1 Peter 2:24

who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Here again we have an unmistakeable reference to the language of Isaiah 53:12. The Apostle, though he has begun with pointing to the sufferings of Christ as an example, cannot rest satisfied with speaking of them only under that aspect. He remembers that his Lord had spoken of Himself as giving His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28), of His blood as that of a new covenant (Matthew 26:28). He must speak accordingly, even to the slaves whom he calls upon to follow in the footsteps of their Master, of the atoning, mediatorial, sacrificial aspects of His death. Each word is full of a profound significance. The Greek verb for "bare" (anapherein) is always used with a liturgical sacrificial meaning, sometimes, in a directly transitive sense, of him who offers a sacrifice, as James 2:21 ("Abraham … when he had offeredIsaac"), Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 13:15, and in this very chapter (1 Peter 2:5); sometimes of the victim offered, as bearing the sins of those who have transgressed, and for whom a sacrifice is required, as in Hebrews 9:28 and the LXX. of Isaiah 53:12. Here, Christ being at once the Priest and the Victim, one meaning seems to melt into the other. He offersHimself: He bearsthe sins of many. But if there was a priest and a sacrifice, where was the altar? The Apostle finds that altar in the cross, just as many of the best commentators, including even Roman theologians like Estius and Aquinas, recognise a reference to the cross in the "we have an altar" of Hebrews 13:10. In the word for "tree," used instead of that for "cross," we have the same term as that in Galatians 3:13, where St Paul's choice of it was obviously determined by its use in the LXX. of Deuteronomy 21:23. The word was somewhat more generic than "cross," and included a whole class of punishments to which slaves were subject, impaling, the stocks (Acts 16:24), and the like. It is possible that St Peter, in writing to slaves, may have chosen it as bringing home to their thoughts the parallelism between Christ's sufferings and their own (comp. the "non pasces in cruce corvos" of Horace Epp. 1:16, 50:48); but its occurrence in St Luke's reports of his speeches in Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39 makes it more probable that it was simply a familiar term with him.

that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness The Greek word for "being dead" is a somewhat unusual one, and is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. As a word it has to a certain extent an euphemistic character, like "departing," "being away," and is so far analogous to the exodosor "decease" of 2 Peter 1:15. The context leaves no doubt that the English rendering of the word fairly expresses its true meaning. "Having died" would perhaps give more accurately the force of the aorist participle. The thought presents another instance of parallelism between St Peter and St Paul (Romans 6:2; Romans 6:11; Galatians 2:19) so close that it at least suggests the idea of derivation. In both cases the tense used implies a single act at a definite point of time, and as interpreted by St Paul's teaching, and, we may add, by that of St Peter himself (chap. 1 Peter 3:21), that point of time can hardly be referred to any other occasion than that of the Baptism of those to whom he writes. In that rite they were mystically sharers in the death and entombment of Christ, and they were made so in order that they might live to Him in the righteousness of a new life.

by whose stripes ye were healed The word for "stripes" means strictly the livid mark or wheal left on the flesh by the scourge. Comp. Sir 28:17. We may well believe that the specific term was chosen rather than any more general word like "sufferings" or "passion," as bringing before the minds of the slave readers of the Epistle the feature of greatest ignominy in their Lord's sufferings (Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15), that in which they might find the closest parallelism with their own. When the scourge so freely used in Roman households left the quivering flesh red and raw, they were to remember that Christ also had so suffered, and that the stripes inflicted on Him were part of the process by which He was enabled to be the Healer of mankind. The words are cited from the LXX. of Isaiah 53:5.