Was the Greek in the First Epistle of Peter Too Sophisticated to Have Been Written by the Apostle Peter?
The First Epistle of Peter (1 Peter) begins with this declaration: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” (1 Peter 1:1). Although the text identifies Peter as its author within the first sentence, the common claims of New Testament scholars is that it is impossible for 1 Peter to have been written by the Apostle Peter because the Greek is so sophisticated that it cannot have been written by a fisherman from the Sea of Galilee. Therefore, it cannot have been written by the Apostle Peter, an "Aramaic-speaking peasant", and is pseudonymous.
ARGUMENT FROM GREEK
Personally, I have never been compelled by the argument that the Greek of 1 Peter was too "sophisticated" for a fisherman from the Sea of Galilee. For starters, a person’s literary style can change over time. If we assume that St. Peter was not a native Greek speaker, the more he interacted with Greek speakers (and he did a lot during his ministry!), the more his Greek naturally would have improved. Furthermore, if Peter’s ministry lasted from around 30 AD to 67 AD, that is more than thirty years of dealing with Greek-speaking Christians to improve his Greek. It is wrong to claim that someone's Greek could not be improved and become more "sophisticated" over a thirty-year period. For the sake of the argument, I will ignore the fact that Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had been under Greek control for over 300 years at that point and Greek was the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean. Even if we assume that Peter was not a native speaker of Greek or his Greek was not sophisticated enough for 1 Peter to have been written by him, the epistle itself mentions St. Silvanus of the Seventy, who accompanied the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys and was in Rome at the same time that 1 Peter was being written. It is not far fetched to say that Silvanus may have been a co-writer or transcriber of 1 Peter.
"By [Διὰ] 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 (1 Pet. 5:12).
The "by" of 1 Peter 5:12 can mean a multitude of things. It may mean that the letter simply delivered by Silvanus, it may mean that Silvanus helped Peter write it or polished his Greek, it may mean that Silvanus wrote it but signed it on Peter's behalf, etc. Ultimately, we may never know. Regardless of the exact method, we know that Peter does not write alone, but writes with the assistance of the Church.
"By [Διὰ] 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 (1 Pet. 5:12).
The "by" of 1 Peter 5:12 can mean a multitude of things. It may mean that the letter simply delivered by Silvanus, it may mean that Silvanus helped Peter write it or polished his Greek, it may mean that Silvanus wrote it but signed it on Peter's behalf, etc. Ultimately, we may never know. Regardless of the exact method, we know that Peter does not write alone, but writes with the assistance of the Church.
DID THE APOSTLE PETER KNOW GREEK?
The idea that the Greek of 1 Peter was too "sophisticated" for the Apostle Peter fringes on the idea that Peter either was not a native Greek speaker or if he spoke some Greek, it was not good enough that he could've written 1 Peter. To counter the point that Peter was not just an "Aramaic-speaking peasant", I will be quoting from Dr. Peter J. Williams on this subject:
"He came from Bethsaida (John 1:44), which became a Greek polis (city) around AD 31 but studiously avoided learning Greek. He traded in fish, but made sure he only sold to Aramaic speakers. He lived in Capernaum on an international trade route, but avoided talking to foreigners. He fished on the Sea of Galilee, but if in the middle of this little lake his boat met boats of fishermen from the Greek-speaking Decapolis on the far shore he made sure only to use Aramaic or sign language. His parents somehow managed to give his little brother Andrew a Greek name uncommon for Palestine, but knew no speak Greek. The fact that they chose names for both their sons which work in Greek (Simon & Andrew) was actually just to spite Greek speakers. He signed up with an itinerant rabbi (teacher), but did not receive any language education. He travelled as a preacher in the linguistically mixed villages of Palestine, but always spoke only to Aramaic speakers. He travelled to the Decapolis & Caesarea Philippi, but always remembered to block his ears when the locals spoke Greek. If he travelled from Palestine in later life, he worked hard not to learn Greek. Because... we all just KNOW he was an Aramaic speaking peasant. #irony"