As I studied biblical languages, I learned how to understand or memorize details, but I found it is very challenging to use fragmental grammatical knowledge to do exegesis. It is always taught that the context of a text serves as the most important key to understanding it, but the way to probe into a broader context is still in need. It is not an easy task to integrate various methods to interpret the New Testament. Still, since the Scripture is handed down as a collection of literary works by multiple authors to readers, it must be studied for language. In my doctrinal journey, I was introduced to Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to learn about the context of situation. The register of SFL provides more helpful details to understand the social function of a text to draw a broader picture. By studying of the components of a register (field, tenor, and mode), one can understand the context of situation with a better awareness of its structure and content. In addition, the analysis of register in this framework stands as a helpful tool for indicating marked elements that highlight prominence in a discourse.
My interest in the early development of Christianity, on the other hand, has increased because of the precious legacy of the church, the recovery of which will help new generations of Christian ministers. It is widespread for the congregation to understand the nature of a church from the Gospels or the works of Paul, but not many people are interested in the letters of Peter. The harmony or dichotomy between Petrine and Pauline Christianity provided two competing pictures of Christian origins. In the New Testament, there are two epistles attributed to Peter. Due to various reasons, the relationship between the two letters is still under debate. In addition, there are several speeches of Peter in Acts, but not many people have studied these with the letters of Peter as a whole. Most of the studies of Peter approach this topic from social scientific methods, but few adopt perspectives from the use of language. Some scholars use the Petrine tradition to describe the group from which the texts attributed to Peter are derived. The view of a historical study provides more insights into the Petrine tradition because there are not many materials of the evidence. Therefore, it is necessary to employ a more synthetic method that covers different dimensions to reconstruct the configuration of the texts in the contexts. I find a linguistic analysis of register in the texts will provide more insights into the context. The differences in language patterns reflect the contexts of situation. The components of register(s) in the Petrine texts will serve as a helpful tool for analyzing commonly shared features that indicate the usage of a Petrine tradition. This book is an attempt to portray the early church’s situation from a Petrine perspective, employing an analysis of register to find provides a more synthetic study of the Petrine texts. The findings will provide more details to reshape the criteria necessary to understand the Petrine tradition from a linguistic perspective.