1 Peter 2:24

2:18-25 Servants in those days generally were slaves, and had heathen masters, who often used them cruelly; yet the apostle directs them to be subject to the masters placed over them by Providence, with a fear to dishonour or offend God. And not only to those pleased with reasonable service, but to the severe, and those angry without cause. The sinful misconduct of one relation, does not justify sinful behaviour in the other; the servant is bound to do his duty, though the master may be sinfully froward and perverse. But masters should be meek and gentle to their servants and inferiors. What glory or distinction could it be, for professed Christians to be patient when corrected for their faults? But if when they behaved well they were ill treated by proud and passionate heathen masters, yet bore it without peevish complaints, or purposes of revenge, and persevered in their duty, this would be acceptable to God as a distinguishing effect of his grace, and would be rewarded by him. Christ's death was designed not only for an example of patience under sufferings, but he bore our sins; he bore the punishment of them, and thereby satisfied Divine justice. Hereby he takes them away from us. The fruits of Christ's sufferings are the death of sin, and a new holy life of righteousness; for both which we have an example, and powerful motives, and ability to perform also, from the death and resurrection of Christ.

{26} Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (26) He calls the servants back from considering the injuries which they are constrained to bear, to think instead on the greatness and the end of the benefit received from Christ.

1 Peter 2:24-25 . Who his own self — In his own person, and by the sacrifice of himself, and not of another, ( Hebrews 9:28 ,) bare our sins — That is, the punishment due to them; in his afflicted, torn, dying body on the tree — The cross, whereon chiefly slaves or servants were wont to suffer. The apostle alludes to Isaiah 53:12 ; He bare the sins of many. “The phrase, bearing sin, is often used in the Old Testament. It signifies sometimes the making atonement for sin, Leviticus 10:17 ; sometimes the suffering punishment for sin, Leviticus 22:9 ; Ezekiel 18:20 ; and sometimes the carrying away sin from the sight of God; as the scape-goat is said to do, Leviticus 16:22 . The apostle uses here the first person, our sins, to show that Christ bare the sins of believers, in every age and country; and to make us sensible how extensive the operation of his death is in procuring pardon for sinners.” That we, being dead to sins — Or, as ταις αμαρτιαις απογενομενοι is more literally rendered, freed from sins — That is, from the guilt and power; from which, without an atonement, it was impossible we should be delivered. By whose stripes ye were healed — Of your spiritual disorders: evils infinitely greater than any which the cruelty of the severest masters can bring upon you.

See on Isaiah 53:5 . “By changing his discourse from the first to the second person, the apostle addressed those slaves who might be beaten unmercifully by cruel masters; because, of all the considerations by which they could be animated to patience, the most powerful was, to put them in mind of the painful stripes with which Christ was beaten, when he was scourged by Pilate’s order, ( Matthew 27:26 ,) and to tell them, that with these stripes the wounds in their souls, occasioned by sin, were healed; wounds far more painful and deadly than those inflicted on them by their froward masters.” For ye were as sheep going astray — From their pastures, their shepherd, and his flock, and exposed to want and the danger of being lost in the wilderness, or destroyed by wild beasts; ye were wandering out of the way of truth and duty, of safety, holiness, and happiness, into the by-paths of error and sin, of guilt and misery — paths leading to certain destruction.

Bare (ἀνήνεγκεν) See on 1 Peter 2:5. Bare up to the cross, as to an altar, and offered himself thereon. The tree (ξύλον) Lit., wood. Peter uses the same peculiar term for the cross, Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39. Being dead (ἀπογενόμενοι) Rev., more strictly, having died. Used here only in the New Testament. The rendering of the verb can be given only in a clumsy way, having become off unto sin; not becoming separate from sins, but having ceased to exist as regards them. Compare Romans 6:18. Stripes (μώλωπι) Lit., bruise. So Rev., in margin. Only here in New Testament; meaning a bloody wale which arises under a blow. "Such a sight we feel sure, as we read this descriptive passage, St. Peter's eyes beheld on the body of his Master, and the flesh so dreadfully mangled made the disfigured form appear in his eyes like one single bruise" (Lumby).

1 Peter 2:24 . Ὃς , who ) Peter infers, that we are able, and ought to follow the footsteps of Christ.— αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν , Himself bare ) αὐτουργία , personal exertion , becomes a servant, so that he himself should do what is to be done. [ Er muss selber daran .—Not. Crit.] Jesus Christ Himself undertook the part of others: He did not substitute others for Himself, as they do at the present day, who assign [locant, let out ] Canonical Hours to others. Peter agrees with Isaiah 53:11 , Septuagint, καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν αὐτὸς ἁνοίσει , And He Himself shall bear their sins . Comp. Hebrews 9:28 , note.— ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ , in His own body ) which was most afflicted.— ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον , upon the tree ) Slaves were accustomed to be punished with the tree the cross, the fork.[22]— ἵνα , that ) This word, that , declares that the expiation of sins, properly so called, was made on the cross of Christ: inasmuch as the fruit of it, and of it alone, was our deliverance from the slavery of sin.— ἀπογενόμενοι , being dead ) This expression appositely describes our deliverance from the slavery of sin: for a slave is said to become the property of any one , γενέσθαι τινὸς . Ἀπὸ signifies separation; as Job 15:4 , Septuagint, ἀπεποιήσω φόβον , thou castest off fear : German, ohne werden. The opposite term is πρσγενέσθαι in the Septuagint.

The Body of Christ ἀπεγένετο , was presently taken away from that tree to which He had borne our sins: so ought we to be removed from sin.— τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ , to righteousness ) Righteousness is altogether one; sin is manifold, to sins . Respecting righteousness, comp. Isaiah 53:11 .— ζήσωμεν , we may live ) in a free service. [22] The furca consisted of two pieces of wood in the shape of the letter V, which pressed upon the neck and back, while the hands were bound to the two ends. A slave thus punished was called furcifer .—T.

Who his own self; not by offering any other sacrifice, (as the Levitical priests did), but by that of himself. Bare our sins; or, took up, or lifted up, in allusion to the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the same word being used of them, Hebrews 7:27 Jam 2:21 . As the sins of the offerer were typically laid upon the sacrifice, which, being substituted in his place, was likewise slain in his stead; so Christ standing in our room, took upon him the guilt of our sins, and bare their punishment, Isaiah 53:4 , &c. The Lord laid on him our iniquities, and he willingly took them up; and by bearing their curse, took away our guilt. Or, it may have respect to the cross, on which Christ being lifted up, {John 3:14,15 Joh 12:32} took up our sins with him, and expiated their guilt by undergoing that death which was due to us for them. In his own body; this doth not exclude his soul but is rather to be understood, by a synecdoche, of his whole human nature, and we have the sufferings of his soul mentioned, Isaiah 53:10,12Jo 12:27 ; but mention is made of his body, because the sufferings of that were most visible. On the tree; on the cross. That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; another end of Christ’s death, the mortification of sin, and our being freed from the dominion of it, Romans 6:2,6 , and being reformed to a life of holiness.

By whose stripes ye were healed; viz. of the wound made in your souls by sin: this seems to relate to the blows that servants might receive of cruel masters, against which the apostle comforts them, and to the patient bearing of which he exhorts them, because Christ by bearing stripes, (a servile punishment), under which may be comprehended all the sufferings of his death, had healed them of much worse wounds, and spiritual diseases, the guilt of their consciences, and the defilement of their souls.

1 Peter 2:24 . Christ was not only well-doer but benefactor .— τὰς ἁμ .… ἀνήνεγκεν comes from Isaiah 53:12 , LXX, καὶ αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκεν ( נשא usually translated λαμβάνειν ), used also Hebrews 9:28 . Christ is the perfect sin-offering: “Himself the victim and Himself the priest. The form of expression offered up our sins is due to the double use of חטאה for sin and sin-offering.— ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ , a Pauline phrase derived from the saying, This is my body which is for you ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 ), explaining αὐτός of Isa. l.c. — ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον , replaces the normal complement of ἀναφέρειν , ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον , in view of the moral which is to be drawn from the sacrificial language adopted. So Jam 2:21 , ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον is substituted for ἐπάνω τῶν ξύλων of the original description of the offering of Isaac, Genesis 22:9 . Christ died because He took our sins upon Himself ( cf. Numbers 4:33 , οἱ υἱοὶ ὑμῶν … ἀνοίσουσιν τὴν πορνείαν ὑμῶν ). Therefore our sins perished and we have died to them, Colossians 2:14 .— ἵνα … ζήσωμεν . Compare Targum of Isaiah 53:10 , “and from before Jehovah it was the will to refine and purify the remnant of His people that He might cleanse from sins their souls: they shall see the kingdom of His Christ an … prolong their days”.— ἀπογενόμενοι = (i.) die (Herodotus, Thucydides) as opposite of γενόμενοι come into being OR (ii.) be free from , as in Thuc. i. 39, τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀπογενόμενοι . The Dative requires (i.), cf.

Romans 6:2 , οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτία . The idea is naturally deduced from Isaiah 53, Christ bore our sins and delivered His soul to death, therefore He shall see His seed living because sinless.— οὗ … ἰάθητε from Isaiah 53:5 ; μώλωπι properly the weal or scar produced by scourgeing ( Sir 28:17 , πληγὴ μάστιγος ποιεῖ μώλωπας ) thus the prophecy was fulfilled according to Matthew 27:26 , φραγελλώσας . The original has ἰάθημεν . The paradox is especially pointed in an address to slaves who were frequently scourged.