1 Peter 1:12

1 Peter 1:12. To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but (rather) unto you they were ministering those things. The better accredited reading here is ‘unto you' (not unto us). Peter, therefore, still looks specially to the interest which Gentile Christians, like those here addressed, had in the ministry referred to. He says nothing, however, to imply either that the prophets themselves had no personal interest in their communications, or that these communications did not bear upon their own times. He speaks simply of certain things in these communications, which the prophets understood to be for other times, and of the ministry which they discharged in relation to those things as a ministry in which they recognised others than themselves to have the main interest. The ministry in view is expressed by a term applicable to any kind of service, official or non-official. It is the word used by Paul when he speaks of the Corinthians as ‘manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministered by us' (2 Corinthians 3:3). Here it refers evidently to the service of announcing to others what the Spirit had conveyed to their own minds. The entire sentence is connected closely with the preceding by the simple relative. The question, therefore, is: What is the relation thus intended between the searching of 1 Peter 1:10-11, and the revelation spoken of now? Many interpreters regard the latter as the result or reward of the former. And this is put in two different ways, either that the prophets searched, and therefore revelations were given them, because they were ministering for others; or, that they searched, and their search was answered by its being revealed to them that they were ministering for others. But to make their receipt of revelations (whether in the wide sense of revelations generally, or in the narrower sense of the revelation of the one fact that in some things they were speaking to a later age) dependent so far upon their own previous diligence in inquiry, is strangely out of harmony with the initiating and impelling activity ascribed here, and again in 2 Peter 1:21, to the Spirit. The connection, therefore, is to be taken either thus: ‘they searched, and to them, too, it was revealed;' or (with Huther, etc.), ‘they searched inasmuch as it was revealed to them.' The revelation in view occasioned and incited their inquiry. It was discovered to them that in regard to certain things which the Spirit communicated they were dealing with things meant for others, and this fact (pointing, as it did, to the mystery of a place for the Gentile world sooner or later in Israel's grace) stimulated their inquiry. How this fact was discovered, or ‘revealed,' to them, whether by a special intimation of the Spirit, or simply by the unmistakeable import of the communication itself regarding the future grace, is left unexplained.

which (things) were now reported to you by means of those who made the glad tidings (the Gospel) known to you. The relation of the ‘which' here to the previous ‘those things' is not exactly the close relation between relative and antecedent, but rather that between two distinct statements of which the latter is an extension of the former. The things referred to, therefore, are not merely the ‘sufferings' and ‘glories' of Christ, but also the ‘grace destined for you,' all those things, in short, already said to have been prophesied and searched by the prophets. The things which thus were the subject of prophetic interest and inquiry, are now referred to as having also formed the burden of the preaching of those who carried the Gospel into those Gentile territories, Pontus, Galatia, etc. Peter gives us no hint as to who these were. The form of the statement, however, rather implies that he did not rank himself among them. But if the men themselves are left unnamed, the power that made them what they were as preachers is noted. These preachers evangelized them by the Holy Ghost sent from heaven. The better reading here is not ‘ in,' but ‘ by ' the Holy Ghost, the Spirit being represented simply as the instrument in whose might they effected what they did. As the prophets had their revelations only by the action of the Spirit, the preachers of the Gospel had their power to preach only by the Holy Ghost. But while the Spirit who gifted the prophets is described as the Spirit of Christ in them, the Spirit who gifted the preachers is described as the Holy Ghost sent from heaven a designation pointing to the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit, and, therefore, to the superior privilege of the preachers. So the statement regarding the prophets ends, as it began, with facts enforcing the magnitude of the salvation or grace of which the readers had been made heirs. The verbs are given in the simple historical past, were reported (in spite of the ‘now'), preached (not have preached) , sent, as Peter carries his readers back from their present standing in grace to the definite acts and events which prepared that standing for them once for all. It is necessary to add that while the generally-accepted construction of this verse has been followed, it leaves something to be desired. Another method of relating the several clauses, which has to a certain extent the sanction of Luther's name, has been worked out by Hofmann, and accepted by some others. According to this, the verse would run thus, with a parenthesis in the heart of it: ‘To whom were revealed those things (for they ministered not for themselves, but rather for others), which were now reported unto you,' etc. This establishes an apt contrast between the inward revelation in the one case and the public reporting in the other. It gets rid of the awkwardness of making the mere fact that the prophets ministered certain things for others than themselves the subject of a revelation, and has other recommendations to balance the disadvantage of introducing a parenthesis immediately after the leading verb. The grandeur of this salvation or grace is illustrated by one thing else which, as being itself so peculiar, gets a peculiar place and expression here

which things angels desire to look into. By the ‘which things' we are to understand neither ‘the whole contents of the message of salvation' (so Huther, Brückner), nor the mystery of the spiritual change effected by the gospel (Schott), but simply the things already dealt with in the section. Those things, the grace ordained for the Gentiles, and the sufferings and glories of Christ in relation thereto, which were prophesied of and searched by prophets, and reported in these last days by Christ's preachers, were also an object of interest to the angelic world. The intensity of this interest is expressed by the strong term desire, or long the word used by Christ Himself in view of His hastening passion, ‘With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer' (Luke 22:15). Its continuance is indicated by the present tense. Its nature is described by the graphic term which is poorly represented by the ‘look into' of the A. V., and is difficult in any case adequately to render. Though perhaps sometimes used of a passing glance at an object, it has usually the idea of intent study, and a study which involves a stooping, bending posture on the part of the student. It is applied to the man who ‘looketh into the perfect law of liberty' (James 1:25) as if he were putting himself into the posture of one who gazes into a mirror. It is also applied by Luke (Luke 24:12) to Peter himself ‘ stooping down' when he peered into the tomb (which passage, however, is somewhat doubtfully accredited); and, again, by John (John 20:5; John 20:11) both to Peter and to Mary as they ‘stooped down' and looked into the sepulchre. It is more than doubtful whether Peter had in view here either the two angels whom Mary Magdalene saw in the Lord's tomb, as Canon Cook supposes, or the cherubim overshadowing the ark, as Grotius, Beza, and others imagine. But as the term expresses a change of position in order to view something, it may point at once to the straining interest with which the angelic world as such (the noun is without the article, and denotes angels generally) contemplates the salvation of which even outcast Gentiles are participants, and the fact that, as they stand outside that salvation, their interest in it is that of spectators who recognise the glory and ponder the mystery of the grace which effects a change of which they have themselves no personal knowledge the change from sin to holiness (cf. also Hebrews 2:16; Ephesians 3:10).