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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 2:10 - 2:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
10. οὐ λαὸς … οὐκ ἠλεημένοι. In Hos 1:6-7; Hos 2:23, the faithlessness of Israel to Jehovah her true bridegroom is described under the figure of the prophet’s faithless wife who deserts him for false paramours. The children are therefore called by symbolical names, Lo-ammi = “not my people” and Lo-ruhamah = “not having obtained mercy.” But when their mother is at last restored their names are changed to Ammi and Ruhamah. In Hosea the words refer to Israelites but in Rom 9:25 St Paul applies the passage to the admission of the Gentiles. So here St Peter, probably borrowing from St Paul, is almost certainly referring to the admission of Gentiles to be the new “Israel of God.”
οὐκ ἠλεημένοι … ἐλεηθέντες. The perfect participle denotes the long-continued state in which they had lived as heathen, while the aorist refers to the crisis of their conversion, though of course the effects of that mercy are still continuous. Neither St Peter nor St Paul mean that the heathen or the unconverted Jew had no share in God’s mercy. The reference is to the special mercy of the gift of the Gospel.
The Second Section of the Epistle, 1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 4:11, contains an exhortation to renounce heathen principles of conduct and adopt Christian principles, which will necessarily transform the various social relationships and duties of life.