1 Peter 3
Duties of Wives and Husbands 1–7
General Exhortations to Unity and Love 8–12
Suffering for Righteousness and Christian Hope 13–17
Christ’s Example and Exaltation 18–22
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for 1 Peter 3
Verse 1
be in subjection — Hupotasso, to rank oneself under. Peter uses it of every reader toward the king (2:13), of servants (2:18) and, in v.22, of angels and powers under Christ. ‘Won’ is kerdaino, gained; ‘conversation’ is anastrophe, manner of life (1:15; 2:12). The husband who ‘obey not the word’ is reached ‘without the word’.
Verse 2
chaste conversation coupled with fear — ‘Chaste’ is hagnos, pure; ‘behold’ (epopteuo) is to watch as an observer, found only here and at 2:12, where Gentiles ‘behold’ good works. ‘Fear’ is phobos, the word of 1:17, ‘pass the time of your sojourning here in fear’; it is read as reverence toward God or toward the husband (Eph 5:33).
Verse 3
outward adorning — Kosmos, ornament. The three items, plaiting of hair, gold and apparel, are three of the four in 1 Tim 2:9: ‘not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array’. The verse says where the adorning is not to lie; v.4 says where it is.
Verse 4
the hidden man of the heart — The person unseen: ‘the LORD looketh on the heart’ (1 Sam 16:7). ‘Of great price’ is polutelēs, the word for ‘costly array’ in 1 Tim 2:9 and for the ‘very precious’ ointment of Mark 14:3. ‘Meek’ is praus and ‘quiet’ hesuchios, which 1 Tim 2:2 renders ‘peaceable’ (‘a quiet and peaceable life’).
Verse 6
calling him lord — Sarah’s own words in Gen 18:12, ‘my lord being old also’. Isaiah points Israel to her with Abraham: ‘Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you’ (Isa 51:2). ‘Amazement’ is ptoesis, a sudden alarm, found only here in the New Testament.
Verse 7
the weaker vessel — Skeuos, a vessel or implement, with asthenes, without strength. ‘Giving honour’ (aponemo) is found only here. ‘Heirs together’ is sugkleronomos, the word of ‘joint-heirs with Christ’ (Rom 8:17). ‘Hindered’ is ekkopto, cut off: prayer is the thing at stake.
Verse 8
be ye all of one mind — Five words follow ‘Finally’. Four of them (homophron, sumpathes, philadelphos, philophron: one mind, compassion, brotherly love, courtesy) occur nowhere else in the New Testament. ‘Pitiful’ (eusplagchnos) is the ‘tenderhearted’ of Eph 4:32.
Verse 9
not rendering evil for evil — ‘Thereunto called’ repeats 2:21, ‘hereunto were ye called’, where Christ is the example: ‘when he was reviled, reviled not again’ (2:23). Those called to bless ‘inherit a blessing’ (eulogia); the verb is from the same root as the ‘heirs together’ of v.7.
Verse 10
refrain his tongue from evil — The quotation runs from Ps 34:12 through v.16 (vv.10–12 here): ‘Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile’ (Ps 34:13). ‘Guile’ is dolos, put away in 2:1 and denied of Christ in 2:22, ‘neither was guile found in his mouth’.
Verse 12
the eyes of the Lord — From Ps 34:15–16: ‘The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry’. Peter has ‘prayers’ (deesis) for the cry. The psalm’s verse goes on ‘to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth’ (Ps 34:16); Peter stops at ‘against them that do evil’.
Verse 13
followers of that which is good — Mimetes, imitator, the word of ‘followers of God’ in Eph 5:1. The question is answered by the next verse, which allows that suffering may still come: ‘But and if ye suffer’. Doing well and suffering were already joined in 2:19–20.
Verse 14
happy are ye — Makarios, blessed, the word of the beatitude in Matt 5:10. ‘Be not afraid of their terror’ draws on Isa 8:12, ‘neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid’; the next verse of Isaiah is quoted in v.15.
Verse 15
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts — Hagiazo, to set apart as holy, from Isa 8:13, ‘Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear’. ‘Answer’ is apologia, a defence (as in Phil 1:7, ‘the defence… of the gospel’). ‘Fear’ is again phobos (vv.2, 14), now toward God.
Verse 18
the just for the unjust — Dikaios for adikos; Acts 3:14 calls him ‘the Holy One and the Just’. ‘Once’ (hapax) is the word of Heb 9:28, ‘once offered to bear the sins of many’. ‘Bring’ is prosago, to lead into God’s presence; ‘quickened’ is zoopoieo, made alive.
Verse 19
preached unto the spirits in prison — Kerusso, to proclaim as a herald; the gospel-telling verb of 1:12 and 4:6 is euangelizo. The spirits are those ‘disobedient’ in Noah’s days (v.20). Christians differ whether Christ went through Noah, ‘the Spirit of Christ which was in them’ (1:11), or after his death.
Verse 20
eight souls — Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives (Gen 7:7, 13); 2 Pet 2:5 calls Noah ‘the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness’. ‘Longsuffering’ is makrothumia, found only here in this letter. ‘Saved’ is diasozo, brought safely through; Heb 11:7 says Noah prepared the ark.
Verse 21
the like figure — Antitupon, a counterpart answering to the type; the only other use is Heb 9:24, ‘the figures of the true’. Baptism corresponds to the water of the flood. Peter excludes ‘the putting away of the filth of the flesh’, and the saving is ‘by the resurrection of Jesus Christ’; ‘answer’ (eperotema) is an appeal.
Verse 22
on the right hand of God — From Ps 110:1, ‘Sit thou at my right hand’; Eph 1:20–21 sets him there ‘far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion’. ‘Is gone’ is poreuomai, the verb of ‘he went’ in v.19. ‘Made subject’ is hupotasso, the verb of v.1.