성경 주석서

1. Wherefore laying aside] The sequence of thought goes on, as is seen in the “new-born babes” of the next verse, from the thought of the “regeneration” of believers expressed in chap. 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:23. As entering on a new and purer life they are to “lay aside” (compare the use of the kindred noun in connexion with baptism in chap. 1 Peter 3:21) the evil that belongs to the old. As far as the list of evils is concerned, they point, especially in the “hypocrisies and evil speakings,” to the besetting sins of the Jewish rather than the Gentile character, as condemned by our Lord (Matthew 23 et al.) and St James (James 3:4), and so confirm the view which has been here taken, that the Epistle was throughout addressed mainly to Jewish converts.

2. as newborn babes] The Greek noun, like the English, implies the earliest stage of infancy. See Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44; Luke 2:12; Luke 2:16.

the sincere milk of the word] The English version tries to express the force of the original but has had recourse to a somewhat inadequate paraphrase. Literally, the words may be rendered as the rational (or intellectual) milk, the adjective having very nearly the force of “spiritual” in such passages as 1 Corinthians 10:3-4. The “milk” of which he speaks is that which nourishes the reason or mind, and not the body, and is found in the simpler form of the Truth as it is in Jesus which was presented by the Apostolic Church to the minds of its disciples. Looking to the other instances of parallelism between St Peter’s language and those of the Epistles of St Paul, we can scarcely be wrong in thinking that here also he more or less reproduces what he had read in them. The word for “rational” meets us in Romans 12:1 (“reasonable” in the English version), in the same sense as here, and is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The thought that those who are as yet in spiritual childhood, must be fed with the spiritual milk adapted to their state, is found in 1 Corinthians 3:2. Comp. also Hebrews 5:12-13. There is almost as striking a coincidence in the adjective sincere (better, pure or unadulterated), which expresses precisely the same thought as that of St Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:17 (“we are not, as the many, adulterators of the word of God”) and 2 Corinthians 4:2 (“not dealing with the word of God deceitfully”). The thought implied in the word is that, however simple may be the truths which men teach, according to the capacities of their hearers, they should at all events be free from any admixture of conscious falsehood. The words fix the sentence of condemnation on the “pious frauds,” on the populus vult decipi et decipiatur, on which even Christian teachers and Churches have too often acted. In the word “desire,” or long after (the word expressing an almost passionate yearning), we have a sad reminder that the spiritual appetite is not as spontaneous as the natural. Infants do not need to be told to seek the mother’s breast.

that ye may grow thereby] The better MSS. add the words unto salvation. Though not essential to the sense, they give a worthy completeness to it, and it is not easy to understand how they came to be omitted in the later MSS.

3. if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious] Better, if ye tasted, as referring more definitely to the experiences of the first period of their life as Christians. The word “tasted” as applied to those experiences follows naturally, as in Hebrews 6:4, on the imagery of the milk. The Greek word for “gracious” itself carries on the metaphor of the tasting, being applied in Luke 5:39 to express the mellowness of wine ripened by age. The words are a quotation from Psalm 34:8 as it stands in the LXX. version. We can scarcely doubt that the Apostle saw in the Master he had owned in Christ the “Lord” of whom the Psalmist spoke. It is possible that he may have been led to choose the quotation from the close resemblance in sound between the two Greek words for “Christ” (Christos) and “gracious” (Chrestos). The acceptance of the name of Christian as carrying with it this significance, and being, as it were, nomen et omen, was common in the second century (Tertullian Apol. 100:3), and it would have been quite in accordance with Jewish habits of thought for St Peter to have anticipated that application.

4. To whom coming, as unto a living stone] The whole imagery changes, like a dissolving view, and in the place of the growth of babes nourished with spiritual milk, we have that of a building in which each disciple of Christ is as a “living stone” spontaneously taking its right place in the building that rests on Christ as the chief corner-stone. The new imagery is connected in St Peter’s mind with its use in Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16, but it is not without significance to note that we have the same sequence of the two metaphors in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11. It may be noted also that the Greek is bolder in its use of the image than the English, and has no particle of comparison, to whom coming, even to a living stone. The term “living” is used in its fullest sense, presenting the paradox of connecting the noun with the adjective which seems most remote from it. The lower sense of the word in which Latin writers applied the term saxum vivum to rocks in their natural form as distinct from those that had been hewn and shaped, is hardly admissible here.

disallowed indeed of men] The verb is the same as the “rejected” of Matthew 21:42. We cannot forget that the thoughts on which St Peter now enters had their starting-point in the citation of the Psalm by our Lord on that occasion. In the substitution of the wide term “men” for the “builders” of the Psalm, we may trace the feeling that it was not the rulers of the Jews only, nor even the Jews only as a nation, but mankind at large, by whom the “head of the corner” had been rejected. Here again we see in the Epistle the reproduction of the Apostle’s earlier teaching (Acts 4:11).

but chosen of God, and precious] More accurately, but with God (i.e. in God’s sight) chosen, precious (or, held in honour). The two words emphasize the contrast between man’s rejection and God’s acceptance. Both are taken from the LXX. of Isaiah 28:16.

5. ye also, as lively stones] Better, as living stones, there being no reason for a variation in the English, to which there is nothing corresponding in the Greek. The repetition of the same participle gives prominence to the thought that believers are sharers in the life of Christ, and that, in the building up of the spiritual temple, each of these “living stones” takes its voluntary, though not self-originated, part. It is an open question, as far as the Greek is concerned, whether the verb is in the passive or the middle voice, in the indicative or the imperative mood, but the sense is, perhaps, best given by the rendering, build yourselves up.

a spiritual house] The words come as a secondary predicate of the previous clause. “This,” St Peter says, “is what you will become by coming to Christ and building yourselves on Him.” The “house,” like the corner-stone, carries our thoughts back to the Temple as “the house of God” (1 Kings 8:10), which finds its antitype in that Ecclesia to which St Paul attaches the same glorious title (1 Timothy 3:15). We can hardly think that St Peter could write these words without remembering the words which had told him of the rock on which Christ would build His Church, and into the full meaning of which he was now, at last, entering (Matthew 16:18).

a holy priesthood] The thought of the Temple is followed naturally by that of its ritual and of those who are the chief agents in it. Here also there is a priesthood, but it is not attached, as in the Jewish Temple, to any sacerdotal caste, like that of the sons of Aaron, but is co-extensive with the whole company of worshippers. As in the patriarchal Church, as in the original ideal of Israel (Exodus 19:5), from which the appointment of the Levitical priesthood was a distinctly retrograde step consequent on the unfitness of the nation for its high calling as a kingdom of priests, as in the vision of the future that floated before the eyes of Isaiah (Isaiah 61:6), so now in the Church of Christ, there was to be no separate priesthood, in the old sense of the word, and with the old functions. All were to offer “spiritual sacrifices” (we note the identity of thought with Romans 12:1) as contrasted with the burnt-offerings or meat-offerings of Jewish ritual. And, by what to a Jew must have seemed at first the strangest of all paradoxes, and afterwards the development of a truth of which germinal hints had been given to his fathers, in this new order of things the Temple and the Priesthood were not, as in the old, distinguished and divided from each other, but were absolutely identical. The Priests who sacrificed in the true Temple, were themselves the stones of which that Temple was built.

acceptable to God] St Peter uses the stronger and more emphatic form of the adjective which was familiar on St Paul’s lips (Romans 15:16; Romans 15:31; 2 Corinthians 6:2; 2 Corinthians 8:12). In the addition of the words “through Jesus Christ,” we have at once the sanction for the Church’s use of that form of words in connexion with all her acts of prayer and praise, and the implied truth that it is only through their union with Christ as the great High Priest and with His sacrifice that His people are able to share His priesthood and to offer their own spiritual sacrifices.

6. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture] As the words are not quoted in exact accordance either with the LXX. or with the Hebrew, it is natural to see in them a citation from Isaiah 28:16, freely made from memory.

a chief corner stone] The words, as in Psalm 118:22, Ephesians 2:20, point to the stone at the corner where two walls met, and resting on which they were bonded together and made firm.

elect, precious] Better, to maintain the identity of phrase, chosen, precious (or, held in honour).

he that believeth on him shall not be confounded] The meaning of the Hebrew is fairly expressed by the English version, “He that believeth shall not make haste,” i.e. shall go on his way calmly and trustfully, shall not be put to a hurried or hasty flight. Here St Peter follows the LXX. which expresses substantially the same thought.

7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious] More accurately, Unto you therefore that believe there is the honour. The last words stand in direct connexion with the “shall not be ashamed” of the previous verse, and are not a predicate asserting what Christ is, but declare that honour, not shame, is the portion of those who believe on Him.

but unto them which be disobedient] The Greek word, like the English, expresses something more than the mere absence of belief and implies a deliberate resistance. To such as these, St Peter says, combining Isaiah 8:14-15 with the other passages in which the symbolism of the stone was prominent, much in the same way as St Paul combines them in Romans 9:33, the very corner-stone itself became “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” Here again his language is an echo of our Lord’s (Matthew 21:44).

8. which stumble at the word] The “word,” as before, is the sum and substance of the Gospel. Men opposing themselves to that word, looking on it as an obstacle to be got rid of, were as those who rush upon a firm-fixed stone, and who falling over it are sorely bruised.

whereunto also they were appointed] Attempts have been made to soften the apparent fatalism of the words by carrying the antecedent of the “whereunto” as far back as 1 Peter 2:5, and seeing in the words the statement that even those who stumbled were appointed, as far as God’s purpose was concerned, to be built up on Christ. It is, however, all but obvious that this puts a forced and artificial meaning on the Apostle’s words. What he really affirms is that it is part of God’s appointed order that the disobedient should stumble and be put to shame. And it may be noted that this way of looking on things is eminently characteristic of him. In the treachery of Judas he read the lesson that “the Scripture must needs have been fulfilled” (Acts 1:16). Stumbling, however, was not necessarily identical with falling irretrievably (Romans 11:11).