D.Litt. et Phil. / The aim of this study is to extract the world vision underlying 1 Peter, and to give an account of the competing frameworks of thought active in the text. A semiotic literary method, devised by Wolmarans (1994), was used to supply answers to the following questions: Why was the letter written? Against what type of socio-historical situation does the letter react? What alternatives does 1 Peter supply? How is the reader moved to alternative attitudes, views and actions? The letter was subdivided into smaller analytical units and analysed in two basic steps, namely a structural analysis and a pragmatic (or transactional) analysis. The structural analysis included a syntactic and semantic examination, and a representation of the unit in a logical form. The pragmatic analysis included remarks on the epistle's communicative strategy, a description of the unacceptable practical situation, the actual textual world, and a description of how the text wants the world to be, the alternative textual world. An account is also supplied of the ways in which the implicit reader is moved from the actual textual world to the alternative possible world by means of transuniversal relations. The application of the method resulted in a new interpretation of the descent of Jesus into Hades (3:19; 4:6). It is argued that its function was to proclaim final punishment to the fallen angels of the Noah tradition and the souls of the wicked humans in the time of Noah. 1 Peter 4:6 is translated and interpreted in a novel way as: "For this reason Jesus proclaimed himself to the dead, in order that they may be judged for living according to human principles in the flesh, and in order the [the living] may live according to the principles of God in the spirit. The reason why the epistle was written is found in an oppressive social environment. The heads of households oppressed their slaves and wives verbally as well as physically, while Christians in general experienced verbal oppression in a heathen environment. Generally, an absence of brotherly love is experienced in Christian communities, as well as authoritarian styles of leadership. The epistle therefore supplies an alternative way of coping with an oppressing reality. It also calls to a strong and imminent eschatological vision, retains but reinterprets social relations in the household in more humane terms, and uses the shepherd flock metaphor to reinvent relations of authority in Christian communities. Strategies used in the epistle to persuade its implicit readers, is Messianic-eschatological reinterpretation of Old Testament texts, the words of Jesus, some Pauline traditions, analogical arguments (especially viewing Christians as resident aliens) and topoi, for example that no one would ill treat somebody who acts good. The epistle is dated around 90-95 AD and viewed as pseudepigraphic.