What Does 1 Peter 2:4 Mean?
Coming to him, as to a living stone, tested and set aside by men, but chosen by God and precious,
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
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,THE KEY
The rejected stone remains living and precious under another verdict: God chooses it.
THE MEANING
You come to one who is alive, though human judgment has examined and rejected him. God’s choosing and honor stand alongside that judgment; the rejection remains real, but it does not define the stone’s worth. The verse holds both verdicts in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that rejection proves worthlessness dissolves here: the rejected one is still chosen and precious.
THE ROOT
ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον
apodedokimasmenon
GROWS FROM
ἀποδοκιμάζω
apodokimazō
Reject after testing or examination.
“tested and set aside” in this verse is apodedokimasmenon. The English gives the verdict, while the Greek preserves the examination behind it: the stone is tested and turned away. The word holds that rejection as a judgment made about the stone, not as the measure of its worth.
ALSO GROWS
dokimos: Approved after testing.
δόκιμος
It shares the testing language and shows that examination can end in approval as well as rejection.
dokimē: Tested character or proven quality.
δοκιμή
It carries the idea of what is shown through examination, making the builders’ rejection a verdict about the stone rather than its nature.
ζῶντα
zōnta
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
Live, be alive.
The description holds life and stone together: firmness is not lifelessness. The one people reject is living, carrying the same life expressed by the Greek noun ζωή (zōē).
ALSO GROWS
zōē: Life.
ζωή
It makes the shared root visible: the stone is described with the same word family that names life.
zōopoieō: Make alive, give life.
ζωοποιέω
This branch shows the root’s life-giving reach and deepens the contrast between a living stone and an inert object.
ἔντιμον
entimon
GROWS FROM
τιμή
timē
Honor, value, worth.
Precious carries a valuation of honor, not merely an appealing quality. The verse sets that honor beside rejection: the human dismissal does not erase the worth God gives.
ALSO GROWS
timios: Precious, valued, honored.
τίμιος
It shares the same value-and-honor stem, echoing the worth named in this verse.
timaō: Honor, value.
τιμάω
This verb shows the same root as an act of assigning honor, linking the stone’s value with the honor given to it.
THE PATTERN
The builders’ rejection does not determine the stone’s place; the rejected one can become the cornerstone.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone the builders tested and cast aside has become the head of the angle; this comes from the side of the LORD, and it is wondrous in our eyes?This is the stone you builders treated as nothing, which has become the head of the corner.THE THREAD
So honor is yours, you who lean your full weight upon him; but for those who will not yield, the stone the builders tested and set aside has become the head of the corner,“Disallowed” repeats the same Greek verb family as the rejection in this verse. The next line names the rejected stone as the head of the corner, showing that the builders’ verdict does not control its place.
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