I'm not shouting at you below, nor am I angry. I'm writing things in bold and in capital letters for emphasis because what I emphasize is important and shows your ignorance and the holes in your belief about this:-
(1) NONE of the ten tribes of Israel that belonged to the northern kingdom were Jews. Nor were they EVER called "Jews" in the Old Testament. They were collectively called "Ephraim".
(2) The descendants of "Ephraim" had 700 years of being mixed with Gentiles through intermarriage from the time they began to be called "Not a nation" by God, and the prophecy regarding their exile and scattering became reality.
It is very, very unlikely that there were any groups in the Roman Empire outside of Samaria who still identified themselves as "Ephraim" in the 1st century - and even if there were,
they would not have regarded themselves as Jews, and the Jews of the 1st century would most certainly NOT have regarded them as Jews, or called them "Jews". The Jews were "Judahites" and Benjamites, of the Southern kingdom, - the Southern kingdom THAT HAD OBTAINED MERCY AT THE TIME THE NORTHERN KINGDOM DID NOT OBTAIN MERCY (Hosea 1:7):
Hosea 1
6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo–ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
7
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah (THE JEWS). and will save them by Yhwh their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8 Now when she had weaned Lo–ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9 Then said God, Call his name Lo–ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God."
@CadyandZoe ISRAEL CONTINUED TO EXIST
ONLY THROUGH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH. "NOT MY PEOPLE" WAS NEVER EVER TALKING ABOUT "THE JEWS". THEY ("THE JEWS") WERE NEVER CUT OFF FROM BEING A NATION BEFORE GOD - NOT EVEN AT THE TIME OF CHRIST - BECAUSE A REMNANT OF JUDAH WAS SAVED, AND GENTILE BELIEVERS BEGAN TO BE GRAFTED IN AMONG THE REMNANT.
PAUL INCLUDED GENTILES IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECY IN HOSEA TALKING ABOUT THOSE WHO WERE NOT HIS PEOPLE BEING CALLED THE SONS OF THE LIVING GOD (ROMANS 9).
THE REST OF JUDAH / ISRAEL WERE BROKEN OFF BECAUSE OF THEIR REJECTION OF CHRIST. BUT ISRAEL DID NOT CEASE TO EXIST AS A NATION (AS "EPHRAIM HAD IN THE 8TH CENTURY BC) - BECAUSE OF THE REMNANT OF THE JEWS.
(3) There was a lot of persecution of Christians going on in the first century. You cannot assume that Gentile Christians were never forced to flee their homes and had become sojourners scattered in the region identified by Peter.
(4) Neither can you assume that Peter was talking to Christians who had been forced to flee their homes during a period of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and hence had become sojourners scattered in that region.
You can ONLY ASSUME Peter was talking to Christians (period).
(5) Peter resided in Jerusalem and was fully aware of how Paul had picked up the ire of Jewish believers in Jerusalem who were very legalistic and opposed Paul's teaching about the law - it's ALL written about in Acts, as well as the fact that Peter did whatever he could to avoid the ire of the same legalistic Jewish party - because he resided among them in Jerusalem and it was from Jerusalem he went to visit Paul in Antioch.
Peter was not likely to write to either Jewish people OR people who had been cut off from being a nation before God CALLING THEM ISRAEL and telling them that they had received an empty way of life from their fathers and had not received mercy but now had obtained mercy - and knowing the Jewish prejudice of the Samaritans who WERE A MIXED GROUP OF PEOPLE DESCENDED FROM "EPHRAIM" who lived right next door to the Jews in Judea, PETER WAS NOT LIKELY TO CALL THEM "A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD AND A HOLY NATION" etc etc - because ALL Jews who could, were required to make THREE annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the festivals
and that is exactly how the Jews in Jerusalem all got to hear about what Paul was teaching the Gentiles about the law - which eventually got him arrested in Jerusalem, and marked the end of his freedom to move about at will for the rest of his life, because from then on he remained under house arrest.
JEWS did NOT regard the descendants of the house of Israel a.k.a "Ephraim" as a nation before God. THEY WERE NOT CONSIDERED PART OF ISRAEL AND HAD NOT BEEN CONSIDERED PART OF ISRAEL FOR 700 YEARS. THEY HAD BEEN LABELLED "NOT A NATION" AND "NOT A PEOPLE" AND "NOT MY PEOPLE" BY GOD.
Jews did NOT regard them as Jews, and they were NO LONGER part of Israel - by the decree OF GOD.
-- and Jewish HISTORY has ONLY the Samaritans who resided in Samaria as people who could trace their ancestry to the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom. THERE WERE NO OTHERS. + THERE IS NO ROMAN HISTORY TO SUGGEST THERE WERE SUCH GROUPS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE OUTSIDE OF SAMARIA.
The people Peter was writing to were Christians. THERE IS NO WORD IN THE TEXT TO SUGGEST THEY WERE A JEWISH OR AN "ISRAELITE, EPHRAIMITE, NORTHERN KINGDOM" "DIASPORA". YOU HAVE ASSUMED THAT, AND INSERTED IT INTO THE TEXT.
It's far more likely that Peter was writing to Gentile Christians who, during a period of Christian persecution, had been forced to flee their own homes and towns and had become sojourners scattered throughout the regions and towns Peter was identifying.