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In 1 Peter, the testing of faith is compared to gold refined by fire, language also found in the Wisdom of Solomon where the righteous are similarly refined. Both use the image of fire as purification, portraying trials as a means of proving worth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 3:6
Deuterocanon
4 For even if in the sight of men they are punished, their hope is full of immortality. 5 Having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; because God tested them, and found them worthy of himself. 6 He tested them like gold in the furnace, and he accepted them as a whole burnt offering. 7 In the time of their visitation they will shine. They will run back and forth like sparks among stubble. 8 They will judge nations and have dominion over peoples. The Lord will reign over them forever.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Peter 1:7
New Testament
5 who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. 7 Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
Date: 80–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Only tradition, the trial by fire, can be claimed with some certainty to have no clear synoptic parallel. Although Matthew has a greater interest in eschatological fire than do Mark and Luke, it is primarily portrayed as the fire of Gehenna, into which evildoers will be thrown at the close of the age (compare 3:10, 12; 5:22; 7:19; 13:40, 42, 50; 18:8, 9; 25:41). Only Matthew 3:11, drawn from Q, has the notion that the faithful will be subject to fire. This saying may preserve a tradition of a fiery testing, presumably eschatological in nature, to which all will be subjected, but it is clear that the Didache did not draw 16:5a from here. Nevertheless, it is unnecessary to postulate a special source for this tradition, given its wide currency in Jewish and Christian texts (Compare Proverbs 17:3; Wisdom of Solomon 3:6; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:7, and its prominence in Testament of Abraham 12-13 and Testament of Isaiah 5:21-25) ..."
Vicky Balabanski, Eschatology in the Making: Mark, Matthew, and the Didache, SNTSMS 97 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 196.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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