1 Peter 1:10

1 Peter 1:10. With regard to which salvation. The salvation here in view is the salvation already introduced first as ‘ready to be revealed in the last time,' and then as a ‘salvation of souls.' It is not to be limited either to the completed salvation of the future, or to the partial salvation of the present, but is God's salvation generally. This is indicated by the method of connection with 1 Peter 1:9. The relative attaches 1 Peter 1:10 closely to the preceding ‘salvation of souls,' while the introduction of the noun after the relative shows, perhaps, that it is not so closely attached to the immediate antecedent as to make the subject of the one in all respects co-extensive with that of the other (Schott). The prophets referred to are obviously the O. T. prophets, as almost all interpreters hold. The supposition is advanced, however, that they are mainly the prophets of the Apostolic Church, with some of whom the Book of Acts mentions Peter himself to have been brought into personal contact, e.g. with Barnabas (Acts 4:36), Agabus (Acts 11:28; Acts 21:10), Judas and Silas (Acts 15:36). This view is supported by appeal to the prominent position occupied by these N. T. prophets (Ephesians 2:20; Ephesians 3:5; Ephesians 4:11; 2 Peter 3:2), to Peter's statement about the prophetic word (2 Peter 1:19), and to such phrases as ‘the Spirit of Christ which was in them,' which are held to apply rather to Christian than to Israelite prophets (so Plumptre). But, difficult as the paragraph in any case is, some of its clauses become doubly so on this supposition. Neither does the term ‘prophets' here stand connected with the term ‘apostles,' or with anything else naturally defining it as = those of the N. T. Church.

earnestly sought and searched. Both verbs have an intense force. The first is used, e.g., of Esau's careful seeking of a place of repentance (Hebrews 12:17). The second, though it occurs nowhere else in the N. T., is used by the LXX., e.g., of Saul's resolve to get at David's lurking-places, and ‘ search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah' (1 Samuel 23:23). They depict, therefore, the strength and earnestness of the interest with which the prophets gave their minds to the hidden things of this salvation.

who prophesied of the grace destined for you. The term ‘grace' here is not to be distinguished (with Huther) from the ‘salvation,' as if the latter denoted only the future salvation, and the former covered both the present and the future. It is simply another expression for the salvation dealt with all along, designating it now under the particular aspect of a free gift from God. The phrase ‘the grace unto you' (as it literally is) means the grace destined or reserved for you, not (as Wiesinger, Schott, etc.) the grace which has come to you, or which ye have actually got. For this ‘grace' is contemplated not from the viewpoint of the apostles, but from that of the prophets. The subjects of this grace are also emphasized her by the pointed ‘ unto you,' as the very parties now addressed by Peter, and therefore (if it is a reasonable supposition that the Epistle is directed to Pauline, and consequently mainly Gentile, Churches) to heirs of God's grace who were in the mass Gentiles. The entire clause is usually taken to characterize the O. T. prophets according to a function common to them as a whole (Schott, Huther, and most). It would thus have no more point than a general description of the prophets as men who, as a body, spoke of a grace which was meant for others than themselves. But the fact that, while the noun ‘prophets' is without the article, the participle rendered ‘who prophesied' has it, rather suggests that Peter has a certain class of prophets in view (Hofmann), as the associated terms suggest that he has a particular part of the prophetic communications in mind. Those particularly referred to, therefore, are prophets like Isaiah and others, who spoke of what was the great mystery to Israel the interest which the Gentile world was to have in the salvation which was ‘of the Jews.'