to perform special functions for Israel, e.g. Abraham, Moses, Saul, David, Solomon, Zerubbabel, the tribe of Judah, or for priestly work, Aaron and the Levites. In each case the choosing by God was not a reward. It was not an act of favouritism on God's part. Those chosen were selected not for their own sake or to the exclusion or "reprobation" of others, but to do some special work for God, and if they were untrue to their mission they would forfeit their position. Here St Peter probably means that the Church is the new Israel of God, a chosen people." As a corporate body the Church is chosen." to tell forth God's excellencies" and to complete the work of Christ her Head, but every member of that body has his own work to do and was chosen by God for that work. To have been thus chosen by God is not a guarantee of final salvation unless those chosen are faithful to their position. But to be one of "the elect people of God" is a "state of salvation," to which we are brought by God and not by chance, and we must pray for " grace to continue in the same unto our life's end."

tapetidńμois, cf. ii. 11. In one sense St Peter's readers were sojourners because they lived among heathen. In another sense all Christians are in this world merely sojourners whose home is in heaven.

Pontus, etc. It is generally admitted that the names are used in their imperial sense as denoting Roman provinces and not in the popular or geographical sense. The order in which the various provinces are mentioned affords no clue to the place of writing. On the one hand Pontus is in the E. and therefore nearly the last in geographical order from Rome, but on the other hand it is in the N. and therefore not the first in geographical order from Babylon. Again, Pontus and Bithynia formed one Roman province, therefore there must be some reason for their being named separately first and last in the list. Probably the provinces are named in the order in which Silvanus was expected to visit them, landing perhaps at Sinope in Pontus and making a circuit round to the coast of the Euxine again somewhere in Bithynia.

The provinces named include all Asia Minor north of the Taurus Mountains, which were a natural frontier shutting off the provinces of the south coast.

Pontus. The old kingdom of Pontus was conquered by Rome in 65 B.C., when Pompey defeated Mithridates and the maritime district of the Euxine W. of the Halys was joined to the recently formed province of Bithynia, a further strip of coast to the E. being added about 100 years later. The rest of the districts remained

In

independent for a time but were afterwards incorporated in the Roman province of Galatia, and early in the 2nd century were transferred to Cappadocia. The chief towns of Provincial Pontus along the coast from W. to E. were Heraclea, Amastris, Sinope and Amisos. All of these were thriving seaports with extensive commerce, the most important being Sinope, which was a Roman colony. In such centres of trade there were certain to be numerous Jewish settlers. Acts ii. 9 we read that Jews from Pontus were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and it is conceivable that the first knowledge of Christianity may have been introduced into Pontus by them. Again Aquila, who had married a Roman wife, Prisca or Priscilla, is described in Acts xviii. 2 as "a Jew, a man of Pontus by race," and it is possible that he may have helped to evangelize his native country during his visits to the East. In any case there was constant commercial intercourse between Pontus and other centres of early Christianity, and the Church may well have been established in Pontus about the middle of the first century (though Ramsay, Ch. in Rom. Emp. p. 225, regards 65 A.D. as the earliest probable date).

At any rate Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, writing apparently from Pontus to the Emperor Trajan about 112 A.D., speaks of many Christians of every age, every rank and of both sexes, not only in the towns but also in the villages and the country, through whom the temples had come to be well-nigh deserted and the sacred rites to be long suspended. This points to the fact that Christianity was of considerable standing in the district, and one suspected person who was examined declared that he had been a Christian but had abandoned the faith 25 years previously. Sinope was the birthplace of Marcion, a semi-Gnostic teacher, who came to Rome in 140. He had been a wealthy shipowner and his father is described as a bishop.

Galatia. The Roman province included all the central part of Asia Minor and extended from Pontus on the N. to the Taurus Mountains on the S. It embraced Paphlagonia, part of the old kingdom of Pontus, part of Phrygia including Antioch and Iconium, and part of Lycaonia including Lystra and Derbe, but it derived its name from the north central district, Galatia Proper, which had been occupied by Gaulish immigrants in the 3rd century B.C. They were conquered by the Romans under Manlius in 189 B.c. but retained semi-independence until 25 B.C., when Galatia Proper was made a Roman province. The chief towns in this district were Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium. The southern part of the Roman province of Galatia was certainly evangelized by St Paul during his first missionary journey. Lightfoot and others hold that St Paul also visited Galatia

Proper on his second and third journeys, and that the Epistle to the Galatians was addressed to that district, but Ramsay maintains that St Paul only wrote to the churches of the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia and never visited the northern district at all.

Cappadocia was the district east of Galatia and came into the possession of the Romans in 17 A.D., but it was treated as an unimportant frontier district, governed only by a procurator until 70 A.D. when it was considerably enlarged and made a regular province under a pro-praetor. From 76-106 it was under the same governor as Galatia, though otherwise the two provinces were distinct. The fact that it is here mentioned as if it was an important province has been urged as a slight argument in favour of dating the Epistle after 70 A.D., but if Silvanus was to visit this district it is difficult to see by what other name than Cappadocia it could be designated. Jews from Cappadocia were present on the day of Pentecost. Otherwise nothing is known of the introduction of Christianity there, but Caesareia, the chief town of Cappadocia, was on the great trade-routes from Syrian Antioch to the Black Sea and from Ephesus to the East.

Asia. The Roman province included all Asia Minor west of Galatia, the capital being Ephesus. St Paul had been forbidden by the Spirit to preach there on his second missionary journey (Acts xvi. 6), but stayed in Ephesus for three years during his third journey, "so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks" (Acts xix. 10). Several of St Paul's Epistles were addressed to this district, the Epistle to the Ephesians being almost certainly a circular letter to be passed on from Ephesus to the churches of the Lycus valley. The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon imply the existence of a considerable Christian body in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis, though St Paul had apparently never visited those places in person (Col. ii. 1). The two Epistles to Timothy contain directions to him as head of the Church in Ephesus. Ephesus was also the home of St John in his later years; there his Gospel and Epistles were probably written and the letters to the Seven Churches in the Apocalypse are addressed to that district. In the beginning of the 2nd century the letters of Ignatius are addressed chiefly to churches of Asia and imply a developed organization with bishops, presbyters and deacons; while Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was martyred at the age of 86 in 155–156 A.D., is another link with the Apostolic age.

Bithynia had been bequeathed to the Romans by its last king, Nicomedes III, in 74 B.C., and was joined with Pontus and formed into a united province by Pompey in 65 B.C. St Paul attempted to

enter Bithynia when precluded from preaching in Asia on his second missionary journey, but "the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not" (Acts xvi. 7). We have no evidence to shew how Christianity was introduced there, but there were two great roads connecting its chief towns Nicaea and Nicomedia with Antioch in Pisidia in the S. and Ancyra and Syria in the E.

2. This verse probably refers both to St Peter's own position as an apostle of Jesus Christ and to that of his readers as the "chosen" people of God. Just as in Rom. i. 1, 6, 7, St Paul couples himself and his readers together, he himself being "called to be an apostle” (κλητὸς ἀπόστολος) and they "called to be saints" (KλŋTOîs ȧyíos), so here St Peter regards both his own choice to be an apostle and that of his readers to be the new Israel of God as being due to a divine purpose. The verse seems certainly to describe the operation of the three Persons in the Trinity in fitting men to be God's fellow-workers in the world. The Father in His eternal knowledge contemplates them as His chosen agents, the Holy Spirit consecrates and hallows them continuously for their work, which is to obey God's will as covenanted members of Jesus Christ His Son, by whose blood as the true covenant victim they are sprinkled. For other passages where the threefold name is similarly introduced cf. 1 Cor. xii. 4—6; 2 Cor. xiii. 13; Eph. iv. 4-6; 2 Thess. ii. 13-14; Titus iii. 4—6; Rom. viii. 16-17.

The occurrence of such passages presupposes a recognized, although still unformulated, belief in the Holy Trinity, which can hardly have originated without some authoritative utterance of our Lord such as the great commission to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost in Matt. xxviii. 19, or the discourse recorded in Jn xiv.

The three clauses Katà, èv, eis, may be taken either as parallel to each other as denoting three different aspects of the divine choice, ascribed to the three Persons in the Holy Trinity, or more probably as successive stages, each dependent upon the preceding: κarà, the standard of God's eternal design; èv, the means by which it is worked out; els, the aim of that design.

The "call" to a position of privilege and therefore of service is a "link in the chain of providential care which began in the eternal loving purpose of God." This thought is elaborated in fuller detail in Rom. viii. 28-30.

It is however somewhat remarkable that St Paul nowhere refers to "the blood of sprinkling."

kaта πρóуνwσɩv. The substantive does not occur in the LXX. except in the Apocrypha. In the N.T. it only occurs again in St

Peter's speech on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 23) that Jesus was "delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." The verb is used of men "knowing beforehand" (Acts xxvi. 5; 2 Pet. iii. 17), but in Rom. viii. 29 it is used of God" foreknowing" certain persons whom He also predestinated and called; in Rom. xi. 2 it is used of the "people whom God foreknew" as not being cast away by God despite appearances, and in 1 Pet. i. 20 it is used of Christ as the true paschal lamb "foreknown before the foundation of the world." So here St Peter regards God as having from the first contemplated certain individuals like himself and a society or" chosen people" like his readers to carry on the work of Israel as His agents in the world. Cf. Is. xlix. 1 and Jer. i. 5, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee...I sanctified thee. I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations."

Oεоû Tатрós. Ocós is never a mere proper name in the N.T. but denotes the power, supremacy, authorship and superintendence of God. Tarp is frequently used to describe God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also of God as "our Father." Sometimes (as probably here) the two ideas are coupled together because it is only as "a member of Christ" that a man becomes "the child of God" in

the highest sense. So our Lord spoke to His disciples of going to "My Father and your Father," and in Romans viii. 29 St Paul says that God's object in choosing men to be conformed to the image of his Son" was "that He might be the first-born among many brethren."

ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος might mean by the hallowing of our human spirit, but the context implies that hallowing by the Holy Spirit is intended. This is the process in which God's choice takes effect in the equipment of His agents. The root (ay-), see note v. 15, means to set apart, so to consecrate. Apostles, prophets and every member of the chosen people need a life-long hallowing for their special office. As applied to the whole body of Christians cf. 2 Thess. ii. 13, "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation, ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος,” from which passage St Peter may perhaps be borrowing.

ELS ÚTTAKOŃν K.T.λ. This choosing by God, this hallowing process employed upon those chosen, is intended to result in (eis) their obedience. Unless they fulfil that divine purpose, to have been "known by God" will only increase their guilt. Cf. Amos iii. 2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities."

ῥαντισμὸν αἵματος. The only instances where persons were sprinkled with blood in the O.T. were (a) the sprinkling of a leper with the blood of a bird, Lev. xiv. 6, 7; (b) the sprinkling of Aaron