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4. πρὸς ὃν προσερχόμενοι. The words were perhaps suggested by the LXX. of 1Pe 2:5 of the same Psalms 34 which St Peter has just quoted προσέλθατε πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ φωτίσθητε, where the Hebrew is “they looked unto him.”
In other passages of the LXX. the word προσέρχεσθαι is used of drawing near to God for worship, sacrifice or prayer. In this sense it is used with a dative in Heb 4:16; Heb 12:22, of Christians approaching God through Christ as their High-priest and sacrifice, and this idea may perhaps be included here, as St Peter goes on to describe Christians as having a priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices. But besides this the verb was used, Exo 12:48-49; Lev 19:33; Num 9:14; Isa 54:15, of a sojourner (προσήλυτος) coming to sojourn as a stranger among the Jews, and Dr Hort suggests that this idea would be quite in accordance with St Peter’s conception. His readers are not merely the new dispersion (διασπορά, 1Pe 1:1), they are also the new proselytes of the new Israel, but instead of being united merely to a holy people they are united to Christ Himself and are admitted to full priesthood. We have a similar thought in Eph 2:11-22, from which passage St Peter goes on to borrow, that those who were once far off are brought nigh in Christ and built up into one temple of which Christ is the corner-stone.
λίθον ζῶντα. The addition of ζῶντα brings out the thought that the union between Christ and His people is not a mere juxtaposition like that of dead objects but a growth in which living stones are incorporated with a living stone.
ἀνθρώπων has a wider reference than “the builders” and includes both Jews and Gentiles.
ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον, refused as unsuitable. λιθόλογοι (see Robinson, Eph. p. 261) were employed to test stones. Those which were rejected were perhaps marked ἀδόκιμος = Latin reprobatus. The language of Psalms 118 may have been suggested by some actual incident in the rebuilding of the Temple. The same verb is used by our Lord of His rejection by the chief priests and elders, Mar 8:31; Luk 9:22.
ἐκλεκτόν. The Hebrew of Isa 28:16 is “a tried stone” or “stone of proving,” אֶבֶן בֹּחַן, but the LXX. translators evidently read אֶבֶן בָּחוּר, i.e. a chosen stone. The same change occurs in the LXX. of Pro 17:3 and the converse in Pro 8:10.
ἔντιμον in Isa 28:16 represents a Hebrew word meaning precious, i.e. costly, and the word ἔντιμος is used in the same sense in 1Sa 26:21; Psa 72:14; Isa 43:4, but in the N.T., Luk 7:2; Luk 14:8; Php 2:29, it means honoured or honourable.