Charles Johnson
Puritan Board Junior
Matthew Henry's commentary thinks he was literally writing from Babylon, and it's not metaphorical language, which is certainly possible. The problem with it being figurative language is that it would be a bit insulting to call the Church you're writing from "Babylon," and it would strongly imply it's a false Church. Unless, of course, one were literally in Iraq, in which case it's just a matter of fact.And the Babylon Peter refers to?
Matthew Henry('s posthumous assistants) say, "He closes with salutations and a solemn benediction. Observe, 1. Peter, being at Babylon in Assyria, when he wrote this epistle (whither he travelled, as the apostle of the circumcision, to visit that church, which was the chief of the dispersion), sends the salutation of that church to the other churches to whom he wrote (v. 13), telling them that God had elected or chosen the Christians at Babylon out of the world, to be his church, and to partake of eternal salvation through Christ Jesus, together with them and all other faithful Christians, ch. 1:2."