Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

1 Peter 1:23

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

KJV

ἀναγεγεννημένοι οὐκ ἐκ σπορᾶς φθαρτῆς ἀλλὰ ἀφθάρτου, διὰ λόγου ζῶντος θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος·

Greek NT

renati non ex semine corruptibili, sed incorruptibili per verbum Dei vivi, et permanentis in æternum :

Vulgate

having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.

ASV

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever.

Douay-Rheims

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In the original Greek

13 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

διά
dia
preposition · 633×
ζάω
zao
verb · 140×
θεός
theos
noun · 1311×
καί
kai
conjunction · 8973×
λόγος
logos
noun · 330×
μένω
meno
verb · 117×
οὐ
ou
particle · 1626×
σπορά
spora
noun · 1×
φθαρτός
phthartos
adjective · 6×
ἀλλά
alla
conjunction · 636×
ἀναγεννάω
anagennao
verb · 2×
ἄφθαρτος
aphthartos
adjective · 7×
ἐκ
ek
preposition · 915×

Textual variants

1 variant unit attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.

notable
SBLGNT: μένοντος | WH/Treg/NIV: μένοντος | RP: + εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα
  • μένοντος — SBLGNT
  • μένοντος — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
  • + εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα — Robinson-Pierpont
source: sblgnt-apparatus

Themes

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§1228Hence Baptism is a bath of water in which the "imperishable seed" of the Word of God produces its life-giving effect.32 St. Augustine says of Baptism: "The word is brought to the material element, and it becomes a sacrament."33
§2769In Baptism and Confirmation, the handing on (traditio) of the Lord's Prayer signifies new birth into the divine life. Since Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God, those who are "born anew". . . through the living and abiding word of God"20 learn to invoke their Father by the one Word he always hears. They can henceforth do so, for the seal of the Hol…
Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans — and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. Chapter 1. Concerning that Most Unhappy Time in Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived Others; And Concerning the Mockers of His Confes…
Q. It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his blessings: where then does that faith come from? A. The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it through our use of the holy sacraments.
Canons of Dort · 3 passages
Just as the almighty work of God by which he brings forth and sustains our natural life does not rule out but requires the use of means, by which God, according to his infinite wisdom and goodness, has wished to exercise his power, so also the above-mentioned supernatural work of God by which he regenerates us in no way rules out or cancels the use of the gospel, which God in g…
For, in the first place, God preserves in those saints when they fall his imperishable seed from which they have been born again, lest it perish or be dislodged. Secondly, by his Word and Spirit God certainly and effectively renews them to repentance so that they have a heartfelt and godly sorrow for the sins they have committed; seek and obtain, through faith and with a contri…
The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach that it is not absurd that a person, after losing an earlier regeneration, should once again and even repeatedly be reborn. For by this teaching they deny the imperishableness of God's seed by which we are born again. This is contrary to the testimony of the apostle Peter: "Being born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperish…

Cross-references

  • 1Cor 4:15 — For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
  • 1Cor 15:53 — For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
  • 1John 2:27 — But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as i
  • 1John 2:29 — If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
  • 1John 3:9 — Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
  • 1John 3:9 — Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
  • 1John 5:18 — We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
  • 1John 5:18 — We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
  • 1Pet 1:3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • 1Pet 1:3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • 1Pet 1:25 — But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
  • 1Pet 2:2 — As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
  • 1Pet 3:4 — But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
  • 1Thess 2:13 — For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which e
  • 2John 1:2 — For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.
  • Heb 4:12 — For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoug
  • Heb 4:12 — For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoug
  • Heb 8:10 — For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, an
  • Isa 55:11 — So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
  • Jas 1:18 — Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
  • Jas 1:18 — Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
  • John 1:3 — All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
  • John 1:13 — Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
  • John 1:13 — Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
  • John 3:3 — Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
  • John 3:3 — Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
  • John 3:5 — Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
  • John 6:63 — It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
  • John 6:63 — It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
  • Luke 8:11 — Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
  • Mark 4:14 — The sower soweth the word.
  • Mark 4:26 — And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
  • Matt 13:24 — Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
  • Matt 13:38 — The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
  • Matt 24:35 — Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
  • Phil 2:16 — Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
  • Phil 3:3 — For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
  • Ps 87:5 — And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.
  • Ps 119:93 — I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.
  • Ps 119:144 — The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.