Lit., imitators. But the best texts read ζηλωταὶ, zealots. So Rev., zealous.

See on Matthew 5:3.

Be troubled (ταραχθῆτε)

The word used of Herod's trouble (Matthew 2:3); of the agitation of the pool of Bethesda (John 5:4); of Christ's troubled spirit (John 12:27).

The A. V. follows the Tex. Rec., reading τὸν Θεὸν, God, instead of τὸν Χριστὸν, Christ, which is the reading of the best texts. The article with Christ shows that κύριον, Lord, is to be taken predicatively. Render, therefore, as Rev., sanctify Christ (the Christ) as Lord.

Ready to give an answer (ἕτοιμοι πρὸς ἀπολογίαν)

Lit., ready for an answer. Answer is our word apology, not in the popular sense of excuse, but in the more radical sense of defence. So it is translated Acts 22:1; Philippians 1:7, Philippians 1:16. Clearing of yourselves, 2 Corinthians 7:11.

Meekness

See on Matthew 5:5.

The position of the adjective shows that it is used predicatively: having a conscience good or unimpaired. Compare Hebrews 13:18, "We have a good conscience (καλὴν συνείδησιν)." Συνείδησις, conscience, does not occur in the gospels, unless John 8:1-11 be admitted into the text. Nor is it a word familiar to classical Greek. It is compounded of σύν, together with, and εἰδέναι, to know; and its fundamental idea is knowing together with one's self. Hence it denotes the consciousness which one has within himself of his own conduct as related to moral obligation; which consciousness exercises a judicial function, determining what is right or wrong, approving or condemning, urging to performance or abstinence. Hence it is not merely intellectual consciousness directed at conduct, but moral consciousness contemplating duty, testifying to moral obligation, even where God is not known; and, where there is knowledge of God and acquaintance with him, inspired and directed by that fact. A man cannot be conscious of himself without knowing himself as a moral creature. Cremer accordingly defines the word as "the consciousness man has of himself in his relation to God, manifesting itself in the form of a self-testimony, the result of the action of the spirit in the heart." And further, "conscience is, essentially, determining of the self-consciousness by the spirit as the essential principle of life. In conscience man stands face to face with himself." Conscience is, therefore, a law. Thus Bishop Butler: "Conscience does not only offer itself to show us the way we should walk in, but it likewise carries its own authority with it, that it is our natural guide, the guide assigned us by the Author of our nature; it therefore belongs to our condition of being; it is our duty to walk in that path and follow this guide." And again, "That principle by which we survey, and either approve or disapprove our own heart, temper, and actions, is not only to be considered as what is, in its turn, to have some influence, which may be said of every passion, of the lowest appetites; but likewise as being superior; as from its very nature claiming superiority over all others; insomuch that you cannot form a notion of this faculty, conscience, without taking in judgment, direction, superintendency. This is a constituent part of the idea, that is, of the faculty itself; and to preside and govern, from the very economy and constitution of man, belongs to it. Had it strength as it had right; had it power as it had manifest authority, it would absolutely govern the world" (Sermons II. and III., "On Human Nature").

Conscience is a faculty. The mind may "possess reason and distinguish between the true and the false, and yet be incapable of distinguishing between virtue and vice. We are entitled, therefore, to hold that the drawing of moral distinctions is not comprehended in the simple exercise of the reason. The conscience, in short, is a different faculty of the mind from the mere understanding. We must hold it to be simple and unresolvable till we fall in with a successful decomposition of it into its elements. In the absence of any such decomposition we hold that there are no simpler elements in the human mind which will yield us the ideas of the morally good and evil, of moral obligation and guilt, of merit and demerit. Compound and decompound all other ideas as you please, associate them together as you may, they will never give us the ideas referred to, so peculiar and full of meaning, without a faculty implanted in the mind for this very purpose" (McCosh, "Divine Government, Physical and Moral").

Conscience is a sentiment: i.e., it contains and implies conscious emotions which arise on the discernment of an object as good or bad. The judgment formed by conscience awakens sensibility. When the judicial faculty pronounces a thing to be lovable, it awakens love. When it pronounces it to be noble or honorable, it awakens respect and admiration. When it pronounces it to be cruel or vile, it awakens disgust and abhorrence.

In scripture we are to view conscience, as Bishop Ellicott remarks, not in its abstract nature, but in its practical manifestations. Hence it may be weak (1 Corinthians 8:7, 1 Corinthians 8:12), unauthoritative, and awakening only the feeblest emotion. It may be evil or defiled (Hebrews 10:22; Titus 1:15), through consciousness of evil practice. It may be seared (1 Timothy 4:2), branded by its own testimony to evil practice, hardened and insensible to the appeal of good. On the other hand, it may be pure (2 Timothy 1:3), unveiled, and giving honest and clear moral testimony. It may be void of offence (Acts 24:16), unconscious of evil intent or act; good, as here, or honorable (Hebrews 13:18). The expression and the idea, in the full Christian sense, are foreign to the Old Testament, where the testimony to the character of moral action and character is borne by external revelation rather than by the inward moral consciousness.

Falsely accuse (ἐπηρεάζοντες)

Compare Luke 6:28; the only other passage where the word occurs, Matthew 5:44, being rejected from the best texts. The word means to threaten abusively; to act despitefully. Rev., revile.

More literally, as Rev., preserving the play upon the word will, if the will of God should so will.

But the Greek without the article is more graphic: just for unjust.

In the flesh

The Greek omits the article. Read in flesh, the material form assumed in his incarnation.

In the spirit

Also without the article, in spirit; not as A. V., by the Spirit, meaning the Holy Ghost, but referring to his spiritual, incorporeal life. The words connect themselves with the death-cry on the cross: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Huther observes, "Flesh is that side of the man's being by which he belongs to earth, is therefore a creature of earth, and accordingly perishable like everything earthy. Spirit, on the other hand, is that side of his being according to which he belongs to a supernal sphere of being, and is therefore not merely a creature of earth, and is destined to an immortal existence."

Thus we must be careful and not understand spirit here of the Spirit of God, as distinguished from the flesh of Christ, but of the spiritual nature of Christ; "the higher spiritual nature which belonged to the integrity of his humanity" (Cook).

Wrong. Rev., correctly, in which in the spiritual form of life; in the disembodied spirit.

Went and preached (πορευθεὶς ἐκήρυξεν)

The word went, employed as usual of a personal act; and preached, in its ordinary New-Testament sense of proclaiming the Gospel.

To the spirits (πνεύμασιν)

As in Hebrews 12:23, of disembodied spirits, though the word ψυχαὶ, souls, is used elsewhere (Revelation 6:9; Revelation 20:4).

In prison (ἐν φυλακῇ)

Authorities differ, some explaining by 2 Peter 2:4; Jde 1:6; Revelation 20:7, as the final abode of the lost. Excepting in the last passage, the word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament in a metaphorical sense. It is often translated watch (Matthew 14:25; Luke 2:8); hold and cage (Revelation 18:2). Others explain as Hades, the kingdom of the dead generally.

Lit., into which. A pregnant construction; into which they were gathered, and in which they were saved.

By water (διὰ)

Rev., through. Some take this as instrumental, by means of water; others as local, by passing through the water, or being brought safely through the water into the ark. Rev., in margin, were brought safely through water.

Following a rejected reading, ᾧ, to which; so that the literal rendering would be the antitype to which. Read ὃ ἀντίτυπον, which, the antitype or as an antitype; i.e., which water, being the antitype of that water of the flood, doth now save you, even baptism. Rev., which, after a true likeness doth now, etc. Ἀντίτυπον, figure, or anti-type, is from ἀντί, over against, and τύπος, a blow. Hence, originally, repelling a blow: a blow against a blow; a counter-blow. So of an echo or of the reflection of light; then a correspondence, as of a stamp to the die, as here. The word occurs only once elsewhere, Hebrews 9:24 : "the figures of the true."

Putting away (ἀπόθεσις)

Peculiar to Peter. Here and 2 Peter 1:14.

Filth (ῥύπου)

Only here in New Testament. In classical Greek signifying especially dry dirt, as on the person.

Answer (ἐπερώτημα)

Only here in New Testament. In classical Greek the word means a question and nothing else. The meaning here is much disputed, and can hardly be settled satisfactorily. The rendering answer has no warrant. The meaning seems to be (as Alford), "the seeking after God of a good and pure conscience, which is the aim and end of the Christian baptismal life." So Lange: "The thing asked may be conceived as follows: 'How shall I rid myself of an evil conscience? Wilt thou, most holy God, again accept me, a sinner? Wilt thou, Lord Jesus, grant me the communion of thy death and life? Wilt thou, O Holy Spirit, assure me of grace and adoption, and dwell in my heart?' To these questions the triune Jehovah answers in baptism, 'Yea!' Now is laid the solid foundation for a good conscience. The conscience is not only purified from its guilt, but it receives new vital power by means of the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

This is the sense of ἐπερωτᾷν εἰς, in the only place where it occurs in scripture, 2 Samuel 11:7 (Sept.): "David asked of him how Joab did (ἐπερώτησεν εἰς εἰρήνην Ἰωάβ)." Lit., with reference to the peace of Joab. Rev. renders, the interrogation, and puts inquiry, appeal, in margin.

Perhaps with the scene of the ascension in Peter's mind.

Only here in New Testament. The thought is Pauline. See Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 6:10, Ephesians 6:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Colossians 3:12.

Mind (ἔννοιαν)

Only here and Hebrews 4:12. Literally the word means thought, and so some render it here. Rev. puts it in margin. The rendering intent, resolution, is very doubtful. It seems rather to be the thought as determining the resolution. Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, be ye also willing to suffer in the flesh.

Only here in New Testament.

The rest of the time (ἐπίλοιπον)

Only here in New Testament.

Compare Romans 13:13.

Us (ἡμῖν)

The best texts omit.

Of our life (τοῦ βίου)

The best texts omit.

Will (βούλημα, the better reading for θέλημα)

Desire, inclination. See on Matthew 1:19.

When we walked (πεπορευμένους)

Rev., rightly, ye walked. Construe with to have wrought. The time past may suffice for you to have wrought the desire, etc., walking as ye have done; the perfect participle having an inferential reference to a course of life now done with.

Lasciviousness (ἀσελγείαις)

The following enumeration of vices is characteristic of Peter's style in its fulness and condensation. He enumerates six forms of sensuality, three personal and three social: (1) Ἀσελγείαις, wantonness. See on Mark 7:22. Excesses of all kinds, with possibly an emphasis on sins of uncleanness. (2) Ἐπιθυμίαις, lusts. See on Mark 4:19. Pointing especially to fleshly lusts, "the inner principles of licentiousness" (Cook). (3) Οἰνοφλυγίαις, excess of wine. Only here in New Testament. The kindred verb occurs in the Septuagint, Deuteronomy 21:20; Isaiah 56:12. From οἶνος, wine, and φλέω or φλύω, to teem with abundance; thence to boil over or bubble up, overflow. It is the excessive, insatiate desire for drink, from which comes the use of the word for the indulgence of the desire - debauch. So Rev., wine-bibbings. The remaining three are revellings, banquetings, and idolatries.

Revellings (κώμοις)

The word originally signifies merely a merry-making; most probably a village festival, from κώμη, a village. In the cities such entertainments grew into carouses, in which the party of revellers paraded the streets with torches, singing, dancing, and all kinds of frolics. These revels also entered into religious observances, especially in the worship of Bacchus, Demeter, and the Idaeau Zeus in Crete. The fanatic and orgiastic rites of Egypt, Asia Minor, and Thrace became engrafted on the old religion. Socrates, in the introduction to "The Republic," pictures himself as having gone down to the Piraeus to see the celebration of the festival of Bendis, the Thracian Artemis (Diana); and as being told by one of his companions that, in the evening, there is to be a torch-race with horses in honor of the goddess. The rites grew furious and ecstatic. "Crowds of women, clothed with fawns' skins, and bearing the sanctified thyrsus (a staff wreathed with vine-leaves) flocked to the solitudes of Parnassus, Kithaeron, or Taygetus during the consecrated triennial period, and abandoned themselves to demonstrations of frantic excitement, with dancing and clamorous invocation of the god. They were said to tear animals limb from limb, to devour the raw flesh, and to cut themselves without feeling the wound. The men yielded to a similar impulse by noisy revels in the streets, sounding the cymbals and tambourine, and carrying the image of the god in procession" (Grote, "History of Greece"). Peter, in his introduction, addresses the sojourners in Galatia, where the Phrygian worship of Cybele, the great mother of the gods, prevailed, with its wild orgies and hideous mutilations. Lucretius thus describes the rites:

continued...

"In a troop" (Bengel); like a band of revellers. See above. Compare Ovid's description of the Bacchic rites:

"Lo, Bacchus comes! and with the festive cries

Resound the fields; and mixed in headlong rout,

Men, matrons, maids, paupers, and nobles proud,

To the mysterious rites are borne along."

Metamorphoses, iii., 528-530.

Excess (ἀνάχυσιν)

Only here in New Testament. Lit., pouring forth. Rev. has flood in margin. The word is used in classical Greek of the tides which fill the hollows.

Riot (ἀσωτιάς)

From ἀ, not, and σώζω, to same. Lit., unsavingness, prodigality, wastefulness; and thence of squandering on one's own debased appetites, whence it takes the sense of dissoluteness profligacy. In Luke 15:13, the kindred adverb ἀσώτως, is used. The prodigal is described as scattering his substance, to which is added, living wastefully (ζῶν ἀσώτως). Compare Ephesians 5:18; Titus 1:6.

Lit., having himself in readiness; there at God's right hand in heaven, whither he has gone (1 Peter 3:22). Implying, also, a near judgment. Compare 1 Peter 4:7.

Lit., has come near. The word constantly used of the coming of Christ and his kingdom. See Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15; Luke 10:9; Hebrews 10:25.

Be ye sober (σωφρονήσατε)

The word is froth σῶς, sound, and φρήν, the mind. Therefore, as Rev., be ye of sound mind. Compare Mark 5:15.

Watch (νήψατε)

See on 1 Peter 1:13. The A. V. has followed the Vulgate, vigilate (watch). Rev. is better: be sober.

Unto prayer (εἰς προσευχάς)

Lit., prayers. The plural is used designedly: prayers of all kinds, private or public. Tynd. renders, Be ye discreet and sober, that ye may be apt to prayers. Compare Ephesians 6:18, "with every kind of prayer, and watching thereunto."

See, on the kindred adverb fervently, notes on 1 Peter 1:22.

Love covereth, etc

Compare James 5:20; Proverbs 10:12.

Compare Romans 13:13.

Originally, something freely given: a gift of grace (χάρις). Used in New Testament (a) of a blessing of God graciously bestowed, as upon sinners (Romans 5:15, Romans 5:16; Romans 11:29); (b) of a gracious divine endowment: an extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling and working in a special manner in the individual (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6; Romans 12:6, Romans 12:8). So here.

Manifold

See on 1 Peter 1:6.

In classical Greek, of the oracular responses of heathen deities. Here, divine utterances or revelations. Compare Acts 7:38; Romans 3:2; Hebrews 5:12.

Giveth (χορηγεῖ)

Only here and 2 Corinthians 9:10. Peter uses the compound ἐπιχορηγέω, furnish, in 2 Peter 1:5; which see.

I.e., alien from you and your condition as Christians. Compare 1 Peter 5:4.

Fiery trial (πυρώσει)

The word means burning. In Proverbs 27:21 (Sept.), it is rendered furnace. In Psalm 65 (Sept.), 66 (A. V.), we read, "Thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast smelted us, as silver is smelted." Compare Zechariah 13:9.

Which is to try you (ὑμῖν γινομένῃ)

The A. V. thus makes the trial a thing of the future; mistranslating the Greek present participle, which is taking place. This participle, therefore, represents the trial as actually in progress. The Rev. does not give this force by its which cometh upon you.

To try you (πρὸς πειρασμὸν)

Lit., for trial or probation.

Strange thing (ξένον)

Compare think it not strange, above.

Happened (συμβαίνοντος)

Again the present participle. Better, perhaps, were happening; by chance, instead of with the definite purpose indicated by "taking place with a view to probation." See above.

Compare Romans 8:17.

Be glad with exceeding joy (χαρῆτε ἀγαλλιώμενοι)

Lit., ye may rejoice exulting. See on 1 Peter 1:6.

Lit., the spirit of glory and that of God. The repetition of the article identifies the spirit of God with the spirit of glory: the spirit of glory, and therefore the spirit of God: who is none other than the spirit of God himself. Hence Rev., better, the spirit of glory and the spirit of God.

Resteth (ἀναπαύεται)

Compare Isaiah 11:2; Luke 10:6; Numbers 11:25, Numbers 11:26; Mark 6:31; Matthew 26:45; Revelation 14:13. Also, Matthew 11:28, where the word is used in the active voice, to give rest or refreshment.