1 Peter 1:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Peter, &c., to the strangers Or sojourners, as παρεπιδημοις more properly signifies; that is, to the Jewish or Gentile Christians sojourning on earth: see on 1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 39:12; Hebrews 11:13. Scattered Διασπορας, of the dispersion, or dispersed, partly, probably, by the persecution mentioned Acts 8:1; or the expression may merely signify, that they lived at a distance from each other, being scattered through the widely-extended regions here mentioned; through Pontus, &c. He names these five provinces in the order wherein they occurred to him, writing from the east. All these countries lie in the Lesser Asia. The Asia here distinguished from other provinces, is that which was usually called the Proconsular Asia, being a Roman province.