In the last two verses of this section, the author now turns his attention once more to his readers, particularly in their corporate existence as a believing community. Using the Old Testament liberally, he ascribes to the Christian community the titles applied to Israel. The conclusion is inevitable that here the church is described as the new Israel, although the thought perhaps is not that the church has supplanted Israel, but that God’s people should be what the church is now, namely, a community not bound to one nation or blood, but encompassing all nations and all peoples.
But you contrasts the believers with the unbelievers referred to in the immediately preceding verses. What follows are four descriptions of the church, all taken from the Old Testament.
(1) The chosen race (literally “a chosen race”) is from Isaiah 43.20. For chosen, see 1.1 and 2.4, where it is applied to Christians and to Christ respectively. Here it is applied to the whole church. The implicit actor is God, since in the New Testament it is normally God who chooses (compare Phillips “God’s chosen generation”). In the Old Testament, Israel is God’s chosen people; here it is Christians as members of a believing community who are the chosen people of God. Race (Greek genos) includes the idea of blood relationship and is a term appropriate for the old Israel. When applied to the church as the new Israel, blood relationship is no longer in focus, but corporate unity; that is, Christians of all races are one family in union with Christ.
The passive phrase the chosen race must be rendered in some languages as “the people that God has chosen.” In certain instances the concept of race may be expressed as “tribe,” that is to say, “the tribe that God has selected.” In employing a word for “chosen” or “selected” it is important to avoid the implication of God having shown undue favoritism.
(2) The King’s priests translates the Greek phrase basileion hierateuma (literally “a kingdom of priests,” or “a kingly priesthood”). The quotation is from Exodus 19.6. The difficulty here is that baseleion can be taken either as a noun or as an adjective. Arguments for it being a noun include: (1) The word baseleion is usually used as a noun both in religious and secular literature of that day. (2) If it is an adjective, then it would be more natural to have it after “priesthood” rather than before it. (3) Elsewhere in the New Testament, the word, taken with “priesthood,” is used as a noun. (Compare Rev 5.10, where the Good News Bible translates “kingdom of priests.” The word used in Revelation, however, is not “priesthood” but “priests.”) As a noun, the meaning could be (a) a royal palace (compare Kelly “a royal house”), (b) kingdom, as territory, (c) a group of kings. To treat it as a noun would further mean that it should be taken separately from hierateuma (for example, Kelly “a royal house, a priesthood”).
Most translations and interpreters, however, take baseleion as an adjective for the following reasons: (1) Since the other collective nouns in the verse are modified by adjectives, it is logical to expect an adjective modifying “priesthood.” (2) It is more likely that baseleion in Exodus 19.6 is treated by the Septuagint translators as an adjective (Good News Translation “you will serve me as priests”). As an adjective, the term then can mean “kingly,” but more probably “royal,” that is, priests in the service of the king, who in this instance is God. Most translations follow this interpretation. The idea of the church as the King’s priests harks back to 2.5, but with the focus not on function, but on privilege. In verse 5, every believer is a priest, but here, the whole church as a corporate body is a “priesthood.”
In most instances the mere use of capitalization of King’s will not indicate that this is a reference to God (this is certainly true in oral communication of the message). It may therefore be important to translate the King’s priests as “the priests of God who is King” or “the priests who serve God as King.”
(3) Holy nation is also from Exodus 19.6. As in 1.15 and 2.4, holy characterizes the church’s unique relationship to God: it is holy because it is consecrated to God and set apart for his service. (Compare New English Bible “a dedicated nation”; Jerusalem Bible “a consecrated nation”; also Moffatt, Knox.) In Exodus 19.6, the Good News Translation translates the same expression as “a people dedicated to me alone.” Holy nation may be rendered as “the nation dedicated to God” or “the nation dedicated to serve God.”
(4) God’s own people is literally “a people for possession,” an allusion to Exodus 19.5 (Revised Standard Version “my own possession among all peoples”); Malachi 3.17 (Revised Standard Version “my special possession”); and Isaiah 43.21 (Revised Standard Version “The people whom I formed for myself”). The Old Testament background of the expression indicates that God is the implied subject of “possession,” and most translations make this fact explicit (for example, New English Bible “a people claimed by God for his own”; Knox “a people God means to have for himself”; Moffatt “the people who belong to him”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “God has chosen you to be his people”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “a people that belongs to God”). The word for people here is laos, a term used for Israel in the Old Testament to describe its intimate relationship with God; this term is now used of the Christian community. What is being emphasized here is that the Christians now have a relationship to God which is different from that of non-Christians: they are God’s people and are completely dedicated to him.
In the phrase God’s own people there is an emphasis in the Greek text upon the corporate unity and entity which is involved. It is not simply God’s “persons.” The closest equivalent of God’s own people may simply be “the nation that belongs to God” or “God’s tribe.”
The relationship between the four expressions the chosen race, the King’s priests, the holy nation, and God’s own people must be explicitly indicated in some languages, for example, “you are the chosen race; you are also the King’s priests, also the holy nation, also God’s own people.” Otherwise, readers might understand that the believers were divided into four different groups rather than being related to God in these four supplementary ways.
The purpose of the church’s intimate relationship with God is now set forth, namely, that they may proclaim the wonderful acts of God, a quotation from Isaiah 43.21. Proclaim translates a word associated with announcing something through speech; this may be the primary meaning here, although the idea of proclamation through deed and example is not excluded (compare Phillips “demonstrate”). Wonderful acts translates a Greek word (aretē) to mean “wonderful deeds” (Revised Standard Version). In the Greek literature of that day, aretē was used to describe the powerful acts and miraculous deeds which were attributed to a god. God is literally “him,” but the pronoun clearly refers to God.
The passive expression chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God may require recasting as “God has chosen you to proclaim his wonderful acts” or “… his wonderful deeds” or “… what he has done which is so wonderful.”
In translating this clause, one should be careful to relate it not only with what immediately precedes, but with all the four previous designations. The Good News Translation achieves this by repeating chosen as an introduction to the clause; other translations start a completely new sentence or a new clause here (for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Barclay “and it is your task to proclaim…”; also Knox, Phillips “It is for you now to demonstrate…”). God is now described as the one who called believers out of darkness into his marvelous light. Called here primarily means “summon” (but compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “brought you out”). Darkness and light are favorite metaphors in the New Testament, referring to unbelief and belief, or ignorance of God and true knowledge of him. Here the metaphors are used to describe the conversion of Peter’s readers from heathenism to Christianity, from their allegiance to pagan gods to their trust in and commitment to Jesus Christ. Darkness describes their condition as separated from God; light, their condition as God’s own people. Most translations keep the metaphors. Marvelous translates a Greek word which means “wonderful,” “remarkable” (Arndt-Gingrich), and is used primarily to describe divine rather than human attributes.
Who called you out of darkness may require some amplification in some instances so as to read “who called you to come out of darkness.” A literal rendering could be understood in some languages to mean that God himself had called from a position of darkness to his people, but obviously the phrase must refer to God’s having summoned his people to leave the darkness and to come into his own marvelous light. Into his own marvelous light may also require some indication of movement, for example, “to come into his own marvelous light” or “to come into the light which he provides and which is marvelous.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .