1 Peter 1:18

Knowing

(ειδοτες). Second perfect active participle of οιδα, causal participle. The appeal is to an elementary Christian belief (Hort), the holiness and justice of God with the added thought of the high cost of redemption (Bigg).Ye were redeemed

(ελυτρωθητε). First aorist passive indicative of λυτροω, old verb from λυτρον (ransom for life as of a slave, Matthew 20:28), to set free by payment of ransom, abundant examples in the papyri, in N.T. only here, Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14. The ransom is the blood of Christ. Peter here amplifies the language in Isaiah 52:3.Not with corruptible things

(ου φθαρτοις). Instrumental case neuter plural of the late verbal adjective from φθειρω to destroy or to corrupt, and so perishable, in N.T. here, verse 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:53; Romans 1:23. Αργυριω η χρυσιω (silver or gold) are in explanatory apposition with φθαρτοις and so in the same case. Slaves were set free by silver and gold.From your vain manner of life

(εκ της ματαιας υμων αναστροφης). "Out of" (εκ), and so away from, the pre-Christian αναστροφη of verse 1 Peter 1:15, which was "vain" (ματαιας. Cf. Ephesians 4:17-24).Handed down from your fathers

(πατροπαραδοτου). This adjective, though predicate in position, is really attributive in idea, like χειροποιητου in Ephesians 2:11 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 777), like the French idiom. This double compound verbal adjective (πατερ, παρα, διδωμ), though here alone in N.T., occurs in Diodorus, Dion. Halic, and in several inscriptions (Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary; Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 266f.). The Jews made a wrong use of tradition (Matthew 15:2), but the reference here seems mainly to Gentiles (1 Peter 2:12).