1-peter 1:23
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and stays for ever.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and stays for ever.
American Standard Version (ASV)
having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Because you have had a new birth, not from the seed of man, but from eternal seed, through the word of a living and unchanging God.
Webster's Revision
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
World English Bible
having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
English Revised Version (ERV)
having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.
Clarke's 1-peter 1:23 Bible Commentary
Being born again - For being born of Abraham's seed will not avail to the entering of the kingdom of heaven.
Not of corruptible seed - By no human generation, or earthly means; but of incorruptible - a Divine and heavenly principle which is not liable to decay, nor to be affected by the changes and chances to which all sublunary things are exposed.
By the word of God - Δια λογου ζωντος Θεου· By the doctrine of the living God, which remaineth for ever; which doctrine shall never change, any more than the source shall whence it proceeds.
Barnes's 1-peter 1:23 Bible Commentary
Being born again - See the notes at John 3:3.
Not of corruptible seed - "Not by virtue of any descent from human parents" - Doddridge. The result of such a birth, or of being begotten in this way - for so the word rendered "born again" more properly signifies - is only corruption and decay. We are begotten only to die. There is no permanent, enduring life produced by that. It is in this sense that this is spoken of as, "corruptible seed," because it results in decay and death. The word here rendered "seed" - σπορά spora - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.
But of incorruptible - By truth, communicating a living principle to the soul which can never decay. Compare 1 John 3:9; "His seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
By the word of God - See the note at James 1:18; "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." Compare the notes at John 1:13. It is the uniform doctrine of the Scriptures that divine truth is made the instrument of quickening the soul into spiritual life.
Which liveth and abideth forever - This expression may either refer to God, as living forever, or to the word of God, as being forever true. Critics are about equally divided in the interpretation. The Greek will bear either construction. Most of the recent critics incline to the latter opinion - that it refers to the word of God, or to his doctrine. So Rosenmuller, Doddridge, Bloomfield, Wolf, Macknight, Clarke. It seems to me, however, that the more natural construction of the Greek is to refer it to God, as ever-living or enduring; and this interpretation agrees well with the connection. The idea then is, that as God is ever-living, that which is produced directly by him in the human soul, by the instrumentality of truth, may be expected also to endure forever. It will not be like the offspring of human parents, themselves mortal, liable to early and certain decay, but may be expected to be as enduring as its ever-living Creator.
Wesley's 1-peter 1:23 Bible Commentary
1:23 Which liveth - Is full of divine virtue. And abideth the same for ever.