1 Peter 2
The full text of 1 Peter 2 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 So rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation,
3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by people but chosen and precious in God's sight—
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For in Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame."
7 Now to you who believe, this honor is yours. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,"
8 and,
"A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession, so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority,
14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
15 For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves.
17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.
20 For what credit is it if you endure a beating for doing wrong? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
21 To this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Translation notes (17)
- 1 Peter 2:2a Some later manuscripts omit "into your salvation."
- 1 Peter 2:3a The conjunction ei, 'if', introduces a condition here understood as fulfilled, appropriately rendered 'now that'. This verse alludes to Psalm 34:8, where the goodness of the Lord is similarly presented as something to be tasted.
- 1 Peter 2:4a The Greek phrase lithon zōnta, literally 'living stone', begins a wordplay in this passage that describes Christ as the foundation and believers as stones in a spiritual house. The term apodedokimasmenon means 'rejected after testing'. The contrasting conjunctions men . . . de emphasize the difference between human rejection and divine selection.
- 1 Peter 2:5a Greek oikos pneumatikos, 'spiritual house', evokes temple imagery; pneumatikos usually means 'pertaining to the Spirit', not merely 'immaterial'. The verb oikodomeisthe can be either indicative ('you are being built') or imperative ('be built'); the indicative suits the context. Hierateuma denotes a 'priesthood' or 'body of priests'.
- 1 Peter 2:6a The quotation follows the Septuagint of Isaiah 28:16, which reads 'will never be put to shame' where the Masoretic Text has yachish, 'make haste'. The Greek akrogoniaios (ἀκρογωνιαῖος), 'cornerstone', denotes the stone that fixes a building's alignment, and the emphatic construction ou me with the subjunctive underlies the rendering 'will never'.
- 1 Peter 2:7a The citation is Psalm 118:22, quoted verbatim from the Septuagint. Greek kephalēn gōnias (κεφαλὴν γωνίας), literally 'head of the corner', designates the stone that anchors and aligns a building, rendered here as 'cornerstone'. The opening clause turns on hē timē, 'the honor', echoing the 'precious' (entimon) stone of the previous verse: the stone's value accrues to those who believe.
- 1 Peter 2:8a The quotation is from Isaiah 8:14. The final clause renders the Greek eis ho kai etethēsan, literally 'to which they were also appointed'. The antecedent of 'which' is ambiguous: it may be the stumbling itself or the disobedience that precedes it, and interpreters have long divided over whether the appointment concerns unbelief or only its consequence. The translation preserves that openness.
- 1 Peter 2:9a Peter weaves together Israel's covenant titles from Exodus 19:6 and Isaiah 43:20-21 and applies them to the church. The Greek phrase laos eis peripoiēsin means literally 'a people for possession'. The word aretas, rendered here as 'praises', more precisely denotes excellencies or praiseworthy deeds, pointing to God's mighty acts rather than verbal acclaim alone.
- 1 Peter 2:10a This verse adapts Hosea 2:23 (cf. 1:10), reversing the judgments bound up in lo-ammi, 'not my people' (לא־עמי) and lo-ruhamah, 'not shown mercy' (לא־רֻחָמָה), as signs of restoration. The Greek phrasing follows the Septuagint and employs antithetical parallelism with pote, 'once' (ποτε), repeated with nyn de, 'but now' (νυν δε).
- 1 Peter 2:11a The phrase 'foreigners and exiles' translates paroikous, 'resident aliens' (παροίκους), and parepidemous, 'temporary residents' (παρεπιδήμους), technical terms for non-citizen inhabitants and short-term sojourners in the Greco-Roman world; the pairing echoes Abraham's self-description in the Septuagint of Genesis 23:4.
- 1 Peter 2:12a The Greek phrase hēmera episkopēs means 'day of visitation' or 'day of inspection', referring to the time when God will intervene, either in judgment or blessing.
- 1 Peter 2:13a The phrase anthrōpinē ktisis (ἀνθρωπίνη κτίσις), literally 'human creation', denotes any institution established among people; 'human authority' conveys this ordered sense. The word basileus, 'king', is rendered here as 'emperor' because the reigning Roman emperor was the sovereign Peter's readers in Asia Minor knew.
- 1 Peter 2:17a The same Greek verb timaō, 'to honor', opens and closes the series, applied to everyone and to the emperor alike, while phobeisthe, 'fear', is reserved for God alone. The distinction is deliberate: the emperor receives honor, not fear. Adelphotēs (ἀδελφότης), literally 'the brotherhood', is rendered here as 'family of believers'.
- 1 Peter 2:18a The Greek here is oiketai (οἰκέται), 'household slaves', a narrower term than the more common doulos and denoting those serving within a home, the setting most common for slaves addressed in early Christian congregations. The word rendered 'harsh' is skoliois (σκολιοῖς), literally 'crooked' or 'bent', describing masters of perverse character.
- 1 Peter 2:22a An explicit citation of Isaiah 53:9; it follows the Septuagint but uses hamartia, 'sin', where the Greek Isaiah has anomia, 'lawlessness'. 'Deceit' translates dolos, 'deceit/guile'.
- 1 Peter 2:24a The Greek anenenken, 'bore up', echoes Isaiah 53:4, where the Servant bears our diseases and pains. The phrase epi to xylon, 'on the cross', literally 'on the tree', alludes to Deuteronomy 21:22-23. The Greek molopi, 'by his wound', reflects the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 53:5.
- 1 Peter 2:25a Shepherd and Overseer translates Greek poimen (ποιμήν, 'shepherd') and episkopos (ἐπίσκοπος, 'overseer'), the latter also meaning 'guardian' and elsewhere denoting a church office (Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:1–2; Titus 1:7), here applied to Christ. The verb epestraphēte is aorist passive, literally 'were turned back,' suggesting God's action. The imagery echoes Isaiah 53:6 in the Septuagint.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Greek and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of 1 Peter, is free to read here on the web.
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