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Easter · Fifth Sunday of Easter · Year A

1 Peter 2:2-10

Living Stones, a Holy Priesthood

May 3, 2026

The Building of the Temple, Jean Fouquet
The Building of the Temple, Jean Fouquet, c. 1470Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Masons at work on a great building, every stone being cut and lifted into place by hand.Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.Jean FouquetFouquet, who set the temple of Solomon on a French building site of his own day.Bibliothèque nationale de France, ParisThe Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelJohn 14:1-14Jn 14:1-14
Epistle1 Pet. 2:2-101 Pt 2:2-10
Old TestamentActs 6:1-9; 7:2a, 51-60
PsalterPs. 146Ps 146

Overview & Insights

“you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5)

The metaphors change twice in nine verses and the seams carry the argument. Newborn infants craving milk (v. 2) give way to stones in a building (vv. 4-5), and the pivot between them is a taste: “you have tasted that the Lord is good”, from Psalm 34:8. There follows a collection of stone texts set side by side, Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14 (vv. 6-8); two of them Paul combines at Romans 9:33, and the third Jesus applies to himself at Mark 12:10, which suggests the grouping circulated before this letter used it. The titles heaped up in v. 9 are Israel’s, from Exodus 19:6 and Isaiah 43:20-21, and v. 10 borrows the names of Hosea’s children. Addressed to scattered and unimportant congregations in Asia Minor, they confer the vocabulary of a nation. In Easter the governing phrase is “living stone” (v. 4), a stone rejected and then found alive.

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Commentary

Commentary on 1 Peter 2:2-10Commentary on 1 Pt 2:2-10 Working Preacher (Luther Seminary)

Lutheran academic commentary on the living stones and royal priesthood.

1 Peter 2 Commentary: The Glory and the Duty of God's People1 Pt 2 Commentary: The Glory and the Duty of God's People Enduring Word

Verse-by-verse evangelical commentary on the chapter.

1 Peter 2:2 Commentary1 Pt 2:2 Commentary Precept Austin

Detailed word-study commentary compiling multiple conservative scholars.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A Catholic Productions (Dr. Brant Pitre)

Catholic walkthrough of this Sunday's Mass readings, including 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:2 Commentaries1 Pt 2:2 Commentaries BibleHub

Collected classic commentaries (Vincent, Cambridge, Barnes) on the verse.

Background & Word Study

1 Peter 2:2 Interlinear1 Pt 2:2 Interlinear BibleHub

Greek interlinear for the pure spiritual milk metaphor.

The Church Fathers

1 Peter 2 - Catena1 Pt 2 - Catena Catena Bible

Patristic comments on the living stones passage.

Study Hub

1 Peter 2 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary1 Pt 2 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary StudyLight

Index of verse-by-verse commentaries for the chapter.

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