Foundation Text
1 Peter 2:4-7
Greek Key Terms
- G3037 λίθος (lithos) - "stone" - a living stone
- G593 ἀποδοκιμάζω (apodokimazō) - "reject after testing" - rejected by men
- G1588 ἐκλεκτός (eklektos) - "chosen/elect" - chosen by God
- G1784 ἔντιμος (entimos) - "precious/honored" - precious in God's sight
- G204 ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogōniaios) - "cornerstone" - chosen cornerstone
Context: Peter develops the rejected-stone-becomes-cornerstone theology extensively, quoting Isaiah 28:16 and Psalm 118:22. He presents Christ as "the living stone, rejected (ἀποδοκιμασθέντα) by men but chosen (ἐκλεκτὸν) and precious (ἔντιμον) in God's sight" (2:4). Believers approach Him as "living stones" being built into a spiritual house. And: "To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'" (2:7).
OT-to-OT Development
- Peter weaves together Isaiah 28:16 (precious cornerstone) and Psalm 118:22 (rejected stone)
- The combination creates a comprehensive rejected-then-exalted Christology
- This stone theology provides the interpretive framework for all rejection-exaltation types
Connections
- TO:
- Psalm 118:22 - "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone"
- Isaiah 28:16 - "I lay in Zion a tested stone"
- FROM OT:
- Zechariah 4:7 - capstone/headstone imagery
- Daniel 2:34-35 - stone cut without hands
- FROM NT:
- Matthew 21:42 - Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22
- Acts 4:11 - Peter: "the stone you builders rejected"
- Ephesians 2:20 - "with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone"
Christological Connection: This passage is the NT theological center for the rejection-exaltation pattern. Every OT figure who experienced rejection then exaltation—Jephthah cast out then made head, Joseph sold then made ruler, David hunted then crowned, Moses rejected then sent as deliverer—recurs as an instance of the one canon-wide pattern that reaches its definitive fulfillment in Jesus. He was "rejected by men" (denied, mocked, crucified) but "chosen by God and precious to him" (raised, ascended, enthroned). The cornerstone that builders rejected now bears the weight of God's entire building. All who come to Him become "living stones" in that temple. Jephthah's trajectory from expelled outcast to head of Gilead is one illustration of the pattern perfectly fulfilled in Christ—rejected by His own, exalted by God, now the cornerstone to which all must come.
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme (primary for the Jephthah-trajectory connection) — Peter's cornerstone theology weaving Isaiah 28:16 and Psalm 118:22 is the NT theological center of the rejected-then-exalted deliverer theme in which Jephthah, Joseph, Moses, and David are instances. Typology operates here only at the Stone-image register (Psalm 118:22's rejected stone → Christ, whose home seating is the Davidic/Psalm 118 trajectory), not in a Jephthah-to-Christ direction — the parent TT declines personal typology for Jephthah. Also Redemptive-Historical Progression — the pattern intensifies across epochs until the definitive Rejected Stone.
Trajectory Table: 082 - Jephthah (Rejected Then Exalted)