Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
What the Prophets Searched For
1 Peter 1:10-12
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, · WEB
The prophets are described as readers of their own writings who could not decode them, and the reason given is that the message was not addressed to them.
Two strong verbs govern verse 10: the prophets sought out and searched out. They are pictured investigating, not receiving. What they were investigating was their own material, and verse 11 says what they wanted from it — who, and what sort of time.
Verse 11 also supplies the sentence that unlocks the letter's hardest passage later on. What was at work in them is called the Spirit of Christ which was in them, and that Spirit was doing something specific: testifying beforehand. So this letter states as background that Christ's own Spirit spoke through human beings long before the incarnation, which is the fact a reader will need at 1 Peter 3:19.
The order the Spirit indicated is fixed and is the letter's own order: the sufferings first, then the glories that follow. Readers being told to expect trouble before vindication are shown that the pattern was set in the prophets' text before it was set in their lives.
Verse 12 closes with two admissions. The prophets were told the message was not for their own generation — service rendered to strangers, across centuries. And angels are said to stoop and peer at it, the verb used of bending to look into something. Neither group is given the view the readers have.
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