Texts in Conversation
1 Peter echoes the language of Isaiah, where human life and its achievements are compared to grass and flowers that wither, stressing the fleeting nature of humanity in contrast to what endures.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Isaiah 40:6
Septuagint
4 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough places plains. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord has spoken it. 6 The voice of one saying, Cry; and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: 7 The grass withers, and the flower fades: 8 but the word of our God remains for ever.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Peter 1:24
New Testament
22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass withers and the flower falls off, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
Date: 80–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Flesh as a Morally Neutral Term ... The phrase “all flesh” occurs twice in New Testament citations of the Old Testament (Acts 2:17 cites Joel 3:1; 1 Peter 1:24 cites Isaiah 40:6). In both cases the phrase refers to all of humanity. In 1 Peter 1:24 the emphasis seems to be on the temporality of humankind when compared with the eternal word of God. Sometimes the term flesh is neutral but qualified by an adjective or phrase that gives the concept negative nuances, e.g., 1 John 2:16, “the lust of the flesh,” or 2 Peter 2:10, “those who go after other flesh,” or 2:18, “the sensual desires of the flesh” (compare Jude 7, 8, 23) ..."
Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids, eds., Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997), 579.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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