The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained · Martin Luther
CHAPTER V.
V. 12. _By your faithful brother Silvanus, (as I suppose), have I written briefly, to admonish and manifest that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand._ Although I well know (he would say) that you have heard this before and know it well, so that you do not need that I should teach it unto you, yet have I written this to you (as those that are truly Apostles should do), that I might also admonish you that you abide therein, since you are tried and exercised; and you are not to imagine that I preach any otherwise than as you have already heard. V. 13. _The Church that is at Babylon greets you._ Such was the practice of writing in the Epistles the farewell. _The Church at Babylon_, says he, _greets you_. I suppose, but am not fully confident, that he here meant Rome, for it has been generally supposed that the Epistle was written from Rome. Still, there were two Babylons,--one in Chaldea, the other in Egypt, which is now Al Cair. But Rome is not called Babylon, except figuratively, in the sense, as was said above, of thronging corruption. Thus, Babel means, in the Hebrew, a confusion. So, perhaps, he has called Rome a confusion, or Babel, since _there_ was also such disorderly conduct, and a confused multitude of all kinds of shameful practices and vices; and whatever in the whole world was scandalous had flown together there. In this same, he says, is a church gathered of such as are Christians, who greet you. But I will readily leave every one to hold it as he will, for no importance attaches to it.
_My son, Marcus, also._ Some say that he here means Mark, the Evangelist, and calls him his son, not literally, but spiritually,--as Paul calls Timothy and Titus his sons, and says to the Corinthians that he has begotten them in Christ. V. 14. _Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity._ This custom has now passed away. In the Gospel we read distinctly that Christ received his disciples with a kiss, and such was then a practice in those lands. Of this kiss, St. Paul often speaks, also. _Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen._ That is, who believe in Christ. This is the adieu wherewith he commits them to God.--Thus we have concluded this first Epistle. God grant His grace, that we may hold and keep it. Amen.
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