The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 78

the etone hC1s It lms for you who believe" refer back to ver. 5; God hrvl Clppointetl (Wieeinger, quotetl by liuther). But the them to he built up in his spiritual house, first explC1nritiou ie nearer to the Greek. but they were di8ohedient. It must refer 21ut unto them which be disobedient, the stone either to li,,,.,Oovv-res-sin is punished by whioh the builders disallowed, the so.me is sin: for ein in God's awful judgment made the Head of the comer; rather, o.s hardens the heart; the disobedient are in in the Revised Version, for such as dis- danger of eternal sin ()'.lark iii. W, according believe. St. Peter repeats the words of the to the two oldest manuseripts)-or, more hundred and eighteenth psalm, quotc,d by probably, to ,rpoa-K61r-roua-,v; it is God's ordi- our Lord in Matt. xxi. 42, and by himself nance that disobedience should encl in in Acts iv. 11. '.rhe builders, the priests stumbling; but that stumbling does not and teachers of the Jewish Church, rejected nece3sarily imply condemnation (see Rom. the living Stone: but it became, and indeed xi. 11). The word, the preaching of Obrist throu"h that rejection, the Head of the crucified, was to the Jews a stumbling-block corne~ "He became obedient unto death (1 Cor. i. 23). But not all stumbled that . . . therefore God also highly exalted they might fall. N everlheless, pel'se,erance him." If this psn.lm ie post-Exilic, as mo~t in disobedience must end in everlasting modern critics think, the corner-stone, 111 death. its first application, may be Israel regarded Ver. 9.-But ye are a chosen generation. as a whole. The great builders, the rulers The pronoun" ye" is emphatic. St- Peter is of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, had despised drawing a contrast between the disobedient that stone; but it was chosen of God, and and unbelieving Jews and Christian people now it was set in Zion. It is possible, as whether Je1vs or Gentiles; he ascribes. to Hengstenberg o.nd Delitzsch suggest, that Christio.ns, in a series of phrases quoted from the building of the second temple may have the Old Testament, the various privileges recalled to the mind of the psalmist Isaiah's which had belonaed to the children of J srael. prophecy of the chief Corner-stone. The words, "a ~hosen generation" (-yevo~ Ver. 8.-A.nd a stone of stumbling, and a '""'""ov), are from Isa. xliiL 20, revos flDv rock of offence. St. Peter combines Iso.. viii. -ril '""'""011. The Corner-stone is .elect, 14 with bis first quoto.tions, as St. Paul also precions; the living stones built thereupon does (Rom. ix. 33), both apostles quoting are elect likewise. The whole Ohristi.o.n from the Hebrew, not from the Septuagint, Church ie addressed as an elect race, one which is quite different, inserting two race, because all its members are begotten ntgati.ves. '.rhe living Stone is not only again of the one Father. A royal prie:.t- made the Head of the corner to the confusion hood. Instead of "holy," as in ver. 5, St. ol' the disobedient, but becomes also to their Peter has here the epithet " royal." He destruction a Stone of stumbling: they fall follows the Septuagint Version of Exod. on that Ston.e, and are broken (Matt. xxi. 44). xix. 6; the Hebrew has "a kingdom of That Stone is a Rock (r.e-rpa), the Rock of priests." The word "royo.l" may meaa Age<!, thll Rock on whioh the Chm·oh is built; that God's elect sho.11 sit with Christ in hi~ ~ml to the disobedient it is a Rock of offence throne, and reign with him (Rev. iii. 21; v_ ( 1rl-rpa ,r1<c,v6d.!1.ov). :::SKd.i-oa,\ov(in Attic Greek 10), and that in some sense they reigo. with a-1<o.vod.,\719pov) is properly the catch or spring him now over their ·lower nature, their of a trnp, which makes animals full into the desires and appetites: or, more probably, trap; then a stumbling-block-anythin~ the priesthood of Christians is called" royal" which causes men to fall. We cannot fail because it belongs to the King-" a priest- to notice how St. Petel' echoes the well- hood serving Jehovah the King, just us wo remembered words of our Lord, recorded in speak of • the royal household'" ( Weiss, Matt. xvi. 18, 23. Peter was himself tllen a quoted by Buther). An holy nntion. Also 7rfrpa. a-1eavoc£,\ov, a rock of offence. Even to from Exod. xix. 6. The Israelites were a them which stumble at the Word, being holy nation us separated from the heathen disobedient; literally, who being disobedient and consecrated to God's senico by circum- stumble at the Woi-d-tl10 relative reforring cision. Christians of o.11 nations, anu back to "them which be disobedient" in kindreds, and people, and tongues, o.r" ver, 7, This seems better than (with one no.tion un,ler one King, separakcl to Huther and others) to take -rrj, ,\o-yq, with his service, dedicated to him in holy baptism. o:rmOovvns, '' who stumble, being disobedient A peouliar people. The Greek words. :-.a:is to the ,vord." 'A1m9ovr.es, litemlly," unbe- ,is 1r,pt1ro[71a-111, represent the wol'ds, ;,~_J9 □.i!, lievin"'" contains here, as frequently, the idea or' disobedience, wilful oppooilion. St. of Dent. vii. 6, tmnslated by the LXX. ,\ao;, Pcte1· seems to come very neC1r to St. John's 1r,p,oua-1ov, "o. special people" (Authol'izccl use of Aoi'os for the pe1·sonal Word, the Lord Version). St. Puul ulso hus this tmnslatiun Jesus Christ. Whereunto also they were in Titus ii. H. Tho Hebrew wonl ;,~;~ i:i appointed, "Whereunto" (els 8) cannot l\lnl. iii. 17 is rendered by tho LXX.' ,;,  'i2 'rllE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL Ol!' PETER. [err. u. 1-2B,