Translation & Sermon By Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan, KS 28 June 2015
Greyed-out text removed to bring delivery down to 40 minutes.
2:4 While y’all are drawing near to Him
– the living Stone
who has been despised by men
but who is select [and] precious according to God –
2:5 you yourselves also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual household,
into a holy priesthood
in order to offer up acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
2:6 In proof of which it is contained in Scripture,
“Look, I am laying a stone in Zion – a precious, select cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in Him shall never be put to shame.”
7. This Precious One therefore is yours – for you who believe,
(but as for those who remain non-compliant,
“this stone which the builders rejected became the corner stone.”
8. And [this] “stone of stumbling ” or “rock of scandal”
which they stumble upon while being non-compliant with the Word, is that into which also they were appointed.)
9. Y’all, however, are
a select kind,
a priestly royalty,
a holy ethnicity,
a people made to be around [Him]
in such a way that y’all might extol the virtues of Him
who called y’all out of darkness into His marvelous light –
10. y’all who back then were not a people but now are the people of God –
the ones who had not been shown mercy yet now have been shown mercy.
· One trips over it, finds that it inhibits his freedom, and hates the rock, rails against it, hits it and hurts himself, tries to push it away but can’t, and then is burned up by fire coming down out of the sky.
· Another one likes the rock – it’s coolness and firmness, and hides inside it. When the fire comes down from the sky, he is safely preserved. As he hides in the rock he becomes noble and then goes out to tell other people about this marvellous rock so that they too can be saved and uplifted by the rock, remembering that he was once in their shoes.
· This word “precious” (or “honor” if you’re looking at the ESV) is related to the word entimon of the previous verse which described the stone that was “precious” to God. Since the previous verse spoke of those who believed in God’s precious stone not being put to shame, it seems to flow logically for Peter to say, “You do believe in Jesus, therefore this is for you.”
· The Greek word “precious” also has a definite article (“the”), making the word “precious” the subject of the sentence and not the predicate nominative as the KJV renders it.
o The KJV doesn’t introduce anything heretical – obviously if we believe in Jesus then Jesus is precious to us, but the point is not so much that He is precious to us but that this precious thing belongs to us.
o What does it mean that Jesus, the Precious One is ours? To borrow some phrases from Matthew Henry, it means that we have “The majesty and grandeur of His person, the dignity of His office, His near relation, His wonderful works, [and] His immense love.” All yours, just as much as you are His!
· Peter then quotes Psalm 118:22 word-for-word.
o Jesus, the Son of God, was rejected
§ They said He was a “deceiver”[1]
§ They said He was a “Samaritan and harboring a demon”[2]
§ They said, “This man is not from God”[3]
§ And they killed Him on Passion Week,
o but the Psalm also goes beyond that, to speak of the glory of His resurrection and enthronement as king afterwards, using the figurative language of a “head/chief of the corner”KJV – or in Greek, κεφαλην γωνιας.
§ In architectural terms this is the “cornerstone” – the foundational first stone to which the direction of the entire wall is oriented and upon which the weight of everything above it is held up. (The NIV seems to envision it as the “capstone” of an archway, which also works.)
§ The Greek word kephale also indicates a place of prominence (Acts 26:26). It is translated “chief” by the NKJV here and in other places (1 Sam 14:38), indicating a prominent political leader upon whom the city depends for leadership and direction.
o The Prophet Micah – during the kingdom of Judah before its fall to Babylon – mentioned the “builders” in a similar way: Micah 3:9-12 “Hear now these words, ye chiefs of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel, who hate judgment, and pervert all righteousness; who build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof have judged for gifts, and the priests thereof have answered for hire, and her prophets have divined for silver: and yet they have rested on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? no evil shall come upon us. Therefore on your account Sion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruits, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.” (Brenton)
· Do you see how Peter is framing our identity with one central issue? What is your relationship to Jesus? This is the defining issue in who you are.
o Are you one who trusts Jesus, holds Him precious, obeys His word, and orients your life around His leadership in dependence on Him as your chief and cornerstone?
o Or do you find Him confusing and scandalous so you reject His leadership, following your own heart and being non-compliant with His word?
o Because our hearts are fickle, we sometimes find ourselves on one side of the fence and sometimes on the other. The Apostle Peter did too – He denied Christ three times and did other stupid things, but it is the overall trend of your life which shows who you are. If we keep coming back to Him, confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness, and lapsing less and less often, then Jesus being revealed as the cornerstone will not be a scandal to us but a joy to us. Jesus is ours for the keeping!
· Originally, this word “stumbling-block” referred in the Greek Old Testament to the pagan nations whose idol-worship would “trip up” God’s people[4]. Later on, the prophets noted that the decadent Jewish leaders themselves were being “stumbling blocks” due to their apostasy (Isa. 29:21, Jer. 3:3), but here it is used in a different context to describe the surprisingly-unexpected nature of the Messiah which threw many Jews for a loop.
· Peter is quoting from the Hebrew text of Isaiah 8:14, a prophecy of the Messiah, “Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
o Jesus was so poor and so marginalized by elite society and so simple and so spiritually-minded rather than military-minded that most Jews did not believe Him to be the Messiah, so they did not trust Him to save them, but rather sought to follow the rules of the prestigious Pharisees in order to be right with God, and once again they missed out on God’s salvation.
o In the book of Romans, Paul expounded on this same prophecy: “but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: ‘BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STUMBLING STONE AND ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND WHOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME’” (Rom. 9:31-33, NKJV).
o Jesus prophecied in Matthew 21:44 that, “the one who falls upon this stone will be smashed, and upon whomever it happens to fall, it will blow him to smithereens” (NAW), and within a generation of the nation of unbelieving Jews was obliterated by the Romans. They “stumbled” and were “put to shame.”
· The next phrase, “rock of offense/scandal,” is synonymous parallelism to “stone of stumbling” – different words that mean the same thing.
o The word skandalon is also used to speak of the tripping-up of the Jews and others over Christ’s crucifixion in 1 Cor. 1:23-24 “...we are preaching a Christ who has been crucified – to Jews a stumbling-block, and stupidity to Gentiles, but to them – the called ones (both Jews and Greeks) – Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God” (NAW)..
o On the other hand, the fact that it does not trip up those who are “called” comports with Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble” (NKJV).
o Do you want to have this kind of peace and security from stumbling or being hammered by God’s judgment? Trust and obey Jesus!
· What should we make of Peter’s comment that God somehow “appointed” the “disobedient/non-compliant” to this doom? (The word “doom” isn’t actually there in Greek.)
o On the one hand, we can take comfort in knowing that there is a sovereign God who is shaping history to fulfill His plans for good.
§ 1 Thessalonians 5:9 indicates God’s power to either appoint us to wrath or to salvation, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
§ Since God is sovereign, we cannot congratulate ourselves for being good, we can only thank Him for saving us.
§ We must also remember that God’s sovereignty in salvation is not an excuse to give up on sharing the gospel with anybody, but it is a comfort to know that once we have delivered God’s word to them in an appropriate way, it is in God’s hands how they will respond.
o For those not comfortable with the doctrine of double predestination, this verse still provides comfort in a world that feels like it’s spinning out of control that there is a sovereign God who has come up with fair punishments for evil, who is keeping track of everyone who is doing evil, and who will make sure that justice is served in every case.
§ 2 Peter 2:6 says that God turned “the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, appointing them to destruction, to make of them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.” God’s law was revealed through “righteous Lot,” and tempered with grace as a result of Abraham’s requests for mercy, and yet was violently violated by the men of the city, so God’s fire and brimstone was just and fair.[5]
§ However, I don’t think this is the main point of this passage in First Peter.
o The main application is the centrality of Christ
§ The “precious one,” the “corner stone,” and the “stone of stumbling” and the “rock of offense” are all parallel titles for Jesus, and the idea of this verse is that all will have a day of reckoning with Christ.
§ It is my opinion that the Greek grammar of v.8 makes the word “stone” the thing to which the disobedient are appointed. This verse is all part of one sentence in Greek, but a lot of English translations break it into two sentences, but in doing so, they shift the emphasis upon what the disobedient are appointed to.
§ The emphasis in this verse is more upon the person of Christ than on the punishment of evildoers – God has sovereignly set all sinners on a collision course with Jesus the Rock, and we will either smash our brains out trying to fight against this rock, or we will trust this rock, enter into Him, embrace His unyielding boundaries, and be saved within the refuge He provides.
§ Sure God is fair, and sure God is in control, but the point is, What is your relationship to Him?
· Verse 9 introduces several more marks of identity of those who believe in Jesus:
· Let me take these four identity phrases one at a time:
· (1) “Select kind/chosen generation”
o In the Greek Bible, genos is generally used to denote a particular language group (Gen. 11:6) or ethnicity (Gen. 25:17) or family-kinship (Rev. 22:16), but to translate the word “race,” as the ESV and NAS did, can be misleading here because God’s New Covenant people are not genetically uniform; they are from “every tongue, tribe, and nation” (Revelation 5:9, 7:9). Their kinship is based in “being born again through [God’s] imperishable seed” (1 Pet. 1:23).
o The KJV translation of genos as “generation” has the benefit of tying in to this concept of God’s “begetting” this people, but the downside of the English word “generation” is that we tend to think of it less in terms of generating new life and more in terms of a particular age group limited to a 30-year span of time, which is not what this is talking about.
o This phrase “chosen generation/select race (kindred)” is what Isaiah 43:20-21 calls the future people that God would form apart from Israel to worship Him in the New Covenant era: “...I give water in the wilderness, streams in the desert, to cause my chosen people to drink. This people I formed for myself will recount my praise. Yet it wasn’t me that you called, Jacob, for you are weary with me, Israel.”
o The next three phrases “priestly royalty” (or “royal priesthood”), “holy nation/ ethnicity,” and “people that is peculiar/special/belongs to God” – all come exclusively from Exodus 19:5-6.
· (2) “priestly royalty”/ “royal priesthood”
o Regarding these official roles, Matthew Henry noted, “They are ‘royal’ in their relation to God and Christ, in their power with God and over themselves and all their spiritual enemies...” If you are a believer in Jesus, you have been adopted as a child of God and therefore by adoption, you are related to the King of the Universe! That’s nobility! Along with that comes power over the world because all authority has been given to Jesus (Matt. 28:18) in heaven and on earth.
o The early church father Clement of Alexandria wrote around the year 180, “He says ‘royal,’ because we are called to sovereignty and belong to Christ; and [he says] ‘priesthood’ on account of the oblation which is made by prayers and instructions, by which are gained the souls which are offered to God.” I mentioned last week that in addition to worshipping God, it was the role of a priest to help other human beings connect with God, and that is what Clement is talking about when he says that we pray for people and instruct them in order to “win souls” that we can offer to God.
o These two offices of royalty and priesthood are significant.
§ The Biblical Melchizedek was both a priest and a king (Heb. 7:1),
§ but in this sinful world, we wisely separate these powers so that priests and kings (or presidents and judges and legislators and pastors) can hold each other accountable and not get too powerful.
§ But in the case of the sinless Jesus Christ, it is appropriate to combine those royal and priestly offices in one person,
§ and those whose sins Jesus washed away also get to experience that privilege of being both priests and kings, just as it says in the book of Revelation: “Jesus Christ... loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father...” (1:5b-6a) and again in the hymn of chapter 5: “You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth” (5:9b-10).
· (3) Being a “holy ethnicity” is also very special.
o I prefer to avoid the term “nation” because I don’t believe that any particular political nation is God’s sole vehicle for the New Covenant –
§ the Byzantine Empire was a wonderful testimony to the blessings of Christianity,
§ as were the Christianized European nations and then the United States.
§ In a few years, it will be some other nation which becomes the flagship of Christianity.
§ These political efforts are important to invest in because God has ordained civil government as one of the three spheres of earthly authority necessary to our well-being (next to the church and the family),
o but the nature of the holy nation of elect, born-again believers is not that of a political nation; they will always be scattered all over the world being salt and light and will be ethnically “red and yellow black and white.” But they will be holy, every one of them, in a blessed relationship with God (unlike civil government which must deal with both the holy and the profane, both believers and unbelievers).
o This is a picture of the church worldwide, the growing body of Christ which He is redeeming and birthing into existence in every place from every tribe, tongue, & nation.
o One application of this is that we must be careful to show solidarity with other Christians and resist participating in the popular pastime of brother-bashing.
§ It seems that in some Christian circles the mark of a true Christian is how much they condemn other people who call themselves Christians.
§ Satan loves it. He knows just as well as anybody that a “house divided against itself cannot stand.”
§ We must honor what God is doing as he forms a New Covenant people for Himself and recognize and affirm that as we hear of other believers with different cultures.
o Sure, we must be discerning, and that means we will have to make distinctions as best we can between those who are genuinely Christ-followers and those who are not.
§ I declined an invitation to a pastor’s luncheon last year hosted by the so-called “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” because the Jesus they worship is a different god altogether from the one I worship, and I do not believe that I can show solidarity with them in that context.
§ But when Gloria Deo Baptist Church invited us to meet together for a combined church Bible study on July 15, we jumped at the offer, even though we have historic differences that have divided us, because we want to show as best we can that Christians really are all of one kind, one holy nation.
o A second application to all this is that no matter how despised and worthless and unsuccessful you are made to feel by this world as it persecutes you, don’t believe their point of view. God says you are part of an elite corps that He is proud to call His own, and He wants you to do the important jobs of reigning and priesting in His kingdom![6]
· (4) The fourth phrase eis peripoiesin literally means “into making around.”
o Strong’s Greek Lexicon defines this interesting word as “to make around oneself, that is, acquire.”
o The picture I get is that of a bird making its nest. Have you ever seen a bird flying around, carefully selecting bits of string and leaves and weaving them into a nest around itself? It won’t use just anything; that nest which the bird weaves around itself is made of materials it is comfortable with having close all around.
o In a similar way, God is building a city, and you are one of the neighbors He wants living around Him, so Jesus has come to earth, bought you from your former master, and built a house for you in heaven so you can move in and be His neighbor.
o It is interesting to me that this Greek phrase only occurs in the post-exilic prophecies about the community of faith that would develop in the New Testament:
§ Haggai 2:10 “For the glory of this house shall be great, the latter more than the former, saith the Lord Almighty: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord Almighty, even peace of soul for a possession to every one that builds, to raise up this temple.” Any historian knows that the temple built under Haggai’s ministry was not as glorious as the former temple built by Solomon, so this prophecy can’t be about the reconstruction temple; the temple with the greater glory is Jesus and His church.
§ Likewise, the last prophet in the Old Testament, Malachi wrote of God’s future people, “they shall be mine, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day which I appoint for a peculiar possession; and I will [spare] them, as a man [spares] his son that serves him.” (Malachi 3:17, Brenton).
§ It is also spoken of as future in the New Testament: Ephesians 1:13-14 “...the Holy Spirit of promise... is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession...” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but into the possession of salvation...” 2 Thessalonians 2:14 “...He called you by our gospel, for the possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”
· In light of our identity as “a select kind, a priestly royalty, a holy ethnicity, and a people to be made around [Him],” and in light of our identity being rooted in our relationship with Jesus, who is either our rock of salvation or our rock of stumbling, we must pay attention to what it is that He wants us to do with our identity. What is God’s intended response for us when we are saved? The last part of v.9 tells us that His goal is for us to extol His personal character.
o The word translated “praises/excellencies/virtues” is not the usual word for “praise,” it is a rare word which describes the epitome of greatness in personal being.
o Peter actually is quoting Psalm 9:19 “...lift me up from the gates of death in order that I may extol all Your virtues in the gates of the daughter of Zion...” (in other words, in the public square of his capitol city). David, the “man after [God’s] own heart” (Acts 13:22) had discerned what God wanted him to do as a believer, and Peter tells us the same thing, “message out” to other people what you have found God to be like.
o The Prophet Isaiah even gives us an example of how to declare God’s virtues in Isaiah 63:7, “I will cause to remember the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh, the virtues of Yahweh, as upon everything which [He] has awarded us, even the great goodness to the house of Israel which He awarded according to His compassions and according to the greatness of His lovingkindness...” (NAW)
o This is what God wants us to do. How will you do it? Can you share it with your family at the dinner table? Write a testimony on your Facebook page? Share it with your neighbor over the fence? Write it in your family album? Write a song?
o Just as God used the Apostle Paul, God can use you “...to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith.” (Acts 26:17-18, NKJV)
o “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6, NKJV)
· Peter ends this thought by repeating what a privileged position Christians are in as a result of God’s grace, underscoring the magnitude of our responsibility to extol His virtues:
· Whatever the KJV phrase “obtained mercy” meant four hundred years ago, to readers today it sounds like the believers could do something to earn God’s mercy, but that is the opposite of the meaning of this Greek word for “mercy” which is spelled in the passive voice and which therefore means “have been shown mercy.” Forgiveness of sin is not obtainable by any human effort; it is a gift from God.
· Once again, Peter quotes from the Old Testament, this time from the first two chapters of the book of Hosea, in which the prophet called unfaithful Israelites to return to a covenantal relationship with the LORD.
o God had made the nation of Israel for Himself out of one couple, Abraham & Sarah, who were not even capable of having children, but that nation had turned away and started worshipping other gods, acting as though they had no special relationship with the LORD.
o Hosea warned that if they did not repent, they would lose their status as a nation, which is exactly what happened, but Hosea also prophecied of a restoration of their relationship with God.
· This brings us back to the question of whether Peter was addressing Jews or Gentiles or both in this epistle, and I have come down on it being primarily to Gentiles, although I know that this is debated.
o There is similar controversy over whether the prophecies of Hosea were just for the Jews or were also intended for the church, and I likewise lean toward interpreting them in terms of the church, although, again, I know this is debateable.
o If, however, this quote from Hosea was only directed to Jews, and Peter was only writing to Jews, then we might as well skip over this verse because we are not ethnically Jewish, so it would be irrelevant to us.
o However, if it is speaking to non-Jews – who, during the Old Testament time were not part of God’s special people and who were shown mercy in a great ingathering to the people of God in the church during the ministry of the apostles, then this is a reminder to us not to take for granted the precious gift we have in Jesus and His calling and election and salvation, because our forefathers were once outsiders to these blessings! This brings us back to the preciousness of Jesus our Rock (1 Cor. 10:4) from verse 7.
o One of the ways we show forth His praises is by remembering where we came from.
o Where were you twenty – thirty – forty years ago? Think about how immature you were; how much less righteous you were, and then think about the tremendous amount of love and mercy God has shown to you over the years and the tremendous amount of growth in holiness you have experienced over those years[7]. Let that give you perspective to be humble and thank God for His mercy and look forward to what He will do in the next twenty – thirty – forty years as you find your identity in Jesus by trusting him, holding Him precious, complying with His word, filling out your role as priestly royalty, and proclaiming the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His glorious light!
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Modified Patriarchal Text 64AD |
NAW |
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NIV |
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7 ὑμῖν οὖν ἡ τιμὴ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν PAP-DPM, απειθουσιν[i] δὲ λίθον[ii] ὃνASM [iii]ἀπεδοκίμασανAAI-3P οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες PAP-NPM, οὗτος ἐγενήθη AOI-3S εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας GSF |
7. This Precious[iv] One therefore is yours – for you who believe, but as for those who remain non-compliant, this stone which the builders rejected became the corner stone[v]. |
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made [the] head of the corner, |
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME [THE] CHIEF CORNERSTONE,” |
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become [the] cornerstone X,” |
7 This |
7 Now to you who believe, this |
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David’s original = c.1000 BC Oldest Hebrew text = c.900 AD |
Ps. 118:22אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה: |
NAW: The stone rejected by the builders became the head of [the] corner |
LXX (200 BC): λίθον, ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες, οὗτος ἐγενήθη εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας· |
Brenton: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of [the] corner. |
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8 καὶ λίθος προσκόμματος GSN καὶ πέτρα NSF σκανδάλου GSN · οἳ R-NPM προσκόπτουσι PAI-3P τῳ λόγῳ ἀπειθοῦντες PAP-NPM, εἰς ὃ R-ASN καὶ ἐτέθησαν API-3P · |
8. And [this] “stone[vi] of stumbling[vii]” or “rock of scandal” which[viii] they stumble upon while being non-compliant with the Word, is that into which also they were appointed[ix]. |
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. |
8 and "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE." X They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. |
8 and "A stone of stumbling, and a
rock of offense."
X They stumble because they disobey
the word, |
8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A
ROCK OF OFFENSE";
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8 and, "A stone that causes |
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Isaiah 8:14 (Original text c.700 BC, DSS manuscript c.200 BC) וְהָיָה
לְמִקְדָּשׁ
וּלְאֶבֶן
נֶגֶף
וּלְצוּר
מִכְשׁוֹל |
NKJV "...houses of Israel, a stone to strike[x] and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. |
LXX (200 BC) [καὶ ἐὰν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ πεποιθὼς ᾖς,] ἔσται σοι εἰς ἁγίασμα, καὶ [οὐχ ὡς] λίθου προσκόμματι συναντήσεσθε αὐτῷ [οὐδὲ ὡς] πέτρας πτώματι· ὁ δὲ οἶκος Ιακωβ ἐν παγίδι, καὶ ἐν κοιλάσματι ἐγκαθήμενοι ἐν Ιερουσαλημ |
Brenton: [And if thou shalt comply with him,] he shall be to thee for a sanctuary; and [ye shall not come against him as against] a stone of stumbling, [neither as against] the falling of a rock: but the houses of Jacob are in a snare, and the dwellers in Jerusalem in a pit. |
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9 ὑμεῖςNom δὲ γένοςNSN ἐκλεκτόνNSN βασίλειον ἱεράτευμαNSN ἔθνος ἅγιον λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, ὅπως τὰς ἀρετὰςAPF ἐξαγγείλητεAAS τοῦ ἐκ σκότουςGSN ὑμᾶςAcc καλέσαντοςAAP-GSM εἰς τὸ θαυμαστὸνASN αὐτοῦ φῶςASN· |
9. Y’all, however, are a select kind[xi], a priestly royalty, a holy ethnicity[xii], a people to be made around [Him][xiii] in such a way that y’all might extol the virtues[xiv] of Him who called[xv] y’all out of darkness into His marvelous light[xvi]. |
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar[xvii] people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: |
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; |
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. |
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; |
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. |
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Exodus 19:5-6 (c.1400 BC) וְעַתָּה אִם-שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת-בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים כִּי-לִי כָּל-הָאָרֶץ: 6 וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ-לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים וְגוֹי קָדוֹשׁ ... |
NKJV 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests [and] a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." |
LXX (c. 200 BC) ...ἔσεσθέ μοι λαὸς περιούσιος ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν· ἐμὴ γάρ ἐστιν πᾶσα ἡ γῆ· 6 ὑμεῖς δὲ ἔσεσθέ μοι βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα [καὶ] ἔθνος ἅγιον... |
Brenton: And now if ye will indeed hear my voice, and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me a peculiar people above all nations; for the whole earth is mine. 6 And ye shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these words shalt thou speak to the children of Israel. |
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10 οἵ ποτε οὐ λαὸς, νῦν δὲ λαὸς Θεοῦ, οἱ οὐκ ἠλεημένοιRPP-NPM, νῦν δὲ ἐλεηθέντεςAPP-NPM[xviii]. |
10. Y’all who back then were “not a people,” but now are the people of God - the ones who had “not been shown mercy” yet now have been shown mercy[xix]. |
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. |
10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. |
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; [once] you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. |
10 |
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; [once] you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. |
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Hosea 2:25 וּזְרַעְתִּיהָ לִּי בָּאָרֶץ וְרִחַמְתִּי אֶת-לֹא רֻחָמָה וְאָמַרְתִּי לְלֹא-עַמִּי עַמִּי-אַתָּה וְהוּא יֹאמַר אֱלֹהָי: (cf. 1:9-10) |
NKJV (v.23) ... I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they will say, 'You are my God!'" Hosea’s original: c.50BC, oldest Hebrew manuscript c.900AD |
LXX (c. 200 BC) καὶ σπερῶ αὐτὴν ἐμαυτῷ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐλεήσω τὴν Οὐκ--ἠλεημένην καὶ ἐρῶ τῷ Οὐ--λαῷμου Λαός μου εἶ σύ, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐρεῖ Κύριος ὁ θεός μου εἶ σύ. |
Brenton: (v.23) And I will sow her to me on the earth; and will love her that was not loved, and will say to that which was not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art the Lord my God. |
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[1] Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." (John 7:12b, NKJV)
[2] The Jews said... “You are a Samaritan and you are harboring a demon.” (John 8:48, NAW)
[3] Some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not on God’s side...” (John 9:16a, NAW)
[4] Exodus 23:32-33 “Thou shalt make no covenant with them and their gods. And they shall not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against me; for if thou shouldest serve their gods, these will be an offense [πρόσκομμα] to thee.” (Brenton, cf. repeated in the LXX of Ex. 34:12).
[5] cf. Jesus’ parable of the tenants in Luke 12:46, “the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”
[6] “To see... multitudes in all ages slighting [Christ] ought not to discourage us in our love and duty to Him, for this had been foretold by the prophets long ago” (Matthew Henry)
[7] “The best people ought frequently to look back upon what they were in time past.” ~Matthew Henry
[i] From the 5th Century Alexandrian manuscript to today, the reading “not persuaded/compliant/obedient” is in the majority of manuscripts, but there is a minority of manuscripts dating all the way back to the earliest-known papyrus that uses “disbelieve” – a change of two Greek letters. I have seen some editions of the 1904 Patriarchal text printed one way, and others printed the other way, so that’s not real helpful, although I believe that the one with apistousin is a fluke because I have seen other odd abberations in it. The latter way flows more smoothly, but you’d think the less-expected word would be more likely to be the original. It doesn’t make a real difference in the meaning whether we are talking of those who have not been “persuaded” to believe, or those who do not “believe” (or those who “disobey” and therefore practically act as though they do not believe), the result is all the same. There are several reasons to keep the traditional apeith- root: 1) It is the root in the Septuagint of the Isaiah 8:14 passage that Peter quotes, 2) peithw rather than pisteuw is picked up again in the next verse, 3) apart from this disputed location there is no other occurrence of apistw in Peter’s epistles, whereas apeith- is Peter’s word for “unbelievers” - 1 Peter 3:1,3:20, 5) apeith- is common throughout the Septuagint in describing covenant-breaking Jews who would not heed God’s word (Exodus 23:21; Leviticus 26:15; Numbers 11:20; 14:43; 20:10; Deuteronomy 1:26; 9:7,23,24; 21:18,20; 32:51; Joshua 1:18; 5:6; Nehemiah 9:29; Psalms 68:18; Proverbs 24:21; Isaiah 1:23,25; 3:8; 30:9,12; 33:2; 50:5; 59:13; 63:10; 65:2; 66:14b “the hand of the Lord shall be known to them that fear him, and he shall threaten the non-compliant”; Jeremiah 5:23; 13:25; Ezekiel 3:27; Hosea 9:15; Zechariah 7:11,12, but Apist- is not used in the Septuagint in this sense, 6) we see apeith- used in the same way in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 3:18; 4:6,11; 11:31), and in the Pauline epistles this is the label for those outside of God’s grace, “sons of disobedience/non-compliance” (Ephesians 2:2; 5:6; Colossians 3:6). On the other hand, apist- also occurs in the New Testament in this sense, but it appears to me to be used mainly to describe pagan unbelievers rather than Jewish covenant-breakers (except possibly for Jesus’ comment about living in an “unbelieving/faithless generation.”), 7) in the N.T. the apeith- root is used in other places besides this as the antonym to believing - John 3:36 “he who believes in the Son will have eternal life, but he who is non-compliant with the son will not see life, and the wrath of God remains on him”; also in Acts 14:2.; and 4:17.) So from the context of the use of the word throughout Holy scripture, apeithousin (non-compliant/unpersuaded/disobedient) seems to me more likely to be Peter’s original word.
[ii] A minority textual tradition which spans all of church history renders this noun in the nominative case (λιθος) as though it were the subject of the sentence rather than the accusative (object) case. The majority of Greek manuscripts spanning back to the 4th century spell it in the Accusative case, as does the Septuagint of the O.T. quote, although it is picked back up in the Nominative case at the beginning of v.8. The Accusative case lithon in v.7 would match the Accusative-case hon (“which”) in the first half of the verse, whereas the alternative Nominative spelling lithos would match the Nominative-case houtos (“this”) as the subject of the second part of the verse. Either way works, and it does not change the meaning, although the Nominative seems to me to be more grammatically correct. (For what it’s worth, the Masoretic text of the Psalm does not contain Hebrew words for hon or houtos. These words don’t change the original meaning, but they seem to have been added by the Greek translators for clarity.)
[iii] Psalm 118:22 is the first occurrence of this word in the Septuagint, and half of the 16 occurrences of the word which follow in the rest of the scriptures are quotes of Psalm 118:22. Of the other half, most are in Jeremiah, speaking of the breaking of a covenant relationship. It would be interesting if other ancient Greek documents were found which used this phrase kephalen gwnias for the architectural phenomenon of a “cornerstone,” but there is no occurrence of this phrase in the Bible outside of quotes of Psalm 118:22, and the only other piece of early Greek literature listed by Arndt & Gingrich with these words is the Epistle of Barnabas 6:4, from around the turn of the second century AD, which is also a quote of Psalm 118:22.
[iv] This word is related to (but not exactly the same as) the entimon of the previous verse which described the stone that was “precious” to God. Since the previous verse spoke of those who believed in God’s precious stone not being put to shame, it seems to flow logically for Peter to say, “You do believe in Jesus, therefore this is for you.” The word for precious (ESV “honor”), however, is feminine, whereas the word for “stone” is masculine, and, of course, Jesus is masculine; this makes it a bit of a stretch for NIV to add the word “stone” to the text and for the KJV to render it “he” when the Greek word is literally a “she.” Furthermore, the word “precious” has a definite article (“the”), making the word “precious” the subject of the sentence and not the predicate nominative as the KJV renders it. The KJV doesn’t introduce anything heretical – obviously if we believe in Jesus then Jesus is precious to us, but the point is not so much that He is precious to us but that this precious thing belongs to us. Likewise, I don’t think the NIV is off track in meaning. It seems a bit off the track for the ESV to introduce a new word “honor” to the mix and move the reader away from the context of the previous verse, although it is literally faithful to the Greek text. So I am left with the NAS, which seems to do the best job, although I could criticize them for using two English words to translate the one Greek word, but it’s the best we can do.
[v] This is, word-for-word, the text of the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 118:22, and it is right on track with the Masoretic Hebrew text of the psalm. (Unfortunately, this verse is missing in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so comparison with a copy of the ancient Hebrew text of the Psalm is not possible.)
[vi] The problem with making “stone” and “rock” in v.8 parallel objects to “cornerstone” from the end of v.7 is that “stone” and “rock” are Nominative subjects, not Accusative objects like “cornerstone.” So the standard English versions are problematic. On the other hand, there is no verb in v.7 for “stone” and “rock” to be the subject of, so my translation is awkward with the addition of an unstated verb of being. This does not deny that the “precious one,” the “corner stone,” and the “stone of stumbling” and the “rock of offense” are all parallel titles for Jesus, but if I am right, then the idea is not so much that the disobedient men will stumble but more that they will have a day of reckoning with Christ. (I assume that the neuter Accusative relative pronoun could refer to the feminine nouns “precious,” “petra,” and “cornerstone,” as well as the masculine “lithos-stone.” Most English versions assume instead that this relative pronoun refers to the action of stumbling.
[vii] Originally, this stumbling-block referred in the Greek Old Testament to the pagan nations whose idol-worship would “trip up” God’s people - Exodus 23:32-33 “Thou shalt make no covenant with them and their gods. And they shall not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against me; for if thou shouldest serve their gods, these will be an offence to thee.” (Brenton, cf. Ex. 34:12). Later on, the prophets noted that the decadent Jewish leaders themselves were being “stumbling blocks” due to their apostasy (Isa. 29:21, Jer. 3:3), and that is the sense in which the passages on food and conscience violations in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 use it, but here it is used in a different context to describe the surprisingly-unexpected nature of the Messiah which threw many Jews for a loop. Peter is quoting from the Hebrew text of Isaiah 8:14, a prophecy of the Messiah, “Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” (cf Romans 9:31-33). The next phrase, “rock of offense/scandal,” is synonymous parallelism to “stone of stumbling.” The word skandalon is used in the Greek Old Testament to describe the same sort of tripping up from neighboring nation’s idol worship that the previous word proskommatos is used for (Josh. 23:13, Judges 2:3, Psalm 106:36, Hosea 4:17), and skandalon is also used to speak of the tripping-up of the Jews and others over Christ’s crucifixion in 1 Cor. 1:23-24. Jesus prophecied in Matthew 21:44 that, “the one who falls upon this stone will be smashed, and upon whomever it happens to fall, it will blow him to smithereens” (NAW). On the other hand, the fact that it does not trip up those who are “called” comports with Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble” (NKJV).
[viii] note the recurrence of a Biblical title for Christ followed by a relative clause “which the builders rejected... which they stumble over”
[ix] Paul used the same word to describe his appointment as an apostle in 1Tim. 2:7 and 2 Tim. 1:11. Jesus used it to speak of the sentencing of the wicked in Luke 12:46 (cf. Matthew 24:51). Fausset, in his commentary called this a “penal stumbling” – part of the punishment for rejecting Christ, citing Jer. 13:16 and Daniel 11:19. Positively, Jesus said in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit...” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 indicates God’s power to either appoint us to wrath or to salvation; 2 Peter 2:6 concurs. The NASB went a bit overboard in 1 Peter 2:8 by adding the word “doom” where it doesn’t exist.
[x] nagaf is translated “plague” in every other place it occurs in the Hebrew scriptures but seems to refer to striking with something which is not blunt.
[xi] In the Greek Bible, genos is generally used to denote a particular language group (Gen. 11:6), ethnicity (Gen. 25:17) or family-kinship (Rev. 22:16), but to translate the word “race,” as the ESV and NAS did can be misleading here because God’s New Covenant people are not genetically uniform; they are from “every tongue, tribe, and nation” (Revelation 5:9, 7:9). Their kinship is based in “being born again through [God’s] imperishable seed.” The KJV translation of genos as “generation” has the benefit of tying in to this concept of God’s “begetting” this people, but the downside of the English word “generation” is that we tend to think of it less in terms of generating new life and more in terms of a particular age group limited to a 30-year span of time, which is not what this is talking about. This phrase “chosen generation/select race (kindred)” is what Isaiah 43:20-21 calls the future people that God would form apart from Israel to worship Him in the New Covenant era. (The phrase is found nowhere else in the Greek O.T.)
[xii] All three phrases are in Exodus 19:5-6, and none are found nowhere else in the Greek O.T., although Deut. 7:6, 14:2, and 26:19 use the similar phrase “holy people”. Re both priest & king, note Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1), Jesus Christ, and those whose sins Jesus washed away (Rev. 1:5b-6a & 5:9b-10). When the New Testament speaks of the leaders in the church, it does not use the word “priest” (hiereus) but rather the words “elder” (presbyter) or “overseer” (episcopos). [A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures, p.98]
[xiii] This phrase eis peripoiesin literally means “into making around.” Strong’s Greek Lexicon defines this interesting word as “to make around oneself, that is, acquire.” The picture I get is that of a bird making its nest. In a similar way, Jesus is building a mansion for you in heaven so you can move in and be His neighbor. This Greek phrase only occurs in the post-exilic prophecies about the community of faith that would develop in the New Testament: Haggai 2:10 & Malachi 3:17. It is also spoken of as future in the New Testament: Ephesians 1:13-14, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, & Hebrews 10:39 (These are all the occurrences of this word in the Greek Bible.)
[xiv] This is a quote from the Septuagint of Psalm 9:19. This is God’s intended response for us when we are saved: to extol His personal character. The word translated “praises/excellencies/virtues” is not the usual word for “praise,” it is a rare word which describes the epitome of greatness in personal being. (Besides here, the word exangellw is only to be found in Psalms and Proverbs and the long ending of Mark.) Isaiah gives us an example of how to declare God’s virtues in Isaiah 63:7.
[xv] Later in 2 Peter 1:3, he states explicitly that God “called us by His glory and virtue” – cf. 1 Peter 1:15 “He who called you is holy”
[xvi] cf. Isaiah 42:16, Acts 26:17-18 , 2 Corinthians 4:6, Isa 42:6 & 49:6. There is no other passage in the Bible which speaks of God’s light being “marvelous,” but the word “marvelous” is in Psalm 118:23, after the passage which Peter quoted a couple of verses ago.
[xvii] “The old rendering... had this idea of possession, for ‘peculiar’ is from pecus (Latin for flock).” ~A.T. Robertson
[xviii] “Change... from ‘the long antecedent state’ [Perfect tense “had not been shown mercy”] to ‘the singular event of conversion which ended it” [Aorist tense “have been shown mercy”]. ~A.T. Robertson, quoting Hort
[xix] Whatever the KJV phrase “obtained mercy” meant four hundred years ago, to readers today it sounds like the believers could do something to earn God’s mercy, but that is the opposite of the meaning of this Greek word for “mercy” which is spelled in the passive voice and which therefore means “have been shown mercy.” Once again, Peter quotes from the Old Testament, this time from the first two chapters of the book of Hosea, in which the prophet called idol-worshipping Israelites to return to a covenantal relationship with the LORD.