1 Peter 4 and 5 promoting priesthood above Yeshua

CJB emphasis in bold (online), green, red, and blue, with footnotes in blue; NIV in magenta; Nomads* comments in yellow; and my comments in gray.   

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Kenneth Tipton. My continually improved statement about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this.

Peter wrote approximately 3 decades after Yeshua was executed. I perceive civic advice to the good regarding the scripture that follows, including:

1.      Living presents the anxiety of the unknown together with the certainty of death, yet choosing the good is always in personal self-interest. The good is not a test: it is life.

2.      No one knows “God’s words”, so accepting the mystery, still choosing the good, seems the only option.

3.      Living “by the spirit” means accepting the power and authority to choose the good in all things, as directed in Genesis 1:26-28 and affirmed by Yeshua in Matthew 18:18.

4.      Given Peter’s experiences, including the Council at Jerusalem, I do not accept that he would choose Jesus or Christ rather than Yeshua. I could be wrong.

5.      I think the Church imposed its will on Peter’s writing. I could be wrong.

6.      Just as the youth in Peter’s church were born for a time Peter could not imagine, we were born for a time our parents could not imagine. (Gibran, “On Children”.) Choosing the good for our time is on us.

^4:1 Therefore, since the Messiah suffered physically, you too are to arm yourselves with the same attitude. For whoever has suffered physically is finished with sin, ² with the result that he lives the rest of his earthly life no longer controlled by human desires, but by God’s will. [This implies that God’s will prevents human desires. However, I argue that humility to the ineluctable truth is a human pursuit.]. ³ For you have spent enough time already living the way the pagans [pagans] want you to live — in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and forbidden idol-worship. [I never lived such a life style. Some people tried to persuade me, but I did not accept.]  ⁴ They think it strange that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, and so they heap insults on you. ⁵ But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ This is why he was proclaimed to those who have died; it was so that, although physically they would receive the judgment common to all humanity [that is, death], they might live by the Spirit in the way that God has provided. [I think “live by the Spirit” means to accept the Genesis 1:26-28 power and authority to behave during life. I think Yeshua affirms Genesis 1:26-28.]

⁷ The accomplishing of the goal of all things is close at hand. Therefore, keep alert and self-controlled, so that you can pray. ⁸ More than anything, keep loving each other actively; because love covers many sins. [Proverbs 10:12, “Hate stirs up disputes, but love covers all kinds of transgressions.] [By substituting “appreciation” for “love” I think of Yeshua’s process for forgiveness, given in Matthew 18:15-18. Readers who don’t consider V 18 miss Yeshua’s connection to Genesis 1:26-28. I do not think Yeshua used the word “hate”, as the Greek doctor claims in Luke 14:26.] ⁹ Welcome one another into your homes without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each one has received some spiritual gift, he should use it to serve others, like good managers of God’s many-sided grace — ¹¹ if someone speaks, let him speak God’s words; if someone serves, let him do so out of strength that God supplies; so that in everything God may be glorified through Yeshua the Messiah — to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. [If we change the credit from Yeshua’s open heartedness to Jesus or to Christ, we are imposing church opinion rather than appreciating the Jew from Nazareth. Peter had not Wikipedia, with which he could discern that people would struggle to comprehend his opinion about Christ rather than to pursue Yeshua’s civic influence. Otherwise, Peter would have claimed to not know the ineluctable truth and encouraged people to 1) accept the mystery of the God without objection or imposition, in order to 2) pursue Yeshua’s civic influence.]

¹² Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you [Living with uncertainty is not a test: it’s the real thing.], as if something extraordinary were happening to you. ¹³ Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when his Sh’khinah [presence glory] is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Sh’khinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you! [It seems Peter equates suffering in the name of the Messiah as equivalent to attaining the “glory” of God – an evaluation of Peter’s God I do not condone.] ¹⁵ Let none of you suffer for being a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler in other people’s affairs. ¹⁶ But if anyone suffers for being Messianic [as a Christian], let him not be ashamed; but let him bring glory to God by the way he bears this name. ¹⁷ For the time has come for the judgment to begin. It begins with the household of God; and if it starts with us, what will the outcome be for those who are disobeying God’s Good News? —

¹⁸ “If the righteous is barely delivered [it is hard for the righteous to be saved],
where will the ungodly and sinful end up?” [Proverbs 11:31, “If the righteous are paid what they deserve here on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!”]

¹⁹ So let those who are suffering according to God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator by continuing to do what is good. [This circular argument is demystified to people who accept the power and authority to choose the good that is asserted in Genesis 1:26-28. I encourage each person, every church, and every nation to consider Genesis 1:26-28: humankind has the duty to rule to the good on earth.]

1 Peter 5, CJB

^5:1 Therefore, I urge the congregation leaders [elders] among you, as a fellow-leader and witness to the Messiah’s [Christ’s] sufferings, as well as a sharer in the glory to be revealed: ² shepherd the flock of God that is in your care, exercising oversight not out of constraint, but willingly, as God wants; and not out of a desire for dishonest gain, but with enthusiasm; ³ also not as machers [influential person] domineering over those in your care, but as people who become examples to the flock. ⁴ Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive glory as your unfading crown.

⁵ Likewise, you who are less experienced [younger], submit to leaders. Further, all of you should clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because

God opposes the arrogant [proud],
but to the humble he gives grace [favor]. [Proverbs 3:34, “The scornful he scorns,
but gives grace to the humble.”]

⁶ Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up. ⁷ Throw all your anxieties upon him, because he cares about you.

⁸ Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary [the devil], stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Stand against him, firm in your trust [faith], knowing that your brothers [Jewish priests, 1 Peter 2:4-5] [family of believers] throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering. [The Jewish priests are a special group, and this “privilege” is being suggested to the pagans. But NIT does not agree with CJB.] ¹⁰ You will have to suffer only a little while; after that, God, who is full of grace, the one who called you to his eternal glory in union with the Messiah (Since the God is a mystery, the only means to humility is to pursue Yeshua’s civic influence.), will himself restore, establish and strengthen you and make you firm. ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  ¹¹ To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

¹² Through Sila, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written you briefly, encouraging you and giving my witness that this is God’s true grace. Stand firm in it!

¹³ Your sister congregation in Bavel [Babylon], chosen along with you, sends greetings to you, as does my son Mark. ¹⁴ Greet each other with a kiss of love.

“Shalom aleikhem!” [Peace to you.] to all who belong to the Messiah [Peace to all of you who are in Christ]. [Yeshua offers peace to every human being. Peter cannot be held responsible for this difference, because “Christ” is church imposed, long after Peter was dead.]

[I read to apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. It’s primitively expressed by Semite scholars of 3900 years ago in Genesis 1:26-28; in my paraphrase:  Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to independently and together constrain political democracy on earth: on earth, humankind has the power and authority to pursue the good and constrain the bad. Civic citizens may use the rule of law to develop statutory justice. Yeshua* affirmed these ideas in each Matthew 18:18, Matthew 19:3-8, Matthew 5:48, and in other direct dialogue. The next Bible canon could and should include the law codes of Sumer and competing civilizations. Resulting insights would take the heat off Judeo-Christianity, a Christ vs Messiah** vs the God competition.*** Competition egregiously deludes Yeshua’s civic influence to the good. The collaborative view could accelerate mutual pursuit of human being (verb) and lessen habitual baby killings, like those happening in Israel, in Ukraine, and in the U.S. in the year 2024.

*In 4 BC, Yosef and Myriam of Nazareth begot Yeshua. 250 years beforehand, Greek translation of the Torah provided Ἰησοῦς and χριστός, both of which competed with Yeshua, the former during life and the latter in death. By the 16^th century CE, Christianity used “Jesus Christ” to repress Yeshua. The person, Yeshua, said, in my paraphrase: if people don’t speak my name they can neither consider my civic influence nor share my open-heartedness. Competitive monotheism hides Yeshua’s civic influence. Churches hide Yeshua. Churches claim the Holy Bible is the word of the God yet do everything they can to negate Geneses is 1:26-28: humankind is responsible to rule to the good on earth.

The God is a mystery. Civic citizens may, can, and do discern Yeshua’s civic influence. Accepting Genesis 1:26-28 helps yet does not exclude the open-minded and open-hearted fellow citizen.

**Cyrus, 600 BC, is called a messiah in Isaiah 45:1.

***Competitive monotheism survives on war.]