Peter the High Commissioner of Jesus, who is Messiah of Greeks as of Jews, sends greeting after the Christian fashion, in which the Greek and Jewish formulas have been combined and transformed, to the Churches of Northern Asia Minor. They are the dispersion of the New Israel, chosen out of the whole... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς, _elect sojourners of dispersion_, a combination of titles of Israel appropriated to Christians in accordance with the universal principle of the early Church. (1.) The Jews were the _chosen race_ (1 Peter 2:9 from Isaiah 43:20) as Moses said, _Because He loved thy f... [ Continue Reading ]
The three clauses κατὰ …, ἐν …, and εἰς … qualify ἐκλεκτοῖς and perhaps also ἀπόστολος (as Oecumenius) Peter himself is _elect_ and shares their privileges but had no need to magnify his office, as had St. Paul. Yet see Acts 15:7 ff. κατὰ πρόγνωσιν.… The noun occurs only in Acts 2:23 (speech of St.P... [ Continue Reading ]
εὐλογητός. The verbal adjective is recognised, perhaps coined by the LXX as proper to the Benediction of the Name. This usage is reflected in N.T., Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 11:31; Ephesians 1:3; note Mark 14:61. ὁ θεὸς … ἡμῶν, part of the formula (_cf._ 2 Corinthians... [ Continue Reading ]
Blessed be God whom we have come to know as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For He has granted to us the crowning manifestation of His great mercy. He has raised Jesus Christ from the dead and us thereby to newness of life. So you may hope for and in part enjoy the inheritance which was... [ Continue Reading ]
_Benediction of the Name_. The mention of God is followed by the Benediction of the Name as Jewish piety prescribed; the formula _the Holy One, blessed be He_, being amplified by the Christian appreciation of their fuller knowledge. The Apostle surpasses the fervour of the Psalmist, Blessed be the L... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς κληρ … ἀμάραντον, as God's sons in virtue of their regeneration they are God's heirs (Galatians 4:7) and have an heavenly inheritance. The accumulated adjectives recall various images employed to describe it and emphasise the fact that it is eternal (Hebrews 9:15) and spiritual. It is ἄφθαρτον,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Christians addressed are to complete the metaphor from other passages in the Epistle a spiritual house (2 5.), which is besieged by the devil (1 Peter 1:8) but guarded and garrisoned by God's Power. So long as they have faith (1 Peter 1:9) they are safe: “our faith lays hold upon this power and... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐ ν ᾧ. There are four possible antecedents. (1) καιρῷ, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) God, (4) the state of things described in 3 5. (1) would imply that they must live in the future and is least probably right. (2) is supported by 8 but is unlikely at this point. The choice lies between (3), God being hithe... [ Continue Reading ]
Exult then. These various temptations to which you are exposed cause present grief. But they are part of God's plan for you. Even material perishable gold is tried in the fire. So is your faith tested that it may be purged of its dross and the good metal be discovered when Jesus Christ is revealed.... [ Continue Reading ]
τὸ δοκίμιον. The evidence of the papyri (Deissmann, _Bible Studies_, pp. 259 ff.) shows that δοκίμιος is a bye form of the adjective δόκιμος _approved_; so Psalms 12:7, ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον δοκίμιον (_cf._ 1 Chron. 39:4; Zechariah 11:3, where it occurs as v.l. for δόκιμον). Hence the phrase (here an... [ Continue Reading ]
The connexion with mention of persecution suggests that the writer is here thinking of the saying, _in your patience ye shall win your souls_ and perhaps also of the contrast between the persecuton who has only power over the body. Whatever happen to the body the conclusion the consummation of their... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophets were concerned with the Messianic salvation and searched their own writings and those of their predecessors for definite information about it. They are honoured by the Christians who realise that as a matter of fact they prophesied concerning the grace which was destined for the Christi... [ Continue Reading ]
The ancient prophets prophesied concerning the grace which was destined for you and enquired diligently about this salvation. They were the unconscious instruments of the revelation of God and their first duty done continued to pore over the inspired descriptions of the sufferings and subsequent glo... [ Continue Reading ]
The construction of εἰς τ. κ. π. καιρόν and of προμαρτ. is doubtful. ἐραυνῶντες takes up ἐξεζήτησαν κ. τ. λ. (10); the run of the sentence seems to naturally connect τὰ … δόξας with προμαρτ. and εἰς … καιρόν with ἐδήλου. So Vulgate _in quod vel quale tempus significare … spiritus … praenuntians … pa... [ Continue Reading ]
διό introduces the practical inference. ἀναζωσάμενοι, κ. τ. λ., the reference to the directions for celebration of the Passover (Exodus 12:11, οὕτως δὲ φάγεσθε αὐτό · αἱ ὀσφύες ὑμῶν περιεζωσμέναι … μετὰ σπουδῆς) is unmistakable. The actual deliverance of the Christians is still in the future; they m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Practical admonitions_. In this section St. Peter is engrossed with the conception of the Church as the new Israel which has been delivered from idolatry the spiritual Egypt by a _far more excellent sacrifice_. Jesus Himself endorsed such adaptation of the directions given for the typical deliveran... [ Continue Reading ]
ὡς, _inasmuch as you are, cf._ 1Pe 2:2; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 3:7, etc. τέκνα ὑπακοῆς, _obedient_ corresponds to St. Paul's υἱοὶ τῆς ἀπειθείας (Colossians 3:6; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:6). Both phrases reflect the Hebrew use of בן, “followed by word of quality characteristic, etc.” (B.D.B., _s.v._,... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The command _Ye shall be holy for I am holy_ is connected originally with the deliverance from Egypt and the distinction between clean and unclean, which lays down the principle of separation involved in the Exodus (Leviticus 11:44-46, etc.; _cf._ Isaiah 52:11). St. Peter combines the Scripture w... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:17, _cf._ Romans 2:10 f., εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθε, _if ye invoke as Father_ : reminiscence of Jeremiah 3:19, εἰ πατέρα ἐπικαλεῖσθέ με (so Q [147] perhaps after 1 Peter, for εἶπα πατέρα καλέσετέ με) _cf._ Psalms 89:27, αὐτὸς ἐπικαλέσεται με Πατήρ μου εἶ σύ. There may be a reference to the use... [ Continue Reading ]
Amplification of Isaiah 52:3 f., Δωρεὰν ἐπράθητε καὶ οὐ μετὰ ἀργυρίου λυτρωθήσεσθε (_cf._ Isaiah 45:13 … εἰς Αἴγυπτον κατέβη ὁ λαός μου τὸ πρότερον παροικῆσαι ἐκεῖ. The deliverance from Babylon corresponds to the deliverance from Egypt. To these the Christians added a third and appropriated to it th... [ Continue Reading ]
The blood of Christ, the true paschal lamb, was the (means or) agent of your redemption. The type contemplated is composite; the _lamb_ is the _yearling sheep_ (שה πρόβατον, but Targum-Onkelos has אמר _lamb_ and שה is rendered ἀμνός in Leviticus 12:8; Numbers 15:11; Deuteronomy 14:4) prescribed for... [ Continue Reading ]
As the paschal lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month (Exodus 13:3) so Christ was foreknown before the creation and existed before His manifestation. The preexistence of Moses is stated in similar terms in _Assumption of Moses_, i. 12 14, “God created the world on behalf of His people. But He... [ Continue Reading ]
διʼ ὑμᾶς, _for the sake of you Gentiles, i.e._, ἵνα ὑμᾶς προσαγάγῃ τῷ θεῷ, 1 Peter 3:18. The resurrection of Jesus and His glorification are the basis of their faith in God and inspire not merely faith but hope. διʼ αὐτοῦ. Compare for form Acts 3:16, ἡ πίστις ἡ διʼ αὐτοῦ and for thought Romans 5:2;... [ Continue Reading ]
The combination of purification of souls with love of the brotherhood suggests that the temptations to relapses were due to former intimacies and relationships which were not overcome by the spiritual brotherhood which they entered. Different grades of society were doubtless represented in all Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναγεγεννημένοι. So St. John ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους ὅτι … πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται; _cf._ Ephesians 4:17; Ephesians 5:2. ἐκ σπορᾶς ἀφθάρτου, _i.e._, of God regarded as Father and perhaps also as Sower (_cf._ 1 Peter 1:24); the two conceptions are combined in 1 John 3:9, πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τ... [ Continue Reading ]
f. = Isaiah 40:6-8, adduced as endorsement of the comparison instituted between natural generation and divine regeneration, with gloss explaining the saying of Jehovah (_cf._ Hebrews 1:1 f.). The only divergences from the LXX (which omits as Jerome notes, perhaps through homoedeuton quia spiritus de... [ Continue Reading ]
τὸ εὐαγγελισθὲν comes from ὁ εὐαγγελιζόμενος Σειὼν of Isaiah 40:9 which the Targum explains as referring to the prophets.... [ Continue Reading ]