Date
5-16-2024
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Chair
Jeff Kennedy
Keywords
Peter, apostle, Peter the apostle, apostle to the Jews, Petrine Epistles, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Peter's Epistles, Peter's letters; Cornelius, antioch incident, Galatians 2, foreigners, non-Jews
Disciplines
Religion
Recommended Citation
Ireland, Peter J., "Expanding the Apostolic Mission: A Biblical-Theological Analysis of Peter's Epistles as Evidence of His Universal Apostleship Beyond the Jewish Context" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5545.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5545
Abstract
Paul’s designation of Peter as the apostle to the Jews suggests that Peter’s mission was restricted and impacts the interpretation of his Epistles. Scholarly neglect of Peter and critical scholarship’s rejection of the Petrine Epistles’ authenticity result in the underutilization of the context of Peter’s complete life in the analysis of the Petrine Epistles. However, categorizing Peter as always being the apostle to the Jews does not fit the rest of the biblical evidence. Using a biblical-theological approach to the biblical texts supplemented by extrabiblical evidence to understand the biblical authors’ contexts while considering the passage of time, this dissertation argues that the Petrine Epistles reveal a lack of Jewish ethno-religious preference in Peter’s mission at the end of his life. Paul’s identification that Peter was an apostle to the Jews was accurate for the period immediately after Jesus’s ascension. However, Peter’s baptism of Cornelius (Acts 10:44–48) and his defense of non-Jew inclusion in the Christian community (Acts 11:15–17 and Acts 15:7–11) indicate a change in Peter’s understanding. The Petrine Epistles, which represent Peter whether authored by him or pseudepigraphical, confirm Peter’s universal approach to Christianity by the lack of Jewish ethno-religious preference.
