whose name we do not know (1 Cor. 9:5),
traveled about as a missionaries. Peter finally made his way to
INTERPRETING 1 PETER AS A LETTER 91