What Does 1 Peter 1:16 Mean?
Because it stands written, You shall be set apart, for I am set apart.
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
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.THE KEY
Holiness is God’s own set-apart nature taking shape in your life.
THE MEANING
God’s set-apart nature is the measure named for your life now. The verse joins belonging to likeness: what is set apart belongs to God and reflects God’s character.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s holiness is so distant from your life that it has no bearing on its shape.
THE ROOT
ἅγιοι
hagioi
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
Set apart; holy.
The Greek word family holds together being set apart and the act or state of setting apart. The verse ties that distinctness to God’s own nature, so holiness is a belonging that takes its shape from the one it belongs to.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: To sanctify, set apart.
ἁγιάζω
The related verb shows that set-apartness is something enacted, not merely a label.
hagiōsynē: Holiness; the state of being set apart.
ἁγιωσύνη
This noun names the quality the verse connects to God’s nature.
קְדֹשִׁים
qedoshim
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
To set apart, consecrate.
“set apart” in this verse is qedoshim. The Hebrew wording Peter quotes uses the same root for the people’s being holy and God’s being holy. The English word ‘holy’ carries that shared root across both parts of the sentence: their set-apartness takes its meaning from God’s.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This form describes God as the source and measure of the set-apartness in the verse.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The related word shows how the root can name a place that belongs distinctly to God.
THE PATTERN
God’s set-apartness becomes the pattern and share of the life that belongs to God.
For I am the LORD your God. Set yourselves apart, and be set apart, for I am set apart. Do not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that creeps upon the earth.For they trained us for a few days as seemed good to them, but he trains us for our profit, so that we might take hold of his set-apartness.Everyone who has this hope resting upon him cleanses himself, just as he is clean.THE THREAD
For I am the LORD your God. Set yourselves apart, and be set apart, for I am set apart. Do not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that creeps upon the earth.Peter’s Greek ἅγιοι (hagioi, set apart) echoes the Hebrew קְדֹשִׁים (qedoshim, set apart) in Leviticus. The Hebrew verse pairs that shared identity with sanctifying oneself and refusing defilement, giving the phrase ‘holy because I am holy’ a lived edge.
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