1 Peter's initial audience

Hi, Ive just started studying 1 Peter, and the question as to whom the book is
addressed has come up. "to the chosen exiles of the Diaspora" seems to be the Greek,
making the recipients similar to those James addresses. The Diaspora is also
mentioned in John 7:35 as referring especially to the Jewish Diaspora.

If then it is addressed to the Jewish Diaspora (in keeping with Peters ministry to Jews
as in Gal 2:7-8) then Peter is truly addressing people who are exiles. He then takes
this experience of living as exiles and uses their life-experience to teach spiritual
truths. They know what it is like to be exiles, so he uses this as a starting point. Via
their new-birth (1:3, 23), they are now exiles from heaven, where their true
citizenship is. As exiles, they are not to assimilate into this world. 1:17, 2:11. Equally,
as exiles, they have learnt to obey the laws of their true land as well as those of their
place of residence. Responsa literature and keeping the Laws of Moses, circumcision
etc. set them apart from their neighbors, and so too, Peter says they should now, as
exiles from the Kingdom of Heaven, submit to God's commands re governments,
employers, husbands and wives, elders and younger men. Peter, the disciple of Jesus,
knew that the Kingdom of Heaven was a central theme of Jesus, and it was breaking
in and present where ever people obeyed God (store up treasure in Heaven etc.).

2:9-10 also speaks to the readership. Here Peter seems to be bouncing off Hosea
1:8-10, to declare through Jesus, that the curse is ended. The promises of God have
found their yes and amen through Jesus. They are called, not to go back to Jerusalem,
but to declare His praises and to live good lives among the pagans, so that they also
may glorify God. That is, through Jesus, their identity is affirmed and expanded.

Interestingly, Peter does not mention diet or circumcision or Mosaic laws, but does
mention the Temple. Here he parallels Hebrews (as does the exile theme in Hebrews
11:13). 1 Peter 2:5-6 also parallels the Essene Manual of Discipline 8:4-10. This had
been written to Jews who had been exiled from the Temple in Jerusalem. In affirming
this, Peter again shows his Jewish Christian readers that their task is not to go back to
the Temple in Jerusalem, but to become a Temple built on and into Jesus.

Hebrews 13, 14-15 likewise places living without a lasting city, but seeking the city
that is to come, with the idea of offering up a sacrifice of praise (based on a Hebrew
word play also found in the DSS). (The Midrash Rabbah Leviticus IX:7. also states
that in the Days of Messiah, all sacrifices will be done away with, except the sacrifice
of praise This is taught on the Midrash on the inauguration of Aaron’s priesthood; “R.
Phinehas and R. Levi and R. Johanan said in the name of R. Menahem of Gallia: ‘In
the Time to
Come all sacrifices will be annulled, but that of thanksgiving will not be annulled,
and all
prayers will be annulled, but [that of] Thanksgiving will not be annulled.’” ).

As Hebrews likewise deals with Jewish Christians who have been banned from the
Temple, assuring them that in Jesus, they have access to a better sacrifice, priesthood
and temple), the parallels between Hebrews and 1 Peter again point to a Jewish
Christian audience.

For me, seeing 1 Peter as written to Jewish exiles of the Diaspora therefore seems to
help understand the letter, affirms Peter's primary task, shows Peter relating to real
people's life experience and reinterpreting it through Jesus, and makes sense of the
instructions and usage of the temple imagery.

What do others think?