Passage

1 Peter 1.2

"According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure." (1 Peter 1:2, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,"

"2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied."

"3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4. unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you," (1 Peter 1:1-4, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,"

"2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied."

"3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4. to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn't fade away, reserved in Heaven for you," (1 Peter 1:1-4, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,"

"2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."

"3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ^{abundant: Gr. much} 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ^{for you: or, for us}" (1 Peter 1:1-4, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the choice sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,"

"2. according to a foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied!"

"3. Blessed [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the abundance of His kindness did beget us again to a living hope, through the rising again of Jesus Christ out of the dead, 4. to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you," (1 Peter 1:1-4, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Peter the Apostle, with Silvanus as scribe (cf. 1 Pet 5:12)
Audience: Christian believers scattered across five Roman provinces in Asia Minor
Location: composed in Rome, referred to in code as "Babylon" (1 Pet 5:13)
Time period: c. AD 62-64, before Peter's martyrdom under Nero

Theological reading

The verse is the most compact Trinitarian formula in the catholic epistles. In two clauses Peter assigns distinct roles to Father, Spirit, and Son, and binds them into a single saving act. The Father foreknows; the Spirit sanctifies; the Son is obeyed, and His blood is sprinkled on the believer. The grammar is striking: one election, three persons, one outcome. This is precisely the pattern Trinity Coherence Defense (Latin-Thomist) and Social Trinitarianism both work to articulate, from different metaphysical sides. See Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism for the comparative hub.

The election clause is the load-bearing soteriology text. Prognōsis, "foreknowledge," carries two contested readings. Calvinist readings take prognōsis as covenantal foreordination, a knowing-in-love rather than a merely advance cognition. On this reading, election is unconditional and the Father's foreknowledge is His prior decision to set His love on a people. Arminian readings take prognōsis as advance knowledge of the elect's free response to grace; God elects on the basis of foreseen faith. Molinist readings split the difference: God's middle knowledge of every counterfactual free creature lets Him elect a world in which the chosen freely come. See Calvinism vs Arminianism vs Molinism vs Open Theism for the comparative hub and Foreknowledge vs Causation for the philosophical distinction.

The atonement clause picks up the Sinai sprinkling ritual (Exod 24:8) and applies it to the new covenant in Christ's blood. The believer is brought into the covenant the same way Israel was, by being sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice; only now the blood is the Son's, and the response is obedience to Him directly. The verse compresses Trinitarian theology, the doctrine of election, and the doctrine of the atonement into a single greeting.

Key words

G2316 - theos, theos (Strong's G2316), God the Father.
G3962 - pater, pater (Strong's G3962), Father, the first person named.
G4151 - pneuma, pneuma (Strong's G4151), the sanctifying Spirit.
G5547 - christos, christos (Strong's G5547), Christ, whose blood is sprinkled.
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous (Strong's G2424), Jesus, the one obeyed.
G5218 - hypakoe, hypakoe (Strong's G5218), the obedience for which the elect are set apart.
G5485 - charis, charis (Strong's G5485), grace, the Petrine and Pauline greeting word.

Cross-references

Romans 8.29, the parallel Pauline foreknowledge-predestination text, decisive for the Calvinist-Arminian exegetical debate.
Ephesians 1.4-5, the Pauline "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world."
Foreknowledge vs Causation, the philosophical distinction in play.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.