Appropriating
Israel’s Identity as Chosen Race: 1 Peter 2.9-10
Another passage in 1 Peter reflecting
a rich and extensive engagement with scriptural tradition is 2.4-10, aptly
described by Richard Bauckham as ‘a particularly complex and studied piece of exegesis’.
Unlike 2.21-25, where the consistent scriptural source is Isaiah 53, here the
author weaves together a number of texts and interpretative comments. Verses
4-5 serve as an introduction the more detailed exposition that follows
summarising its key themes in advance.
There are two main themes in this
passage: Jesus as the precious and elect stone, and the Church comprised of ‘living
stones’, as the elect and holy people of God. In vv. 6-8, the first main block
of quotation and comment, three texts linked together by the catch-word ‘stone’
(λιθος), are presented. They are taken
from Isa. 28.16, Ps. 118.22 (117.22 LXX) and Isa. 8.14. As in 2.21-25, texts
from the Jewish scriptures are here interpreted christologically. And again, as
with the use of Isaiah 53 in 2.21-25, the author of 1 Peter is probably not
being innovative in seeing messianic significance in these particular ‘stone’
texts, which are already cited as messianic texts elsewhere in the NT (Mk
12.10-11 and par.; Rom. 9.32-33; cf. Acts 4.11). But that the author of 1 Peter
does do—again uniquely in the NT—is to draw all three of these texts together
and weave them into a depiction of Christ’s identity and fate, which also
serves as a basis for assurance about the contrasting fate of those who believe
in him—(vv. 6-7) and those who do not (vv. 7-8).
The second main section of the
passage (vv. 9-10) focuses on the Christians themselves, and their identity as
the people of God. Here again a number of biblical texts are cited, this time
linked by the catch-word ‘people’ (λαος).
Unlike vv. 6-8, however, here the texts—drawn from Isa. 43.20-21, Exod. 19.6
and Hos. 1-2—are woven into an integrated patchwork of phrases. It is striking
that the author has managed to pull together from a variety of scriptural
sources a collection of phrases that together encapsulate the central identity
designations of Israel, what commentators have long called the Ehrentitel
Israels. For example, in a study of the book of Jubilees that has no direct
interest in 1 Peter, Eberhard Schwarz identifies three fundamental
identity-forming designations (Identitätsgründende Aussagen) of Israel:
Israel as ‘holy people’, Israel as ‘chosen people’ and Israel as a people who
belong to God, God’s special possession (Eigentumsvolk) (Eberhard
Schwarz, Identität durch Abgrenzung: Abgrenzungsprozesse in Israel im
2. vorchristlichen Jahrhundert und ihre traditionsgeschichtlichen
Voraussetzungen. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Erforschung des Jubiläenbuches ,
Europäische Hochschulschrift en, Series 23 Th eology, 162 [Frankfurt/
Bern: Peter Lang, 1982], 53– 7. Schwarz sees Deut. 7.6 as a key text in
this regard, though similar declarations are made in Exod. 19.5– 6, which is
clearly the source text [along with Isa. 43 and Hos. 1– 2] here). These
are, of course, precisely the designations presented here, along with βασιλειον ιερατευμα, drawn from Exod. 19.6. In effect,
the author here appropriates the key identity designations of Israel and uses
them to describe the identity of the largely gentile communities of believers
in Christ addressed in the letter. This appropriation of Jewish identity terms
to describe members of the Christian movement is, of course, by no means unique
to 1 peter, but characteristic, in various ways of the NT as a whole and Paul
in particular. However, this passage in 1 Peter represents a particularly striking
and developed example of this facet of early Christian identity formation.
This strategic appropriation of
Jewish identity designations raises a challenging questions about the extent to
which the author of 1 Peter represents a problematic form of Christian
supercessionism. It is at least notable that, while he appropriates Israel’s
identity for the communities of believers in Christ, he does not explicitly
deny that identity to the Jewish people, even though he nowhere grapples with
the issues as Paul so famously does in Romans 9-11. Indeed, from 1 Peter one
would not get any sense that there was any ‘other’ people of God besides the
worldwide ‘brotherhood’ addressed in the letter (2.17; 5.9), an observation
that raises further complex questions about the relation between ‘Israel’ and ‘Church’
in the author’s view. But whatever the difficult historical and ethical
questions raised, the importance of this move for the making of early Christian
identity-and the uniqueness of 1 Peter’s contribution in this regard—emerges clearly
when we set 1 Peter in the context of the NT and other early Christian
writings. This is the only place in the NT where the significant term γενος is applied to the Christians, and
the only place where γενος,
εθνος and λαος
appear together. This is, moreover, one of only two places in the NT that describes
Christians as members of an εθνος,
the other (much less direct, and debatable) being Mt. 21.43. In other words,
the author seems skilfully and deliberately to have pulled together the most
significant ‘people’ designations and phrases derived from biblical traditions,
making 1 Pet. 2.9 a uniquely full and forceful designation of the ‘peoplehood’
of believers in Christ in the NT.
Equally significant in the observation
that the innovative move made by the author of 1 Peter—especially the move to
denote Christians as a γενος—initiates
an influential aspect of early Christian discourse that became established in
the second century and beyond. Sometimes this designation is deployed in the
context of a threefold distinction among Greeks, Jews and Christians, as in the
opening of the Epistle to Diognetus, where ‘this new race’ (γενος) of the Christians is contrasted
with both Greeks and Jews (Diotn. 1). Closely related and also emerging
during this period is the specific notion that Christians constitute a ‘third
race’ (τριτον γενος; Latin: tertium genus), an
expression that seems to be used both positively by Christians and critically
by their opponent. First Peter’s use of γενος, εθνος, and λαος to denote Christians as a people,
drawing on Jewish scriptures and identity markers to do so, thus represents a
move that was of considerable significance in the developing discourse of
Christian identity. (David G. Horrell, “Tradition and Innovation: Reassessing 1
Peter’s Contributions to the Making of Christian Identity,” in Muted Voices
of the New Testament: Readings in the Catholic Epistles and Hebrews, ed.
Katherine M. Hockey, Madison N. Pierce and Francis Watson [Library of New
Testament Studies 587; London: T&T Clark, 2017], 18-21)
