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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
9. St Peter applies to his Gentile readers, as the new Israel of God rescued from the slavery of sin, titles of honour which were used (1) in Exo 19:5 of Israel as the Covenant people rescued from Egypt, (2) in Isa 43:20 of the mission for which God was restoring them from Babylon.
Just as within the nation a special body of priests was chosen to do God’s work for the benefit of the whole nation, so among the nations of the world Israel was to be the “priestly nation” through whom all nations were to be blessed, and this is true also of the Church, the new Israel of God.
γένος ἐκλεκτόν from Isa 43:20.
βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα from Exo 19:5 where the Hebrew is “a kingdom of priests.” The LXX. evidently intended both words as substantives, “a body of kings, a body of priests,” so in Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10, βασιλείαν ἱερεῖς τῷ θεῷ. Here however βασίλειον is almost certainly an adjective and the old Hebrew expression which meant a priestly kingdom or nation is changed into “a royal priesthood or body of priests.” The epithet royal here probably means priests in the service of the king, not as in the Apocalypse that Christians are kings as well as priests.
ἔθνος—λαός. Two different Hebrew words were applied to Israel. ἔθνος describes their position as one of the nations of the world, who were distinguished from others by being consecrated (ἅγιον) to God. λαός describes them as the covenant people of God. In the Epp. ἔθνος is nowhere else used of Israel, but in the Gospels and Acts it is used of Israel in speaking to foreigners like Pilate or Felix, or of the conduct of foreigners towards Israel. In Joh 11:50 Caiaphas says, “It is expedient that one man should die for the people (λαός) and not that the whole nation (ἔθνος) should perish,” where ἔθνος might mean the population as distinct from the community or the civil organization, that the Romans would deprive them of all national existence.
λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν. The sense though not the actual Greek phrase is borrowed from Exo 19:5 where the Hebrew is “Ye shall be a peculiar possession,” סְגֻלָּה, but the LXX. rendering is λαὸς περιούσιος, which is the phrase used by St Paul in Tit 2:14, “Christ gave himself on our behalf that he might ransom us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works.” The same Hebrew word סְגֻלָּה is however translated εἰς περιποίησιν in Mal 3:17, “They shall be to me in the day which I make (i.e. my appointed day) for a special possession” (not as A.V. “they shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels”). The substitution of εἰς περιποίησιν for the LXX. περιούσιος would be further suggested to St Peter by Isa 43:21, a passage from which he has already borrowed the words γένος ἐκλεκτόν. There Israel are described by God as λαόν μου ὃν περιεποιησάμην τὰς ἀρετάς μου διηγεῖσθαι. The same verb περιποιεῖσθαι is used of God purchasing the Church in Act 20:28 and of men losing their lives in attempting to secure them as their own, Luk 17:33. The substantive περιποίησις is used of God’s rights of possession over the Church in Eph 1:14. Elsewhere it is used of winning (a) salvation, 1Th 5:9, (b) glory, 2Th 2:14, (c) life, Heb 10:39.
ἀρετάς. In classical Greek ἀρετή originally meant excellence or eminence of any kind, but gradually it came to be used of moral excellence only, i.e. virtue. In the passage which St Peter is quoting, Isa 43:21, and in three other passages it represents the Hebrew “praise.” In the two other passages where it occurs in the O.T. it represents the Hebrew “glory” or “majesty.” Here the idea is that Christians are intended to manifest God’s own excellencies by their lives, cf. Mat 5:16, “that they may see your good works and glorify your Father.” The only other places where ἀρετή occurs in the N.T. are Php 4:8 and 2Pe 1:5.
ἐκ σκότους καλέσαντος. Used of the admission of Gentiles, Act 26:18; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13. So here St Peter almost certainly refers to the transition from heathenism.
θαυμαστόν. God’s light is described as “marvellous” because by it our eyes are opened to see “wondrous things.”