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A Major Shift in “Who Am I?”
Nehemiah son of Hacaliah (Nehemiah 1:1). Open almost any OT biography and you find such lineage and identification. The NT starts off that way with the lineage of Jesus: son of Abraham, son of David. Identification can even be found in names such as Simon bar Jonah (aka Peter), where “bar” means “son of”.
Then there is a shift. A major shift. Notice the new identification methods found in many of the salutations after the coming of Jesus. For succinctness we will chose just Peter’s letters:
• “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ….” (CSB’17 1 Peter 1:1-2)
• “Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (CSB’17 2 Peter 1:1)
Peter links his, and his audiences, to a higher, spiritual identity and lineage where all are equal. In Jesus, even who we are, becomes new. With whom do you identify? To whom are you related? Whose name do you wear?
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