They will bear peppers, but if they were a hybrid plant then you have no clue what type of pepper they will bear this year, except that it is likely to be quite different than what it produced last year. If they were an heirloom (open-pollinated) variety then they will produce the same type of pepper as last year.

What Don said.

Since you're looking for Genetics 101, if they were hybrid or the collected seeds were from a cross pollinated pod, the link below will give you a basic understanding of how genetics work.

Sub pepper for tomato when reading. They are both from the same Nightshade family and crossing/hybrid results are the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: cross/hybrid genetics 101

Thank you both very much for answering my q. It will be interesting to see what type of peppers these plants bear! A fun experiment...

It will definitely be a fun experiment. Several years ago I purchased seed that wasn't what it was supposed to be, but it was a beautiful purple-to-red hot variety. I liked it very much so I saved the seed and planted it the following year and the year after that. Both times I got 3 different varieties...two differently shaped hot yellows and a small black-to-red one that was seedless and very hot. I really wanted more of the seedless ones, but I wasn't set up for cutting propagation. I still have seed so one of these days when I'm prepared I'll start again and try to do cuttings on the seedless one.

Peppers are perennials that don't like cold. They can be over-wintered indoors, so there is no reason for the annual seed crapshoot. I have plants starting on their fourth summer.

Get something you like, keep it.