Text -- 1 Peter 2:1-6 (NET)

2:1 So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2:2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation, 2:3 if you have experienced the Lord’s kindness.

A Living Stone, a Chosen People

2:4 So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and priceless in God’s sight, 2:5 you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6 For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:1

¹ tn Or “put away.”

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:2

¹ tn Here “And” has been supplied in the translation to show clearly the connection between vv. 1 and 2.

² tn Grk “getting rid of…yearn for.”

³ tn The word for spiritual in Greek is λογικός (logikos), which is a play on words with the reference in 1:23-25 to the living and enduring word (λόγος, logos) of God, through which they were born anew. This is a subtle indication that the nourishment for their growth must be the word of God.

⁴ tn Or “in, in regard to.” But the focus of “salvation” here, as in 1:5, 9, is the future deliverance of these who have been born anew and protected by God’s power.

⁵ tc The Byzantine text lacks εἰς σωτηρίαν (ei" swthrian, “to salvation”), while the words are found in the earliest and best witnesses (Ì⁷² א A B C K P Ψ 33 81 630 1241 1505 1739 al latt sy co). Not only is the longer reading superior externally, but since the notion of growing up [in]to salvation would have seemed theologically objectionable, it is easy to see why some scribes would omit it.

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:3

¹ tn Grk “have tasted that the Lord is kind.”

² sn A quotation from Ps 34:8.

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:4

¹ tn Grk “to whom coming…you are built up…” as a continuation of the reference to the Lord in v. 3.

² tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two phrases more than can be easily expressed in English.

³ tn Grk “chosen, priceless.”

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:5

¹ tn Grk “unto a holy priesthood to offer.”

NET Notes: 1Pe 2:6

¹ tn Grk “it contains,” “it stands.”

² tn Grk “chosen, priceless.”

³ tn Grk “the one who believes.”

⁴ tn Grk either “in him” or “in it,” but the OT and NT uses personify the stone as the King, the Messiah whom God will establish in Jerusalem.

⁵ tn The negative (οὐ μή, ou mh) is emphatic: “will certainly not.”

⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 28:16.