A chosen people: election in the Pentateuch and in iPeter

Abstract

In the first Epistle of Peter, Gentile Christians are addressed as aliens and exiles (lPet.1.1) but also as 'a Chosen People, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, God's Own People' (lPet.2.9). The epithets are drawn from Is.43.20,21 and Ex.19.6 referring to Israel.0 In this thesis I have traced the roots of the exiles' new identity to Israel's position in the OT, called in the Exodus to find her identity as The Chosen People of JHWH. According to O.T. presentation, Israel agreed at Sinai to her designation as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Ex.19.6), titles underlining her separateness and responsibility as witnesses to God's glory. Dt. restates this covenant. Israel was to find her true life and joy in wholehearted love for JHWH through the keeping of His laws, worked out in the everyday, to the exclusion of all idolatry. Balaam's story recalls God's promise to Abraham in Gen. 12.3. Israel's identity as the blessed of JHWH remains intact. She cannot be cursed. Yet the holy image was blurred. At Qumran in a highly exclusive context the Community sought to reestablish the Sinai tradition of holiness, linked to an understanding of themselves as spiritual Temple with strict law-keeping as sacrifice. The way was thus prepared for Christ to be Himself Temple, sacrifice and atonement, opening the way for all believers - such as Peter's addressees - to know themselves as inheritors of the elect status of Israel. I argue that IPeter demonstrates to a marked degree the continuity of significant aspects of NT Christianity with the faith of Israel, in particular in its emphasis on the finding of identity in the context of exile and trial and in its call to holiness, both to be a means of showing forth God's glory.