What Does 1 Peter 1:10 Mean?
Concerning which deliverance the prophets sought out and searched through, the ones who prophesied of the favor that would come to you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:THE KEY
The deliverance the prophets search for is described as favor moving toward you.
THE MEANING
You are the one the verse names as the recipient of favor coming toward you. Deliverance is something searched for and spoken ahead of its arrival, so these words meet you inside an unfolding promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that deliverance must be fully understood before it can reach you: even the prophets search what they proclaim, while favor is still spoken as coming to you.
THE ROOT
σωτηρία
sōtēria
GROWS FROM
σωζ-
sōz-
A Greek verbal stem carrying the sense of rescuing or delivering.
The noun σωτηρία (sōtēria, deliverance) belongs to the same word family as σῴζω (sōzō, to deliver or rescue) and σωτήρ (sōtēr, deliverer). The verse places you within that movement of rescue: it is what the prophets search out and what their words point toward you.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: To deliver or rescue.
σῴζω
The related verb shows the action within the noun: deliverance is rescue reaching someone.
sōtēr: Deliverer or rescuer.
σωτήρ
The agent noun places a deliverer alongside the deliverance the prophets seek.
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρ-
char-
Favor, gracious giving.
This word family places favor beside the act of granting and shares its stem with the word for joy. Here favor is what is coming to you, giving the promise the shape of a gift offered into your reach.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: To grant freely or favor.
χαρίζομαι
This related verb makes the giving within favor visible.
chara: Joy.
χαρά
Joy shares the word family’s stem with favor, adding a resonance of welcome to what comes to you.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance is spoken of before it is seen, then becomes an encounter for the one who receives it.
I have waited for your deliverance, O LORD.And in that day it will be said, "Look, this is our God; we have stretched toward him, and he will deliver us. This is the LORD; we have stretched toward him, let us leap and let us rejoice in his deliverance."For my eyes have perceived your deliverance,THE THREAD
who are guarded by the strength of God through trust, unto deliverance prepared to be unveiled in the last season.The Greek noun σωτηρία (sōtēria, deliverance) appears in both verses. Here the prophets seek and speak toward it; in 1:5 it is ready to be revealed, linking their searching with its disclosure to you.
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