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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
6. περιέχει. The substantive περιοχή means (1) the contents of a book, (2) a clause or passage. It is used in Act 8:32 of the passage which the eunuch was reading. Here the verb is intransitive and impersonal = it stands thus in writing, the best MSS. read γραφῇ without the article. The plural αἱ γραφαί is used of “Scripture” as a whole and ἡ γραφή in the N.T. means a particular passage. Here St Peter appeals to the fact that there is written evidence to support his statements.
λίθον. Three passages from the O.T. all containing the same metaphor of a stone are here combined together.
(a) Psa 118:22, “The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner.” The Psalm was probably written after the return from Babylon, and meant that the kingship of Jehovah, though long ignored by the kings and princes of Judah who claimed to be the builders of the nation, has now at last been recognized as the true bond of union for the restored nation. This passage was applied to Christ at the end of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10; Luk 20:17, and again by St Peter in his defence after healing the impotent man, Act 4:11. Here the passage is alluded to in 1Pe 2:4 and quoted in full in 1Pe 2:7.
(b) Isa 28:16, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste.” The passage was probably written at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion and meant that the presence of Jehovah is the one and only source of protection for Judah, and that intrigues with Egypt, etc., are utterly useless.
(c) Isa 8:14, “(He shall be for a sanctuary;) but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence (to both the houses of Israel).” This passage was written in the reign of Ahaz when Israel and Syria were invading Judah. The meaning is that Jehovah will be a sure refuge to those who trust in Him, but will cause the overthrow of unbelievers.
Neither of the two passages from Isaiah therefore had primarily any direct reference to Messiah, but from the Targums and other Jewish books it seems clear that “the stone” was regarded as a regular title of Messiah, and from the application of Psa 118:22 to Christ the other passages in which the word λίθος was used in the LXX. came to be similarly applied. So again in 1Co 3:11 St Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as the foundation (θεμέλιον), and in Eph 2:20 as the chief corner-stone, ἀκρογωνιαῖον, and in later Christian writers who traced the fulfilment of prophecy in Christ “the stone” is used as one of His regular titles. St Paul (Rom 9:33) and St Peter both combine the same two passages of Isaiah and both have some common variations from the LXX.:
(1) both read ἰδοὺ τίθημι ἐν Σιών instead of ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐμβάλλω εἰς τὰ θεμέλια Σιών,
(2) both read πέτρα σκανδάλου instead of πέτρας πτώματι,
(3) both omit εἰς τὰ θεμέλια αὐτῆς,
(4) both insert ἐπʼ αὐτῷ after πιστεύων.
As there are many other coincidences of thought between St Peter and St Paul (especially Romans and Ephesians) the natural inference is that the changes were introduced by St Paul and borrowed by St Peter. But it has been suggested that possibly a collection of O.T. passages, arranged according to their subjects, suitable for proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, was made at a very early date. Certainly such collections were afterwards used, e.g. the Testimonia of Cyprian, where one of the chapters shews that Jesus was styled “the stone.” If such a collection was already extant when St Peter and St Paul wrote they may have both borrowed independently from it, and the same theory might explain other composite quotations in the N.T.
ἐν Σιὼν, the promise was made for Israel and was first fulfilled in Israel by the Incarnation and so is efficacious for the new Israel which is the expansion and archetype of the old.
ἐκλεκτὸν ἀκρογωνιαῖον. The order of the words in the T.R. is thus reversed in the best MSS. as in the LXX., in which case ἀκρογωνιαῖον is probably a substantive, a stone that is elect a chief corner-stone that is held precious. The corner-stone perhaps means that which unites two walls; so in Eph 2:20 where ἀκρογωνιαῖον occurs again the idea is that Jews and Gentiles are united in Christ.
ὁ πιστεύων ἐπʼ αὐτῷ. πιστεύειν ἐπί with the dative suggests the basis on which faith rests. Except in this passage quoted here and in Rom 9:33; Rom 10:11 this construction only occurs in Luk 24:25 and 1Ti 1:16.
οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ. In Isaiah the Hebrew is “shall not make haste,” i.e. flee in panic, לֹא יָחִישׁ, but the LXX. evidently read לֹא יֵבו̇שׁ = shall not be put to shame, i.e. will never find his confidence belied.