Who is the "she" mentioned in 1 Peter 5:13, and what is her significance?

Text and Immediate Context (1 Peter 5:13)

“She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, as does Mark, my son.”

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Primary Identification: The Local Church in ‘Babylon’

1. Internal grammatical harmony: the feminine participle fits ἐκκλησία better than any other implied noun.

2. New Testament precedent: churches are personified as feminine collectives (Ephesians 5:25-27; 2 John 1).

3. Early-church testimony: Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiastes 2.15) and the anti-Marcionite Prologue both read it as the Roman church.

Therefore, the consensus of historic, textual, and grammatical data points to “she” meaning “the church that is in Babylon.”

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Alternative Proposals and Their Evaluation

1. Peter’s wife

– Though 1 Corinthians 9:5 shows Peter travelled with his wife, personal salutations in apostolic letters specify names (Romans 16). The absence of a name, plus the collective adjective “sunelect,” weighs decisively against this view.

2. An individual wealthy patroness

– Lacks any ancient corroboration. Nothing in 1 Peter hints at a household-church context such as in Acts 12:12.

3. A literary personification of the universal bride of Christ

– While Revelation 21:2 employs corporate-bride imagery, 1 Peter 5:13 functions as a customary epistolary greeting anchored to a geographic location. The simpler reading (local assembly) satisfies Occam’s Razor and preserves apostolic concreteness.

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Geographical Question: What Is ‘Babylon’?

1. Literal Mesopotamian Babylon

– A Jewish population still existed there in the first century (Josephus, Ant. 15.2.2). Yet no apostolic travel tradition places Peter in Mesopotamia.

2. Symbolic Rome

– Parallel usage: Revelation 17-18 employs “Babylon” for Rome’s imperial power.

– Early Christian sources: 1 Clement 5.4-7 and Tertullian (Adv. Jud. 9) locate Peter’s martyrdom in Rome.

– Archaeological corroboration: Graffito inscriptions beneath the present-day Vatican necropolis (first-century) referencing ΠΕΤΡΟΣ.

– Internal thematic fit: 1 Peter addresses believers facing persecution (1 Peter 1:6; 4:12); Rome, not Mesopotamia, was the epicenter of Neronian hostility ca. A.D. 64.

Conclusion: “Babylon” functions as a coded designation for Rome, protecting the recipients under persecution while maintaining an Old Testament prophetic motif (Isaiah 13; Jeremiah 50-51) of oppressive world power.

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Relation to Mark (‘my son’)

John Mark’s presence (Acts 12:12; 15:37-39; Colossians 4:10) in Rome during Paul’s first imprisonment (Phm 24; 2 Timothy 4:11) supports the Roman setting. His greeting alongside the church’s further confirms a local congregation and offers cross-attestation from Pauline letters.

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Significance of the Reference

1. Ecclesial Solidarity

– “Chosen together with you” (συνεκλεκτή) underscores shared election (1 Peter 1:1-2). Persecuted congregations in Asia Minor are reminded they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Roman believers, fulfilling Christ’s prayer for unity (John 17:20-21).

2. Encouragement under Persecution

– Naming Rome as “Babylon” frames present trials within the larger biblical narrative of God rescuing His people from tyrannical powers (Exodus 1-14; Daniel 3; 6).

3. Apostolic Authentication

– A tangible Roman church salutation, paired with Mark’s, bolsters the letter’s Petrine authorship and first-century provenance—an important manuscript datum cited by Papias (Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiastes 3.39) when linking Peter and Mark.

4. Eschatological Foreshadowing

– The church’s perseverance in “Babylon” anticipates the fall of worldly empires and the consummation of Christ’s kingdom (Revelation 18:1-4; 19:6-8).

5. Literary Coherence

– The feminine greeting book-ends 1 Peter’s opening address to “the elect” (1:1), forming an inclusio that reinforces the epistle’s theme of chosen identity amid exile.

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Summary

The “she” of 1 Peter 5:13 is best understood as the local church in Rome, figuratively designated “Babylon.” Her greeting testifies to early-church unity, reinforces the letter’s message of hope amid persecution, and provides internal and external evidence for Petrine authorship—all while fitting seamlessly into the coherent, Spirit-breathed tapestry of Scripture.