Israel was called to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” in Exod. 19:6, even before the institution of the priesthood was established. Thus the point of 1 Peter is not the priestly role of individual believers but the “priestly identity of God’s people” and the “role of the community of believers in the world-at-large.”9 As a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9), the community is set apart for God, as Israel was.10
