An SBL paper yesterday suggested that Zechariah 9-14 forms the narrative substructure for 1 Peter. Both passages speak in terms of a new exodus, both talk about the death of a shepherd, both describe the fiery trials of the people of God as an inherent part of the exodus.
Why is there a fiery trial associated with the exodus event?
There are two obvious answers to that. On the one hand, “trial” is used to describe what happened to Egypt (Deut 4:34; 7:19). But this doesn’t seem to fit: Israel was separated from the plagues, and so while it’s possible to say that Israel “passed through” trials, it’s more accurate to say they are separated.
The other possibility seems more likely: That the trial period is the period of wilderness wandering. Psalm 95:8 uses the same word for trial ( massah ) used in Deut to describe the trials in the wilderness. And, the word “fiery” ( saraph ) is used in the OT quite frequently of the serpents (Numbers 21:6, 8; Deut 8:15). Thus, the wilderness is plausibly the “fiery trial” period of the exodus story.
Does this fit 1 Peter? Absolutely. The shepherd has died, and the people of Israel have been called out from the “Egypt” of Israel. But the first generation of Christians are in a 40-year wilderness trial before the enter fully into the new land in AD 70.
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