1 Peter 2:1 — The "Lay Aside" Vice List¶
Build script: scripts/nt/lexicon/build_1pet2_vice_list.py
Contents¶
The Passage¶
"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." — 1 Peter 2:1–2 (KJV)
Greek text (1 Pet 2:1):
Ἀποθέμενοι οὖν πᾶσαν κακίαν καὶ πάντα δόλον καὶ ὑποκρίσεις καὶ φθόνους καὶ πάσας καταλαλιάς
Key Observations¶
1. The aorist participle of command¶
Ἀποθέμενοι ("having laid aside / putting off") is an aorist participle of ἀποτίθημι. The aorist signals a decisive prior act that accompanies the positive command of v. 2 ("desire the sincere milk of the word"). The same verb and construction appear in Eph 4:22–25, Col 3:8, Heb 12:1, and Jas 1:21 — a shared early-church baptismal formula for the ethical break from the old life.
2. κακία as the root, the others as branches¶
The five vices are not a random list. κακία (malice/evil) heads the series as the broadest term — the inner disposition from which the other four are specific expressions. δόλος and καταλαλιά both concern speech; ὑπόκρισις and φθόνος concern the interior life before others. Together they describe the social sins that fracture community.
3. δόλος reappears in Peter's Christology¶
At 2:22 Peter quotes Isa 53:9 LXX: "neither was any δόλος found in his mouth" — applied to Christ's sinlessness. This makes Christ's freedom from guile the explicit model for the behavior commanded in 2:1. The readers are to lay aside δόλος because their Lord never had it.
4. The LXX depth varies dramatically¶
κακία (110× canonical LXX) and δόλος (34× canonical LXX) have deep OT roots in Hebrew. ὑπόκρισις, φθόνος, and καταλαλιά have 0 canonical LXX occurrences — they are essentially NT-era moral vocabulary, shaped more by Hellenistic Jewish discourse than by Hebrew OT categories.
5. καταλαλιά and the letter's concern with speech before outsiders¶
Though the rarest term (2 NT occurrences), the καταλαλ- word-group appears 3× more in 1 Peter itself (2:12; 3:16 ×2). The communities Peter writes to were subject to slander from outsiders; his command is that they not do the same thing to one another.
Term Catalogue¶
| Term | Strongs | Gloss | NT occ | LXX occ (canonical) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| κακία | G2549 | malice, evil, wickedness | 11 | 110 |
| δόλος | G1388 | deceit, guile, treachery | 11 | 34 |
| ὑπόκρισις | G5272 | hypocrisy, dissimulation, play-acting | 6 | 0 |
| φθόνος | G5355 | envy, jealousy (malicious) | 9 | 0 |
| καταλαλιά | G2636 | slander, evil speaking, defamation | 2 | 0 |
Greek NT data: TAGNT (Byzantine/Textus Receptus, STEPBible CC BY 4.0).
LXX data: CenterBLC LXX (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew data: TAHOT (STEPBible CC BY 4.0).