SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:18
sabiendo que habis sido rescatados de vuestra vana conversacin (la cual recibisteis de vuestros padres), no con cosas corruptibles, como oro o plata;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Peter 1:18
Verse 18. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things] To redeem, lutrow, signifies to procure life for a captive or liberty for a slave by paying a price, and the precious blood of Christ is here stated to be the price at which the souls of both Jews and Gentiles were redeemed; is was a price paid down, and a price which God's righteousness required. Corruptible things mean here any thing that man usually gives in exchange for another; but the term necessarily includes all created things, as all these are corruptible and perishing. The meaning of the apostle is, evidently, that created things could not purchase the souls of men, else the sacrifice of Christ had not been offered; could any thing less have done, God would not have given up his only-begotten Son. Even silver and gold, the most valuable medium of commerce among men, bear no proportion in their value to the souls of a lost world, for there should be a congruity between the worth of the thing purchased and the valuable consideration which is given for it; and the laws and customs of nations require this: on this ground, perishable things, or things the value of which must be infinitely less than the worth of the souls of men, cannot purchase those souls.
Nothing, therefore, but such a ransom price as God provided could be a sufficient ransom, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the world.
Vain conversation] Empty, foolish, and unprofitable conduct, full of vain hopes, vain fears, and vain wishes.
Received by tradition from your fathers] The Jews had innumerable burdens of empty ceremonies and useless ordinances, which they received by tradition from their fathers, rabbins, or doctors. The Gentiles were not less encumbered with such than the Jews; all were wedded to their vanities, because they received them from their forefathers, as they had done from theirs. And this antiquity and tradition have been the ground work of many a vain ceremony and idle pilgrimage, and of numerous doctrines which have nothing to plead in their behalf but this mere antiquity. But such persons seem not to consider that error and sin are nearly coeval with the world itself.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. Forasmuch as ye know , etc.] From the Scriptures of truth, by the testimony of the Spirit, by his work upon the soul, and by the application of the benefits of redemption, such as justification, pardon, adoption, and sanctification; (see Job 19:25 Galatians 2:20), that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . The redemption of a soul, which is of more worth than a world, requires a greater price than gold and silver; and those who have the largest share thereof, can neither redeem their own souls with it, nor the souls of others.
The soul is immortal and incorruptible, but these are corruptible things, which may be cankered, or wear away, and perish by using; and therefore, seeing redemption is not obtained by anything corruptible, nothing corrupt in principle, or practice should be indulged. The allusion is to the redemption of the people of Israel, and of the firstborn, by shekels, ( Exodus 30:12,13 Numbers 3:46-48). Gold and silver do not mean pieces of gold and silver, but gold and silver coined; for only by such could redemption of anything be obtained but these are insufficient for the redemption of the soul; which is a deliverance from the slavery of sin, the bondage, curse, and condemnation of the law, the captivity of Satan, and from a state of poverty, having been deep in debt, and sold under sin. It here follows, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers ; meaning not the corruption of nature, which is propagated from father to son by natural generation, and lies in the vanity of the mind, and is the spring and source of an evil conversation; though the saints, as they are redeemed from all sin, so from this, that it shall not be their condemnation; not Gentilism, which lay in vain philosophy, in idolatry and superstition, and in evil and wicked conversation, encouraged by the example of their ancestors; but Judaism, and either regards the ceremonial law, which was delivered by Moses to the Jewish fathers, and by them handed down to their posterity; and which was vain, as used and abused by them, and was unprofitable to obtain righteousness, life, and salvation by, and therefore was disannulled by Christ, who has redeemed and delivered his people from this yoke of bondage; or rather the traditions of the elders, which our Lord inveighs against, ( Matthew 15:3) etc. and the Apostle Paul was brought up in, and zealous of, before conversion, ( Galatians 1:14) as the Pharisees were. These were the inventions and decrees of them they called twba , fathers, to whose dogmas and decisions they paid the utmost respect. These made up their oral law, which the Jews say Moses received from Sinai, and delivered to Joshua; and Joshua to the elders; and the elders to the prophets; and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue, the last of which was Simeon the just; and from him it was delivered to another; and so from one to another to the times of Christ and his apostles and afterwards; and which consisted of many vain, useless, and unprofitable things; to walk according to which must be a vain conversation; and the saints now being redeemed by a greater price than that of silver and gold, and which is after mentioned, they ought not therefore to be the servants of men, no, not of these fathers, but of God and Christ.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 17-25 - Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let the reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, an Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has n heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious bloo of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation i highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God ha purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he mad manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the support of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Chris came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance tha where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified before it can give up its own desires and indulgences. And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eterna life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, a born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers an dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, livin word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all othe things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts a our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ειδοτες 1492 5761 οτι 3754 ου 3756 φθαρτοις 5349 αργυριω 694 η 2228 χρυσιω 5553 ελυτρωθητε 3084 5681 εκ 1537 της 3588 ματαιας 3152 υμων 5216 αναστροφης 391 πατροπαραδοτου 3970
Vincent's NT Word Studies
18. Ye were redeemed (elutrwqhte). The verb occurs only in two other passages, Luke xxiv. 21; Tit. ii. 14. It carries the idea of a ransom-price (lutron, from luw, to loose).
With silver or gold (arguriw h crusiw). Lit., with silver or gold money; the words meaning, respectively, a small coin of silver or of gold. Conversation. Rev., manner of life. See on ver. 15.
Received by tradition from your fathers (patroparadotou). A clumsy translation; improved by Rev., handed down from your fathers. The word is peculiar to Peter.
