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13. ἡ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι συνεκλεκτή. She that is elect together with you. Some commentators explain this as referring to St Peter’s wife. The arguments in favour of this view are
(a) that we know from 1Co 9:5 that she accompanied St Peter in his missionary work.
(b) Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vii. 11) tells a story that she suffered martyrdom before her husband, and was encouraged by him to “remember the Lord” as she was led away for execution. Therefore, it is urged, she must have been a well-known personage in the early Church.
(c) that the accompanying salutation from Mark, “my son,” makes it more probable that ἡ συνεκλεκτή also refers to an individual, whereas such a metaphorical description of a church would be hardly intelligible in a letter, though it might be used in Apocalyptic literature.
In answer to the last objection, it may be urged, that Babylon is most probably used in a metaphorical sense and this would suggest that ἡ συνεκλεκτή is also metaphorical, especially as other words in the Epistle, e.g. διασπορά in the opening salutation, seem also to be metaphorical.
It is therefore better to explain ἡ συνεκλεκτή as referring to a church. This is the interpretation of א, in which ἐκκλησία is added, as also in the Vulgate, Peshito and Armenian Versions and in Theophylact and Oecumenius.
In support of this view it may be urged that “the elect lady” κυρία ἐκλεκτή in 2 John and “the children of thy elect sister” almost certainly refer to churches. Clement of Alexandria describes 2 John as addressed “ad quandam Babyloniam Electam nomine, signifiat autem electionem Ecclesiae Sanctae.”
The Rev. J. Chapman O.S.B. (Journal of Theological Studies, July 1904) suggests that 2 John was addressed to the Church in Rome, in which case it is a plausible conjecture that Clement identified the Κυρία ἐκλεκτή of 2 John with ἡ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι συνεκλεκτή in 1 Pet. Clement in his Hypotyposes makes no comment on these words of St Peter, but in commenting on the next words “Mark my son” he says that the Romans persuaded Mark to commit to writing what Peter preached. Therefore there is little doubt that he regarded 1 Peter as being written from Rome.
In the Book of Henoch ὁ ἐκλεκτός (xl. 5, xlv. 3, 4, etc.) is used as a title of the Messiah. It is therefore just possible that ἡ συνεκλεκτή might denote the Bride of ὁ ἐκλεκτός. In Ephesians, from which St Peter so frequently borrows, St Paul describes the Church as the Bride of Christ (Eph 5:23-32). In the Apocalypse the New Jerusalem is described as the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, and in the Shepherd of Hermas the Church is represented as a woman.
Βαβυλῶνι. For the three interpretations of this name cf. Introd. pp. xxix ff., where arguments were given to shew that Rome is almost certainly intended.
Μάρκος ὁ υἱός μου. υἱός does not necessarily imply that St Mark was a convert of St Peter, though this is possible, as it was to the house of St Mark’s mother that St Peter went on his release from prison. The more usual word for a convert would be τέκνον. υἱός may merely mean that he has been like a son to St Peter. In early tradition Mark is constantly described as the companion of St Peter.
The attitude of St Mark towards Gentile Christians has been discussed in the Introduction (p. xlix f.).
St Mark was certainly in Rome when Colossians was written, towards the close of St Paul’s first imprisonment, and may have remained there as St Peter’s companion until just before the outbreak of the Neronian persecution. But he was again in the East when 2 Tim. was written, as St Paul asks Timothy to bring him with him to Rome. This visit in company with St Peter must therefore be placed either soon after St Paul’s release or after St Paul’s death.