When Peter described us as being born of imperishable seed from the Word of God, that was not an innovation on his part. Jesus often equated the word of God with seeds.
Probably the best-known instance is the parable of the sower, recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark and Luke's retellings make the point plainly:
Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God. (Jesus, Luke 8:11)
The sower sows the word. (Jesus, Mark 4:14)
Matthew's retelling does not introduce a single central saying that what is sown is the word, instead including that in the explanation of each of the four types of the soil, as someone who "hears the word and ...", each time equating what is sown with the word.
Jesus tells other parables in which the the point of the parable is carried by focusing on a seed. Matthew has an entire collection of parables of either seed or small living things that grow or multiply (the sower, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, the yeast) to describe how the kingdom of God takes root and grows.
For anyone reading, I appreciate the patience with the slow build here. There are too many individual parts to cover them all at the same time without the individual points being lost in the list of points.
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