1

1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are outsiders belonging to the Diaspora of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father, in sanctification of the spirit, in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and may peace be plentiful.

3 Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy bore us again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 into an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance reserved in the heavens for you,

5 who are guarded by the power of God through faith for a salvation which is ready to be revealed in the latter time.

6 And in this inheritance you rejoice, although for a short time now, if it is necessary, you grieve with various trials,

7 in order that the tested character of your faith might be found to be much more precious than gold which perishes, even if tested by fire, for praise and honour and for glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

8 whom, although you do not know him, you love, in whom, although you do not see him now, you believe and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy,

9 as you acquire the goal of your faith, the salvation of your beings,

10 a salvation about which the prophets – who prophesied about grace destined for you – enquired and investigated,

11 investigating at what time and under what circumstances the spirit of Christ in them was indicating, as it testified beforehand of the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories after that.

12 And to these prophets it was revealed that they were ministering not to themselves but to you the things which have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the holy spirit which was sent from heaven, things into which angels desire to look.

13 Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and put hope absolutely in the grace which is being brought to you by revelation of Jesus Christ,

14 as obedient children, not being conformed to the former desires you had in your ignorance,

15 but just as he who called you is holy, so you yourselves be holy in every aspect of behaviour.

16 For it stands written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

17 And if you call on the father, who judges impartially according to each person's work, then conduct yourselves with fear in the time of your stay here,

18 knowing that you were not redeemed by perishable things, silver or gold, from your vain comportment as handed down from the fathers,

19 but by precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot – of Christ –

20 who was appointed beforehand before the overthrow of the world, but in the latter times made manifest on your account,

21 you who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope should be in God.

22 Now that you have sanctified your inner selves by obedience to the truth through the spirit leading to unfeigned brotherly love, love each other intensely from a pure heart,

23 having been begotten again, not from perishable seed, but from imperishable, through the living word of God, which also remains throughout the Age.

24 For all flesh is as grass, and all glory of man is like a herbaceous flower. The grass dries up and its flower withers,

25 but the word of the Lord remains throughout the Age. And this is the word which has been preached to you.

2

1 So put aside all wickedness and all deceit and hypocrisies and envyings and all slanderings,

2 and like new-born babies long for the genuine word-based milk in order that you may increase by means of it,

3 assuming you have tasted that the Lord is kindly disposed.

4 And come to him, a living stone, rejected by men, but with God select and honoured,

5 while you yourselves are built up as living stones, as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, in order to bring spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 Therefore it says in the scripture, “Behold, I place in Zion a cornerstone, select and honoured, and he who believes in him will certainly not be ashamed.”

7 So you who believe have the honour, but to those who do not believe the scripture says, “The stone which the builders rejected is what has become the keystone,”

8 and, “A stumbling-stone and a rock of offence.” And they stumble at the word in disbelieving, to which they for their part were appointed.

9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people destined to be a special possession, in order that you should proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light,

10 – you who were at one time not a people, but are now God's people, who were not shown mercy, but have now been shown mercy.

11 Beloved, I exhort you as foreigners and outsiders to abstain from fleshly desires which are at war with the inner self,

12 keeping your conduct good among the Gentiles, so that in a situation where they slander you as if you were evil doers, they may from observing your good works glorify God on the day of visitation.

13 So be subject to every human institution on account of the Lord, whether to a king, having supremacy,

14 or whether to leaders, who are sent by him for punishment of evil doers, but for praise of well doers,

15 for this is the will of God, that well doers should muzzle the ignorance of foolish men,

16 as free men, and not as ones having freedom as a cover for wrongdoing, but as servants of God.

17 Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

18 Household servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and fair ones, but also to the unfair ones.

19 For this is grace: if anyone bears grievous things, suffering unjustly, on account of a consciousness of God.

20 For what kind of credit is it if, when you sin and are knocked about, you endure it? But if when you do good and suffer, you endure, then this is grace in the estimation of God.

21 For you were called to this end, seeing that Christ also suffered on our behalf leaving you an example, that you should follow the footsteps of him

22 who did not commit sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth,

23 who, when railed at did not rail back, when suffering did not make threats but committed himself to him who judges righteously,

24 who himself took up our sins in his body on the wood, in order that we, having died to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose weal you were healed.

25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your beings.

3

1 Likewise, you wives, submit to your own husbands, so that even if some disbelieve the word, they will be won over through the conduct of their wives without the word,

2 as they observe your reverent conduct in fear.

3 And let your adorning not be the exterior plaiting of hair and putting on of gold or wearing of garments,

4 but the hidden man of the heart, with the indefectibility of the meek and quiet spirit which is very valuable in God's sight.

5 For in this way in the past also holy women – who put their hope in God – adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands,

6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, of whom you are children, and these women were doers of good works and did not fear any intimidation.

7 Husbands likewise, live with them in accordance with your knowledge, bestowing honour on the weaker feminine vessel, since you are also joint heirs to the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers may not be impeded.

8 Finally, be all of one mind, sympathetic, having brotherly love, compassionate, kindly minded,

9 not repaying evil for evil, or abuse for abuse, but rather on the contrary giving blessing, knowing that you were called for this, in order that you may inherit blessing.

10 For let him who wishes to love life and see good days restrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

11 Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

12 For the eyes of the Lord are fixed on the righteous, and his ears are directed to their entreaties, but the face of the Lord is set against those who do evil.

13 And who will do you harm, if you become imitators of him who is good?

14 But even if you were to suffer on account of righteousness, you would be blessed. And do not fear their animosity, nor be disturbed.

15 And sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, being always ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you for an account of the hope in you, doing it with meekness and fear,

16 having a clear conscience so that in the matter for which they vilipend you as an evil doer, those who treat you spitefully for your good conduct in Christ might be ashamed.

17 For it is better for well doers to suffer than evil doers, if the will of God should so wish.

18 For Christ also suffered for sins once, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring you to God, he having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirit,

19 by which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,

20 who at one time disbelieved, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was prepared, in which a few – that is eight people – were saved through water.

21 And this as a counterpart also now saves us, that is, baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the quest for a clear conscience towards God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, while angels and authorities and powers have been made subject to him.

4

1 So with Christ having suffered on our behalf in the flesh, you arm yourselves too with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

2 resulting in him living the rest of his time in the flesh, no longer in men's desires, but in the will of God.

3 For the past phase of life is sufficient for us in carrying out the will of the Gentiles, for us to have walked in debaucheries, lusts, drunkenness with wine, orgies, drinking-bouts and forbidden idolatries,

4 at which they are surprised when you don't go along with them to the same burst of excess, while they blaspheme,

5 they who will render an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

6 For to this end the gospel was also preached to the dead: that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit.

7 But the end of all things has drawn near. So be sober-minded and abstemious for the benefit of your prayers.

8 And above all have intense love towards one another, because love will cover a multitude of sins.

9 Be hospitable to each other without murmurings,

10 just as each has received a gracious gift, so serve each other with it, like good stewards of the many-facetted grace of God.

11 If anyone speaks, let it be as oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let it be as from strength as God provides, in order that God should be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, who has the glory and the power throughout the durations of the ages. Amen.

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the trial by fire in you which takes place to test you, as if something strange is happening to you,

13 but insofar as you have a share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that at the revelation of his glory, you in turn may rejoice and be jubilant.

14 If you are reproached on account of the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. From their perspective he is blasphemed, but from your perspective he is glorified.

15 But do not let anyone of you suffer as a murderer or thief or evil doer or as a busybody.

16 But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this respect.

17 For it is time for judgment to begin from the house of God; and if first with us, what will be the end of those who disbelieve the gospel of God?

18 And if the righteous person is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinful person appear?

19 So also let those who suffer according to God's will commit their lives in well-doing to him as to a faithful creator.

5

1 I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, and also as a partaker of the coming glory which will be revealed,

2 tend the flock of God among you, overseeing it not under compulsion, but willingly, and not in a way which is shamefully greedy of gain, but whole-heartedly,

3 and not lording it over those assigned to them, but being models for the flock.

4 Then when the chief shepherd appears you will obtain the unfading crown of glory.

5 Similarly you younger ones, be subject to the elders, and, all being subject to each other, gird yourselves with humility, for God opposes the arrogant but gives grace to the lowly.

6 So be humbled under the strong hand of God in order that he might exalt you in due course,

7 having cast every concern of yours on him, for he cares about you.

8 Be sober, keep watch; your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking anyone he can devour.

9 Resist him, being steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are inflicted on your brotherhood in the world.

10 And may the God of all grace – who has called you into his age-abiding glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a little while – restore you, and he will fortify, strengthen and establish you.

11 To him be glory and power throughout the durations of the ages. Amen.

12 I have written to you in a few words via Silvanus, the faithful brother for you, as I consider him, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

13 The Diaspora in Babylon, jointly elect, greets you, as does Mark my son.

14 Greet each other with a loving kiss. Peace to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.