40 Fun Facts About 1 Peter

According to 1 Peter 5:8, the devil prowls around like which animal, looking for someone to devour?

A roaring lion is the image, and the next verse gives the response: resist him, firm in faith, knowing that believers across the world face the same suffering.

The Babylon that sends greetings at 1 Peter 5:13 is widely read as a code name for which city?

Rome is the usual reading, since the nickname cast the empire's capital as the old enemy of the Jews, a label thought to have spread after the Temple fell in AD 70.

1 Peter 4:16 is one of only three New Testament verses to use which name for followers of Jesus?

Christian appears elsewhere only twice, both times in Acts, which says the name was first given to the disciples at Antioch.

Which 1896 Charles Sheldon novel opens with a minister writing a sermon on 1 Peter 2:21?

In His Steps, subtitled What Would Jesus Do?, was for decades one of America's best-selling books and gave later generations the WWJD motto.

Which lesser offender does 1 Peter 4:15 name beside the murderer and the thief?

A meddler closes the list, and the King James Version spells the offence out as being a busybody in other men's matters.

What does 1 Peter 2:2 urge believers to crave, now that they have tasted the Lord's goodness?

Milk is what newborn babies cry for, and the letter wants its readers just as eager for whatever will help them grow up in their salvation.

Which Old Testament wife does 1 Peter 3:6 hold up as a model, noting that she called her husband lord?

Sarah, the wife of Abraham, is the model, and the verse calls women who do right without giving way to fear her children.

1 Peter 5:7 tells readers to cast all of what on God, for the simple reason that he cares for them?

Their anxiety becomes care in the King James Version, which plays on the word twice: cast your care on him, for he careth for you.

Scholars who doubt Peter wrote 1 Peter cite its educated style, unusual for a Galilean of which trade?

Fisherman was Peter's trade before he followed Jesus, so the letter's schooling in rhetoric and philosophy leads some to credit a secretary or a later writer.

The five provinces greeted at 1 Peter 1:1, among them Pontus and Cappadocia, lay in which modern country?

Turkey now covers all five, and the order in which they are named may trace the route of the messenger who carried the circular letter.

1 Peter 1:7 calls tested faith more precious than which metal, which perishes though refined by fire?

Gold comes through the refiner's fire purer and still perishes, and the letter says trials prove faith in the same way, ready for the day Christ is revealed.

According to 1 Peter 1:12, who longs to look into the good news that the prophets foretold?

Angels, for all their place in heaven, are pictured peering in at a salvation the prophets served without receiving it themselves.

1 Peter 1:19 compares Christ to which animal without blemish or spot, whose blood redeemed believers?

A lamb is the image, and the letter says believers were bought back from an empty way of life not with silver or other perishable things but with his blood.

1 Peter 1:24, quoting a prophet, says all flesh is like what, while the word of the Lord stands forever?

Grass withers and its flowers fall, the quotation runs, and the letter adds that the enduring word is the very message its readers were told.

In the scripture quoted at 1 Peter 2:6, God lays a chosen and precious stone in which place?

Zion is where the stone is laid, and the quotation promises that whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.

1 Peter 2:4 describes Christ as what kind of stone, rejected by people but chosen and precious to God?

Living is the word, and the next verse extends it to believers, who are themselves called stones of the same kind being built together.

1 Peter 3:21 says the floodwater that carried Noah's ark symbolises which rite that now saves believers?

Baptism, the verse explains, is not the washing of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.

Whom does the writer of 1 Peter call his son in the closing greetings, a name shared with a Gospel?

Mark is traditionally identified with the writer of the second Gospel, remembered in early church tradition as Peter's interpreter.

What does 1 Peter 5:4 promise faithful leaders of the flock when the Chief Shepherd appears?

A crown of glory that will never fade is promised to those who lead willingly and by example, not for gain or by lording it over others.

The command to be holy because God is holy, quoted at 1 Peter 1:16, comes from which book of the Law?

Leviticus gives the command more than once, and the letter applies it to all of life: be holy in everything you do.

Which prophet's book supplies the words quoted at 1 Peter 2:6 about a cornerstone that believers can trust?

Isaiah is quoted again and again in the letter, and supplies nearly every line of its portrait of the sinless sufferer at the close of chapter 2.

According to 1 Peter 2:5, believers are being built like stones into what, to serve as a holy priesthood?

A spiritual house is the picture, a temple made of people, in which believers offer sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9 calls believers a chosen people, a holy nation and what kind of priesthood?

Royal is the word, and the verse states the purpose of such titles: to proclaim the excellence of the God who called them out of darkness.

Which word does the King James Version use at 1 Peter 2:9 to describe the people who belong to God alone?

Peculiar first meant belonging exclusively to one person, from a Latin word for private property, so the phrase means a people owned as God's special possession.

1 Peter 2:24 says Christ bore our sins in his body on what, so that believers might die to sin?

The tree is the letter's word for the cross, and the same verse adds that by his wounds its readers have been healed.

1 Peter 2:25 says its readers were once like which animals going astray, before they returned to God?

Sheep that wander is a picture borrowed from the prophets, and the verse says the strays have now come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls.

1 Peter 3:4 says a wife's unfading beauty lies in what kind of inner character, precious in God's sight?

Gentle and quiet is set against the outward show named in the verse before: braided hair, jewelry and fine clothes.

1 Peter 3:9 tells readers not to repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with what instead?

A blessing is the reply the letter asks for, because its readers were called to this so that they might inherit one themselves.

Which branch of theology takes its name from the Greek word for a defense, used at 1 Peter 3:15?

Apologetics comes from apologia, the speech a defendant gave in a Greek court, and the verse insists that the reply be given with respect and a clear conscience.

1 Peter 5:5 tells everyone, young and old, to clothe themselves with which quality toward one another?

Humility is to be worn like a garment, and the following verse promises that God will lift up in due time those who bow under his mighty hand.

Which word does the King James Version use for love at 1 Peter 4:8, where it covers a multitude of sins?

Charity is the King James word, and it returns in the letter's last lines, where readers are told to greet one another with a kiss of charity.

According to 1 Peter 3:19, to whom did Christ go and preach after he was put to death?

The spirits in prison, the letter says, had disobeyed in the days of Noah, and the verse later fed the tradition known as the harrowing of hell.

Which title does the writer of 1 Peter give himself at 5:1 when he appeals to church leaders?

A fellow elder is how he ranks himself, beside the leaders he addresses, though he adds that he was a witness of Christ's sufferings.

1 Peter 4:10 says each believer should use a gift to serve others as a good what of God's grace?

Steward is the picture: a manager entrusted with what belongs to another, so every gift, speaking or serving, is to be used for God's praise.

1 Peter belongs to which group of seven letters, along with James, Jude and the letters of John?

The general epistles, also called the catholic epistles, probably got the name because most of them address the wider church and not one congregation or person.

Which Old Testament book is quoted at 1 Peter 4:18, asking what will become of the ungodly?

Proverbs is drawn on three times in the letter's last two chapters, including the line about love covering a multitude of sins.

Through which trusted brother does 1 Peter 5:12 say the short letter was written?

Silvanus, usually identified with the Silas of Acts, may have been the letter's scribe or simply its carrier, and scholars still argue over which the phrase means.

Which prophet stands behind 1 Peter 2:10, where those once not a people are now the people of God?

Hosea was told to name two of his children Not My People and No Mercy, and the letter applies the promised reversal of both names to its readers.

Which governor's letter asking Emperor Trajan how to try believers is often compared with 1 Peter?

Pliny the Younger, governing Bithynia-Pontus, asked whether believers should be punished for the name alone, which scholars set beside the letter's talk of suffering for the name.

Some scholars date 1 Peter to the reign of which emperor, known for his aggressive claim to be divine?

Domitian ruled from AD 81 to 96, yet the case is thin: no evidence survives that he ran an official policy aimed at believers in particular.