But ye. — Like St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, St. Peter turns with an outburst of triumph to the happier and more practical and attractive theme. All the most splendid titles of the old Israel belong in a fuller sense to these Hebrews who have joined the new Israel. In 1 Peter 2:5 they are bidden to aim at being what here they are said to be. (Comp. Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:5.)
A chosen generation. — Better, a chosen, or elect race. As originally the clan of Abraham was selected from among “all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2), so out of the clan of Abraham after the flesh were these men selected to be a new clan, or race. They are not merely individuals selected one by one and left in isolation, but a tribe consolidated, only the bond henceforth is not merely one of common physical descent.
A royal priesthood, an holy nation. — These words are a direct quotation from Exodus 19:6, according to the LXX. version. The Hebrew has “a kingdom of priests,” as in Revelation 1:6 (according to the best reading); which would mean, God’s organised empire, every member of which is a priest. Nor is the thought far different here. The word “royal” does not seem intended to imply that every Christian is a king, or of royal birth (though that, of course, may be shown from elsewhere), but describes his belonging to the King as we might speak of the royal apartments, the royal borough, the royal establishment, or even of the royal servants. The substitution, therefore, of “royal priesthood” for “kingdom of priests” brings out more clearly the personal relation to the Personal King. But if the writer had said” royal priests,” the notion of organisation would have slipped out of sight altogether. By way of compensation, therefore, it is restored in the substitution of “priesthood” (see Note on 1 Peter 2:5) instead of “priests.” This, and the next phrase, “an holy (i.e., consecrated) nation,” describe the whole Israelite nation as they stood beneath Mount Sinai. This must be taken into consideration in dealing with the doctrine of the Christian ministry. The sacerdotal office was as common to all Israelites under the Law as it is to all the new Israel under the Gospel.
A peculiar people. — This curious phrase is literally, a people for a special reservation. It is, no doubt, intended to represent Exodus 19:5, though it differs both from the Greek and the Hebrew, the variation being due to a recollection of the Greek of two other passages of the Old Testament (Isaiah 43:21; Malachi 3:17). The word rendered “peculiar” means properly “making over and above,” and would be represented in Latin by the word peculium, which means a man’s private pocket-money, as, for instance, the money a slave could make by working over hours, or such as a wife might have apart from her husband. When children speak of a thing being their “very own” it exactly expresses what we have here. From this sense of “making over and above,” by working out of hours, the word comes in other places to mean “earning by hard work,” in such a way as to establish peculiar rights of property over the thing earned. So in Acts 20:28, where St. Paul is probably thinking of the passage of Isaiah above referred to, both the hard earning and the special possession are intended: “the Church of God, which He won so hard for His very own, by His own blood.” Here, perhaps, the thought of “earning” is less obvious, and it means “a people to be His very own.” Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, and Ephesians 1:7, where (according to Dr. Lightfoot) it means “for a redemption which consists of taking possession of us for His own.”
That ye should shew forth the praises. — This is an adaptation, though not exactly according to the LXX., of Isaiah 43:21, which passage is brought to St. Peter’s mind by the word rendered “peculiar.” The word “praises” is put here in accordance with the English version there. The Greek means “virtues,” or “powers,” or “excellencies,” a rare word in the New Testament (see 2 Peter 1:3). And the word for “shew forth,” which is nowhere else found in the New Testament, means by rights “to proclaim to those without what has taken place within.” This strict signification is very suitable here. St. Peter says that God has taken us for a people peculiarly near to Him, and the purpose is, not that we may stand within His courts and praise Him, but that we may carry to others the tidings of what we have been admitted to see. This was the true function of the old Israel, “Do My prophets no harm” (Psalms 105:15). They were not elect for their own sake, but to act as God’s exponents to the world. This function they abdicated by their selfish exclusiveness, and it has descended to the new Israel. St. Peter and St. Paul are at one.
Of him who hath called you out of darkness. — This is to be understood of the Father, not of Christ. For one thing, the act of calling is almost always ascribed in the New Testament to God Himself; and for another thing, it is probable that St. Peter regards our Lord as Head of this “people of God,” just as He is corner-stone of the Temple, and High Priest of the hierarchy. The act of calling (literally it is, ‘who called, not “who hath called”) was that of sending the preachers of the gospel to them, i.e., St. Paul and his followers (comp. 1 Peter 1:12; 1 Peter 1:25). Here again, then, we have St. Peter speaking in praise of St. Paul’s mission, and, indeed, speaking in the same tones of unbounded admiration: “His marvellous light.” But could Hebrew Christians be said to have gone through so great a change in becoming believers? Had they been in “darkness?” We may answer that St. Peter’s use of the word “marvellous” is no affectation of sympathy. He himself found the change to be what he here describes, therefore there is no difficulty in supposing that other Hebrews should have found it so too. Besides which, the state of the Jews immediately before Christ and without Him is often described as “darkness.” (See Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:79.) This very passage is quoted a few years later by St. Clement of Rome (chap. 36), as applying to himself among others, and Dr. Lightfoot has clearly established that St. Clement was a Jew.