1 Peter 1:12

Unto whom it was revealed. — As 1 Peter 1:11 expanded and expounded the words “inquired and searched,” so the first part of 1 Peter 1:12 expounds the words “prophesied of the grace in reserve for you.” That is to say, the revelation here spoken of is not a special revelation sent in answer to their laborious musings, but rather the very thing which occasioned them; the perplexity consisted in feeling that God had a further meaning for their words. And the exact limits of the revelation are mentioned: they were shown that they spoke for the benefit of futurity, and no more! What a “trial of faith!” What a sublime disappointment! (Hebrews 11:40.)

Unto us. — Far the better reading is, unto you. It is a distinct characteristic of this Epistle, that “we,” “us,” “our,” are so seldom used (in the best text) where they might have been expected. Where St. Paul throws in his own sympathy, and puts himself on a footing with those whom he addresses, St. Peter utters his lofty pastoral from above. There are but four places in the Epistle (1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:17) where he associates himself thus with his brethren, and one of those (1 Peter 2:24) is really a quotation, and one (1 Peter 3:18) at best a very doubtful reading. The same tendency may be observed in his speech (Acts 15:7), where the right reading is “made choice among you.”

The things. — In the original simply them; so that a semicolon might better follow than a comma, and which things be put instead of “which.” The most natural thing is to suppose that the pronoun represents the preceding “sufferings in reserve for Messiah and the glories after.” In what sense, then, could the prophets “minister,” either to themselves or to us, the sufferings and glories of Messiah? The word is one which signifies a servant bringing to his master the things which he needs — commonly used (e.g., John 12:2) of serving up a meal; and the prophets are said to serve the Messianic sufferings and glories to us, to wait upon us with them, to present them to our use and study and comfort. (Comp. 1 Peter 4:10.) When it says, however, that they ministered them “not to themselves but to us,” we must not suppose that they derived no comfort from their predictions (see John 8:56): the “not” must be taken in the same sense as in “I will have mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13).

Which are now reported unto you. — Rather, which things (i.e., the gospel story) now (in contrast with the days of the prophets) were (not “are”) openly declared to you (in all their details, in contrast with the dim and vague way in which they were seen before). Such is the force of this compound Greek verb in John 4:25; Acts 19:18; Acts 20:20; Acts 20:27.

By them that have preached. — More correctly, through those who preached; the difference being that St. Peter is referring to the first bearers of the gospel to those parts, not to all who from that time to the date of the Letter had preached. This is a point well worth noticing. The phrase seems to show that St. Peter himself was not of the number. Perhaps half the churches which received the Letter looked to St. Paul as their founder. (See last Note on 1 Peter 1:1.) Here, then, we find the Rock-Apostle authoritatively setting his seal to the teaching of his junior colleague, just as he does in the Second Epistle (1 Peter 3:15). It seems to imply that these Jewish Christians were beginning to feel a reaction from St. Paul’s evangelical teaching; and the Apostle of the Circumcision is called in to enforce what the Apostle of the Uncircumcision had taught. The revolt of the Hebrew Christians in Asia from evangelical teaching appears again at a still later period (Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9). It was, perhaps, only with Jewish Christians that such an appeal from St. Paul to St. Peter would be made, and need not imply superiority throughout the whole Church. St. Peter’s perfect concurrence with St. Paul here is a sufficient contradiction to the Tubingen theory of their irreconcilable divergence — only the Tubingen school reject the Epistle on the ground that it makes the Apostles too harmonious!

With the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. — The magnificent phrase seems meant to contrast the full effusion of the Spirit now, with His limited working in the prophets (1 Peter 1:11). But it contains more teaching than this. The tense of the participle “sent” is such as might without violence be rendered “sent once and for ever,” “sent in a moment.” Now, remember that almost undoubtedly some of the recipients of the Letter (see last Note on 1 Peter 1:1) were eye-witnesses of His being “sent” to St. Peter and the rest on the Day of Pentecost. St. Peter, then, here claims for St. Paul (and St. Silas perhaps) the very same inspiration with which himself was furnished. And as here he claims full inspiration for St. Paul’s preaching, so he does afterwards for his writing (2 Peter 3:15).

Which things the angels. — The “which things” here is grammatically parallel to the “which things” of the last sentence, and therefore would mean “the sufferings of Messiah and the glories after.” But logically we have to go back to the beginning of 1 Peter 1:10 : “Do I say that prophets, who had the mysteries of our redemption on their lips, yet pored in vain to catch the detailed meaning which you catch? Nay; angels (not “the angels”), who were present at every detail, and bore an active part in it all (see Matthew 1:20; Matthew 4:11; Matthew 28:2; Luke 1:26; Luke 2:9; Luke 22:43; John 1:51), — angels, of whom He ‘was seen’ (1 Timothy 3:16), — covet now to exchange places with you that they may gaze into the mystery.” The word which has here shrunk into our word “to look into,” means really, to bend aside to see. In its literal sense it occurs in John 20:5; John 20:11, and in Luke 24:12 (a verse not found in the best text), of people standing at the side of the cave so as not to get in their own light, and stooping sideways to peer in. Metaphorically it is used in James 1:25, where see Note. It seems to mean a strained attention to something which has caught your eye somewhat out of your usual line of sight. Here then, the intention is to show that we are in a better position to understand the mysteries of redemption, not only than prophets, but also than angels; and they covet to stoop from their own point of view to ours. And why so? Not because of the inherent mysteriousness of the union of the two natures in Christ, for of that they are as intelligent as we, or more so; but because they are incapable of fully understanding human nature, flesh and blood, with its temptations and pains, its need of a Saviour. In Francia’s great picture, the two angels kneel by weeping Mary and dead Christ without a trace of grief on their countenances. The Son of God Himself only became capable of entering into our infirmities through becoming flesh, and experiencing the same (Hebrews 2:16; Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15). Several passages show us that the tragedy of human history is by no means enacted only for the benefit of the actors, but as a lesson (possibly, as Archbishop Whately pointed out, only a single illustration out of many in one lesson) for the instruction of unfallen spirits (1 Corinthians 4:9; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 3:16). Our present passage has impressed itself on Christian lyrics as much, perhaps, as any in the New Testament. Charles Wesley well strikes the meaning in many of his poems: as —

“Ask the Father’s Wisdom how,

Him that did the means ordain;

Angels round our altars bow

To search it out in vain;”

or again —

“Angels in fixt amazement

Around our altars hover,

With eager gaze adore the grace

Of our Eternal Lover.”

Though very possibly the divine intention of the cherubim over the mercy-seat (Exodus 25:20) may have been to symbolise that which is here said, yet it is not to be thought that St. Peter was consciously thinking of the symbol.