Editing First Epistle of Peter (section)

===Official persecution of Christians===
On the other hand, scholars who support the official persecution theory take the exhortation to defend one's faith (3:15) as a reference to official court proceedings.<ref name= "ReferenceA" /> They believe that these persecutions involved court trials before Roman authorities, and even executions.{{Citation needed |date=October 2016}}

One common supposition is that 1 Peter was written during the reign of [[Domitian]] (AD 81–96). Domitian's aggressive claim to divinity would have been rejected and resisted by Christians. Biblical scholar Paul Achtemeier believes that persecution of Christians by Domitian would have been in character, but points out that there is no evidence of official policy targeted specifically at Christians. If Christians were persecuted, it is likely to have been part of Domitian's larger policy suppressing all opposition to his self-proclaimed divinity.<ref name= "ReferenceA"/> There are other scholars who explicitly dispute the idea of contextualizing 1 Peter within Domitian's reign. Duane Warden believes that Domitian's unpopularity even among Romans renders it highly unlikely that his actions would have great influence in the provinces, especially those under the direct supervision of the senate such as Asia (one of the provinces 1 Peter is addressed to).<ref>Warden, Duane. "Imperial Persecution and the Dating of 1 Peter and Revelation". ''Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'' 34:2. 1991</ref>

Also often advanced as a possible context for 1 Peter is the trials and executions of Christians in the Roman province of Bithynia-Pontus under [[Pliny the Younger]]. Scholars who support this theory believe that a famous [[Pliny the Younger on Christians |letter]] from Pliny to Emperor [[Trajan]] concerning the delation of Christians reflects the situation faced by the addressees of this epistle.<ref name= "ReferenceB">Knox, John. "Pliny and I Peter: A Note on I Peter 4:14–16 and 3:15". ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' 72:3. 1953</ref><ref>Downing, F Gerald. "Pliny's Prosecutions of Christians: Revelation and 1 Peter".  ''Journal for the Study of the New Testament'' '''34'''. 1988</ref> In Pliny's letter, written in AD 112, he asks Trajan if the accused Christians brought before him should be punished based on the name 'Christian' alone, or for crimes associated with the name. For biblical scholar John Knox, the use of the word "name" in 4:14–16 is the "crucial point of contact" with that in Pliny's letter.<ref name= "ReferenceB" />  In addition, many scholars in support of this theory believe that there is content within 1 Peter that directly mirrors the situation as portrayed in Pliny's letter. For instance, they interpret the exhortation to defend one's faith "with gentleness and reverence" in 3:15–16 as a response to Pliny executing Christians for the obstinate manner in which they professed to be Christians. Generally, this theory is rejected mainly by scholars who read the suffering in 1 Peter to be caused by social, rather than official, discrimination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ferguson |first=Everett |title=Persecution in the Early Church: Did You Know? |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-27/persecution-in-early-church-did-you-know.html |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Christian History {{!}} Learn the History of Christianity & the Church |language=en}}</ref>