1 Peter 2.2—Crave the Pure-Wordish Milk
Crave the Pure-Wordish Milk—1 Peter 2.2
In 1 Peter 2:2, Peter commands his audience in Türkiye (formerly Turkey) to desire “the pure-wordish milk.” As many know, literally translating texts from the Bible often results in strange sounding phrases. What I did not know until recently, however, is that many phrases in the Bible also sounded strange to its original audience. The phrase “pure-wordish milk” from 1 Peter 2:2 is a perfect example of how biblical authors used strange phrases to grab their audience’s attention.
This newsletter explores the message of 1 Peter 1:3-2:10 from the perspective of the phrase “pure-wordish milk” in 1 Peter 2:2, a phrase so unique that it appears nowhere else in the Bible or other Greek texts written before 1 Peter.
A Baby in God’s Family
To prepare his audience’s hearts to hear his message—that persecution is a normal affair in God’s kingdom and will actually result in glory for those who endure—Peter begins his letter (1:3-2:10) by reminding his audience of the glorious status they now have as members of God’s family through the gospel. He encourages Christians by emphasizing their honored position as members of God’s household. Though their physical families may shame them by slandering them and ostracizing them, their honor remains intact as children of God who are destined to serve as royal priests.
In the world of the New Testament, your family of origin determined everything from your legal rights to whom you could marry—being a member of God’s family spoke volumes to the audience of the New Testament. Peter uses family language to convey the believers’ esteemed position, supporting his argument with numerous Old Testament references. He starts by declaring that they have been “born again” into a new inheritance, far more valuable than any earthly possessions (1:4). He exhorts them to emulate God’s holy love as “obedient children” (1:13-14), reasoning that if they call upon a Father who judges impartially (1:17), they should live in reverent fear and love one another. This is because they have been “born again…through the living and enduring word of God” (1:23). Despite the social pressure from their families to revert to idolatrous practices, Peter reassures them that, no matter how their earthly families and extended families treat them for being Christians, they are spiritually part of a much richer and more honorable family.
Babies Need Milk
In 2:2, Peter sets up the rest of 2:3-10 with the clever use of the phrase τὸ λογικὸν ἄδολον γάλα, meaning “the pure-wordish milk.” At least two fun effects result from Peter’s unique construction.
First, Peter tells his audience that, because they have been born again, they should crave what all babies long for: milk. But what type of milk? Here’s where it gets interesting. The word λογικὸν [logikon] only appears once more in the New Testament, in Romans 12:1, where it is translated as “spiritual” or “rational” depending on the version. However, λογικὸν is just the adjective form of λόγος [logos], which Peter uses twice in the preceding verses to refer to the “word of God,” meaning the gospel. Therefore, the most thorough scholarship on the verse suggests that this word should be understood as an adjective form of “word,” referring back to the gospel (Horrell and Williams 2023, 581-582). Thus, instead of being “pure spiritual milk,” as it is often translated, its most literal translation here is “pure-wordish milk.”
This interpretation raises a fascinating question: what did this phrase mean, and how understandable was it for Peter’s audience?
Knowledge is Food - A Conceptual Metaphor
To answer the question above, we need to explore Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). CMT, developed shortly after the birth of Cognitive Linguistics in the 1980s, explains how people use metaphors to reason. In short, it states that the human brain learns best by abstracting from physical, embodied experiences. These abstractions, codified in language, become the “conceptual metaphors” in which we live.
For example, in English, we associate UP with GOOD and DOWN with BAD. Someone can feel “on top of the world” or be “down in the dumps.” Similarly, tapping into a food metaphor, English speakers talk about mentally stimulating interactions as “food for thought” and might say they need time to “digest everything that was presented.”
Ancient Greek and Roman authors like Plato and Epicurus also talked about philosophical teachings as “food” for the soul. For the ancient Greeks, KNOWLEDGE IS FOOD, and by extension, GOOD TEACHING IS HEALTHY FOOD. We find similar statements throughout the New Testament. In Matthew 4, Jesus fends off the Devil’s temptations by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “man shall not live by bread alone.” Paul uses the metaphor of eating in relation to doctrine several times, chastising the Corinthians for still needing “milk” instead of “solid food” (1 Corinthians 3) and instructing Timothy to be “nourished on the words [logos] of the faith.”
This metaphor maps elements from the food domain onto the doctrine domain:
- Milk → Basic/Elementary Teachings
- Solid Food → Advanced/Deeper Teachings
- Craving → Desire for Spiritual Knowledge
- Consuming → Receiving/Internalizing Teachings
This metaphorical mapping helps people understand abstract concepts like spiritual nourishment and growth through the familiar experience of physical nourishment from food. So, while “wordish milk” is unique in the New Testament and quite strange in English, it would have been relatively understandable to Peter’s ancient Greek audience.
A Sampler Platter of Doctrine
Above, I said that Peter does two fun things with the phrase “pure-wordish milk” in 2:1-10. The second fun thing Peter does with the phrase “pure-wordish milk” in 2:2 is that he sets the audience up for what they are about to receive in 2:3-10. After telling the audience that they should desire gospel teaching like little babies desire milk, Peter fires off allusions and citations of Old Testament texts one after another. 1 Peter 2:3-10 is one of the passages with the most dense references to the teachings of the Old Testament and of Jesus Christ, the gospel himself. It’s as if Peter says, “you better get hungry for God’s word, and here’s a sampler platter of what He wants to feed you!”
The texts that Peter references would have been well known by Christians because they were key to Jesus’ teaching about himself and how the Apostles taught about Christ and the church. Jesus identifies himself with the stone in Psalm 118, the stone who failed the builder’s test, but has become the cornerstone. Christ, and the church whom Peter addressed, were both paradoxically rejected by men but honored by God—a truth that has long nourished persecuted Christians.
Here’s a table that shows how frequently statements in 1 Peter 2:1-10 overlap with Septuagint references, Jesus’s teachings, and the teachings of the apostles. Notice how frequently he references the “word of God” (the Septuagint) just after commanding them to long for the “pure-wordish Milk” in 2:2.
| Reference in 1 Peter | LXX Reference / Allusion | Allusion or Echo of Jesus’s Teaching | Apostolic Trope | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2:1 | Eph. 4:33; James 1:21 | |||
| 2:2 | 1 Cor 3:1; Heb 5:12-13 | |||
| 2:3 | Ps 34:8 (33:9 LXX) | Luke 6:35 | ||
| 2:4 | Ac 4:11 | |||
| 2:5 | Eph. 2:21-22 Re. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6; Rom 12:1; Heb 13:15 |
|||
| 2:6 | Is 28:16 | Rom 9:33 | ||
| 2:7 | Psalm 118:22 | Mark 12:10-11; Matthew 21:42-43; Luke 20:17-18 | Ac 4:11 | |
| 2:8 | Isa. 8:14 | Rom 9:33 | ||
| 2:9 | Exod. 19:6; Isa. 43:20 | Re 1:6; 5:10; 20:6 Titus 2:14 Ac 26:18; Eph 5:8 Col 1:13 |
||
| 2:10 | Hos. 1:6, 9; 2:25 |
Here’s a translation of the text as well, which has phrases directly from the Old Testament in ALL CAPS:
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have TASTED THE KINDNESS OF THE LORD. 4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES UPON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.”
7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
“THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNER stone,”
8 and,
“A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE.” They stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling they were also appointed. 9 But you are A CHOSEN FAMILY, a royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
TL;DR
If the email was too long to read, here are the main points:
- Peter encouraged the Christians in what we now call Türkiye (formerly Turkey) by reminding them that they are part of God’s family—a family with honor tied to the Most High himself.
- Peter tells the believers that they are newborns in God’s family and should long for the “pure-wordish milk.”
- The phrase “pure-wordish milk” was strange to the original audience, but was a clear reference to the word of the gospel and understandable within the conceptual metaphor KNOWLEDGE IS FOOD.
Challenge for You
Consider re-reading 1 Peter 1:3-2:10 in light of the importance of familial honor discussed above.
Hours of meticulous research and commitment went into creating this newsletter. Remember, knowledge grows when it's shared. So, don't hesitate to pass this on!
References
Horrell, David G., and Travis B. Williams. 2023. 1 Peter: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary: Volume 1: Chapters 1-2. Edited by Graham I. Davies and Christopher M. Tuckett. Vol. Volume 1: Chapters 1-2. International Critical Commentary. London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney: T&T Clark.