The quotation is taken from the book of Leviticus, where it appears several times (Lev 11.44; 19.2; 20.7). In its original context, it referred to the Jews; here the quotation is made to refer to Christians, which is a further example of Peter’s contention that the Christians are God’s new people, and that the Christian Church is the new Israel.

The scripture says is literally “it is written,” which is the typical New Testament way of introducing Old Testament quotations. Be holy is future in the Greek (compare Revised Standard Version). The future tense is commonly used in the Bible for commands (for example, the Ten Commandments), and the Good News Translation has translated the future tense as an imperative, in order to conform to that of a command in modern day English (compare Phillips “you must be holy”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “you should also be holy”).

Be holy because I am holy may be rendered as “be separate from what is evil just as I am separate from what is evil.”

It is customary in a number of English translations of the Scriptures to use a capital “S” in speaking of the Scriptures as a whole, that is to say, the Scriptures as a book or document. When, however, one refers to a particular passage of scripture, then normally a lower case “s” is employed. Instead, however, of saying The scripture says, it may be necessary to render the expression as “as one may read in a passage of scripture” since in a number of languages one cannot say “the writings say”; one can only “read in the writings.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .