A royal priesthood: the people of God as living stones

First Peter names its author as 'Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ' (1:1) and mentions Silvanus as the one 'through whom' Peter writes (5:12), which may mean he was the secretary or the carrier. 'Babylon' (5:13) is most likely Rome. If Peter wrote it, the date falls in the early to mid 60s, before his martyrdom under Nero, which tradition places about AD 64-67. Some critical scholars date the letter later, in the late first century, and think a follower wrote in Peter's name; others answer that Silvanus accounts for the polished Greek.

The readers are Christians in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1:1), mostly of Gentile origin (1:14; 4:3). They are 'foreigners and exiles' who suffer slander and social loss for their faith. Peter writes to tell them who they are. Chapter 2:1-10 is his statement of their identity, and 2:11-25 turns to their conduct among neighbors and rulers.

The Revelation passages come from John, who writes from Patmos (Rev 1:9) to seven churches in Asia, about AD 95 on the usual view, though some scholars prefer a date near AD 68-70. Both books speak to small, pressed communities and both draw their language from Exodus 19.

First Peter is a letter, and a pastoral one. Its central statements about the people of God are built from Old Testament quotation and allusion. In 2:4-10 Peter gathers three 'stone' texts (Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 8:14) and two texts about Israel's calling (Exodus 19:5-6 and Isaiah 43:20-21), with an echo of Hosea 1-2 in verse 10.

Two features of the Greek need attention.

• First, almost every 'you' in 2:1-10 is plural, and Peter speaks of the church together: 'you also, like living stones, are being built.'
• Second, the noun in 2:5 and 2:9 is hierateuma, a collective word meaning a priestly body or priesthood. It does not say that each believer is a 'priest' (hiereus), a word Peter does not use of anyone. A reader who treats the passage as a statement about private individuals misses its grammar.

The question of 'spiritual sacrifices' is settled by comparison, since the New Testament names them elsewhere (Romans 12:1; Philippians 4:18; Hebrews 13:15-16). The Revelation texts are apocalyptic, and apocalyptic images are to be read as pictures of real things: here the 'kingdom and priests' of Exodus 19:6 is applied to the redeemed in heaven's worship and on earth.

2:1-3. Peter begins with 'therefore' and names the things to put away (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander). Like newborns, the readers are to crave pure 'spiritual' milk (logikon, a word near logos, 'word'; compare 1:23-25), now that they have tasted that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

2:4-5. 'As you come to Him' uses a verb of approach (proserchomenoi), the same family as the 'draw near' of Hebrews 4:16 and 10:22. The one they come to is 'the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God's sight.' The readers, in turn, are 'living stones,' being built into a 'spiritual house' (oikos pneumatikos). 'Spiritual' here means Spirit-given, not unreal. The house is the people, the temple of 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 and Ephesians 2:21-22. They are built 'to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.' The sacrifices are acceptable through Christ, the one mediator.

2:6-8. Three texts follow. God lays in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes will not be put to shame (Isaiah 28:16). To believers the stone is precious; to unbelievers it is the stone the builders rejected (Psalm 118:22), 'a stone of stumbling' (Isaiah 8:14). They stumble because they disobey the word. The clause 'to this they were appointed' is read by Calvinists as God's decree and by others as the appointed fate of those who reject.

2:9-10. 'But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.' Exodus 19:5-6 told Israel, 'You will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,' and Isaiah 43:20-21 called Israel the people God formed to declare his praise. Peter gives these titles to the church. The purpose follows: 'to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.' The priesthood's first work is to speak. Verse 10 draws on Hosea's 'Not My People' and 'No Mercy' (Hosea 1:6, 9; 2:23).

2:11-17. As 'foreigners and exiles' they are to abstain from the desires of the flesh and live honorably among the Gentiles, so that slanderers may see their good deeds and glorify God. They submit to every human institution, to the king and to governors, as free people who are 'servants of God.' The commands end: honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

2:18-20. Peter turns to household servants (oiketai), who may suffer under hard masters. Suffering for doing good, with a conscience toward God, is commended.Peter describes how to bear injustice and does not argue that slavery is good.

2:21-25. Christ is the pattern. He 'committed no sin' and was not deceitful (Isaiah 53:9), and he did not retaliate. 'He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.' The Greek verb, anapherein, 'to carry up,' is the word also used in 2:5 for offering sacrifices: believers offer up spiritual sacrifices because Christ offered up their sins. By his stripes they are healed (Isaiah 53:5); they were straying sheep and have returned to 'the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.' Both titles are later used for the church's elders in 5:1-4 and Acts 20:28. Here they belong to Christ.

Revelation 1:5–6

John names Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, be glory and dominion forever. The verb is past tense: they are already made so.

Revelation 5:9–10

The living creatures and elders sing a new song to the Lamb. He was slain, and with his blood he purchased for God people from every tribe, language, people and nation, and made them a kingdom and priests to our God. A few details of the Greek differ in the manuscripts, but the priestly language is firm. Revelation 20:6 describes those who share the first resurrection as priests of God and of Christ, reigning with him.

Israel was called 'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation' (Exodus 19:6) before Aaron was ordained, and yet Aaron's family served at the altar (Exodus 28-29). The Old Testament holds the two together. Isaiah promises a future in which Israel will be called priests of the LORD (Isaiah 61:6), and Isaiah 66:18-21 includes people of the nations among those the LORD takes as priests and Levites. Peter and John say that the promise has come: the covenant people now includes Gentiles, and the name of priest belongs to all of them.

The New Testament describes the work of the people's priesthood in specific terms. Believers present their bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). They offer a sacrifice of praise and the doing of good and sharing (Hebrews 13:15-16), and they send gifts as 'a fragrant offering' (Philippians 4:18). Paul, in a notable passage, describes his own gospel work in priestly terms: he is a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable (Romans 15:16). Prayer is incense (Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4). The people have access: through Christ, we have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18; Romans 5:2; Hebrews 10:19-22).

The priesthood is derived. It is no rival to Christ's, because the people's sacrifices are acceptable only 'through Jesus Christ' (2:5), and 1 Timothy 2:5 states that there is one mediator. It is also corporate: the 'house' and the 'priesthood' are the body. Peter's own list of leaders in 5:1-4 uses the words elder (presbyteros), shepherd and overseer, and none of them is a priestly title. The relation of those leaders to the priesthood of the whole people is the question of the next class.

The three stone texts are promises fulfilled in Christ. Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14 of Jesus, as other New Testament writers do. Jesus himself applied Psalm 118:22 to his rejection (Mark 12:10-11), Peter used it before the council (Acts 4:11) and Paul joins Isaiah 28:16 and 8:14 in Romans 9:32-33. Christ is both the foundation and the one over whom the unbelieving stumble.

In 2:21-25 Peter draws on Isaiah 53, and he reads the Servant as fulfilled in Jesus: no sin, no deceit, silent under abuse, bearing sins, healing by his wounds. He names Jesus the Shepherd and Overseer of souls, taking up the shepherd promises of Ezekiel 34, in which God himself will tend his flock (34:11-16). The titles that elders later share (5:2) are first Christ's own, and he is the 'Chief Shepherd' (5:4).

Revelation shows what he has done to make a priestly people. John's Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of kings (1:5). He is also the slain Lamb who by his blood 'purchased' people from every tribe and nation (5:9). The priesthood is therefore the result of his work and not a rival to it: Exodus 19:6 is a promise, and the Lamb is the one in whom it is kept.