Strangers and Aliens in 1 Peter

Peter calls his recipients “strangers and aliens.” But what does this mean? Does it mean, as the old hymn says, that this world is not our home and we are just passing through? I don’t think so. Rather, I’m intrigued by a new suggestion on what these terms actually mean.

First, let me clarify why I think the old hymn is wrong. The old hymn (and old interpreters of 1 Peter) believe that Christians are “strangers and aliens” in this world because our true home is heaven. Our time on earth, they claim, is temporary. But Genesis 1-2 clearly indicate that this world is our home. We were created to be earth-dwellers. Furthermore, Revelation 21 clearly indicates that our future, eternal home is a new earth. We are redeemed to be earth-dwellers. See Mike Wittmer’s Heaven is a Place on Earth.

With that out of the way we can approach another common interpretation. That is, the “strangers and aliens” terminology is a metaphor for the people of God living in a culture hostile to God. In this sense the church recapitulates Israel’s exile, hence the reference to “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13. I do believe that this remains the controlling metaphor for 1 Peter and is an accurate interpretation.

However, Karen Jobes is challenging these previous assumptions. She claims that the language is not simply metaphorical (although she acknowledges it does have this nuance as well). Rather, 1 Peter’s recipients are literally strangers and aliens due to Roman colonization. Specifically, these are Roman Christians expelled from Rome to foreign lands for the purpose of colonization. Here is her summary:

“Could it be, then, that a sizeable number of Christians went, either voluntarily or by force, to help populate Claudius’s newly established colonies in Asia Minor? Because of Peter’s association with Rome, he writes to them after their emigration to encourage them in the faith and to instruct them how to live as Christians in their new and trying situation.

“This theory is based on several points of historical evidence: (1) Claudius, and perhaps only Claudius, established colonies in every one of the five regions to which 1 Peter is addressed. (2) Colonies were typically populated by deportations from Rome and other urban centers. (3) There is the historical evidence of Roman writers of the first and second centuries indicating that Claudius did expel people in some way associated with “Chrestus.” (4) Peter is the stated author of 1 Peter. (5) The ancient tradition that places Peter in Rome during the reign of Claudius continues to be cogently argued. Even if Peter wrote in the 60s, the colonization of Roman Christians still provides a motivation for a letter to these remote regions.

“Most commentators seem quite content to see the motif of foreignness to the world in 1 Peter as simply and exhaustively a metaphor for the Christian pilgrimage through this life. They feel that the spiritual application is sufficient to motivate and justify the metaphor. Perhaps that is true, but it seems odd that the entire book of 1 Peter is both framed (1:1; cf. 5:13) and saturated with the terms of exile and foreignness…The nature and extent of the “foreigner” metaphor in 1 Peter are better explained if it was triggered by a real event or experience instead of just being pulled out of thin air” (Jobes, 1 Peter, 39).

Jobes claims that this helps a number of problems typically associated with 1 Peter such as: 1) why do we have no biblical record of evangelistic activity in these areas? 2) how did these areas become Christian so fast? 3) how does Peter know these people if he was never in these areas? Jobes may not be able to prove her thesis 100%, but it is intriguing.