Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
She Who Is in Babylon
1 Peter 5:12-14
12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. · WEB
The closing greetings name a secretary, an unnamed sender and a son, and what the letter leaves out it leaves out on purpose.
Verse 12 names Silvanus and describes the letter as written through him, which in the ancient world named a secretary rather than only a courier. The letter's summary of itself follows in one clause — exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God — and then a single imperative: stand fast in it. After five chapters on suffering, the final instruction is to stay where they already are.
Verse 13 is the letter's most discussed sentence and its shortest puzzle. The greeting comes from she who is in Babylon, chosen together with you. Two things are unstated. The sender is feminine and unnamed, and the phrase chosen together with you uses the same word applied to the readers in the first verse 1 Peter 1:1, which suggests a congregation rather than an individual. And the city is not explained.
Babylon by this time was long past its greatness, and the name had already been used in Scripture for more than a location. But the letter does not say which city it means, and the withholding reads as deliberate. A reader may reasonably reach a conclusion; the sentence does not license one.
Mark is greeted as a son, and the letter ends where it began, with peace — asked for all who are in Christ, which at this distance includes the reader.
held with reason What this mark means