The Pervasiveness of Birth Imagery in 1 Peter 1:3–2:10

Abstract The first major unit of 1 Peter is recognized as replete with imagery drawn from the domain of conception, birth, and child-rearing (see 1:3, 14, 23; 2:2–3). This article argues that two other images in this section are drawn from the same conceptual domain. First, the reference to redemption in 1:18 alludes to the redemption of the firstborn. Unlike other proposals, this interpretation makes the most sense of the elements of the extended metaphor in 1:18–19. Second, the language of moving from darkness to light in 2:9 also conveys birth imagery. This aspect of the physical reality of birth provided a common metonymic phrase for parturition. The density of explicit invocations of birth imagery leading up to this verse would have primed a reader to also see this verse as a portion of the extended metaphor.