What is the context?
The salvation the readers now receive had a history before their own experience of it. The prophets foretold grace to come, then searched to understand the time and setting of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
The Spirit of Christ worked in that earlier testimony, and the Holy Spirit is also named in the gospel’s proclamation. Peter connects the earlier promise and its later announcement, giving the readers reason to value what has reached them.
The angels’ desire to look into these things adds a final note of wonder. The word behind look into can describe careful, intent attention. The readers are hearing news of a saving work that reaches far beyond their immediate circumstances.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Calvin and Wesley both read this as showing the privilege of receiving the gospel’s fuller revelation of Christ. Calvin explicitly distinguishes the prophets’ looking toward fulfillment from a claim that they themselves had no share in God’s salvation.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Jesus gives a direct explanation of the same movement in Luke 24:25–27, 44–49. He connects Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms with His suffering and resurrection, then with repentance and forgiveness proclaimed to all nations. Peter’s readers stand within that announced fulfillment: what the prophets looked toward has become good news carried outward through the Holy Spirit.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.