1 Peter 2

1 Peter 2:1

Wherefore arming yourselves against the erroneous doctrines and practices of the Gnostic heretics that insinuate themselves among you, to infuse villainy and all kind of deceitfulness and hypocrisy, as also of malice and calumniating of others the purest Christians,

1 Peter 2:2

Behave yourselves with that simplicity which becometh new-born children, suck in that pure nourishment which by your rulers is afforded you, (see note [a] Rom. xii,) viz. instruction or Christian doctrine, and that pure from all Jewish or heretical mixtures, which may increase your Christian stature, advance you to an higher pitch of Christianity, and at last bring you to salvation.

[a] sincere milk] What λογικὸν γάλα, rational milk, signifies, hath been noted note [a] on Rom. xii, that milk or food which men, that is, rational creatures, feed on, and which men, rational creatures again, the apostles of Christ, afford them for their spiritual nourishment or instruction. Such figurative speeches as these are very ordinary, and have no more strangeness in them than νοητή or πνευματικὴ τροφή, intellectual or spiritual food, that is, food to the understanding or to the spirit: νοῦς and λόγος and πνεῦμα, the understanding and reason and spirit being in effect all one, and milk being every where used for that instruction that is fit for those of younger years, Heb. v. 12. Agreeable to this figurative expression of rational milk is that of Plato, when he calls rulers νομεῖς καὶ τροφοὶ ἀγέλης ἀνθρωπίνης, “feeders and pastors of the human herd,” this flock of reasonable creatures which are fed with this rational milk. And so in Eustathius on Homer Ἰλιάδ. ε’. Ἀνθρωπίνην ποιμαντικὴν ἀσκούμενοι, “they that exercise this trade of feeding men,” (as shepherds feed their flocks,) which have therefore so ordinarily that title of ποιμένες, pastors.

1 Peter 2:3

Which sure you will do if you have but once (as David saith of God’s law, Psalm xxxiv. 9.) tasted how sweet, how much for our advantage it is, which is designed us in the gospel of Christ;

1 Peter 2:4

To whom associating or conjoining yourselves (by obedience and worship) as to a living, not dead foundation, or corner-stone, rejected indeed by the Jewish sanhedrim, but in God’s account most choice and esteemed, and meant for the foundation of a visible church,

1 Peter 2:5

Do you accordingly, not as dead but living members, join together, not only in inward piety, but in continual assemblies or church meetings, of which every Christian is to be a part, and so all together make up a spiritual temple, that is, congregation, to pray unto and praise God, to perform to him those acts of the Christian sacrifice to which you are as it were consecrated and set apart by God, and which being now offered to God in the name of Christ, or through what he hath suffered and done for us, will be sure to be acceptable to God, without the bodily sacrifices of the Jews, or observation of their law.

1 Peter 2:6

According to that which the scripture tells us, that in the erecting the new church under the gospel, Jesus Christ and his doctrine, in opposition to all other, is appointed by God to be the foundation of the foundation, so that all that is in the church must be founded and built on him; and whosoever doth sincerely believe, and is truly built on him, shall never fail of his expectation, he shall never miscarry that lays his weight on that foundation: (see note [m] Rom. ix.)

[b] it is contained] The word περιέχει is taken notice of by grammarians as a word fit for the citing any passage out of an author. So in Erotian’s Medicinal Lexicon, in the word Κάμμορος, λέξις περιέχουσα is a word which is to be met with in the author and place which he there cites. Here it is used impersonally, as ἀπέχει, (see note [d] on Mark xiv.) and so 1 Macc. xv. 2, and 2 Macc. ix. 18. Accordingly περιοχή is used for any place cited out of the scripture, Acts viii. 32.

[c] elect] By occasion of this word ἐκλεκτὸς, elect, in this place, it will not be amiss to give an account, once for all, of the use of that and the like words generally in the scripture. To begin with the Old Testament first. The Hebrew word, which must especially be taken notice of, is בַּחַר, probavit, examinavit, elegit, to approve, examine, choose. From whence is the noun בַּחוּר, directly answerable to ἐκλεκτὸς, elect, here, taken adjectively: [and therefore, Prov. xvii. 3, where the Hebrew hath בַּחוּר, and our English render rightly from thence, the Lord trieth the hearts, the Septuagint read ἐκλεκτὰ καρδίαι παρὰ Κυρίῳ, hearts elect before the Lord.] This word בַּחוּר is from hence taken by them to signify, 1, any choice person fit for employment, especially for war, and from thence is used. 1 Macc. iv. 1, for a choice party, ἐκλεκτὴ ἵππος, a thousand of the choice, that is, best horsemen, and Exod. xiv. 7, chosen chariots; and so the left-handed men, that were such excellent archers, Judges xx. 16, are ἐκλεκτοί, chosen men; and Psalm lxxviii. 31, the chosen men, that is, the soldiers, or military men; and accordingly the word doth signify a young man, who is fittest for military and such other employments. Thus 1 Sam. viii. 16, בַּחוּרִים, we render your goodliest young men, (which the Septuagint mistaking, and reading ק instead of ח, render τὰ βουκέλια ὑμῶν, your herds,) and Deut. xxxii. 25, it is clearly taken for young men, in opposition to maidens, עלכיתון, saith the

D d 2

1 Peter 2:7

To you therefore that are believers this is matter of infinite advantage; but for those that stand out in unbelief, to them belongs the reproach of that prophecy, that he that is refused by the Jews is honoured by God, and made the sole, total foundation of his church, on which nothing must be built which he hath not taught, no Judaical, old, or heretical new doctrine must be mingled with it.

1 Peter 2:8

But this foundation-stone such an one as should be apt to hurt and mischief many, who shall apostatize and fall off from the faith of Christ through fear of persecution, and by that means be destroyed among the persecutors. And this is no strange thing, but the very same that is prophesied of, and so appears to be part of God’s decree, that they that obey not the gospel of Christ should be destroyed by him, or that the seed sown in stony ground should at the scorching of the sun wither away, that all carnal professors should be thus tried and discovered by persecution; and so that this corner-stone should be the bruising and ruining of many who stumble and fall from Christ because Christianity brings sufferings along with it.

[d] appointed] The word τιθέναι, to put or set, is ordinarily used for appointing or ordaining, and being applied to God, or spoken indefinitely, doth oft signify his decree or destination. Thus, John xv. 16, ἴθηκα ὑμᾶς, I have appointed you, as harvesters to go abroad in all the world, and bring in converts to heaven. So of Christ, Acts xiii. 47, Τέθεικά σε εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν, I have set, that is, appointed or decreed, thee a light for the Gentiles. So 1 Thess. v. 9, Οὐκ ἴθετο ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ὀργὴν, ἀλλ’ εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας, God hath not set us, that is, decreed, determined us, to wrath or destruction, (as he doth those whom for their obstinate course in sin he forsakes, and no further calls them to repentance,) but for the obtaining of salvation; that is, hath decreed to call us to the knowledge of the truth by the preaching of the gospel, and so to repentance and reformation here, the means to attain eternal salvation hereafter, if we do not resist and evacuate his gracious calls and admonitions. And so without question it is to be understood here, that of the ἀπειθοῦντες τῷ λόγῳ, of them that disobey the word, or gospel, of Christ, and so προσκόπτονσι, fall or bruise themselves, or, (if the comma, as it is in the ordinary copies, be placed after τῷ λόγῳ, the word, not before it,) προσκόπτονσι λόγῳ, fall and bruise themselves at the word, ἀπειθοῦντες, disobeying and rejecting it when it is preached to them, it may truly be said, εἰς ὁ καὶ ἐτέθησαν, that they were ordained thereunto. And of that there are two possible interpretations, both agreeable to analogy of faith; first, that the ἀπειθοῦντες, they that disobey the gospel, that stand out obstinately against it, ἐτέθησαν, were decreed and appointed by God

1 Peter 2:9

But you are, and so must approve yourselves to be, a special sort of men, a kingdom or multitude of priests, set apart and consecrated for the continual serving and daily waiting upon God; a people that being delivered from the dominion of other your former masters, sin and Satan and persecutors, and set free to be lords of yourselves, with liberty to what Christ commands you, and so kings, must now behave yourselves also like so many priests, (those who spent all their time in sacrificing &c. and so should you,) in the performing constant service unto God in the public assemblies, which God requires of you, as he did the sacrifices of the Levitical priests, (see note [d] Rev. i,) and so a sacred holy nation, (as the whole people of the Jews were an holy people in one respect, Lev. xxv. 23, and as the Levites were in another,) a peculiar treasure of Christ’s for him to preserve first, Mal. iii. 17, then to possess as his own; that so by this means, by this constant, public serving of him, you may set forth and illustrate Christ’s powerful and gracious workings, (see note [a] 2 Pet. i,) who hath wrought so glorious and blessed a change in you:

[e] a peculiar people] What λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν signifies here, must be discerned from Exod. xix. 5, whence it is taken, (though the words are removed out of their place, and these, which are there before the royal priesthood, here placed after it.) The Hebrew reads there הֲיִיתֶם לִי כְּנֶלֶה, which is literally, you shall be to me a treasure, or κειμήλιον, any thing that is laid up and preserved most carefully. The Greek render it there more according to the sense, ἔσθεσθαι μοι λαὸς περιούσιος, ye shall be unto me a special or peculiar people, as that phrase is used and rendered Tit. ii. 14. And though the apostle here doth not use that whole phrase, yet he takes λαὸς, people, from thence; and for the word כְּנֶלֶה, he renders it from Mal. iii. 17, εἰς περιποίησιν, for an acquisition, or possession; for so there that speech of God’s אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עָשָׂה כְּנֶלֶה, which I make a treasure, or κειμήλιον, (that is, lay up tenderly and carefully, and, as it follows, spare as one spareth his son that serveth him,) is rendered in the Greek, ἦν ἐγὼ ποιῶ εἰς περιποίησιν, which I make for an acquisition, or treasure. What the word περιποίησιν signifies hath been shewed, note [d] on Heb. x, viz. the same with σωτηρία, saving or preserving; and so it perfectly agrees with the Hebrew כְּנֶלֶה, which is a jewel to be preserved, or kept, most safely:

1 Peter 2:10

Who at first continued in unbelief among your brethren the Jews, and so were become a kind of heathen people, were not at all within the obedience of Christ, the pale of his church, but now are received into it; you that a long time, while Christ lived here on the earth, had not the happiness to believe in him, but have found place of repentance since, and are now received into the church and the favour of God.

1 Peter 2:11

To you therefore that are at this time dispersed among the nations, ch. i. 1, (see ch. i. 17,) as to so many scattered, travelling persons, who ought of all others to be most wary to avoid dangers, and to behave yourselves tenderly as in the sight of strangers, my present exhortation becomes seasonable, to avoid the doctrines and practices of the Gnostics, and to that end to remember that you are not at home, but in a journey; and so that it is most unseasonable for you at such a time to indulge yourselves to the excesses and jollities which men in their own houses or countries do sometimes indulge to, but do not use them in a strange place, or before those they know not; remembering further the dangerous, malignant nature of such lusts, that they are most pernicious to the soul.

1 Peter 2:12

But that you, on the contrary, live so as may be of good report among the Gentiles, that they that look on Jews, not only as persons of another religion, but also as rebels and malefactors, may see the Christians to be quite otherwise, and by your actions reverence you, and so entertain a good opinion of Christian religion, which hath such an influence upon you, in making the Christian Jews so much more regular and meek than the other Jews are, more quiet under the heathen government which is now over them, and so more capable of good usage under the emperors, when they send their proconsuls to suppress the seditions, than the unbelieving Jews have appeared to be.

[f] behold] The word ἀποπτεύσαντες in this place may probably signify more than looking on; because, first, that will not so well agree with ἐκ καλῶν ἔργων, by your good works, and the supplying it by which they shall behold, supposedly ἐκ καλῶν ἔργων, by your good works, to belong to δοξάζωσι, glorify, following, whereas it is evidently joined with ἀποπτεύσαντες. Secondly, ἀποπτεύειν, to behold, is, ch. iii. 2, put with an accusative case after it, ἀποπτεύσαντες ἀναστροφήν, beholding your conversation. Hesychius hath a word near unto this, ἀπέπιζε, which he renders ἐντρέπουν, revere; and ὑποπτεύειν, proportionable to the Latin suspicere, (looking on the ground, to note modesty and reverence,) is ordinarily taken in that sense. And that which seems most probable is, that either ἀποπτεύειν may have that sense also, or else be by the scribe mistaken for one of those, and so be best rendered revering you, or looking with reverence upon you.

[g] day of visitation] What the day of visitation signifies here, may be a matter of some question, but that in part resolved by the use of the same phrase, Isa. x. 3. What will ye do in the day of visitation, and the desolation which shall come from far? where it is evident that the day of visitation, and the coming of desolation, or destruction, are all one. So to visit signifies to punish, to avenge, very frequently in the prophets: Shall I not visit for this? shall I not be avenged? &c.; and, I will visit their offences with a rod. And so the bishop’s title, ἀπίσκοπος, visitor, may fitly be given him in respect of the rod or censures, the ecclesiastical punishments intrusted to him, which are εἰς δλεβρον σαρκὸς, for destruction of the flesh, and εἰς καθαίρεσιν, for excision. This then being premised, the only difficulty will be, what day of vengeance this was that here is meant. And the context seems sufficient to answer that. For having admonished the Christian Jews to behave themselves honestly among the Gentiles, that they may not speak against them as evil-doers, and presently specifying wherein this honest conversation consisted, in submitting to and obeying their heathen governors, ver. 13, this evidently refers to the frequent seditions that were stirred up among the Jews against the Roman yoke, which made them looked on by their procurators and the emperors as unquiet turbulent people, and brought the Roman armies and destructions upon them. And so against this it is that he warns the Jews Christians, that they meddle not with them that are given to changes, join not with the seditious, and that upon this

1 Peter 2:13

Be obedient therefore to every heathen governor, (see note [c] Rom. viii,) upon obligation of conscience, because he is instituted by God: and this whether to Cæsar the emperor in the first place, as the supreme;

1 Peter 2:14

Or, in the next place, and in subordination to him, to proconsuls and procurators, by commission appointed by him, for the keeping of courts, punishing of malefactors, and rewarding and encouraging the obedient.

1 Peter 2:15

For to this doth Christian religion oblige all, that by subjection to our heathen superiors, and by all other Christian performances, (see note [f] ch. iv,) we should leave the heathens unable to object any thing against us;

1 Peter 2:16

As men that are freed by Christ from many yokes, but not from that of subjection to God or to superiors, and therefore not pretending to any such liberty, nor covering sedition, &c. under colour of Christianity, as the Gnostics did, 1 Tim. vi.

1 Peter 2:17

Give every man the honour and obedience due to him. Love all your fellow-Christians. Fear God; and, in subordination to him, pay all obedience to the emperor.

1 Peter 2:18

Let all servants approve their obedience to their masters to be sincere, by performing it not only when they use them kindly and favourably, but even when by unjust usage they provoke them to some impatience and resistance; for this is the season for them to shew forth the influence of Christianity upon their hearts.

1 Peter 2:24

For whereas all human things perish and fade away, (see James i. 10,) and come suddenly to nothing from the greatest beauty and glory, and accordingly the Jewish carnal external ordinances are now abrogated;

1 Peter 2:25

The word of God now revealed to us by Christ shall never be abrogated, but continue and last for ever: and this is that gospel which hath been preached to and received by you, from which therefore you must not fall off to Judaism again, whatever your temptations or allurements are from the Jews or Gnostics.

CHAP. II.

WHEREFORE laying aside all 1 malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,