Ignorant as we are of its author's name it is fortunate for our study of the times that the date of 1st Peter is fairly determinable by the convergence of external and internal evidence. Echoes from it appear already in Clement of Rome (95) as well as in James and Hermas. We must think of it, then, as a hand of cordial encouragement extended by a representative of the Petro-Pauline church at Rome, soon after the outbreak of the persecution of Domitian (_c._ 90), to the still independent but suffering churches of Asia Minor. If we remember that it undertakes to endorse the doctrine of one third of contemporary Christendom, and (in substance) offers a 'letter of commendation' to Silvanus, it will be obvious that no name of less authority than that of Peter could have served. As Zahn has well remarked: "The significant thing ... is that it is Peter, the most distinguished apostle of the circumcision (Gal. ii. 7) who bears witness to the genuineness of their state of grace." We must place alongside of 1st Peter one other epistle in which the motive of exhortation to endurance of persecution without relaxation of the moral standard is prominent, though not exclusive, and a second, wherein it appears only in a faint echo of "trials," which turn out, however, as the reader proceeds, to be only "temptations," while the real occasion of writing is plain--moral relaxation without either heresy or persecution to excuse it. The two writings in question are the anonymous "exhortation" handed down under the title "To the Hebrews," and the so-called Epistle (in reality a homily) of James. Hebrews begins as an exposition of the two psalms Paul had quoted in his reference in 1st Cor. xv. 24-28 to the exaltation of Jesus (Pss. viii. and cx.) proving Him to be the Son, who, after temporary subordination to the angels, has been exalted above them to the place of supreme dominion. Christ has thus effected a greater redemption than Moses and Joshua. He is also a "high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" according to Ps. cx.; so that the Aaronic priesthood and ceremonial are surpassed as well as the Mosaic legislation, by the sacrifice of Calvary and intercession of the risen Redeemer. It is no wonder that in the period of debate against Judaism the canon-makers gave to this anonymous sermon a title which ranks it first in the class of subsequent controversial pamphlets "against the Jews." Controversy, however, is subordinate in the writer's purpose to edification. He is not unconscious of the dangers of that superstitious 'worship of the angels,' against which Paul's Asian epistles had been directed, but his demonstration of the superiority of the institutions and aims of Christianity to those of Judaism has the practical object of reinforcing the courage and "faith" of his readers under pressure of persecution. His argument culminates in an inspiring list of Scriptural heroes and martyrs, leading up as a climax to "Jesus