What Does 1 Peter 2:8 Mean?
And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.
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
And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.THE KEY
The same stone that bears trust becomes the point of collision when the word’s persuasion is refused.
THE MEANING
The word meets you as a stone: what is foundation under trust becomes collision where its persuasion is refused. This verse holds the severe claim that this stumbling is also appointed, without making the tension disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The word is only information, so resisting it leaves you untouched.
THE ROOT
ἀπειθοῦντες
apeithountes
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
Persuade, convince, win over.
“will not yield” in this verse is apeithountes. The word rendered “disobedient” carries refusal of persuasion in its own shape: this is more than rule-breaking; it is resistance to being won over by the word. That makes the stumbling a response to a voice, not merely an accident along a path.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, convince; in some forms and contexts, trust.
πείθω
This is the root that gives “disobedient” its sense of refusing persuasion.
peithomai: Be persuaded; heed or obey.
πείθομαι
Its overlap between persuasion and obedience illuminates the verse’s pairing of hearing the word with responding to it.
apeitheō: Refuse to be persuaded; disobey.
ἀπειθέω
This verb shows the negative form behind the word used for those who stumble.
προσκόπτουσιν
proskoptousin
GROWS FROM
προσκόπτω (proskoptō), from πρός (pros) + κόπτω (koptō)
Strike against; run into.
Peter uses this word family in both “stone of stumbling” and “stumble”: the stone is the object they strike against. The repeated image presents refusal as contact with the word that becomes a fall.
ALSO GROWS
próskomma: A stumbling block; an obstacle that causes a fall.
πρόσκομμα
This noun names the stone’s role in the verse: the point against which someone stumbles.
proskopē: A stumbling or occasion of offense.
προσκοπή
It carries the same collision image into the result of meeting an obstacle.
koptō: Strike or cut.
κόπτω
This is the verb within the compound, giving the stumble the force of striking against something.
ἐτέθησαν
etethēsan
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
Put, place, set.
The word translated “appointed” is formed from the ordinary verb for putting or setting: they are said to have been set toward this outcome. The wording holds the tension in place, stumbling is their refusal, and the verse also calls it appointed.
ALSO GROWS
tithēmi: Put, place, set.
τίθημι
This is the verb behind “were appointed,” adding the concrete sense of being set in a direction or position.
thésis: A placing or position.
θέσις
This related noun makes the root’s basic image of placement visible.
próthesis: A setting forth; a purpose or plan.
πρόθεσις
This compound carries the sense of setting something forth, showing how the root can extend from placement to intention.
THE PATTERN
The same word that becomes a foundation for trust becomes a stumbling point where it is refused.
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.As it is written, "Look, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of the snare, and whoever leans their full weight on him will not be put to shame."THE THREAD
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.Isaiah holds both outcomes together: sanctuary for one, stone of stumbling and rock of offence for another. Peter opens the same living image, the point of encounter can be refuge or snare.
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