And if you call on the one
who judges impartially
according to each person’s work,
as Father
conduct yourselves
in fear
for the time of your exile,
for you know that
not with transitory things
(even) silver and gold,
you have been ransomed
from your worthless conduct
handed down from your ancestors,
but by the precious blood –
as from a lamb,
without blemish
and without defect
– Christ’s,
(him) having been foreknown
– before the foundation of the world
having been made known
– in these last times,
for your sake,
who
because of him,
are believing in God
who raised him from the dead ones,
and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope
are in God.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
2 responses to “1 Peter 1 17 -21”
I would like to comment on two words that bothered me in this translation and where I prefer the NEB version. That is the word fear and in the NEB it is awe.
The other word is exile where it is I assume while we live our time on earth, I do not like to think that we are in exile from God during this time on earth. I thought the point was that we are with God in our own way and not in exile?
Thanks Moya. The word I translated as fear does include ‘awe’ in its range. Fear is just the most obvious translation. The word I translated as ‘exile’ might also be translated as ‘sojourner’ or ‘temporary resident’- NEB’s ‘your time on earth’ is rather oblique. I think 1 Peter is saying we are ‘strangers’ this, our home is elsewhere (compare 1 Pete 1:1 when even NEB has ‘who lodge for a while’…) I don’t think this verse is saying we are exiled from God.