1 Peter

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, one of the men Jesus sent out with his message. He writes to God's chosen people, who live as foreigners scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

Note"The strangers scattered" renders the language of the Dispersion, the term for Jews living away from their homeland. Peter applies it to his readers, who live as resident foreigners without the standing of citizens, whether or not they had literally been displaced. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey; "Asia" here is the province on the western coast, not the continent.

2God the Father chose you because he knew you beforehand. The Spirit set you apart for God, so that you would obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be given to you again and again.

2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

NoteSprinkling blood on people sealed an agreement: at Sinai Moses threw blood over the people to bind them to the covenant, and blood was also sprinkled to make priests and sacred objects fit for use. "Grace" means a gift given freely, nothing earned by the receiver and nothing owed in return.

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope, through the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Note"A lively hope" in 1611 English meant a living hope, one that is alive, not a cheerful or energetic one.

4He has given us a share in something that cannot rot, cannot be stained, and never fades. It is being kept safe in heaven for you.

4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

NoteAn inheritance, in Israel's law, was the family's allotted portion of land, held permanently and handed down to the children. The three things Peter says this inheritance cannot do, rot, be defiled, and fade, are exactly the three things that can happen to a piece of land.

5God's power is guarding you, through your faith, until you are saved completely. That salvation is ready and waiting to be shown at the last time.

5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Note"The last time" means the end of the present age, when what is now hidden is brought out into the open.

6This fills you with great joy, even though for a little while now, if it has to be so, you are weighed down with sadness by many kinds of hard testing.

6Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

NoteTwo King James words have shifted sense. "Heaviness" means grief or distress, not physical weight. "Temptations" here means trials or testings of any kind, hardship that puts a person to the test, not enticement to do wrong.

7These tests come so that your faith may be proved real. Faith is worth far more than gold, which is tested by fire and still perishes. Your tested faith will bring praise, honor, and glory when Jesus Christ appears.

7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

NoteThe image is from metalworking: gold ore was melted so the impurities separated out and the metal was proved pure. "Tried" throughout this verse means tested and shown genuine, not merely attempted.

8You have never seen him, yet you love him. You do not see him now, yet you trust him, and you are full of a joy that words cannot describe, a joy full of glory.

8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

Note"Unspeakable" means beyond what words can express. It carries none of the modern sense of shameful.

9And you are receiving what your faith has been aiming at all along: the saving of your souls.

9Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Note"The end of your faith" means its goal or outcome, the thing faith was aimed at all along, not its ending.

10The prophets who spoke long ago about this salvation asked questions about it and searched into it carefully. They were the ones who spoke ahead of time about the kindness God would show you.

10Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

11They tried to work out what time, and what kind of time, the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to. That Spirit said in advance that Christ would suffer, and that glory would come after.

11Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

NoteThe Greek behind "what, or what manner of time" can mean which moment, or what kind of season, and translators have long differed over which is meant. Either way the point is that the prophets did not know when, or under what conditions, their own words would come true.

12God showed them that they were not serving themselves but us in these things. Those things have now been told to you by people who preached the good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into them.

12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Note"The Holy Ghost" is the Holy Spirit; "ghost" in 1611 English simply meant spirit, with no sense of a haunting. "Gospel" means good news, an announcement that something has happened. The verb behind "look into" pictures bending down to peer into something, the way a person stoops to see through a narrow opening.

13So get your mind ready for hard work, and keep a clear head. Put your hope fully on the kindness that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Note"Gird up the loins" comes from daily life: a man wearing a long robe gathered the loose cloth and tucked it into his belt before running, fighting, or hard work. To gird up the loins of the mind is to get the mind ready for action. "Be sober" means clear-headed and self-controlled; it is wider than staying off drink.

14Live as children who obey. Do not shape your lives by the desires you followed before, back when you did not know better.

14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

Note"Lusts" in 1611 English meant strong desires of any kind, not sexual desire in particular.

15Instead, be holy in everything you do, just as the God who called you is holy.

15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

Note"Conversation" in 1611 English meant a person's whole way of living, their conduct and dealings with other people, not their talk. The same word appears again in verse 18.

16For it is written in Scripture, "Be holy, because I am holy."

16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

NoteThe quotation comes from Israel's law, where the line "Be ye holy; for I am holy" is repeated several times in Leviticus. "Holy" means set apart, belonging to God and marked off from ordinary use; moral purity follows from that, but the root idea is belonging.

17You call on a Father who judges each person by what that person does, and who plays no favorites. So live with deep respect for him during your stay here as foreigners.

17And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

Note"Without respect of persons" translates an idiom for a judge who does not lift up anyone's face, meaning one who cannot be swayed by rank, wealth, or family connections. "Sojourning" means a stay in a place where you are a resident foreigner rather than a citizen. "Fear" here is reverent awe before God, not fright.

18You know that you were bought back from the empty way of life your ancestors handed down to you. The price paid was not something that wears out, like silver or gold.

18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

Note"Redeemed" means bought back by paying a price; the word was used of buying a slave out of slavery or freeing a captive by ransom. "Corruptible" means perishable, able to decay or be used up. "Vain" means empty, without substance or result.

19It was the precious blood of Christ, who was like a lamb with no flaw and no spot on it.

19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

NoteAn animal brought for sacrifice had to be physically flawless. One that was injured, diseased, or marked was refused. "Without blemish and without spot" is that requirement, applied here to Christ.

20God chose him for this before the world was made, but Christ was shown openly in these last times for your sake.

20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Note"Foreordained" translates a word meaning known or marked out beforehand. "Manifest" means made visible, brought out where people could see. "These last times" is the period Peter understands to have begun with Christ's coming.

21Through him you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So your faith and your hope rest in God.

21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

22By obeying the truth, through the Spirit, you have made your souls clean, so that you have a genuine love for your fellow believers. So love one another deeply, from a pure heart.

22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Note"Love of the brethren" translates philadelphia, the ordinary Greek word for the affection between brothers and sisters in one family, used here of fellow believers, women as well as men. "Unfeigned" means unpretended, with nothing put on for show.

23You have been born again. The seed this new life came from is not the kind that rots but the kind that lasts, and it came through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.

23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Note"Seed" here is the ordinary word for what a father contributes in conceiving a child, carrying on the image of being born again from the start of the verse.

24For Scripture says, "All people are like grass, and all human glory is like a flower in the grass. The grass dries up and the flower drops off,

24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

NoteThese two verses quote Isaiah 40:6 to 8, in the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures that Peter's readers used. "All flesh" is a Hebrew way of saying every living human being. In that climate grass springs up after the rains and dries out within weeks.

25but the word of the Lord lasts forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

NoteThe quotation and Peter's comment on it use two different Greek words for "word", but both mean a message spoken aloud. He is identifying the enduring word Isaiah spoke of with the good news preached to his readers.