1 Peter 1:10

Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

As Caffin observed:

Peter was a diligent student of the prophetic books, and constantly quotes them, both in his epistles and in his speeches recorded in Acts. Here he gives a very remarkable glimpse into the condition of the prophetic consciousness.[27]

Here Peter called attention to the curiosity that the ancient prophets of the Old Testament had with reference to their own writings! Of course, New Testament critics would find fault with a truth like this, suggesting that Peter "built" this verse on one of the statements of Jesus "reported differently"[28] in Matthew 13:17 and Luke 10:24! There are plural errors in a view like this. First, there is the denial that Jesus made both statements. The foolish notion that similar statements in the New Testament are invariably founded upon "an original" is ridiculous. All of the New Testament sayings of Jesus are originals! Secondly, there is the notion that Peter had to "build" his words. Peter's teaching in this verse could well have been founded upon the personal words of Christ, but whether this is true or not, it is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and therefore true.

The prophets ... These were the prophets of the old covenant, the writers of the Old Testament, whose hundreds of prophecies of Christ's coming into the world make up the burden of the Old Testament. For reasons that will appear below, critics have been very diligently at work on this Scripture. Selwyn argued that these are not the prophets of the Old Testament at all, but those of the apostolic church![29] However, the very fact of the prophets Peter mentioned having prophesied the sufferings and glories of Christ identifies them with the Old Testament, not the New Testament.

Sought and searched diligently ... What did the prophets search? The holy Scriptures which they had written, of course! John Calvin's remarkable pronouncement on this, to the effect that the prophets searched, "not the writing or the teaching, but the private longing with which each was fired!"[30] is likewise totally out of harmony with the passage. The following verse shows that it was the "testimony" of the Holy Spirit regarding the sufferings and glories of Christ it was that "testimony" which they did not understand (though they had written it), the point of their misunderstanding being the "time" when such things would occur. Now those testimonies of the sufferings and glories of Christ was not "private longings" of the prophets, but the plain words of the Scriptures which they wrote. Besides these obvious facts, who ever heard of a man "searching and inquiring into" his private longings!

The word for "inquired" is "used only here in the New Testament,"[31] and has the meaning of "to search out, to trace out, or explore."[32]

Barnes' lucid explanation of what this verse means is undoubtedly correct:

The prophets perceived that in their communications there were some great and glorious truths which they did not fully comprehend; and they diligently employed their natural faculties to understand that which they were appointed to impart to succeeding generations.[33]

[27] B. C. Caffin, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Peter (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 6.

[28] J. H. A. Hart, op. cit, p. 46.

[29] E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter (London: Macmillan and Company, 1946), pp. 131ff.

[30] A quotation from John Calvin by A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 391.

[31] Raymond C. Kelcy, op. cit., p. 28.

[32] Albert Barnes, op. cit, p. 120.

[33] Ibid.