JH Elliott argued that the Petrine terms παροικία, πάροικος, and παρεπίδημος are literal, while the majority of scholars understand them metaphorically. This chapter therefore defines metaphors, establishes the criteria by which they can be identifies, and develops tools for their analysis. Metaphors are defined as speaking about one thing (tenor, or target domain) in terms of another (vehicle, or source domain). Though the Petrine regeneration metaphor is cognitive, it is expressed in language grounded in Jewish and Greco-Roman culture. Metaphors are rich, interactive, and not reducible to prose. Simple metaphors can be combined into complex, systematic and narrative structures, which may contain embedded, culturally-based value judgments. This study employs the Metaphor Identification Process (MIP) to determine whether kinship terms in 1 Peter are metaphorical.

This concluding chapter draw together the preceding arguments of the book. Mapping systematic metaphors can reveal an individual or group’s underlying beliefs. This chapter therefore assembled all of the contributing pieces of linguistic evidence for the divine regeneration metaphor in 1 Peter. Once these were assembled and grouped, they were analyzed. First the dataset contained evidence of repetition, such as πατήρ (1:2, 3, 17), ἀναγεννάω (1:3, 23), inheritance words (κληρονομίαν, συγκληρονόμοις, κληρονομήσητε; 1:4; 3:7, 9), and other terms drawn from the nuclear family (1:14; 2:2; 3:6; 4:17; 5:9, 12, 13). These repetitions draw the letter’s recipients’ attention to repeated, structural patterns. Next, some basic metaphor mapping was done. Finally, systematic metaphors were distilled from this evidence. The following systematic metaphors have been identified: CHRISTIAN MEMBERSHIP IS BELONGING TO A SOJOURNING NATION, 2, CHRISTIAN MEMBERSHIP IS BEING BEGOTTEN ANEW AND GROWING UP IN GOD’S FAMILY. 3, GOD’S FAMILY IS AN ETHNIC GROUP