Bible Strands
1 Peter 1:18
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Peter addresses Gentile believers in Asia Minor, grounding his call to holy conduct (v. 17) in the specific cost of their redemption.
The words — ἐλυτρῶθητε (elutrōthēte), aorist passive of λύτρομα, is the technical term for paying a ransom price; φθαρτοῖς (phthartois), "perishable things," marks the instrument in the dative, stressing the futility of what was not used.
The thread — The ransom language echoes 1 Corinthians 6:20 ("bought at a price"), Titus 2:14 (redeemed from lawlessness), and the impossibility stated in Psalms 49:7 (no one can pay God's ransom).
Why it lands — The verse forecloses any claim that salvation was cheap, earned, or within human reach; the reader is left to reckon with what was actually paid and what that demands of their conduct.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
- Titus 2:14 He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
- Psalms 49:7 No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.
- 1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
- Galatians 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.
- 1 Peter 1:7 so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Psalms 39:6 Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.