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AN 
 
 AMERICAN COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ALVAH HOVEY. D.D., LL.D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 1420 Chestnut Street. 
 
COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EPISTLES OE PETEE. 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHANIEL MARSHMAN WILLIAMS, D. D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
 1420 Chestnut Steeet. 
 
Entered, aeeording to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by the 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at AA/^ashinqton. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This attempt to expound the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude is the attempt 
 of one who has spent life chiefly in the work of a preacher and pastor, not in the work of 
 a professional exegete. Such a mode of life ought, perhaps, to have deterred from the 
 attempt. But, however that may be, the writer may be permitted to say that, while 
 aiming to adapt the work to the wants of the people, he is not without hope that some 
 of his brethren in the ministry, who, though not exegetes by profession, have been more 
 or less accustomed to the study of the Greek, may find at least something to aid, even 
 them, in the better understanding of these remarkable Epistles. In his treatment of the 
 very difficult, and, as he cannot but think, greatly misunderstood passage concerning the 
 preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison, he acknowledges his indebtedness to S. C. 
 Bartlett, D. D., President of Dartmouth College, for what manifestly is the true view of 
 the Greek. Owing to what has been denominated "the new movement" in theology — 
 so far as that movement pertains to the subject of a second probation — this part of Peter's 
 First Epistle (3 : 18-20) is worthy of very careful study. Another topic now command- 
 ing much interest is the relation of wives to their husbands, and upon this the writer has 
 ventured to express some general thoughts, besides endeavoring to educe the meaning of 
 the verses bearing upon the subject. It is an interesting fact, that of the two apostles 
 who have given practical precepts concerning the relation of husband and wife, the one 
 was married and the other was unmarried. Sarcastic allusions to Paul's bachelorship are, 
 therefore, less worthy of the source from which they flow. Here Paul the unmarried 
 and Peter the married are one. In the Introduction to the Second Epistle of Peter will 
 be found a brief consideration of the question recently sprung upon the attention of Chris- 
 tian scholars by Rev. Edwin A. Abbott, D. I). , of England. It is claimed that a com- 
 parison of the Second Epistle with the writings of Josephus yields a new and unanswer- 
 able argument against the authority of the Epistle. It is a question of much importance, 
 and will undoubtedly receive a yet more thorough examination. 
 
 The conditions upon which this work was to be prepared included preparation, if 
 deemed needful by the writer, of Critical Notes, " as a vindication of the view presented." 
 The writer has conformed to the condition, but, in doing so, has felt that such additional 
 attempts are quite unworthy of being classed under a designation which appropriately 
 means something so much higher. 
 
 As this part of "An American Commentary," a work so wisely under the general 
 supervision of President Hovey, goes forth from the hand of the writer, it is his desire 
 that it may not prove to be harmful, even if it fail to be helpful. 
 
 N. W. WILLIAMS. 
 Marshjield, Mass. 
 
 8 
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 Peter, whose original name was Simon (see on 2 Pet. 1:1), though a native of 
 Bethsaida, became a resident of Capernaum. His father bore the name of Jonas, or, 
 according to some Greek manuscripts, John. See John 21 : 15, 16, 17, where, in the 
 thrice-repeated question, the Revisers have, in accordance with the Greek of Westcott 
 and Hort, Simon, son of John. In Matt. 16 : 17 are the names Simon Bar-jona (Bar- 
 Jonah, "in the Revision). Some would translate the Greek, Simon son of Jonah. Others 
 take Bar-Jonah as a patronymic, like Bar Abbas, and Bar Timaeus. According to Dr. 
 Schaif, Bar-Jona is a contraction for Bar-Joanna (Chaldaic) — i. e., son of John. As to 
 the name Peter, see on the first verse of the First Epistle. Our apostle had a brother 
 who was called Andrew, and that he married is clear from Matt. 8 : 14, where it is said 
 that his ivifes mother was sick. His wife must have been then living ; for in 1 Cor. 9 : 5 
 Paul makes distinct allusion to her as traveling with Peter. This was as late as A. D. 57, 
 long after the sickness reported by Matthew. 
 
 Peter, in company with his father and brother, followed the business of fishing. He 
 was not rich, yet he seems not to have been poor. He was not versed in Greek learning, 
 nor in the learning of Rabbinic schools ; yet there is no reason to doubt that he had a 
 respectable share of such knowledge as prevailed among the people. Illiteracy, as 
 known in the United States, in this year of grace, 1888, was not known in Palestine in 
 the times of Christ and the apostles. In Acts he is indeed spoken of — and John not 
 less — as unlearned and ignorant, "illiterate and obscure." This is what the rulers and 
 elders and scribes " perceived." These having been educated in Rabbinic schools, were 
 so far superior to Peter ; but itnlearned must not be so explained as to imply that the 
 apostle had enjoyed none of the common opportunities of education. His social position, 
 unlike, for example, that of Nicodemus, or that of Joseph of Arimathaea, was not among 
 the aristocracy of Palestine ; he was a plebeian. Amid the perils and toils of his daily 
 life, he inclined to the service of God ; for no sooner had John the Baptist made his 
 public appearance, than Peter became interested in his mission, and this prepared him to 
 take a step forward. He became a disciple of him of whom John was but the forerunner. 
 One of the Twelve, he was One op the Three ; for with James and John he shared 
 the special confidence of Christ, and received special instruction. The "close compan- 
 ionship" of men so unlike as John and Peter in natural qualities is worthy of notice. 
 See Mark 9:2; Luke 22 : 8 ; John 18 : 15 ; 20 : 2-8 ; Acts 3:1; 4:13. Each of the 
 apostles had a distinctive temperament, and a distinctive cast of mind ; but not one of 
 them stands out in the Gospels with such clearness of outline, and such fullness of detail 
 as does Peter ; and, till Paul appears in Acts, no one even in that book is so prominent. 
 It is impossible to mistake him for any other. But his prominence is not that of rank, 
 or of office, but that of spiritual activity. Though he introduced the first Gentile into 
 
 5 
 
6 INTEODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 the Christian Church, and may have been the means of introducing others, yet, acting 
 with Paul upon the principle of a division of labor, he wrought, chiefly, for the spiritual 
 good of Jews. 
 
 Of the latter part of Peter's life little is known. He disappears from the history in 
 Acts after the Council in Jerusalem (15 : 7-11) A. D. 50 or 51. Thus, if we reckon from 
 Pentecost, A. D. 33, he is kept before us seventeen years. Paul appears A. D. 36, 
 fourteen or fifteen years before the disappearance of Peter, and remains before us till 
 A. D. 63 or 64, the historian abruptly closing with the report of his activity in preaching 
 while a prisoner in Rome. While, then, it is approximately correct that the former half 
 of Acts is chiefly a record of Peter's labors, and the latter half a record of Paul's, it is an 
 interesting fact that the two apostles, as is clear in the history itself, came into intimate 
 Christian relations, and, contrary to what some have affirmed, lovingly wrought for the 
 same spiritual end. Though Peter is seen no more in Acts after the Council, yet we 
 catch glimpses of him in Paul's Epistle to the Gralatians, and in his First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians ; and though, as Farrar says, " From his own epistles we learn almost 
 nothing about his biography," we do learn much of his innermo.st spirit. Tradition 
 makes him to have gone very early to Rome, and to have founded the Roman Church ; 
 but, if well sifted, the tradition is found to be chaff". That he went to Rome near the 
 close of life, after the Roman Church was founded, and after the death of Paul, is 
 strongly attested. He suffered martyrdom, and probably about A. D. 67. 
 
 The natural and spiritual characteristics of Peter are not less worthy of study than 
 Paul's. His temperament, though not like Paul's, the best, was such as to make him 
 capable of great activity and endurance. It was not the best, for it was such as to 
 expose him to sudden and needless, sometimes very sinful, flashes of feeling ; and these 
 reported themselves in explosives of startling force. He was not given to logical 
 thinking, and was therefore not accustomed to draw conclusions. A blow hastily origi- 
 nated, and as hastily aimed, was his common way ; yet in most cases he meant well. His 
 Divine Master was sincerely and warmly loved ; but failure to see the higher nature of 
 his Master's mission caused him to speak sometimes in words which were more 
 unseemly than the spirit which lay behind them. Of one terrible exception no one 
 needs to be reminded. What may charitably be considered as only faults growing out 
 of his temperament, culminated at last in — 
 
 ..." the deep disgrace 
 Of weakness." 
 
 As Longfellow continues — 
 
 " We shall he sifted till the strength 
 Of self-conceit he changed at length 
 To meekness." 
 
 The flashy nature of the apostle became a miracle of continuous energy and boldness, 
 clothed, as shown in his First Epistle, in tenderness and persuasiveness scarcely inferior 
 to John's. After the ascension, one instance of inconsistency with his own principles, 
 and only one, occurred ; and, what must be considered as a striking interposition on 
 behalf of the new faith, that did not occur till Grod had brought into the church one who 
 was quick to see, and bold to resist Peter's vacillation. See Gal. 2 : 11-14. In view of 
 our apostle's natural characteristics, it mtist be said that his spiritual life became such, 
 under the teachings of Christ, followed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as to afford 
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 scarcely less proof of his supernatural endowment than is given of Paul's by Paul's 
 conversion and life. 
 
 This sketch of Peter's life would be incomplete without allusion to the apostle's 
 influence in the writing of the Gospel of Mark. The belief that he had something to do 
 in the preparation of that gospel is well founded ; but precisely what he did is uncertain, 
 and probably can never be determined. See a discussion of tlie question in Dr. W. N. 
 Clarke's Commentary on Mark, belonging to the present series— Introduction, "The 
 relation of Peter to this Gospel," pp. 10-12. AVhat proportion of the remarkable 
 vivacity of the gospel is due to Mark, and what proportion to Peter, it would be equally 
 impossible to decide. Little, however, is hazarded in saying that the gospel, compared 
 with the two epistles, and viewed in the light of Peter's characteristics, bears in a 
 marked degree the imprint of Peter's mind. 
 
 II. THE OBJECT OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 This is given in 5 : 12. It was both hortatory and confirmatory. If persecution by 
 the civil power had not yet fallen upon the Churches of Asia Minor, yet there was reason 
 to believe that the danger was not far off; and it is clear that the Christians of that 
 region were suffering from the tongues of those among whom they lived. They needed 
 patience to bear the revilings of the wicked, and faith to meet the coming storm of 
 governmental power. They also needed new assurance that the religion of Christ was 
 divine. The exhortations are enforced by the fact that they had been called by the grace 
 of God, by the fact of the sufferings of Christ, by the nearness of Christ's coming, and 
 by the glory which awaits them in heaven. 
 
 III. THE PLAN OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 The plan is not obvious, and therefore is not easily given. The thought advances, 
 but not so consecutively as in some of Paul's epistles. This is less surprising, as 
 doctrinal teaching, which requires argument, and therefore more orderly and condensed 
 thinking, was not a part of the apostle's design. The introduction may be considered as 
 embraced in the first twelve verses, and the conclusion in the last five. Between these 
 parts occur three series of exhortations : the first, pertaining to their own individual 
 life (1 : 13-2 : 10) ; the second, to their relations to others — servants in their relations to 
 masters, wives in their relations to husbands, husbands in their relations to wives, and all 
 in their relations to people of the world (2: 11-4 : 6); the third, to their own individual 
 life again (4 : 7-5 : 9). In the last is a commingling of the consolatory. In concluding, 
 the apostle expresses the divine purpose in the form of a promise (see upon 5 : 10), gives 
 utterance to a doxology, expresses the object of writing the Epistle, sends greetings, and 
 pronounces the customary benediction. 
 
 IV. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 These are not in accordance with the characteristics of Paul or of John. Peter's 
 traits of character and peculiarities of mind are everywhere visible. It is not impossible 
 that such an epistle could have been written by Peter, even if Peter's experience during 
 the Lord's ministry had been different ; but it is certain that the Epistle is colored by 
 his experience as it actually was. Illustrations of this will be cited in the Notes.' Yet 
 
 ^ Hor(B Pelrinw, by Dean Howson, though, as the writer himself remarks, fragmentary, and its subject- 
 matter capable of fuller treatment, is an interesting view of the point referred to. 
 U 
 
8 INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 it is a striking proof of his present greater breadth of rehgious views and stronger faith 
 in the unseen and eternal. It is characterized by Httle less originality than the epistles 
 of Paul. Some of the thoughts are found in no other part of the Scriptures, and some 
 are as "hard to be understood" (2 Pet. 3: 16) as anything in the writings of that 
 profoundest of all the inspired writers. While distinctly evangelical, and so far in union 
 with the teachings of Christ and Paul, it is permeated, like the Gospel of Matthew, with 
 the spirit of the Old Testament, as seen in its very numerous quotations. In no respect 
 does it teach views opposed to those taught by Paul While there were some in that 
 early age of Christianity who said "I am of Paul," and some who said "I am of 
 Peter," neither the one apostle nor the other allowed himself to be the head of a party. 
 The doctrines which Paul taught directly and fully Peter taught indirectly and in part. 
 The exhortations of the Epistle imply all the great doctrines of the Christian faith. The 
 Epistle contains not a trace of assumption of rank over the other apostles. It is simply 
 the Epistle of Peter an apoStle, and he seems almost to foretell the bold assumption of 
 the papal power ; for, in addressing the elders, he calls himself a co-elder. See on 
 5 : 1. Too much has been made of the admitted similarity existing between some parts 
 of this Epistle and some parts of the Epistle to the Romans, and of that to the Ephe- 
 sians. Similarities between our Epistle and that of James have also been noticed. The 
 early CJiristians, not excepting the apostles themselves, would as naturally fall into 
 similar forms of language in expressing the more common thoughts as Christians of our 
 own times. There is nothing improbable, however, in the supposition that Peter had 
 become so familiar with some of Paul's forms of expression as either purposely or uncon- 
 sciously to use them. Such imitations, conscious or unconscious, may be seen by com- 
 paring Mic. 4 : 1-3 with Isa. 2 : 2-4, and Ezek. 31 : 14-18 ; 32 : 18-32 with Isa. 14 : 9-19. 
 See the article "Isaiah," in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," pp. 1151, 1164. Isaiah 
 and Micah were contemporaneous, and may have heard each other. 
 
 V. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 That Peter was the author is undoubted. Many of the writers who followed the 
 apostles, as Polycarp, a disciple of John ; Papias, who wrote about A. D. 140-150; the 
 Shepherd of Hermas, second century ; the Peshito Version, before A. D. 150 ; the Old 
 Latin Version, before A. D. 170; Basilides, a heretic of the earlier part of the second 
 century ; the churches in Vienne and Lyons in a letter written about A. D. 177 ; Ter- 
 tullian, born in the latter half of the second century; Origen, A. D. 186-253; and 
 Eusebius, A. D. 270-340 — all awaken the belief, and some give positive proof by quota- 
 tions, that they were acquainted with the Epistle, and knew it to be the work of Peter. 
 
 VI. THE READERS, TIME, AND PLACE. 
 
 The persons to whom the Epistle was sent are believed by some to have been Gentile 
 Christians, but it contains strong evidence that they were chiefly Jewish Christians. 
 That some were Gentiles is not improbable. The time, as judged by many, was A. D. 66. 
 It might have been a little earlier. The place in which it was written was Babylon in 
 Chaldea. 
 
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers 
 scattered throughout Pontus, Ualatia, Cappadocia, 
 Asia, and Bithyuia, I 
 
 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect 
 who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, 
 
 Ch. 1: 1-12. Introduction, 1, 2; In- 
 scription AND Salutation. 
 
 By an Epistle General is meant one directed 
 not to any given church, but to Christians at 
 large, though not necessarily to all Christians 
 even of the same period. Those here addressed 
 must be presumed to be member- of churches. 
 The Greek word for general \s katholike {cutho- 
 lic). But in the best Greek Testament (West- 
 cott and Hort) is a much shorter title — Petrou 
 A, that is, " First of Peter." Revision : The 
 First Epistle of Peter. 
 
 1. Peter. Instead of standing last, as in 
 modern times, the name of the writer stands 
 first. He uses the name given him by Christ. 
 (Matt. 16: 18.) Petros (Peter) is Greek, and 
 means rock. In many places Cephas is used, 
 which is a Syro-Chaldaic word, also meaning 
 rock, and this may have been the name by 
 which the other apostles and Christ were 
 accustomed to address the writer of our Epis- 
 tle. That Simon was to be "called Cephas 
 (which is, by interpretation, Peter)," was 
 declared by our Lord when Andrew brought 
 him unto Jesus. (Johni:i2.) "Thou ar^ Peter ' 
 was declared by Christ, when at a later period 
 Simon made the ever-memorable confession, 
 "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God." The new name expresses both the 
 natural energy and the spiritual firmness for 
 which this apostle was distinguished. But it 
 was applied to him also, because before the 
 conversion of Paul he was to be the chief 
 agent in laying the foundation of Christianity. 
 "Upon this rock I will build my church" 
 refers therefore to Peter, not to Christ, not to 
 Peter's confession. The other apostles, how- 
 ever, though less prominent in zeal and labor, 
 are also the foundation upon which "the 
 saints" are built. (Eph.2;2o.) 
 
 An apostle of Jesus Christ. In men- 
 tioning his apostleship, he uses no such con- 
 firmatory expressions as are used by Paul in 
 nearly all his epistles — e. g., called (Rom. i: i); 
 
 through the will of God (l Cor. l : l ; 2 Cor. 1 : 1 ; Eph. 
 
 1:1; Col. 1:1) ; not from men {o»i. \ ■ \) ■ according 
 
 to the commandment of God (1 Tim. 1 : 1). Rea- 
 son : Paul's apostleship was called in ques- 
 tion; Peter's was not. To the strangers 
 . . . elect. In the Greek, 'elect' .stands 
 before the word translated 'strangers,' and 
 tlie Revision has the elect who are sojourners. 
 The persons addressed are described a.s chosen. 
 Election is the loving i)urpose of God to save 
 men. See Matt. 24: 31; Luke 18 : 7 ; Rom. 
 8: 33. In these passages the adji!ctive is used. 
 The verb is used in the same sense. (Mark is: 20; 
 John 13: 18; Eph. 1:4.) The noun election is so used. 
 
 (Bom. 11 : 5; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1 : 10.) Here, aS ill many 
 
 other places, it is the election, not of commu- 
 nities, but of individuals. Election should 
 be considered, not so much as a dogma to be 
 believed, as a fact to be felt and rejoiced in. 
 The point of the harmonious meeting of God's 
 in-working and man's out-working (Phii. 2: 12, 13) 
 is as difficult for man to detect in the spiritual 
 world as in the natural, and no more so. " It 
 does not follow," saj's Huther, "that because 
 individuals are elected all will attain the end 
 for which God elected them," and we are 
 referred to 2 Pet. 1 : 10. But that passage and 
 the very important words in Heb. 6: 4-6, with 
 others of similar import, teach only the 730.551- 
 bility of final apostasy; and the warning, for 
 such it is, is to be regarded as a means by 
 which the .salvation of the elect is secured. 
 To the strangers scattered— more exactly, 
 sojourners of the Dispersion. In the time of 
 Christ and the apostles, Jews were widely 
 dispersed in lands more or less remote from 
 Palestine, and this scattered body of Jews 
 was called "The Dispersion." But there 
 were several bodies of the Dispersion ; as the 
 Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Roman, the 
 Syrian. See John 7: 35; James 1: 1. Allu- 
 sions to the Dispersion are found in Acts 2: 
 9-11. Most of those who heard the gospel 
 on the Day of Pentecost, Parthians and 
 Modes, dwellers in Pontus and Asia, etc., 
 belonged to the Dispersion. It is probable 
 that many of those whom Peter now addresses 
 by letter had heard his stirring words in Jeru- 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the 
 Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedi- 
 ence and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace 
 unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 
 
 2 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, accord- 
 ing to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in 
 sanctificatiou of the Spirit, unto obedience and 
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace 
 to you and peace be multiplied. 
 
 salem. 'Sojourners,' because dwelling in a 
 country not their own. Jews felt that they 
 were not at home when not in Palestine. In 
 2: 11 and in Heb. 11: 13, the word is used 
 figuratively, for all Christians are only so- 
 journers in this world; but here the word 
 must be taken in the literal or national sense. 
 
 Pontus, bordering on the Black Sea, was 
 the northeastern province of Asia Minor. On 
 the western side of Pontus was Galatia, and 
 on the southern, Cappadocia. Asia was 
 the maritime part of Asia Minor, bordering 
 on the ^gean Sea, and included, at least, 
 Myeia, Lydia, and Caria, with Ephesus as 
 tlie chief city. Bithynia was in the north- 
 western corner of Asia Minor, and was 
 bounded on the north by the Black Sea. As 
 Pontus was nearest Babylon, and Asia the 
 farthest, it was natural for the writer to men- 
 tion Pontus first and Asia last, if he wrote 
 from Babylon ; but if he wrote from Kome, 
 it would not have been natural. These are 
 geographical terms, but "each is the name of 
 a province." (Dean Howson, Smith's "'Diet, 
 of Bible.") 
 
 2. According to the foreknowledge— 
 in consequence of it as a divine rule. Fore- 
 knowledge is not the same as predestination 
 or purpose. "Him being delivered by the 
 determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
 God.' (Acts 2: 23; compare Kom. 8: 29.) 
 Though, strictly, foreknowledge and election, 
 or foreordination, are each eternal, yet, in our 
 conception, foreknowledge precedes foreor- 
 dination, or the divine counsel. That is the 
 conception which the apostle here expresses. 
 That they were foreknown only as repenting 
 and believing is neither affirmed or implied. 
 What Peter teaches is that the election was 
 based upon the foreknowledge. God fore- 
 knew; and whom he foreknew he elected. 
 God could not be ignorant of his own purpose. 
 
 (Eph. 1: 4.5, 11; Rom. 8: 29,30.) If the men to whom 
 
 the apostle wrote were saints, they either 
 made themselves saints, or they were made 
 saints by God ; and as the change was wrought 
 by God, and as God d.es nothing without a 
 purpose, he made them saints because he pur- 
 posed to make them such ; and as his purposes 
 
 can have no beginning, his purpose to make 
 them saints was an eternal purpose. Love 
 was the source of all. Without the love, 
 and the foreknowledge, and the purpose, the 
 salvation of any would have been impossible. 
 Election hsis too often been preached as mere 
 doctrine : it should be preached as an expres- 
 sion of infinite love. Through sanctification 
 — not through sanctifying. It expresses a 
 state, not an act; not, 'through,' but in. The 
 Greek preposition seldom expresses instru- 
 mentality. The meaning is, that they came 
 into and continue in that state of sanctification 
 or holiness of whicli the Holy Spirit is the 
 ground or source. Tlie Holy Spirit makes 
 those holy whom the Father elects. No holi- 
 ness without election ; no election without 
 holiness. Unto obedience. 'Unto' ex- 
 presses result. The election led to this result : 
 they became obedient. But is not faith the 
 result of election, and obedience the fruit of 
 faith? or, to say the least, is there not "obe- 
 dience of" (or to) faith? See Eom. 1: 5. 
 Peter, as well as Paul, held faith in the highest 
 estimation, (ver. 5, s, 2i;2;6.) It was to him the 
 foundation of all Christian conduct; j'et he 
 could sometimes speak freely of obedience 
 without first reminding the readers that faith 
 is the root, and obedience only the fruit. 
 Some think that 'obedience' is here used in 
 so wide a sense as to include faith — faith being 
 supposed to precede all other acts of obe- 
 dience. The true explanation of the next 
 clause makes this view probably correct. 
 And sprinkling of the blood — sprinkling 
 with the blood. Notice Peter's familiarity 
 with the Old Testament. His escape, not less 
 complete than Paul's, from Pharisaic bondage 
 to the letter of the Mosaic Economj', is seen 
 in the very use that here and elsewhere he 
 makes of facts which occurred under that 
 economy. Peter saw the spiritual import of 
 the rites instituted by Moses. (The incon- 
 sistency which he showed at Antioch, and for 
 which Paul reproved him, was exceptional.) 
 Many things were sprinkled with the blood 
 of animals (Lev. «: 6; it;: 15,19), and the people 
 themselves (Ex. 24:8); and as the blood of 
 Christ was shed for sinners (Heb. 9:ii,i2;Coi. i:i4), 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 11 
 
 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath 
 
 3 Blessed be ' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us 
 
 Ur, God and Ike Fathtr. 
 
 Peter addresses the elect as having obtained 
 the precious boon of being sprinkled with the 
 blood of Jesus. The apostle does not deem 
 it necessary to express very clearly the dis- 
 tinction between the atonement and its appli- 
 cation tlirough faith; but as he is expressing 
 the results of their election, he must have had 
 in his conception the latter rather than the 
 former. The sprinkling is the application 
 of the atonement made by the shedding of 
 Christ's blood on the cross. In his early 
 Christian life, how unable was Peter to see that 
 
 Christ must die! (MaU.16: -n; Mark9: 9,10; U: 47.) 
 
 This inability led to some of his most unseemly 
 utterances. The accurate and elevated views 
 of the Epistle respecting the Messiah's death 
 show the greatness of the change through 
 which he passed. The evidence of the change 
 is seen as early as the Day of Pentecost. 
 (Acts 2: 23, 24.) Thc Father. The reference 
 to the Father, to Jesus Christ, and the Holy 
 Spirit, though not proving the equality of the 
 three, reminds us of it as taught elsewhere, 
 and shows us the deep interest which Peter 
 was persuaded each had in the salvation of 
 men. Grace and peace. Both are gifts; 
 but the latter is the fruit of the former. Grace 
 is the love of God shown toward the unde- 
 serving. A being morally endowed who has 
 never sinned, needs no grace. Peace comes 
 from the consciousness of being justified be- 
 fore God. (Rom. 5: 1.) Be multiplied. God's 
 grace may more and more abound, as also 
 the peace which flows from it. Whether the 
 salutations and benedictions of the epistles 
 are onl3' expressions of a wish, or are a kind 
 of prophetic declaration, is not in every case 
 easily determined. In Kom. 1: 7, and in 
 some other places, no verb is used; and it is 
 chiefly that which awakens the doubt. Here 
 a verb is used, and in that mood which ex- 
 presses a wish. 
 
 An epistle in the mere salutation of which 
 the writer takes his flight, poised upon the 
 eternal and electing love of God, and quickly 
 sees men rising up new in the Holy Spirit 
 and rejoicing in the atoning blood of Christ, 
 cannot but be worthy of our profoundest and 
 devoutest study. 
 
 3. Here begins the introduction proper, 
 which extends through ver. 12. It is pervaded 
 by the most elevated views of God's mercy, 
 the Christian's inheritance, the benefit of 
 afilictions, and the absorbing interest mani- 
 fested in the work of Christ alike by prophets 
 and angels. Blessed be. The Greek has no 
 verb, and an omission of this kind " is very- 
 common, " Buttraann says, "in all parts of 
 the New Testament." What verb is to be 
 supplied is in question. Some would supply 
 a word wiiich would make the formula ex- 
 pressive of a desire that God may be praised, 
 including actual, conscious praise by the 
 writer. Others (Buttmann) would supply 
 the indicative (is), in which case we should 
 have, Blessed is the God and Father. In 
 support of this view is the fact that the Greek 
 of this very verb is found in Kom. 1 : 25 
 ("who is blessed for evermore") ; and par- 
 ticularly 1 Pet. 4: 11 ("to whom is [Common 
 Version be'] praise and dominion"). The 
 indicative seems to be preferable, though it is 
 a question not easily decided. 'Blessed' — 
 worthy of all praise. Compare Eph. 1: 3-14, 
 between which and this is a deep undertone 
 of inspired harmony, with characteristic vari- 
 ations. Our Lord— often applied to the 
 Father as the Supreme Sovereign — is here 
 and elsewhere applied to Christ as the Head 
 of the New Dispensation. He is not here 
 conceived as the Word (Logos, John 1 : 1), but 
 as the Messiah, in which character he is ever, 
 as here, represented as subordinate to the 
 
 Father. (Col. l : 3 ; Rom. 15: 6; 1 Cor. 15: 24, 28.) Yet WB 
 
 may speak of Christ, even in his Messianic 
 character, as tbe Word that became flesh. 
 (John 1 : 14.) Our Lord ! is the exultant cry of 
 the elect. According to his abundant 
 mercy— in consequence of it. The elect are 
 not begotten in consequence of anything 
 which they themselves do. The preposition 
 indicates that the ground of God's begetting 
 was his mercy. 'Abundant' — God's mercy, 
 viewed as a quiescent attribute, is great; show- 
 ing it is greater than creating ten thousand 
 worlds. It is the greatest act which God can 
 do. It is an attribute for the exercise of which 
 there is no call, except toward the sinful, and 
 
12 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
 
 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. 
 
 again unto a living hope by the resurrection <if 
 
 4 Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheiitance 
 incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 
 5 away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power 
 
 without this the sinful would remain sinful. 
 Hath begotten us — better, begat us. It was 
 a single and finished act in the past, which the 
 Greek language was able to express by what 
 is called the Aorist tense. We shall meet with 
 many such instances, which in most cases the 
 Revised Version recogxiizes, but which the 
 Common Version very often overlooks. Mak- 
 ing the sinful spiritually new is one act, 
 quickly wrought, by which the depraved 
 nature is so changed that the subject thence- 
 forth loves the Creator and all that the Creator 
 loves. Again puts this spiritual act in con- 
 trast with the act by which the readers began 
 their natural life. 'Begat' — figurative and 
 very expressive. (John 3:3.) But they were no 
 more begotten into fully developed Christians 
 than they were begotten into fully developed 
 intellectual and bodily life. Regeneration is 
 only the beginning of spiritual life; but if, 
 from the time when it is supposed to take 
 place, there is no growth, nothing can be 
 admitted as evidence that it occurred at all. 
 Unto a lively hope. Says Paul to the 
 Ephesians, "Having no hope." This was the 
 sad state of even the most cultivated Gentiles 
 at the birth of Christ. From some of the 
 sepulchral inscriptions came aifecting evi- 
 dence of the hopelessness of man, and from 
 the lips of modern skepticism fall words 
 which echo the inscriptions. 
 
 The weariest and most loathed worldly life, 
 
 That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment 
 
 Can lay on nature, is a paradise 
 
 To what we fear of death. 
 
 Blessed with a written revelation, the Jews 
 were the only people who can be said to have 
 bad hope of a future happy existence; and 
 their hope had firmness of foundation only so 
 far as it rested on the promi.se of a coming 
 Saviour. Lively — living, life-producing, and 
 abiding. It refers, not merely to eternal life 
 as an object of hope, but to the life which 
 accompanies the hope; and this life is blissful 
 even here. A hope with no life would leave 
 us where the Romans were, without a written 
 revelation, and where the Jews were with a 
 revelation while trusting in the traditions 
 which they added to it. By the resurrec- 
 tion. Connect this not with Hiving' (living 
 
 in consequence of Christ's resurrection), nor 
 with 'begotten,' but with 'living hope.' The 
 living hope into which they were begotten 
 had its ground in the resurrection of Christ. 
 (I Cor. 15: li, 20.) The true view of a blissful life 
 for the saints includes the view of a resurrec- 
 tion of the body. The disembodied state, in 
 the comparatively brief period between death 
 and the resurrection, was regarded by the 
 apostles as exceptional and unnatural. The 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ settled the great 
 question of a future re-embodying, blissful 
 state. The hope will not disappoint. (Rom. 5:5.) 
 Christians are now showing far too little 
 interest in the general resurrection, and too 
 seldom does this crowning fact of Christianity 
 find place in the pulpit. 
 
 4. To an inheritance — some saj' patri- 
 mony — that is, something the jiossession of 
 which passed over legally from father to son ; 
 and so the kingdom of God may be viewed 
 as a patrimony which fell to the readers as 
 sons of God, as heirs. It is probable, how- 
 ever, that the word is here used in the more 
 general sense of possession, chiefly in its 
 completed form in heaven. It is so used in 
 both the Old Testament and the New. (Acts 
 7:5; Heb. 11 : 8.) The land of Canaan was called 
 the possession of the Jews. These saints of 
 Asia Minor were begotten to a possession — 
 the kingdom of God. How rich were they! 
 Three well-chosen adjectives describe it. In- 
 corruptible—God is said to be incorruptible 
 (Rom. 1: 23) ; the raised body also (i Cor. is: 53,54), 
 while the buried body is called corruptible. 
 The incorruptible possession to which men are 
 begotten is one which is secure from perish- 
 ing through any essential defect of its own. 
 Undefiled— /7'ee /ro?n impurity; a holy pos- 
 session. Fadeth not away — suggested, per- 
 haps, by the fading nature of all earthly 
 beauty. Of the possession, therefore, viewed 
 as beautiful, we may exclaim, as Milton sings 
 of the imaginary flower of the earthly para- 
 dise: "Immortal amaranth ! " Reserved— 
 kept in store, not merely stored up, but kept, 
 watched over, so that it may not be lost to us. 
 By this possession is not meant heav3n; for 
 it is kept for us in heaven, the latter being 
 viewed not as a state, but as the place in 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 13 
 
 5 Who are kept hy the fwwer of God through faith 
 snto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 
 
 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a sea- 
 
 of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation 
 
 6 ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye 
 
 greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need 
 
 which. In respect to security, the possession 
 is infinitely superior to those earthly treasures 
 which rust can corrupt, and thieves steal ; and 
 to gold, which is ever losing weight, and, 
 therefore, value. The value of the saints' 
 possession will forever increase. 
 
 5. Are kept— a?-e guarded. Though Peter 
 does not here use the same word for "kept" 
 (reserved) as in ver. 4, yet the idea is nearly 
 the same. The possession is kept for those 
 begotten, and those begotten are guarded for 
 the possession — double security. The saints 
 not kept, the possession would go unpossessed ; 
 the possession not kept, the saints would find 
 themselves begotten to eternal poverty. See 
 a military use of the word " kept " in 2 Cor. 
 11 : 32. God watches over us and guards, 
 and so keeps us. By the power of God. 
 The Greek preposition for by is used here 
 also (ev, in). We are kept in the power of 
 God, in that the power of God is the element 
 in which we are kept. God, as the God of 
 power, is the cause of the keeping, and the 
 cause becomes effective by our being in it. 
 But we are not kept irrespective of a given 
 mental constitution. God honors his creative 
 wisdom by requiring the use of our free will. 
 (Phil. 2: 12.) Through faith — by means of 
 faith. Faith is twofold— the assent of the intel- 
 lect and the trust of the heart ; more briefly, 
 assent and trust. One may have the former 
 (James2:i9.) without the latter ; one cannot have 
 the latter without the former. For many 
 instructive illustrations of faith, see the Old 
 Testament ; and see Heb. 11 for the same 
 facts grouped and condensed. Faith in God 
 comprehends faith concerning all that he has 
 revealed to us, whether in matter or in mind; 
 all that he has promised, and all that he has 
 required; and therefore it includes, as of sur- 
 passing importance, faith in his Son, Jesus 
 Christ, as the infallible Teacher, the Almighty 
 Worker, the propitiating Redeemer. He who 
 desires to be saved should not be unwilling 
 to believe ; and he who is unwilling to believe 
 gives little evidence of sincerity in desiring to 
 be saved. See on the word "believe," ver. 8. 
 Unto salvation. Connect this neither with 
 'begotten,' in ver. 3, nor with 'faith,' but 
 with 'kept.' We are kept unto salvation. 
 
 Salvation is the end, God's great mercy (ver.s) 
 the ground, and faith the means. Salvation 
 is here used in a broad sense, including deliv- 
 erance from sin and punishment, and tlie 
 attainment of holiness and bliss. It may be 
 synonymous with 'inheritance' in ver. 4; 
 only there the apostle's heart glows with the 
 nature of the possession, as is clear from the 
 adjectives he employs. From the first word 
 to the word ' salvation,' this verse is a clear 
 echo of Peter's experience; and many .such 
 echoes shall we hear as we advance through 
 the Epistle. See Luke 22: 31, 32. Peter 
 himself was kept in the early part of his 
 Christian life through faith, his faith being 
 the fruit of his Master's prayers. "When 
 once thou hast turned again, confirm thy 
 brethren." (Luke'22: 32, Kev. vor.) This Peter is 
 now faithfully doing, and will continue to do 
 throughout the Epistle. Ready— in the plan 
 and purpose of God. To be revealed— to be 
 brought out yet more distinctly to their appre- 
 hension, and especially to become their actual 
 and conscious possession. " A present salva- 
 tion " is a form of words quite current among 
 some, and expresses a Scriptural fact; but 
 salvation in its completed form does not be- 
 come the believer's till 'the last time.' The 
 last time. Much difference of opinion has 
 been awakened concerning this phrase. See 
 
 "the last day" (John 6: 39,40,41,54; 11: 24; 12: 48) ; 
 "the last days" (Act32: 17;2Tim.3: l; Jameso: 3) ; 
 
 "these last days" (Heb. 1:2); "these last 
 times" (iPet.i:2n); "the last time" (iJohQ2:i8j; 
 "the end" (1 Cor.is: 24). '•'The last days" 
 (in Peter's Pentecostal address) undoubtedly 
 covers the entire Christian Era. The days of 
 that period are called "the last," because the 
 period was "the world's last great moral 
 epoch." (Dr. H. B. Hackett, "Commentary 
 on the Acts," belonging to the present series.) 
 The words before us cannot refer to the entire 
 period of the Christian Economy, but to the 
 end of it. How soon the last day was to 
 come is not affirmed. Huther says: "The 
 entire manner of expres.sion indicates that 
 he hoped it was near." (*: t.) But concern- 
 ing the question, see more on 4: 7. 
 
 G. Greatly rejoice — not, will rejoice, for 
 the verb is not used in a future sense. 
 
14 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 son, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold 
 temptations: 
 
 ■7 That the trial of your faith, being much more 
 precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be 
 tried with fire, might be lound unto praise and honour 
 and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 
 
 7 be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, that 
 theproof of your faith, fcei'n^ more precious than gold 
 that perisheth though It is proved by fire, might 
 be found unto praise and glory and honour at the 
 
 Wherein refers not to "the last time," but to 
 the fact of being kept. The writer may also 
 have in his eye the fact mentioned in ver. 4. 
 'Greatly rejoice' is the translation of one 
 word in the Greek, and that expressive of joy 
 very intense. A milder word could have 
 been used ; but it was not like Peter to express 
 himself weakl^', and notwithstanding their 
 trials the readers' state of mind required the 
 stronger word. Here is no exaggeration 
 (Peter had long ago thrown off that habit), 
 though some find it difficult to see how Chris- 
 tians can justly be described as exultant when 
 "put to grief in manifold trials." (Revised 
 Version.; But see the yet stronger represent- 
 ation in ver. 8. The face of the statue of a 
 distinguished American of the last century 
 was at first thought by some imaginative 
 minds to smile on the one side, and to wear a 
 serious aspect on the other. It is certain that 
 Paul and his companions were sorrowful, yet 
 were always rejoicing. (2 Cor. 6: 10. See 3: 
 14; 4:13.) Sorrow under trials and joy under 
 conscious divine support, and in the certainty 
 of final salvation, are not only possible, but 
 have, even in our own times, many signal 
 illustrations. Now for a season— /or a little 
 time. Great as it is, the joy is accompanied 
 by, or occasionally intermitted by, sorrow. 
 'Now' cannot refer to the entire life, though 
 even that compared with eternity would be 
 'a little time' ; but it refers to the brief period 
 of trials through which they are passing. 
 The apostle here also would confirm his 
 brethren by speaking of the brevity of their 
 sorrow. If need be. This modifies 'ye are 
 in heaviness.' God may see it to be necessary 
 that yesorrow. Temptations — trials, chiefly 
 oppositions by the wicked, whether persecu- 
 tions by the civil power or slander (2: 12), and 
 the difficulties to which these led, as poverty, 
 or disarrangement of business. Manifold — 
 of various kinds. They are called 'tempta- 
 tions,' not in the special sense of enticements 
 to sin (James 1: 13), but in the sense of proofs or 
 tests. A word signifying temptation, instead 
 of a word meaning test, was preferable, 
 because the afflictions were really permitted 
 
 for the purpose of putting their faith to a 
 sufficient strain to prove its genuineness, and 
 to make it stronger. See the instructive lan- 
 guage, 4: 12. Complaining under trials is 
 proof that the complainer needed them, and 
 that a few more might not be amiss. Through 
 — in is better, as in the Revised Version. 
 
 7. The end or object of their trials. Trial 
 here indicates not the means or the process, 
 but the result, thus: that the tried or proved 
 excellence of your faith. The excellence was 
 to be proved such bj- the tests applied. See 
 Rom. 5: 3-5. Strong tests, great faith. Temp- 
 tation, therefore, in the sense of test, ought 
 not to expose to criticism, as it often does, 
 those to whom it is applied. It may prove 
 them to be objects of special love (Job<2:io,i2; 
 Heb. 12:6, 7), while their critics may deserve to 
 be visited with special displeasure. (Job 42: 7.) 
 Much more precious. Faith? or faith as 
 proved to be excellent? The latter. The 
 end of their trials is, that the proved excel- 
 lence of their faith may be found more 
 precious than gold — not '0/ gold,' as in the 
 Common "\'^ersion. See Job 23: 10; Jer. 9: 7. 
 That perisheth. Tested faith is contrasted 
 with gold. The latter is perishable. Its 
 nature is such that it will perish. The former 
 is imperishable (Luite22:32), and so we have 
 another echo of Peter's experience— a "remi- 
 niscence," Dean Howson might have called 
 it. See his "Horse Petrinae," Chap. X., 
 Reminiscences in the First Epistle. Though 
 it be tried with fire — though it is proved by 
 fire — another quality of that gold with which 
 faith is compared. Gold as well as faith is 
 declared to be tried — i. e., proved, tested. 
 Faith is proved by afflictions; gold by fire. 
 But tested faith is more precious than tested 
 gold. Might be found — a significant expres- 
 sion. It is not equivalent to might be. It 
 indicates the result of searching; may be 
 found after the searching investigations of the 
 Judgment Day. See 2: 22: "Neither was 
 guile found in his mouth." Praise and 
 honor and glory — though their own, will be 
 the result of divine working. Contempt and 
 slander were the coin with which the world 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 15 
 
 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though 
 now ye see him not, yet helieving, ye rejoice with joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory : 
 
 8 revelation of Jesus Christ: whom not having seen 
 ye love; on whom, though now ye see him not, yet 
 believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy uuspeakable, 
 
 9 and ifuU of glory: receiving the fud of your laith, 
 
 I Or. glorified. 
 
 paid off the elect of Asia Minor; but in the 
 balance of the Last Judgment something will 
 be found on the other side. At the appear- 
 ing — revelation or 7nanifestation. See ver. 
 13 ; 4 : 13 ; 2 Tliess. 1 : 7 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 7, where 
 the word is used, as here, relative to the 
 second coming of Christ; but when that will 
 occur is not here said. See on 4: 7. 
 
 8. The apostle's reference to Christ's second 
 coming easily suggests a connecting link be- 
 tween that and the leading thought of the 
 verse — their rejoicing. The link is this: that 
 these Christians of Asia Minor, living far 
 from the scene of Christ's labors, had had no 
 personal acquaintance with Christ. Whom 
 having not seen — better, as in theKevision, 
 not having seen. Sight is supposed by many 
 to be necessary to the awakening of love. 
 Peter had seen Christ; but he does not teach 
 tliat love is conditioned upon sight. What 
 the character of Christ was they had learned 
 by the preaching of Paul and others. They 
 loved him, therefore. Personal acquaintance 
 with Christ as a condition of loving him is as 
 needless for men now as it was then. The 
 verse should be carefully compared with John 
 20: 29. In whom may be connected with 
 helieving, or with rejoice ; the former is to 
 be preferred. Now belongs only to see not. 
 As implied in the first clause, they do not see 
 him ; but in this clause the fact is emphasized 
 that they do not see him now. Thus it is 
 implied that they will see him at his revela- 
 tion. By the conjunctions though and yet 
 too much contrast is made between not seeing 
 and believing. Some contrast is intended, 
 but not as great as in John 20: 20, where a 
 blessing is pronounced upon those who become 
 believers without first seeing. The literal 
 translation is, in whom, now not seeing, but 
 believing. The readers having never had an 
 opportunity to see Christ according to the 
 flesh, Peter reminds them that their state is 
 one not of seeing, but of believing. Such has 
 been the state of nearly all who have become 
 believers — that is, nearly all who have be- 
 lieved, have believed by means of testimony. 
 In whom believing. In the New Testament 
 
 sense, to believe is much more than to give 
 credit to, which was the sense as used by 
 common Greek writers. When Christ came, 
 the Greek word took on a new meaning. To 
 believe on (in) Christ is to rely on him as 
 being, being to us, all that he professes to be. 
 It is to resign one's self unto Christ. Ye re- 
 joice — ye exult. The same intense word that 
 is used in ver. 6 is here made by the transla- 
 tors, in consequence of the words which follow, 
 unnecessarily weaker. Some, thinking that 
 these afflicted Christians could not so rejoice, 
 insist that the verb, though in the present tense, 
 must be taken as a future ; but as in ver. 6 so 
 here the apostle describes present joy. See on 
 ver. 6. Unspeakable — ^joy which cannot be 
 expressed, or, perhaps, cannot be exhausted, in 
 words. Full of glory — literally, 5'^o;-i/ied. In 
 its completed degree, it is to be referred to 
 heaven, butforegleamsof it are often tobeseen 
 here. The joy of the world is anything but 
 glorious. How often is the joy of the world 
 assumed forthe purpose of hiding sorrow! The 
 joy of irrational animals is never assumed. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 No English reader sbould be surprised to 
 learn that, like the manuscripts of all other 
 books which have descended from antiquity, 
 those of the Bible, made by hand before 
 printing was invented, contain variations of 
 reading, so called. That is to saj', one manu- 
 script varies from another in the spelling, or 
 the omission, or the place, of a word. Most 
 of these variations are very slight, as a long 
 vowel in one manuscript, and a short one in 
 another; one kind of accent in one, and 
 another kind of accent in another; an adject- 
 ive preceding its noun in one, and following 
 it in another. A word, and even many words, 
 may be found in one manuscript which are 
 wanting in all the others. The Greek and 
 Koman classics contain far greater variations 
 than the Bible. Shakespeare's plays give 
 evidence, in the notes of editors and commen- 
 tators, of much more serious variations of 
 reading than the New Testament, though the 
 former were written less than three hundred 
 
16 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 9 Receiving the end of your faitti, even the salvation I 10 even the salvation of your souls. Concerning which 
 of your souls. salvation the prophets sought and searched dili- 
 
 10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired anil | 
 
 years ago. The folio edition of Othello (16z3), 
 for example, "contains one hundred and 
 sixty-three lines which are not found in the 
 quarto" (1622), and "there is a quarto edition 
 of 1630 which diflers in some readings from 
 both of the previous editions." Speaking of 
 Lear, an editor says : " Large passages which 
 are found in the quartos are omitted in the 
 folio; and some lines are found in the folios 
 which are not in the quartos ; and these are, 
 for the most part, essential to the progress of 
 the action, or to the development of char- 
 acter." There are no less than four different 
 readings of the eighth line of Macbeth. It 
 must be attributed to the ever-watchful provi- 
 dence of God that the principal manuscripts 
 of the New Testament, so many hundred 
 years older than the writings of Shakespeare, 
 vary so little that not a doctrine taught by 
 Christ or his apostles has been put in jeop- 
 ardy. Learned and pious men have done a 
 work for which all men should be grateful, 
 in examining and comparing them, that the 
 correct reading may be ascertained. It may 
 be added that many of the most valuable 
 manuscripts, including the four oldest, were 
 "entirely unknown" to King James' trans- 
 lators.' Now that they are known, the import- 
 ance of thoroughly examining and comparing 
 them, that a more correct Greek text, and 
 from that a more correct English Bible, may 
 be obtained, is obvious. (See Crit. Notes.) 
 
 9. Receiving — receiving as a prize. Those 
 who make the rejoicing future make the re- 
 ceiving future. But the end, the consequence 
 or result, of their faith is received in this life. 
 The participle in the Greek is the present. 
 Yet doubtless Peter intends to remind them 
 that they receive the completed end, the end 
 ended, and that can be realized only at the 
 second coming of Christ, (ver.s.) Faith... 
 salvation. So divine a beginning "must 
 needs" have so divine an end — 'Salvation.' 
 See on ver. 5. The frequency with which 
 Peter refers to the result of all trials and all 
 joys shows the strength of his conviction and 
 the intensity of his feelings concerning that 
 particular point. Let us in this respect be 
 
 like him. Your souls — literally, souls. 
 There is no Greek for 'your.' Not to the 
 exclusion of the deliverance of the body from 
 imperfection (Rom. 8:23), but only the soul is 
 specified because it is the chief part of tha\ 
 which is benelited by the work of Christ. 
 
 10-12. The swift but untired wing of the 
 apostle, bearing the spirit forward to the 
 glorious end, is not thereby unfitted to fall 
 back to the earth, and to touch once more the 
 soil of Israel. For the very purpose of throw- 
 ing a brighter halo around the future, the 
 writer takes us back to the past, as if even 
 from the ministration of death some rays of 
 glory might be gathered which will brighten 
 the ministration of the Spirit. (2 cor. s: 7, 8.) 
 This closing part of the Introduction contains 
 three chief thoughts : That prophets showed 
 the deepest interest in the salvation men- 
 tioned (ver. 10); that their interest centred 
 around the question of the time when the 
 Messiah's sufferings and glories were to occur 
 (ver. 11); that they were informed by revela- 
 tion that the great things upon which they 
 were engaged were not for themselves, but 
 for men of future times (ver. 12). These points 
 are presented, especially in the original, with 
 an energy of style characteristic of our apostle. 
 
 10. Of which— in respect to which. The 
 prophets — rather, prophets. He refers to 
 prophets as a class. In striking accord is this 
 representation by Peter with what he had 
 heard, "privately," with other disciples, from 
 his Divine Teacher. See the very interesting 
 passage in Luke 10: 23, 24, of which the 
 words before us are an echo — a "reminis- 
 cence." It need not be said that the apostle 
 refers only to good prophets, for it is clear 
 that Peter proceeds upon the assumption that 
 lirophots were good men. A bad man, as 
 Bala:tm (2 Pot. 2:15), might give utterance occa- 
 sionally to a prophecy concerning some one 
 thing (John u: 51, 52) ; but thosc who Were 
 prophets by profession were called to their 
 work by divine prompting and were good 
 men. A prophet, in the Old Test-ament sense, 
 was one who received communications from 
 God and declared them toothers. This might 
 or might not be in the form of prediction. 
 
 1 Revisers; for the Common Version was in no proper sense a translation. 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 17 
 
 searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that 
 should cuvui unto you : 
 
 11 Searching w'liat, or what manner of time the 
 Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when 
 it testified beforehand the sutferings of Christ, and the 
 glory that should follow. 
 
 12' Unto whom it was revealed, that cot unto them- 
 selves, but unto us they did minister the things, which 
 are now reported unto you by them that have preached 
 the gospel uato you with the Holy Ghost sent down 
 
 gently, who prophesied of the grace that should 
 
 11 come unto you : searching what Ihni: or what man- 
 ner of lime Ihe Spirit of Christ which was in them 
 did point unto, when it testified beforehand the suf- 
 ferings 'of Christ, and the glories that should follow 
 
 12 them. To whom it was revealed, that not unto them- 
 selves, but unto you, did they minister these things, 
 which now have been announced unto you through 
 those who preached the gospel unto you 2 by the 
 Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven ; which things 
 angels desire to look into. 
 
 1 Gr. unto 2 Gr. i 
 
 One of the functions of the prophets was 
 teaching; but predicting future events was 
 one of the chief characteristics of ancient 
 prophecy. The coming, the sufferings, and 
 death of the Messiah, with the spreading 
 glories of his kingdom, even to victory over 
 all foes, were the most important of all the 
 prophecies. See especially the remarkable 
 fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Have inquired 
 and searched diligently — literally, sought 
 diligently and searched diligently. In the 
 Greek both verbs express very earnest inves- 
 tigation of the question before them. Succes- 
 sive generations of prophets concentrating 
 their powers upon any point involved in the 
 work of saving men, is a picture in remarkable 
 contrast with that of men searching for perish- 
 able gold. The second clause of the verse may 
 be read thus : Who prophesied of the grace for 
 you — i. 0., appointed for you. It hints at the 
 divine intention. Grace. See on ver. 2. 
 
 II. What, or what manner of time — 
 unto what — i. e., unto what time (definite 
 future time) ; or, unto what kind of time — 
 time marked by what kind of condition or 
 circumstances. They earnestly sought to 
 know both the exact time and the nature of 
 the time. These two points involved desire 
 to know more of him who was to suffer. They 
 wanted to know more than they wrote, and to 
 understand better what they did write. The 
 Spirit of Christ. The Being who was known 
 among the Jews as Jesus the Son of Mary is 
 here clearly assumed to have had existence in 
 the several periods of prophetic inquiry. His 
 Spirit, either his own spirit or the Holy Spirit, 
 was in the prophets. In either ca.se the effect 
 was the same. It was by the Spirit that the 
 things were revealed to prophets, and declared 
 to them beforehand. The two fitcts, that the 
 coming Deliverer was to suffer, and that his 
 sufferings were to be followed by glory — 
 rather, glories — were not the result of the 
 investigation which prophets made, but of 
 
 teaching by the Spirit of Christ, and that 
 Spirit is not to be conceived in this case as 
 external to them, and so as merely suggesting 
 the facts to their minds, but as in them. 
 Their entire spiritual being was pervaded by 
 that Spirit, and therefore they knew of the 
 sutferings and the glories. See Rev. 22: 6. 
 "And the Lord God of the holy prophets 
 sent his angel," etc.; or, according to the 
 correct Greek, "The Lord God of the spirits 
 of the prophets" ; and see in the Commentary 
 of this series Dr. J. A. Smith's interpretation. 
 Sufferings of Christ— sufferings /or Christ, 
 appointed for Christ. 'Glories.' The glory 
 "of the resurrection, of the ascension, the 
 present session at the right hand of God, of 
 the second advent, and the new creation, and 
 Israel restored, and the church perfected, and 
 the everlasting kingdom." (Dr. John Lillie, 
 "Lectureson Peter.") What prophets longed 
 to know was the more )>articular fact concern- 
 ing the time when. We are longing to know 
 when Chri.<t's second" advent \vH\ come; 
 prophets longed to know when the final glory 
 will come; but, like them, we have not the 
 means of deciding. 
 
 12. While they prophesied, it was at the 
 same time revealed unto them that not 
 unto themselves, not for their own good, 
 but unto us (you is the approved reading), 
 for the good of Christians in Peter's time, 
 and all times following, they did minister 
 by announcing or declaring. Peter speaks 
 from his own standpoint. He can see that 
 prophets ministered to the elect of his own 
 time: prophets themselves knew by reve- 
 lation the general fact that they ministered to 
 persons who were to live in some future 
 unknown time. The things — these things, 
 as in the Revised Version ; the same things 
 which preachers of the gospel have declared, 
 the sufferings and glories of Christ, and what- 
 ever particulars arc embraced under these 
 general divisions. With the Holy Ghost — 
 
18 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look 
 into. 
 
 13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be 
 sober, aud hope to the end for the grace that is to be 
 brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 
 
 Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be 
 sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace 
 that 1 is to be brought unto you at the revelation 
 
 1 Gr. it bting brought. 
 
 in the Holy Spirit, thau is, by the aid of whose 
 in-dwelling power the gospel was preached to 
 you. Sent down — sent forth. "Nowhere 
 else," says Lillie, "out of more than one 
 hundred and thirty instances, does the 
 English version add down to the meaning 
 of oLTTOCTTeAAu.," the Greek verb here used. 
 Preaching without the Holy Spirit is "forced 
 work." Which things. Again the apostle 
 rises from earth to heaven. The angels 
 (omit the article), 'angels,' as well as 
 prophets, though having no personal need 
 of redemption (Heb. 2: le) desire — earnestly 
 desire. To look into. If the original 
 meaning of the word were allowed to govern 
 the meaning here, the angels are represented 
 as stooping down and looking intently at some- 
 thing. To say the least, they are represented as 
 earnestly desiring to know the things referred 
 to in ver. 11. It does not imply that angels 
 are very ignorant of what has been done to 
 save men (Luke 2: n, u; ii: «) ; but it expresses 
 their strong desire to know all that is possible 
 relative to this most wonderful work of divine 
 love. See the very interesting words of Christ 
 LukelO: 24. Notice the present tense, 'desire.' 
 They desire now, and they have desired ever 
 since Peter wrote. They are still longing to 
 know more, and are ever learning something 
 new concerning the salvation of men. "Why 
 should men themselves be indifferent? In 
 these two verses (ii, 12) is striking proof of the 
 inspiration of the prophets. See 2 Pet. 1 : 21. 
 
 Ch. 1: 13-2: 10. First Series of 
 Exhortations. 
 
 The introduction is ended, and now begins 
 the first series of exhortations. The former 
 is the doctrinal basis of the latter. In Paul's 
 Epistle to the Komans, the doctrinal basis 
 constitutes the larger part, while here it is 
 the smaller part. Peter and Paul are so far 
 alike that their exhortations spring from doc- 
 trine; but they differ in the degree of promi- 
 nence given to the two parts. Whiie the 
 Holy Spirit was indeed their guide, it is also 
 true that Paul, by his mental constitution, 
 was more given to doctrinal reasoning than 
 
 Peter. The example of each apostle is a 
 reproof to ministers, so far as they allow their 
 preaching to be wanting in a groundwork of 
 doctrine, and to Christians generally, so far 
 as that kind of preaching fails to awaken their 
 interest. 
 
 13. The First Exhortation. Where- 
 fore — in consequence of all that has been 
 said. Gird up, etc. — having girded uj). As all 
 who in ancient times were accustomed to wear 
 long, flowing garments would of course tuck 
 them up under their girdles when about to 
 put forth extra effort, as running, so ought 
 the readers — all others as well-=^to gird up 
 the loins of their mind — that is, to be ever 
 in a state of preparation for the future. Be 
 sober — be in that state of circumspection and 
 self-control which will keep you from falling 
 under enticements to sin, to whatever part 
 of your nature they may be addressed. 
 The word was much used relative to wine 
 drinking, but here it has a wider meaning. 
 See 4: 7; 1 Thess. 5: 6. And hope. The 
 Common Version conveys the impression that 
 'gird up,' 'be sober,' 'hope,' are co-ordinate, 
 or equally emphatic. But the first two, in 
 the Greek, are participles : having girded, 
 and being sober, hope. In 'hope,' therefore, 
 lies the main thought. Peter has been called 
 the apostle of hope, and Paul the apostle of 
 faith; but neither Peter's view of faith was 
 deficient (i: 5,21; 2: 7), nor Paul's view of 
 hope (Eom. 8: 24 ; 6 : 4,5). To the eud — an erro- 
 neous rendering. It should be, perfectly — 
 i. e., strongly and constantly, without inter- 
 mittent doubting. For the grace — upon the 
 grace; set your hope upon the grace, rest 
 upon it — not upon the grace already given, 
 but upon that ample and richer grace yet to 
 be bestowed. Westcott and Hort, in their 
 Greek Testament, connect 'perfectly' with 
 'be sober,' but the Kevised Version connects 
 it with 'hope.' The latter seems to be prefer- 
 able; for 'hope' admits of degree more easily 
 than 'sobriety.' To be brought. This does 
 not refer merely to the future. The original 
 participle is in the present tense; it is, evennow 
 being brought. Yet, as is often the case with 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 19 
 
 14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves 
 according to the former lusts iu your iguorauce; 
 
 15 But as he which hatli called you is holy, so be ye 
 holy in all manner of conversation ; 
 
 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy ; for I am holy. 
 
 17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect 
 
 14 of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not 
 fashi(jning yourselves according to your former 
 
 15 lusts in lliK time uf your ignorance: hut Mike as 
 he who called you is holy, he ye yourselves also holy 
 
 16 iu all manner of living; because it is written. Ye 
 
 17 shall be holy ; for I am holy. And if ye call on 
 him as Father, who without resiiect of persons 
 
 1 Or, like the Holy One who called you. 
 
 the Greek present participle, the idea of the 
 future is included. Revelation of Jesus 
 
 Christ — the second coming of Christ. That 
 the words imply belief that the second coming 
 was near is held by a large number of expos- 
 itors. See on 4 : 7. 
 
 14-16. The Second Exhortation; an 
 exhortation to iioliness. 
 
 14. As begins a new sentence. The ancient 
 Hebrews sometimes expressed character, not 
 by an adjective, as we are accustomed to do 
 (a cursed man, an enlightened man, etc.), 
 but by a noun, connecting with it another 
 noun meaning sow or child, thus: "children 
 of transgression" (isa. 57:4); "children of 
 iniquity" (hos.io:9). This form is found in 
 the Greek of the New Testament, and is 
 called a Hebraism — e. g., "children of light" 
 
 (Eph.5:8); "children of wrath" (Kph.2:3); 
 
 "children of curse" — cursed children (2 Pet. 
 2: u) ; "children of disobedience" (Eph.2:2). 
 So instead of obedient children (ver. u) 
 we have children of obedience. It is a more 
 significant form of expression; for, as was 
 natural in the Oriental imagination, those 
 who are obedient are conceived as having 
 obedience for their mother. (Winer ^ 34.) 
 This poetic peculiarity is found in the Greek 
 Classics, as well as in the New Testament. 
 'As ' means, as becomes. The former lusts 
 — not merely lascivious desires, but sinful 
 desires of whatever kind. Not fashioning 
 yourselves. Their former desires were the 
 models according to which they fashioned 
 (formed) themselves. In your ignorance — 
 in the time of it, and in consequence of it. It 
 was "ignorance of divine things" (Actsu: 30; 
 
 Eph. 4: 18; 1 Tim. 1 : 1:< ; Kom. 10 : 3), and WaS held tO 
 
 be criminal. So far as the readers were 
 Gentiles, they showed their ignorance through 
 worship of idols; so far as they were Jews, 
 they showed it by overlooking the exalted 
 nature of him whom they professed to worship. 
 According to the model of their former de- 
 sires, they were not to fashion themselves. 
 The Greek noun (<rx^(ita — scheme) from which 
 
 the verb is derived, expresses "the changing 
 and transitory fashion of this world." (Dr. 
 Schafl'.) 
 
 15. A different translation of this is as fol- 
 lows: But [fashioning yourselves] according 
 to the Holy One who called you, be ye also holy, 
 etc. Holy — morally clean, separate from all 
 moral impurity. It is a source of inexpressible 
 joy that there is one Being in the universe who 
 is not only infinitely holy, but is infinitely 
 above the possibility of ever becoming unholy. 
 The Holy One called them with " an effectual 
 culling" — a powerful motive for being holy 
 themselves. Conforming themselves to the 
 Holy One is not only an outward act; it is 
 also, and chiefly, an inward state. Holiness 
 as a state of heart manifests itsel/ in the 
 external life. Manner of conversation — 
 manner of living. All. No sinful form of 
 life should be indulged. 
 
 16. Because — conclusive, and no reason- 
 ing can be more conclusive than that which 
 is based upon the divine formula. It is 
 written. See our Lord's use of it in Matt. 
 4: 4, 7, 10. Written in Lev. 11: 44; 19: 2, 
 and many other places in the Old Testament. 
 Be ye holy — ye shall be holy, according to 
 another and approved reading. Neither the 
 most exact conformity to moral law, nor the 
 most scrupulous attention to the rites of Chris- 
 tianity, will answer in the place of holiness. 
 
 17-21. The Third Exhortation, not 
 the second expanded. 
 
 17. In fear — reverential sense of account- 
 abilitj', allied to holiness (vs. is. i6), not pre- 
 cisely the same (2 cor. 7: 1). See also 1 John 4: 
 18; Phil. 2: 12. If— not expressive of doubt, 
 but a significant way of affirming. Call on 
 the Father. The Revised Version has, If 
 ye call on him as Father. If ye call on him 
 in prayer, say some; but the meaning seems 
 to be this: If ye call him Father — that is. If 
 ye surname God Father. (See Crit. Notes.) 
 God is the more comprehensive name of the 
 Supreme Being; 'Father' is the less com- 
 prehensive; for, strictly, it can be used only 
 
20 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass 
 the time ol' your sojourning here in fear: 
 
 18 Forasmucli as ye know that ye were not redeemed 
 with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
 vain conversation received by tradition from your 
 fathers ; 
 
 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
 Iamb without blemish and without spot: 
 
 judgeth according to each man's work, pass the 
 
 18 time of your sojourning in fear: knowing that ye 
 were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with 
 silver or gold, from your vain manner of life 
 
 19 handed down from your fathers; but with pre- 
 cious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and 
 
 '20 without spot, even (he blood of Christ : who was 
 
 by those who become God's children by the 
 begetting power of God's Spirit (i ; 3). By a 
 very simple figure, therefore, 'Father' may 
 be considered as God's sur7iame, a name added 
 to the more comprehensive name. Matt. 10 : 25 
 well illustrates the language used by our apos- 
 tle : " If they have called the master of the 
 house Beelzebub, how much more them of his 
 household?" In the true reading, the Greek 
 verb is the same, and it is evident that Jesus 
 is saying nothing about invoking either him- 
 self, or his disciples, or Beelzebub. If they 
 surnamed (when his enemies did so we are not 
 told, and it is of no importance) Jesus Beel- 
 zebub, how much more will they surname 
 those who belong to him Beelzebub! If the 
 Christians of Asia Minor call God Father, 
 they ou«ht to reverence him. That God is 
 their Father is a reason why they should 
 reverence him. Though a Father in his 
 nature, he can be an impartial Judge. See 
 Acts 17 : 31. Yet even in this life God is ever 
 judging. Work— the inward, as well as the 
 outward, life. Pass the time of your so- 
 journing in fear. The readers are exhorted 
 to a life of fear, not merely to a few distinct 
 acts of fear. 
 
 18, 19. The exhortation is enforced by 
 reference to the redemption effected by Christ. 
 Forasmuch as ye know — knowing, assigns 
 a reason, and the reason should act as a 
 motive. That ye were not redeemed, etc. 
 — therefore lead a life of fear — divine logic. 
 Silver and gold— the second time Peter has 
 alluded to gold. In ver. 7, it is "gold that 
 perisheth"; here it is corruptible. "Silver 
 and gold have I none," he said to the lame 
 man. (Acts 3:6.) See also Acts 8: 20: "May 
 thy silver perish with thee." Farrar ("Early 
 Days of Cliristianity ") speaks too strongly, 
 however, in asking hia readers to "notice the 
 Petrine contempt for dross." Translation 
 according to the order of the Greek : Knowing 
 that not with perishable things, silver or gold, 
 ye were redeemed from, your empty (fruitless) 
 manner of life derived from ancestors, but 
 with 2^recious blood, as of a lamb faultless and 
 
 ivithout blemish, Christ. 'Redeemed' — not 
 merely delivered, but delivered by the pay- 
 ment of something, a ransom. 'Derived 
 from ancestors.' The basis was hereditarj' 
 transmission of depravity, but probably the 
 only reference here is to instruction and 
 example. Such a manner of life was self- 
 perpetutiting. But they chose it and loved it. 
 'The precious blood' — not merely his death, 
 but his blood. This is the ransom by which 
 they were redeemed. (Heb. 9:22.) Christ's /t/e 
 is a ransom (Man. 20:28) ; Christ himself is a 
 ransom (Tit. 2:14). This the readers kjiow. 
 Their conviction of the fact is perfect, and 
 such should be the conviction of the elect in 
 all times. Christ is not the Saviour of men, 
 unless men receive him as a ransom. As of 
 a iamb. 'As' is not a ct)mparison of Christ 
 with a lamb. The translation given above 
 shows that Christ is in apposition with lamb. 
 Lamb designjites Christ, not an animal. But 
 why is Christ here called a lamb? Onlj' or 
 chiefly because he bore his sufferings with 
 patience? Only because of his freedom from 
 sin? ("Without blemish and without spot?") 
 He is likened to a lamb by Isaiah (ss:?), and 
 apparently for no other reason than that he 
 was patient under suffering. But notice the 
 connection in Isaiah: "The Lord hath laid 
 on him the iniquity of us all." (Ver.e.) See 
 also Ex. 12, relative to the paschal lamb, and 
 John 1: 29. Peter was so familiar with the 
 idea of sacrifice, as illustrated in the death of 
 the paschal lamb, that he must have used this 
 word lamb to express not only innocence but 
 substitution. See 2: 24. Without blemish 
 and without spot — blameless and spotless, 
 suggested by Ex. 12: 5. See our Epistle 2: 
 22; Heb. 7: 26. Few persons have the hardi- 
 hood to deny that Jesus was sinless. In what 
 harmony are Peter and Paul relative to the 
 way of salvation ! They are alike in agreeing 
 that men can be saved only by the blood of 
 Christ oftered as a ransom. Comjtare Rom. 
 3 : 24, 25. 
 
 30. Still keeping his eye upon the duty of 
 living in holy fear (ver. 17), the apostle reverts, 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 21 
 
 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foun- 
 dation of the world, but was manifest iu these last 
 times for you, 
 
 21 Who' by him do believe in (iod, that raised him 
 up from tlie dead, and gave him glory; that your 
 faith and hope might be in God. 
 
 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the 
 truth through the .Spirit unto unleigned love of the 
 brethren, see thai ye love one another with a pure heart 
 fervently : 
 
 foreknown indeed before the foundation of the 
 world, but was manifested at the end of the 
 
 21 times for your sake, who through him are be- 
 lievers in (iod, who raised him from the dead, 
 and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope 
 
 22 might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your 
 souls in your obedienee to the trutli unto unfeigned 
 love of the brethren, love one another ifrom the 
 
 I Many ancient authorities read /ram a clean heart. 
 
 as in ver. 2, to the eternity past. Kedemption 
 was not the result of a change in tlie mind of 
 God. Foreordained. The Greek means 
 foreknown, as in ver. 2. Not merely as pre- 
 existent was Christ foreknown, but as the 
 Redeemer to come, and that before the foun- 
 dation, or creation, of the world. (Eph. i:4.) 
 Verily, indeed , . . but. Notice the con- 
 trast. Manifest — was manifested. In these 
 last times — more correctly, after the ap- 
 proved reading, in the last of the times ; from 
 the first advent to the second. (Heb. i:2.) See 
 on ver. 5, where "the last time" has a nar- 
 rower sense. For you — on your account, for 
 your sake. 
 
 21. Like Paul, Peter makes his thoughts 
 roll on in successive clauses, like waves, some- 
 times seeming to repeat himself, but seldom 
 doing so. Some say that he here gives the 
 aiw, for which Christ was manifested — namely, 
 to awaken within them faith in God ; but per- 
 haps he rather intended to describe those for 
 whom he was manifested. Who by him do 
 believe in God. Not that they believed 
 before became ; but for those who believe not, 
 believe not that God raised Christ from the 
 dead and gave him glory, and persist in 
 believing not, Christ cannot be said to have 
 been manifested. In the general sense he 
 appeared in the world for the good of all 
 men; but with efficacious, eternal results only 
 for those who believe. 'In God.' They are 
 represented as believing in God, not as Crea- 
 tor, but as the Raiser of Christ from the dead, 
 and as the "Crowner of Christ with glory, which 
 is substantially the same as to say that they 
 believe in Christ. The latter is often repre- 
 sented as the direct object of faith (ver. 8; 
 John 3: 16; 6: 40; yet see John 5: 24; 14: 
 1.) Glory — by bringing him to his right 
 hand, and there making him the object of 
 worship by angels and saints. (John i7: 5, 22; 
 Kph. 1: 20-22.) That your faith and hope, 
 etc. The clause expresses result, not design. 
 
 thus: so that your faith and hope are in {on) 
 God. Another translation is, So that your 
 faith is (has become) also hope in God, which 
 is probably incorrect. Peter s favorite idea 
 hope, is expressed the third time^ 
 22. The Fourth Exhortation. 
 22. The first (ver. isj, hope; thesecond (ver. 15), 
 be holy; the third (ver. 17), fear; the fourth 
 (ver. 22)^ love 07ie another. Seeing ye have — 
 having. It is not a reason for loving one 
 another, or a way of accounting for the obli- 
 gation to do so. It expresses, not merely one 
 past act of purifying, but a continuous act 
 ever running parallel with that of loving one 
 another. Your souls. The purifying is not 
 external, a sense which the word sometimes 
 has (John 11: 55; ActH2i:24), but internal. In 
 obeying the truth— in obedience to the truth, 
 the truth being viewed as the element in 
 which they are continually to purify their 
 souls, not as the instrument by which. 
 'Truth' is the revelation made in the gospel. 
 Faith, then, is not here overlooked by the 
 apostle. 'In obeying'— zn your obedience. 
 See on the same word in ver. 2. Faith receives 
 the truth and appropriates it; hence, obedi- 
 ence. Through the Spirit. As these words 
 are not well supported by manuscript au- 
 thority, they are rejected from the text. Unto 
 unfeigned love. The preposition indicates 
 the tendency. Inward purifying ever tends 
 to create love toward the children of God. 
 'Unfeigned' — not manifested for a selfish end. 
 (1 John.'!: 18.) The hand and the tongue do not 
 love, but neither do they fail to execute the 
 heart's love. See that ye— not in the Greek, 
 and unnecessarily inserted in the Common 
 Version Love one another. Peter is like 
 John in spirit. "Let us love one another," 
 says the latter in his First Epistle. This sweet 
 word of exhortation may perhaps imply 
 greater proportionate growth in Peter than in 
 John. With a pure heart— with a heart 
 morally clean. But the Greek word for pure, 
 
22 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of I 23 heart fervently: having been begotten again, not of 
 incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the 
 
 abideth lor ever. 24 word of i God, which liveth and abideth. For, 
 
 1 Or, God who liveth. 
 
 KaOapat, \s Wanting in so many manuscripts 
 that it is rejected by many of the best critics. 
 ' From the heart' is more correct. Fervently. 
 The word means stretching toward, directed 
 intensely toward the object — an important 
 exhortation, lest they become cold and seltish. 
 23. Mutual love enforced. Being born 
 again — or, better, having been begotten again.' 
 See ver. 3, where occurs the same Greek 
 word, and where the Common Version is 
 more correct than here. Not of corruptible 
 seed — not according to natural law. (John i ; 
 13; 3:4-6.) But of incorruptible— according 
 to a supernatural law, begotten not by man, 
 but by the Spirit of God, or by God himself. 
 (John 1:13; 3:4-6.) By the wofcl of God. Some 
 wrongly regard 'the word of God' as the 
 incorruptible seed. But they were begotten 
 of God, 'of indicating the source of their new 
 life; but were begotten by (by means of) the 
 word of God (James i:i8), the truths of the 
 Bible, the gospel, (i Cor. 4: is.) Which liveth 
 and abideth forever. For the last word 
 there is no corresponding Greek in the four 
 oldest manuscripts. More literally, by God's 
 living and abiding word. See Acts 7 : 38, 
 where ' life-giving oracles' refers to the com- 
 mands, chiefly the moral law, given on Mount 
 Sinai. But according to Paul (R'>m.8:3; Gai.3:2i), 
 the law was weak, and could not give life. 
 Yet the gospel may be strong and life-giving, 
 even if the law is not so. Besides, the law is 
 called life-giving, 'with reference not to its 
 effect, but to its nature or design.' (Hackett 
 on Acts 7: 38, "lively oracles.") But Peter 
 speaks of the effect of the word. Paul and 
 Peter, then, are still one, notwithstanding 
 the effort of some to set them at variance. 
 'Liveth' — not inoperative, not unadapted to 
 serve as means of bringing life to dead souls. 
 The reasonings and exhortations of Plato's 
 "Dialogue Against Atheism" and of his 
 "Dialogue on the Soul's Immortality," 
 though remarkable as productions of a Greek 
 who had no knowledge of the Bible, might 
 be preached in every possible variety of lan- 
 guage, and not a human soul probably 
 would thereby be regenerated. Abideth— 
 not transient, but intended for all periods of 
 
 time, never to be superseded by human phi- 
 losophy. If the present form of the word — 
 i. e., as expressing the special intellectual 
 traits of the several writers — will pa:^s away at 
 "the end," yet the word of God will remain. 
 Compare Luke 21 : 33. Thus even in hea- 
 ven it will be our study, with whatever addi- 
 tional word God ma3' there give us. In this 
 life the form in which God's truth is enshrined 
 must not be rejected under the pretense of 
 retaining the truth in its spirit. A well- 
 known lexicographer represents a vase as 
 "rather for show than for use"; and this 
 expresses the estimate which some put upon 
 the written word. But the vase broken, the 
 contents are lost — for him who breaks it. 
 
 A different explanation of 'the word of 
 God which liveth and abideth,' has been 
 given. Some connect 'liveth and abideth,' 
 not with 'word,' but with 'God.' This re- 
 quires the change of which into who, and we 
 have, 'Of God who liveth and endureth.' 
 The American Revisers suggested this ren- 
 dering, and though it was not adopted, 
 ' who liveth ' stands in the margin of the 
 English editions of the Revised Testament. 
 In some other passages, prominence is given 
 to the living and enduring nature of the ?«o?"rf. 
 Compare Heb. 4: 12; Acts 7 : 38; Ps. 119: 89; 
 Luke 21 : 33. See also ver. 25: "The word of 
 the Lord endureth forever." But there the 
 original word is not the same, and strictly 
 means saying. 
 
 24. This verse illustrates the nature of 
 God's word by contrasting it with man. For 
 assigns a reason : they have not been begotten 
 bj^ man, 'for' all flesh {every man), etc. As 
 grass — is so transitory, therefore so weak, 
 that he has no power to impart spiritual life. 
 The words are quoted, with a littlen'ariation, 
 from Isa. 40: 6, 8. Isaiah says, "All flesh 
 is grass"; Peter says, 'as grass.' Isaiah 
 says, "Our God"; Peter, 'the Lord.' The 
 New Testament writers did not feel under 
 obligation to make all their quotations with 
 verbal exactness. They seem to quote some- 
 times from the Greek translation of the 
 Hebrew, called the Septuagint, and some- 
 times they seem to quote from memory, and 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 23 
 
 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man 
 as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the 
 flower thereof falleth away: 
 
 2o l?ut the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And 
 this is the word which by the gcspel is preached uuto 
 you. 
 
 All flesh is as grass. 
 
 And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. 
 
 The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: 
 25 Hut the > word of the Lord abideth for ever. 
 
 And this is the ' word of good tidings which was 
 preached unto you. 
 
 1 Qr. aaging. 
 
 when quoting from memory, they may have 
 in mind the Septuagint, or the Hebrew itself. 
 Their variations from the Hebrew need not 
 cause difficulty ; and the student of the Bible 
 should reverentially abstain from acting as 
 censor of the evangelists, and apostles, and 
 of Christ for the variations in question, till 
 he understands tuuch better than any man has 
 yet understood the relation of the free work- 
 ing of the human mind to the free working 
 of the Divine Spirit. All the glory— what- 
 ever man, in his unrenewed state, regards as 
 specially adapted to promote his own honor, 
 
 as wisdom, power, riches. (Jer. 9:2,-i; Jamesl: u.) 
 
 Withereth and falleth. The original form 
 of the verb expresses hnbitunlness. The grass 
 is accustomed to wither, and the flower is 
 accustomed to fall. Or it may express the 
 necessity and universality of the fjtct. Grass 
 necessarily or universally withereth, etc. 
 Compare Matt. 6: 29, 30. See Crit. Notes. 
 
 25. The word which by the gospel — 
 better, as in the Revised Version, the word of 
 good tidings which was preached. The Being 
 referred to in John 1 : 1 (the Word, the Logos) 
 is not meant here. Peter alludes much to the 
 Old Testament, but only as it sheds its light 
 upon the coming of the Messiah. He and the 
 other apostles used it, not for Jewish, but for 
 Christian ends. Preached unto you — by 
 Paul and others, so that you heard it, and by 
 means of it were begotten to the new life. 
 Thus is enforced the duty of mutual love. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES.— CHAPTER I. 
 
 8. Knowing (eiWres) is rejected from the 
 Greek for seeing (lidcret). (Lachmann, Tisch- 
 endorf, Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort. ) 
 Huther, however, in Meyer, says that both 
 words give a suitable meaning; and that as 
 both are sustained by weighty authorities, it 
 cannot be decided which is the original. 
 Bengel and Huther prefer 'knowing' («;5dTe«). 
 On rhetorical ground (variety) one might 
 prefer the former; for then in the first clause 
 the readers would be spoken of as not knowing 
 Christ (porsonalljOi ""d 'i the second as not 
 7 
 
 seeing him; but the result is the same in 
 either case. The evidence has increased in 
 favor of the word expressive of sight. 
 
 17. If ye call on (invoke, j^ray to) the 
 Father. i-ni.Ka\eiaee is held by some as having 
 this sense; this is its meaning in Acts?: 59; 
 Rom. 10: 12, 13, 14, and many other places. 
 eKoAetrac {have Called), the same verb without 
 the preposition iiri {on) in Matt. 10: 25. is 
 rejected by the best critics for en-eKoAeo-a;', 
 which cannot there mean to call on — that is, 
 to invoke or pray to, but to call a name iipoji. 
 The preposition both there smd here im|)lies 
 the addition of a name to another name. It 
 need not be translated "surname," but that 
 word very well expresses the thought. The 
 Son of Mary bore the name of Jesus, and his 
 eneinies added the name Beelzebub. So to 
 the name Ood is added the name Father. On 
 the passage in Matthew, see Meyer, and es- 
 pecially Buttmann, p. 151, note. Trench 
 ("Authorized Version ") : "Here, too, it must 
 be confessed tiuit we have left a better, and 
 chosen a worse, rendering. The Geneva had 
 it, 'And if ye call him Father, who,' etc.; 
 and this, and this only, is the meaning which 
 the words of the original . . . will bear." 
 Hackett on Acts 15 : 17 : Upon ivhom my 7iame 
 has been called — i. e., given, applied to them as 
 a sign of their relationship to God. See James 
 2: 7. (Do they not blaspheme that worthy 
 name hy the lohich ye are called (-rnKXyidhv) ? 
 
 24. e^Yipave-q {withereth) and ((ene<Te {falleth) 
 are indeed aorists, a tense which, in itself, 
 generally expresses a past, completed act. 
 Winer insists that even here this sense should 
 be adhered to {withered, fell), but Butt- 
 mann says that the aorist sometimes ex- 
 presses what is habitual, and "just as well 
 and still more frequently the necessity or 
 universality of an action or state." The 
 gnomic aorist, as it is called, has the sense 
 of the present. See Thayer's edition, p. 201, 
 18T6. 
 
 In our study of the chapter, it has been 
 seen that, after an argumentative, doctrinal 
 introduction, ver. 13 begins a series of exhort- 
 
24 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHEREFORE laying aside all malice, and all Ruile, 
 and hypocrisies, and envies, ami aM e%'il speakings, 
 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the 
 word, that ye may grow thereby : 
 
 1 Putting away therefore all i wickedness, and all 
 guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speak- 
 
 2 ings, as newborn babes, long for the 2 spiritual njilk 
 which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby 
 
 1 Or, malice 2 Gr. belunging to the reason. 
 
 ations. Of these four have been given. The 
 cliapter is one of exceeding richness, and its 
 doctrines and exhortations are as well adapted 
 to Christians of the present time as to those of 
 the apostolic age. The student should not 
 fail to see it as a striking and beautiful por- 
 trait of Peter, not merely as "converted" 
 (turned) after his terrible denial of Christ, 
 but as one who had grown much "in the 
 grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 
 Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 3: is, Rev. Ver.) 
 
 Ch. II: 1-10. Fifth Exhortation: 
 Desire the sincere milk of the word. 
 
 1. Wherefore points to the ground on 
 which the exhortation rests. You have been 
 born by means of the word (1:23); therefore 
 desire the word. You have been exhorted to 
 mutual love (i: 22), the child of that new birth 
 which was effected by means of the word, and 
 tliis implies obligation to lay aside all malice, 
 etc.; therefore desire the word. Laying aside 
 malice, etc., is to run continually parallel 
 with desiring the word. Laying aside — 
 putting off. It was at first applied to putting 
 off something external, as a crown or a gar- 
 ment, and therefore this is a figurative use of 
 the word. The use of the figure was not 
 intended to teach that the sins mentioned are 
 only extern.al. Evil speaking — speaking 
 against a person, backbiting (2Cor. 12:20)^ and 
 so fiir as they take on words, all other sins are 
 but molds into which the hot passions of the 
 heart are poured. (Matt. i5: is, 19.) 3Ialice 
 {wickedness in the Revised Version), gnile, 
 hypocrisies, and envies — too far from being 
 strangers in the hearts of most men to make 
 explaniition necessary. So common were 
 these forms of sin in the ancient world, both 
 Jewish and Gentile, that Christ and the apos- 
 tles gave them no quarter, whatever mercy 
 they showed to the penitent who had been 
 guilty of them. See Matt. 5: 22, 44; 12: Sfi; 
 15: 19, 20; Rom. 1: 28-30; Gal. 5: 19-21. 
 To 'lay aside' is the duty of Christians, 
 which implies repentance; to repent is the 
 
 duty of others, which implies laying aside. 
 The former, addressed to men while impeni- 
 tent, might lead to a course of self-righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 2, 3. As— as new-born babes are wont to do. 
 New-born babes. 'Babes' is here not used 
 in contrast with adults (full age), as in Heb. 
 5: 13, 14; it is not expressive of special weak- 
 ness of character, as in 1 Cor. 3:1; Heb. 5: 13; 
 does not necessarily refer to "those just enter- 
 ing on the Christian life." (Robinson.) The 
 Epistle contains no evidence that the readers 
 had but recently been born again; it contains 
 proof to the contrary. Not 'new-born babes,' 
 but 'desire,' etc., is expressive of Christian 
 character as it should be maintained to the 
 end of life. Desire — long for. The sincere 
 milk of the Avord— much quoted, but a poor 
 representative of the original. The Greek for 
 'word,' instead of being a noun, is an adjec- 
 tive, the same as is found in Rom. 12: 1, and 
 there rendered reasonable — that is, pertaining 
 to your rational or spiritual part. So here the 
 milk for which the readers are to long is such 
 milk as pertains to their spiritual nature — 
 spiritual milk. 'Sincere' is not a fitting word 
 to describe the quality of milk; rather, with- 
 out guile, pure, unadulterated. Long for the 
 spiritual, pure milk; b3' milk is meant the 
 ivord of God. That word, pure, unmixed 
 with error, spiritual, is the proper nourish- 
 ment for regenerate souls. For that nourish- 
 ment we are exhorted to long. As the 
 new-born babe turns with instinctive earnest- 
 ness to its mother for nourishment, so should 
 all Christians most earnestly desire the word 
 of God. In respect to this longing for God's 
 word, we are to be babes, however old we 
 may be. Thereby— not by means of, but in 
 {iv) it; grow in the power of it, grow in the 
 spiritual power which it will minister. That 
 ye may grow — the end for which they should 
 receive into their souls the word of God. The 
 word may be desired as a means of usefulness, 
 but it is right that one's own growth be the 
 chief end. Not "work and grow,'' but "study 
 and grow," is the divine direction. Nourish 
 
Cii. IL] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 25 
 
 3 If SI) be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 3 unto salvation; if ye have tasied that the Lord is 
 
 4 To whom comiug, UA- «ftto a living stone, disallowed 4 gracious: unto whom coming, a living stone, ro- 
 indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, | jected indeed of men, but with God elect, ' precious, 
 
 1 Or, honorable. 
 
 3'our new life with the truth of God's word, 
 or your working will be the child of self- 
 conceit. A blustering and egotistic working 
 shows that the worker needs more milk of the 
 word. " Work and grow" is one of those 
 maxims which has some truth, but much 
 error. See Crit. Notes. If so be— 'if,' but, 
 as in 1 : 17, not a sign of doubt. Ye have 
 tasted— ye tasted — namely, at your conver- 
 sion. If ye tasted, as I doubt not you did, 
 that the Lord is gracious (good), long for the 
 spiritual, pure milk of the word. " Taste and 
 see that the Lord is good." (ps.34: 8.) In the 
 Hebrew, Lord is Jehovah, yet Peter does not 
 hesitate to apply it to Christ. ' Tasted.' Com- 
 pare Heb. 6: 4: "And have tasted of the 
 heavenly gift." It is not merely sipped, as 
 understood by many Christian people, but it 
 expresses inward experience or enjoyment, 
 very full, possibly. In the New Testament 
 the verb is found in connection with death 
 
 (Matt. 16: 28; Mark 9: l), and, of COUrSC, Cannot 
 
 mean that the experience of death was slight. 
 Tasting death is full experience of death. So 
 here, to 'taste,' etc., is to have inward experi- 
 ence of the Lord's graciousness. Sipping is 
 quite too common ; it makes one weak and 
 thin. 
 
 4. The new exhortation (desire) and the 
 end (growth), lead the apostle to a vivid 
 description of the gracious Lord, and of 
 themselves, as subjects of the new birth. 
 This will quicken their desire and promote 
 their growth. To whom— the Lord — i. e., 
 Christ. Coming — by faith — i. e., believing. 
 Not, having first come, and after that built up 
 a spiritual house (ver. 5); but the two are to 
 run on together during the earthly life; ever 
 coming and ever built up. Some came to 
 Christ only with the feet ; some come only 
 with the head. The coming must be that of 
 the heart; and such coming implies the com- 
 ing of the entire man. A living stone. That 
 the figure was suggested to Peter by his own 
 name (Petros, rock) is improbable. He comes 
 to the use of the figure more directly; he 
 comes to it through his familiarity with the 
 Old Testament. The verse is tinged with 
 language drawn from Ps. 118: 22; Isa. 28: 
 
 16, yet the words are not a quotation. The 
 severest taste need not be otlended at the 
 application of the term 'living' to 'stone.' 
 Christ is life — is the Giver of life. As bread 
 he is the same. (Johu6: oi.) Not even while 
 held by the "great stone" of Joseph's tomb 
 (Matt. 27: 60), was he other than a living stone. 
 Living — a little key for unlocking great treas- 
 ures — a living hope (^ ■'■'); the living word 
 (1:23); and xiuw Si Vivlug stone. Disallowed 
 indeed of men — rejected after being tried. 
 Chosen. See on 'elect' (i: '-i), and compare 
 2 : 9. Christ was chosen as the Messiah- 
 chosen to his redeeming work and to all its 
 blessed results, (isa. 42.) Contrast Peter's quiet 
 positiveness of conviction with the exasper- 
 ated infidelity of the rulers expressed too 
 weakly in that skeptical and semi-hypocriti- 
 cal if: "If he be Christ, the chosen of God." 
 (Luke 23: 35.) Ptecious — honorable, and hon- 
 orable because precious ; costly. (Matt. 3: 17; Heb. 
 1: 3, 6 9; Col. 1: 19.) How the golden music of 
 Peter's word revives the spirit when fainting 
 under earthly fatigues, or when longing for 
 some new consciousness of spiritual life! 
 Chosen of GoA— elect vnth God. It is 
 infinite capacity which so appreciates the 
 excellence of the living stone. How marked 
 the contrast which the apostle makes between 
 God's estimate and man's! Rejected by 
 men ! The rejection was foretold by Christ 
 himself (Mark8:3i); and the severest rebuke 
 of himself which ever fell upon the ear of 
 Peter from the lips of Christ, "Get thee 
 behind me, Satan!" was administered be- 
 cause of his hasty and unseemly "rebuke" 
 of his Master, when the latter announced the 
 certainty of the very event of which Peter 
 now speaks. "The Son of man must be 
 rejected." Peter sees with the utmost clear- 
 ness that this was to be; and in the blessed 
 consequences resulting, he rejoices. It was 
 indeed love, but love with blurred vision, 
 which prompted the original utterance. His 
 sight was long ago made clear. At a later 
 period of his ministry, Christ spoke of him- 
 self as rejected by this generation (LukeU: 25). 
 Isaiah says. Rejected of men; and this was 
 the great and fearful fact,, that so farr as it 
 
26 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IL 
 
 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual 
 house, a holy priesthood, to otter up spiritual sacrifices, 
 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 
 
 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, 
 
 5 ye also, as living stones, are built up, la spiritual 
 house, to be a holy priesthood, to otter up spiritual 
 sacrifices, acceptable to (jod through .lesus Christ. 
 
 6 Because it is contained iu 2 scripture. 
 
 1 Or, a spiritual house/or a holy priesthood 2 Or, a scripture. 
 
 knew him the human race rejected him— the 
 exceptions were very few. Among the saddest 
 representations of art is that of "Christ Re- 
 jected." 
 
 5. Ye . . . are built up. Many take the 
 verb as imperative, instead of indicative: Be 
 ye yourselves also built up. The apostle is 
 still filled with the thought of their growth. 
 Not, Be living stones, but be built up as 
 living stones. He tiiink.s of them both as 
 individuals, and as individuals connected 
 with each other. He is not thinking of them 
 as organized bodies; for there were many 
 churches there, and he represents them as 
 growing into one building. The picture is 
 exceedingly graphic. "Look unto the rock 
 whence ye are hewn." (isa.5i:i.) Once dead 
 st'>nes in the quarry, now living stones! But 
 the building of which they form a part has 
 this peimliarity, that it U capable of indefinite 
 growth. He does not yet say that the living 
 stone, Christ, is a corner-stone, and that it is 
 that upon which they are to be built. Per- 
 haps the conception is in his mind ; for he 
 soon g. /es utterance to the thought. A spir- 
 itual house— not the foundation, or even a 
 part of it. See on corner-stone in the next 
 verse. To be built up as a mere house, how- 
 ever large and elaborate— as the Roman 
 Catholic Church, for example, and even some 
 Protestant (National) Churches, is foreign to 
 Peter's view. Spiritual— because, being 
 begotten by God (i: 3), they may ever become 
 more like the children of God — i. e., more 
 holy. (I: 15, 16.) A holy priesthood. In many 
 valuable manuscripts, a preposition (el? into) 
 stands before these words. Be built up a 
 spiritual house into—i. e., for the purpose of 
 becoming a holy priesthood. If 'house' is 
 used for temple, the transition to priesthood 
 was easy. Becoming a body of holy priests 
 was the end to which becoming a temple 
 looked. They were to be not only stones, 
 but living stones; not only living stones con- 
 stituting a temple, but, with greater boldness 
 of view, this temple itself was to become a 
 community of priests, and that community 
 was to be a holy one. The Jewish priest was 
 
 accustomed to draw especially near to God to 
 oflTer sacrifice and incense for others, as well 
 as for himself ; and thus he was supposed to 
 be set apart from others. (Num. i6: 5; exo.i. i9: 22.) 
 So these Christians are all alike to be holj-, 
 and all alike to draw near to God. No one 
 is to be a priest in any higher sense than 
 another. Priest — applied officially under the 
 Christian economy to ministers of the gospel, 
 as has been done many centuries by several 
 ecclesiastical bodies, is not in harmony with 
 the spirit of this passage. Altar has been 
 applied, unscripturally, to a given part of a 
 Christian house of worship, and even sacri- 
 fice to the ministration of the Lord's Supper. 
 Bad seed — bad fruit. Jewish terms with a 
 Jewish meaning, instead of Jewish terms 
 with a Christian meaning, well nigh ruined 
 Christendom. All Christians are now priests, 
 and ought to be as holy as the priests of an- 
 cient Israel were supposed to be. 
 
 But this great community of priests is made 
 such, in order to offer up spiritual sacri- 
 fices. The Jewish sacrifices ought always to 
 have been offered with sjiiritual feeling, but 
 not often were they so offered ; and had they 
 been so offered, they were in themselves mate- 
 rial, animal. (Heb. 9: 10, 13, 22.) ' Spiritual'— of- 
 fered with the spirit, and not of a material 
 nature. Offering one's self (Rom. 12:1), praise 
 (Heb. 13: 15), and doiug good, almsgiving (Rom. 
 15: 16), are included in spiritual sacrifices. 
 Acceptable to God. See Rom. 15: 16; 12: 
 1; 14: 18. Such sacrifices, and the offering 
 of them, are well pleasing to God. By Jesus 
 Christ. Some say, well pleasing throttgh 
 Christ; others, to offer up through Christ. 
 The former seems preferable. Thrilling to 
 every child of God is the efficacy of that me- 
 diation by which sacrifices, so worthless in 
 themselves, are made pleasing to Him who is 
 infinitely pure. 
 
 6. Wherefore — for, or because. Also has 
 little manu.script authority. The apostle 
 proves what he has said by quoting from Isa. 
 28: 16. But parts of Isaiah's description are 
 left out. Compare the two. In Sion. 'Sion' 
 {Zion) was the southwestern hill on which 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 27 
 
 Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, pre- 
 cious: and he that belleveth ou him shall not be con- 
 founded. 
 
 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: 
 but uuto theiu which be disobedient, the stone whicii 
 the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of 
 the corner, 
 
 Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, 
 
 ' precious: 
 And he that believeth on ^ him shall not be put 
 to shame. 
 7 3 For you therefore who believe is the ^preciousness: 
 but for such as disbelieve. 
 
 The stone which the builders rejected, 
 The same was made the head of the corner ; 
 
 1 Or, lionorable 2 Or, t( 3 Or, In your sight 4 Or, honour. 
 
 Jerusalem was built, and was sometimes used 
 for the entire city. Being the residence of the 
 kings, and (ps. 132: 13) the " habitation " of Je- 
 ht>vah, it was the seat of divine and of human 
 government. There God laid the chief cor- 
 ner-stone of the Jewish theocracy, or of the 
 house of David. The words express, there- 
 fore, stability of Jewish government; but 
 reference to the Messiah is clear, in which 
 nearly all expositors are agreed. A chief 
 corner-stone — not a chief corner-stone, but 
 a stone laid at the extre^ne angle — that is, a 
 corner-stone. The context shows that it was 
 to be a foundation corner-stone, and this is 
 distinctly said by Isaiah. Such a stone sup- 
 ports all that is above it. It binds together 
 the two sides; but this idea, on which some 
 like to linger, is not expressed either here, or 
 in Isaiah. Hence the pleasing and Scriptural 
 fact that Jews and Gentiles are bound together 
 by a common union with Christ is put into 
 Peter's words, not drawn out of them. See 
 Eph. 2: 20, where the readers are said to be 
 built on the apostles and prophets, as well as 
 on Christ. Christians in general are not a 
 part of the foundation ; and this is a fact of 
 very great importance. That they are a part 
 of it is a conception foreign to the New Testa- 
 ment, and is a fruitful source of error. The 
 words in 1 Tim. 3: 15 do not teach the con- 
 trary. That the apostles, in connection with 
 Christ, are a part of the foundation, Christ as 
 the corner-stone, "the first and chief part," 
 indeed, shows that their teachings are au- 
 thoritative, and authoritative because they are 
 the voice of Christ in them. Christ and the 
 apostles deliver truth ; we receive it. See 
 Bernard's " Progress of Doctrine in the New 
 Testament," p. 125, and elsewhere. Elect, 
 precious. See r>n the same words in ver. 4. 
 Believeth on him. The preposition implies 
 resting upon him. See on 1 : 8. Shall not 
 be confounded — be put to shame (Rom. 5: 5) ; 
 that is, shall receive the end for which his 
 faith is placed upon Christ— ^/inai glory. 
 7. Unto you therefore which believe he 
 
 is precious. To millions of the elect, accus- 
 tomed to read only the English, this is one of 
 the richest things in the Epistle, and to reject 
 it as not the true expression of the mind of 
 the Spirit will seem like the ruthless crushing 
 of a diamond. Yet it is the duty of all to sit 
 reverently at the feet of the Divine Teacher, 
 and to receive all that may there be taught. 
 To the believer, the preciousness of Christ 
 will not be lost, or in the least diminished, 
 even if it is not taught directly in the words 
 before us. Therefore— in view of what I 
 have said relative to the living stone. There- 
 fore to you who believe, who rely upon the 
 stone as the true foundation, is 'the honour.' 
 See margin of Kevised Version. The word 
 honour stands in contrast with the idea implied 
 in shall not be put to shame, (ver.6.) See Crit. 
 Notes. It is there implied that he who be- 
 lieveth not shall be dishonored. It also stands 
 in contrast with what follows. Tlius the con- 
 trast is twofold : {a) He that believes not 
 shall be dishonored ; to you, on the contrary, 
 who believe, is the honor, ib) To you who be- 
 lieve is the honor; they, on the other hand, 
 who believe not, stumble against the stone, 
 and so are dishonored. The apostle speaks of 
 the reward which is conferred upon believers, 
 not of what Christ is to them ; though precious 
 he most certainly is. 
 
 Them which be disobedient— better, 
 both in style and thought, as in the Revised 
 Version, such as disbelieve. The critics adopt 
 the Greek word f<,r disbelieving (airlaTov<Tiv) , 
 instead of that for the disobedient (aneieovvi) . 
 The unbelief is active, and more or less hos- 
 tile. Thus are contrasted the faith of Chris- 
 tians and the disbelief of others. Which the 
 builders disallowed (or rejected) — which 
 the working religionists, the Sci'ibes and 
 Pharisees, who were very bu«y, and thought 
 themselves very skillful in building a spiritual 
 house, rejected. Their own Scriptures (ver.6) 
 proved that the building would be useless, 
 unless God's stone were used ; but thej' not 
 only did not want it — they rejected it. The 
 
28 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, 
 even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedi- 
 ent: whereunto also they were appointed. 
 
 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 
 
 8 and, 
 
 A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence ; 
 1 for they * stumble at the word, being disobedient: 
 
 9 whereunto also they were appointed. But \e are 
 an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy uaiiou, a 
 
 1 Gr. who 2 Or, stumble, being disobedient to the word 
 
 same — this. It is a case not of mere repeti- 
 tion {the stone . . . the same), but of empha- 
 sis, this very stone which tiie builders rejected. 
 To a consciously condemned builder the use 
 of the word was like thrusting the blade to 
 the hilt. Peter quotes from Ps. 118:22. Of 
 what egregious folly and sin were the builders 
 guilty ! Compare Matt. 7 : 24-27, and note 
 especially our Lord's own solemn citation of 
 the passage, in presence of the very men to 
 whom it was applicable. (Matt. 21: 42.) Is made 
 — has become, implying that he continues to 
 be the head of the corner. What the builders 
 rejected as a stone untit to be used in the 
 building at all, God caused to become, by the 
 resurrection and glorification, the corner- 
 stone. See Crit. Notes. 
 
 8. And . . . offence. 'Offence' recalls 
 the solemn application of the same word 
 (<7(cav«aAoi') to Peter himself, when he rebuked 
 his Master. (M»tt. 16: 23.) He came to the right 
 view by severity, administered in wonderful 
 love. The Greek word is originally "a trap- 
 stick — a bent stick on which the bait is fast- 
 ened, which the animal strikes against, and 
 so springs the trap." (Kobinson.) Hence, it 
 came to mean a trap, and was at length 
 easily applied to whatever was the cause of 
 one's falling morally. Peter quotes from Isa. 
 8: 14. Christ rejected became ruin to the 
 rejecters. The rejecters brought ruin on 
 themselves; but in that ruin must not be 
 overlooked the active and just displeasure of 
 God. See Luke 10: ?1; 2:34; 20:18. Even 
 to them was unnecessarily supplied, and 
 even the Revisers supplj" 'for.' Literally, 
 who stumble at the word, being disobedient; 
 or (as in the margin of the Revised Version), 
 stumble, being disobedient to the word. They 
 are not represented as stumbling both at 
 Christ and the word. They stumble at that 
 word which has respect to redemption by 
 Christ as the only ground of salvation. See 
 1 Cor. 1 : 18, and especially 1 : 23, of the same 
 Epistle. Preaching Christ as less than the 
 corner-stone of all durable human hopes is 
 perilous work. It saves none, and ruins all 
 who like it. Whereunto — to which stum- 
 
 bling, not to which disobedience. In the 
 original, 'stumble' is a verb, and 'being dis- 
 obedient' is a participle. The main thought 
 is expressed in the verb, and it is the main 
 thought to which 'whereunto' should be 
 referred. Appointed. The Greek is the 
 same as is found in 1 Thess. 5:9: "For God 
 hath not njjpointed us to wrath." They are 
 unbelieving, which is a sin; they stumble, 
 and though that also is a sin, yet it is here 
 viewed as a punishment of the unbelief, and 
 in this respect God appointed them to it. 
 That one who persistently refuses to believe 
 in Jesus Christ may be appointed \>y God, 
 after "much long-suffering," to the ruin 
 which is implied in stumbling, is an obvious 
 principle of his moral government, and is 
 recognized as such with remarkable calmness 
 and independence b^' the sacred writers. See 
 the ver3' important words in Rom. 9 : 22. The 
 appointing was before the stumbling, for the 
 verb is in a past tense. There is a power back 
 of the devil's. 
 
 9. Another description of the readers and 
 equally of all the regenerate, the more strik- 
 ing in contrast with that of the unbelieving 
 just given. It is an additional evidence of 
 Peter's knowledge of the Old Testament, for 
 nearly every item is Scriptural in language as 
 well as in thought. A chosen $;eiieration, 
 an elect race. (isa. 43:20; Deut. 7: 6; i-ia. 45: 4.) The 
 original for chosen is here used the fourth 
 time since the Epistle opened. The word 
 bristles with no such difficulties that one need 
 fear to use it often. Applied at first to Israel 
 as a race chosen by God from all other nations, 
 it is here applied to all Christians. These 
 have been chosen out of the world to eternal 
 life. A royal priesthood. See Ex. 19: 6, 
 where it is "a kingdom of priests." Peter's 
 form is according to the Sejituagint. The 
 delicate pencil of John has given us a similar 
 picture (Rer. i:6; 6 : lo) in a different form; 
 "kings and priests" in the Commim Version 
 which Keil and Delitzsch ("Pentateuch") 
 affirm to be in the Greek the correct reading. 
 But the correct reading gives us a kingdom, 
 priests. Seethe "Commentary on the Revela- 
 
Ch. IL] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 29 
 
 a holy iiiition, a peculiar people; that ye should shew I 
 ftirtl the i)raises of him who hath called you out of 
 darkness int« his marvellous light: 
 10 Which ia time past were not a people, but are now | 
 
 people for God's own possession, that ye may shew 
 
 forth the excellencies of him who called you out of 
 
 10 darkness into his marvellous light : who in time 
 
 past were no people, but now are the people of 
 
 tion" (this series), by Justin A. Smith, D. D. 
 On I: 6, Ur. Smith says: "The correct ren- 
 dering of the Greek in the word we here 
 distinguish is important. A less ambiguous 
 translation would be, made us to be a king- 
 rfow— that is, made a kingdom of us, not /or 
 us. Believers are spoken of collectively as a 
 'kingdom,' in the sense in which that word is 
 so often used in the New Testament, not indi- 
 vidually as 'kings.' The word 'priests' 
 applies to them individually, as well as col- 
 lectively, and has reference to the abolishing 
 of that ancient ritual, in which approach to 
 God must be always with priestly interven- 
 tion." All Christians are priests. They are 
 a kingdom. Their priesthood has royalty. 
 A holy nation, (ex. i9:6.) See on 1: 15, 16. 
 A peculiar people, (oeut. 7:6; u:2.) 'Pecu- 
 liar ' is not here equivalent to odd [oddity may 
 be a blotch on character), but to owned as 
 property, belongmg to; and this is doubtless 
 the sense in which King James' Revisers used 
 the word, peculiar being derived from the 
 Latin word peculium (property). The Greek 
 is, literally, a people for a possession — that is, 
 designed for a possession. For special posses- 
 sion (Farrar, "Early Days") ; for God's own 
 possession. (Revised Version.) Israel was 
 acquired by Jehovah for his possession; in no 
 sucli exalted sense was any other nation his 
 property. So the readers of the Epistle, 
 so all Christians, are God's possession, ac- 
 quired through the redeeming work of Christ 
 (Tit. 2: It), and in this sense the unregenerate 
 are not God's posses.sion. See Eph. 1: 14; 
 Acts '20: 28; Isa. 43: 21. 
 
 This vivid description must not be weak- 
 ened by the supposition that it is merely ideal. 
 It describes what Christians are now, not 
 what they will be either in the millennium 
 or in heaven. So far as men are not what 
 this description makes them, they are without 
 evidence that they have been born again. In- 
 troduction of persons into Christian churches 
 in infancy has done much to make the de- 
 scription inapplicable; so also has hasty re- 
 ception af adults professing to believe. The 
 character of Christians as here given is so 
 exalted that, if it is not realized in a commu- 
 nity which rejects infant church-membership, 
 
 superficiality in preaching and method of 
 working may justly be presumed. That 
 (denoting design) ye should shew forth, 
 etc., by publishing wide. The praises — 
 virtues (the meaning of the Greek), as applied 
 to God, is very uncommon. The singular is 
 used in 2 Pet. 1 : 3, and that also is applied to 
 God. Though holiness is the term almost 
 always used in the Scriptures for the purpose 
 of expressing God's moral nature, and though 
 virtus (virtue) was used by the Romans to 
 express, chiefly, mere natural bravery, yet we 
 need not be so surprised as some are (Farrar 
 and Dr. Edwin A. Abbott) at the application 
 of the word, either singular or plural, to the 
 Divine Being. Here it may be rendered, as 
 in the Revised Version, excellencies. See Isa. 
 43: 21. Who hath called — who called you 
 is more exact ; called at the time of your con- 
 version. It was God's eff"ective calling through 
 the Holy Spirit. Out of darkness — dark- 
 ness of sin and ignorance, leading always to 
 misery. (Coi. i:is.) Nothing in the material 
 universe more expressively symbolizes the 
 state of the unrenewed mind. 'Out of.' Yet 
 the darkness is not external. His light. 
 The natural light represents the ineffable light 
 of God's life. Compare John 1 : 4. Marvel- 
 lous — in itself, and to angels and saints. Dark- 
 ness! light! Out of! into! The greatest 
 change expressed in the smallest words. 
 
 10. Which (who) in time past, etc. See 
 Hos. 1 : 9, 10; 2: 28. Speaking of the state 
 of Israel at the time when he was writing, the 
 prophet says substantially this : They are not 
 God's people; God has no mercy for them, so 
 thoroughly have they forsaken the Lord ; but 
 the time will come, the time of the Messiah, 
 when they will becomeGod's people, and will 
 be the fibject of God's compassion. Poter ap- 
 plied this to the readers. They, too, were once 
 not a people. He does not say, not the people 
 of God; but he says, not a people. See Crit. 
 Notes. They were not even a ])eople, so want- 
 ing were they in oneness of characteristics. 
 Sin disunites and scatters. As several inter- 
 preters express it, they were a not-people ; hu- 
 miliating, but true. He speaks of them as 
 individuals, and as a community. But the 
 disunited and scattered ones, brought together 
 
30 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 the people of God : which had not obtained mercy, 
 but now haveobtaiued mercy. 
 
 11 Dearly beloved, 1 beseech you as strangers and 
 pilgrims, abstain from fleslily lusts, which war agaiust 
 the soul ; 
 
 12 Having your conversation honest among the Gen- 
 
 God: wlio had not obtained mercy, but now have 
 obtained mercy. 
 
 11 Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, 
 to abstaili from lieshly lusts, which war again.sl the 
 
 12 soul; having your behaviour seemly among the Gen- 
 
 by the spiritual change which each has re- 
 ceived through the ransom paid by Christ, are 
 now a people, and more — they are God's 
 people. It is equally true that once they 
 "were in the condition of those that have 
 received no mercy; but now ye did receive 
 mercy." (Lillie.) The public prayers of the 
 German missionary, Dr. J. G. Oncken, offered 
 during his visit to this country, were charac- 
 terized by the outpouring of fervent praise for 
 the amazing change which grace had wrought 
 upon the Christians present. Peter is here 
 virtually exhorting the saints of Asia Minor 
 to extol the grace which wrought a similar 
 change upon themselves. 
 
 Ch. 2 : 11—4: 6. Second Series of Ex- 
 hortations. 
 
 This series, speaking generally, pertains to 
 relations to the world without; embracing 
 particularly, relation to (a) rulers; (6) mas- 
 ters; (c) husbands; {d) wives; (e) persecu- 
 tors — a classification which must be taken as 
 only in part correct, for the thoughts of the 
 several divisions are not a little intermingled ; 
 and in the exhortations to husbands, both the 
 husbands and the wives are supposed to be 
 members of the church. 
 
 11, 12. Preliminary General Exhorta- 
 tions. Dearly beloved, ^e^verf is more cor- 
 rect ; and such everywhere else in Peter's Epis- 
 tles istherendering. Very tender istheaddress, 
 more like the nature of John than of Peter; 
 but Peter's nature has been overmatched 
 by grace. I beseech (you); tenderness still, 
 not prelatical lordliness ; real, not assumed for 
 effect, which is possible along with great ar- 
 rogance of power. As strangers and pil- 
 grims — as being such, as those who know that 
 they are such. As to the former word, see on 
 1 : 1. The two Greek words, which here have 
 a figurative meaning, are used in nearly the 
 same sense — that of sojotirners in the world, 
 liavingno right of citizenship, not permanent 
 residents. Fleshly lusts. Compare the ex- 
 hortation in 1 : 14; 2: 1, and see similar forms 
 of expression in Gal. 5: 16; Eph. 2:3; 2 Pet. 
 
 2 : 18. ' Lusts ' — sinful desires in general, in- 
 cluding, doubtless, unclennness or hnpii-ity, 
 then so painfully common in all classes of so- 
 ciety, from the lowest to the highest (so pain- 
 fully common now), that the pure, in the 
 sense to which Peter refers, were, probably, 
 exceptions. 'Fleshly' — carnal; so called 
 because they proceed from our corrupt nature. 
 It is a figurative use of the word. The flesh 
 was indeed conceived as in some sense the 
 occasion of wrong desires, but strictly the 
 desires are desires of the soul, not of the mate- 
 rial nature; and fleshly desires are desires of 
 the soul viewed as unregenerate. The readers 
 are a holy nation (ver. 9), but they have not 
 become superior to the necessity' of exhorta- 
 tion. Abstain — literally, hold yourselves off 
 fro^n. This I exhort you to do as persons 
 who are not citizens of this world, who belong 
 to a commonwealth which is in heaven 
 (rhii. 3: 20); a motive the strength of which can 
 be felt only by those who are sojourners. 
 Which war. This military term is used also 
 by James (*; 1), and by Paul (Rom. 7: 23), war- 
 ring against. Sinful desires are not a besieg- 
 ing army waiting for surrender, but are foes of 
 merciless activity'. Against the soul. If 
 sinful desires are desires of the soul, how can 
 they be said to war against the soul? They 
 are viewed by the apostle as having their seat 
 outside the soul — that is, in the flesh ; and the 
 soul is viewed as the immortal, spiritual part 
 of man. It was possible for the readers to re- 
 lapse, and the apostle's exhortation is to be a 
 means of keeping them. Several hundred 
 years before Peter's time, a Greek philosopher, 
 who had no written revelation, wrote of an 
 immortal battlehetv/een rightand wrong.' The 
 "grandeur" of the conception is second only 
 to that of the Scripture. 
 
 Verse 12 enforces the exhortation of ver. 11 
 by the consideration that God may come to be 
 glorified by the Gentiles, who shall have been 
 converted through the influence of their holy 
 walk. Conversation — course o,' life, (ims, is.) 
 Honest — literally, beautiful. It is not. beau- 
 tiful cotirse of life, which might, perhaps, 
 
 1 Plato, "Against the Atheists." See Lewis' ed., 1845, p. 68, line 12. 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 31 
 
 tiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evil 
 doers, they may by your good works, which they shall 
 behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 
 
 13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for 
 the Lord's sake : whether it be to the king, as supreme ; 
 
 tiles: that, wherein they speak against you as evil- 
 doers, they may by your good works, which they 
 behold, glorify (iod in the day of visitation. 
 13 Be subject to every i ordinance of man for the 
 
 1 Gr, creation. 
 
 refer only to a day' s course of life, or a week's, 
 but it is, having your course of life beautiful, 
 which can mean nothing less than that their 
 entire course of life must be beautiful. The 
 Revised Version renders seon^y, but it renders 
 the same word in the latter part of the verse, 
 good. A life may be beautiful in the sense in 
 which the word was used by ancient Greek 
 philosophy-, without being morally good. The 
 1 ife en joined by Peter is far better tlian the beau 
 tiful life extolled by the Greeks. Gentiles, 
 living under the Roman government, were the 
 most numerous of the inhabitants living in the 
 region to which the Epistle was sent. The 
 form of the allusion to Gentiles is one of the 
 grounds for supposing that the majority of the 
 readers were Jews. Christianity raises no im- 
 penetrable barrier between the regenerate and 
 the men of the world (consider the necessary 
 relations of the two classes in business and 
 social life), but it is justly inexorable in its 
 demand that the lives of the former shall in 
 no degree be modeled by the principles of the 
 latter. The principles which underlie the 
 business, politics, and pleasures of the world, 
 are too corrupt to be used by men of heavenly 
 birth. Spiritual alliance with God, and acting 
 upon such principles, are as impossible as for 
 "the fountain" to "send forth from the same 
 opening sweet water and bitter." (James 3: u, 
 Rev. ver.) Professious of such alliance, while 
 acting upon such principles, are worthless, 
 and the sooner either the principles or the 
 professions are renounced, the better. That 
 whereas, etc. So that, in what they speak 
 against you as evildoers, they, when beholding, 
 may, etc. As as being, evil doers. The 
 Ciiristians were slandered by the unconverted 
 Gentiles. They were misunderstood. "If in 
 hot climates the long absence of rain brought 
 on a drought; if in Egypt the Nile failed to 
 irrigate the fields; if in Rome the Tiber over- 
 flowed its banks; if a contagious disease was 
 raging; if an earthquake, a famine, or any 
 other public calamity occurred, the popular 
 rage was easily turned against the Christians." 
 (Neander. ) According to the same historian, 
 Augustine reports that it became a proverb in 
 
 North Africa, " If there is no rain, tax it on 
 the Christians." Though referring to a later 
 time, the proverb throws light upon the words 
 of Peter. If the readers lead a life of holi- 
 ness ("good works") before their slanderers, 
 these will be so changed that in the very .-.ame 
 things in which tliey misunderstand and 
 malign them, they will at length be led to 
 praise God. Behold— a strong word, one 
 which implies sharp observation and con- 
 templation; not mere seeing, for which the 
 Greek has another word. Day of visitation. 
 In Job 10: 12, and Luke 19: 44, these words 
 are used to express God's favor; in Isa. 10: 3, 
 and many other places, God's displeasure. 
 Should God have mercy upon their slan- 
 derers, they will praise him for that in you 
 of which they now sjjeak so unjustly. If the 
 words are used in the latter sense, the slan- 
 derers are represented as the unwilling means 
 of glorifying God when the day of punish- 
 ment comes. 
 
 13, 14. First Exhortation (particular). 
 
 The general exhortation of ver. 11, enforced 
 in ver. 12, is now resolved into particulars. 
 First : Submission to the civil piower. Sub- 
 mit yourselves— so some translate; others, 
 be subject. The submission must be voluntary, 
 not yielded with reluctance. See Crit. Notes. 
 To every ordinance of man — to every 
 human institution — that is, every institution 
 originating with men; a comprehensive di- 
 rection applicable to the citizen, the servant 
 (ver. 18), and to the wife (s: i). Applied to the 
 citizen, it requires him to render obedience to 
 the civil power. It was possible that some of 
 the Christians might be "contentiously con- 
 scientious." They might refuse to do what it 
 would not be sinful to do. Such instances 
 are known to have occurred. See Neander, 
 "Church History." Such superfluity of con- 
 scientiousness it was important to prevent, lest 
 thechargeof beingevil doersshould be just. It 
 was not necessary for Peter'spurpose to remind 
 them of the possible existence of such civil 
 requirements as it would be sinful to obey. 
 His opinion concerning that poiiit may be 
 seen in Acts 4: 18-20. His present silence is 
 
32 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IL 
 
 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by 
 him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the 
 praise of them that do well. 
 
 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye 
 may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men : 
 
 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of 
 maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 
 
 Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 
 
 14 or unto governors, as sent i by him for vengeance 
 on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well. 
 
 15 For so is the will of God, that by well-<ioing ye 
 should put to silence the ignorance of f(iolish men : 
 
 16 as free, and not * using your freedom for a cloak of 
 
 17 * wickedness, but as bondservants of God. Honour 
 
 1 Gr. through 2 Gr. having 3 Or, malice. 
 
 not the result of greater conservatism. He is 
 older, indeed, but he has as much natural 
 courage as ever, and a good deal more grace. 
 If by submitting to every ordinance of man 
 he meant submitting even if it involved com- 
 mission of sin, why did he not save himself 
 from martyrdom? Compare Paul's view in 
 the very important passages, Kom. 13: 1-5. 
 The relation of Christians to civil government 
 involves questions of the highest importance. 
 For the Lord's sake — the best of motives. 
 ' Lord,' ' Christ' ; for both by Peter and Paul 
 the word is almost always used in reference 
 to Christ. Whether, etc. The king in this 
 case is the Koman emperor. As supreme — 
 as one who is supreme. His superiority in 
 rank, etc., is a motive (as) why you should 
 submit. It implies sovereignty over all 
 other rulers of the Roman empire, as well as 
 over the people. "Whether the government 
 is a monarchy or a republic is not the ques- 
 tion. "The powers that be are ordained of 
 God." (Rom. 13:1.) Government, not neces- 
 sarily the form of it, is a divine ordinance. 
 Governors — rulers who presided over Roman 
 provinces. Representatives of the king, they, 
 too, should be obeyed. They are sent to 
 maintain the government, and that can be 
 done only by punishing {vengeance) those 
 who refuse allegiance, and by commending 
 {praise) those who are loyal. While the 
 method of dealing with criminals should not 
 be unnecessarily harsh, it ought not to be so 
 mild as to lose the character of punishment. 
 The fiendishness of secret attempts to take the 
 life of rulers, and to demolish public build- 
 ings, deserves something much severer than 
 is meted out to common criminals. 
 
 15. For introduces a reason why they 
 should submit (rer. is) to the ordinances of 
 men — namely, that the slanderers, even if 
 not led to glorify God, may at least be made to 
 stop their slandering. For so is— for the will 
 of God is such. What is the will of God? 
 Neither the well-doing, nor the pvtting to 
 silence the ignorance of foolish meyi, but both 
 
 combined into one — i. c, putting to silence by 
 well-doing. God's will should be sufficient to 
 determine their course. No false views of 
 freedom must be permitted to make them 
 disloyal. Modern communism was not 
 spawned from such words as these. Well- 
 doing — in their general mode of life, but 
 especially by obedience to rulers. Put to 
 silence — primary meaning, "to muzzle, as 
 oxen treading out grain." (i Tim. 5: is.) " Biit 
 when the Pharisees had heard that he had 
 put the Sadducees to silence" ; muzzled them. 
 (Matt.22: 34.) The plain meaning is, stop the 
 mouth, so that the objector finds himself 
 unable to reply. The ignorance — ignor- 
 ance begotten of culpable prejudice against 
 the truth, as illustrated in the life of the 
 Christians. Of foolish men— of the foolish 
 men. The article points out the slandering 
 Gentiles of ver. 12. Fools of this sort have 
 not all died off. 
 
 16. Still anxious to keep them loyal to 
 rulers, that the religion which they profess 
 may not be dishonored. Whether the con- 
 nection is with ver. 13, or with ver. 14, or 
 with ver. 17, is not easily decided ; with the 
 finst is most probable. Submit (ver. is) as free. 
 Free, though required to submit. Freedom 
 and loyalty to rulers may co-exist. Only 
 when, in its submission to rulers, the soul 
 disobej's God, is it in bondage. And besides, 
 in submitting to government they are free 
 because they recognize government as ap- 
 pointed by God. Your liberty— the freedom 
 implied in the word 'free.' Both tlie Common 
 and the Revised Versions supply 'j-our' with- 
 out necessity. As free, and not using the 
 freedom — a needful caution. For a cloak — 
 as a cloak, though some consider that as 
 should be connected with using — as free, and 
 not as using the freedom, etc. They must 
 not use the freedom for a coverh^g of wicked- 
 ness. See Gal. 5 : 13 ; 2 Pet. 2: 19. As the 
 I servants of God — as being, as knowing that 
 I you are God's servants. This is tlie positive, 
 1 and of course the stronger, representation. 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 33 
 
 17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear 
 God. Honour the king. 
 
 18 Servants, be subject to >/our masters with all fear ; 
 not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. 
 
 all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour 
 the king. 
 18 1 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with 
 all fear ; not only to the good and gentle, but also 
 
 1 Gr. Household tervantt. 
 
 They must not only (negatively) not attempt 
 toliide wickedness by boastingof tlieirfreedum 
 (Hutlier), but they must be as God's servatds. 
 No word in the Greek tongue (ioOAot, slaves) 
 could have more strongly expressed the duty 
 of being entirely subject to God. If the 
 application of the term to Christians is not 
 pleasant, it is because the word, as applied to 
 those held in bondage to men, so often sug- 
 gests degradation and injustice. Used in 
 reference to Christians, it implies neither, 
 but expresses only, or chiefly, the rendering 
 of absolute, unconditional service. The Re- 
 vised Version uses the strong word bond- 
 servants. Elsewhere we learn that the service 
 as required is just, and as rendered, is cordial ; 
 but these are not expressed by the word itself 
 17. Closing the section which began at ver. 
 11. It is a fine specimen of rapid, condensed 
 thinking. It is like a quick, powerful closing 
 of orchestral music. The apostle ascends 
 from men in general to men of spiritual 
 relationship; from these he ascends to God 
 himself, and ends by dropping to the key-note : 
 'Honor the king.' Honour all men — not 
 humanity, but men, and men without excep- 
 tion are to be honored. Wealth, oflSce, and 
 learning may deserve respect, especially the 
 last; but Peter has no thought of them here. 
 Men are the work of God — that is the chief 
 reason why they are to be honored. Honor 
 the lowest of them, which can be done by 
 helping them up. Love the brotherhood 
 — the entire Christian body — that is, all Cliris- 
 tians. These are supposed to be members of 
 Christian churches; yet, as this is not univer- 
 sally the case, the love must not be restricted 
 to such ; and therefore it need not, it must 
 not, be restricted to denominatif)nal lines. 
 True Christian love for the universal brother- 
 hood of Christians should be conscientiously 
 cultivated, which is possible in connection 
 with inflexible adherence to the truths and 
 ordinances of Christianity. Christian love 
 is not inconsistent with vigorous defense of 
 truth, nor even with sharp invective against 
 bold and persistent teachers of fatal error. 
 See Matt. 2:3; 2 Pet. 2: 1-3, 17, 18; Jude 4, 
 
 8, 11-13. Compare Rom. 10: 1 with liom. IG: 
 17, 18. But controversy among those who 
 were alike begotten to the living hope should 
 be conducted with delicate respect for one 
 another's conscientious, though perhaps un- 
 founded, convictions. Christ says, "Love 
 your enemies" (Matt.5:44); Peter says nothing 
 to the contrary. Fear God — reverence him. 
 It includes love ; but in contrast with honoring 
 men and the king, the apostle enjoins awe in 
 view of God's superiority over all. It im- 
 plies humility. Honour the king. See on 
 ver. 13. 
 
 18. Second Exhortation (particular). 
 This is included under the general exhortation 
 of ver. 13. In that, all are exhorted to submit 
 to every human institution; here is enjoined 
 upon servants submission to tiieir masters. 
 Servants — house-servants (oixtTat, pertaining 
 to the house; not the stronger term 4oOAot, bond- 
 servants, slaves, used in ver. IG). Both words, 
 however, v/ere applied to persons held in in- 
 voluntary servitude. Yet some house-.servants 
 may have been freemen. Slavery existed in 
 the times of the apostles, and had long ex- 
 isted. It was allowed by the Roman govern- 
 ment; and whatever may have been the 
 conviction of individuals relative to its 
 wrongfulness, no general and active combina- 
 tion against it had arisen. It was prevailing 
 in the region to which this Epistle was sent. 
 Yet itlave is used but once iu the Common 
 Version '"Vew Testamenf), and hut once in the 
 Common Version (Old Testament,; servant, 
 as in the passage before us, being preferred. 
 The Revised Version uses for the same Greek 
 word (fiouAot) servant in ^laU. 8: 0, but bond- 
 servant in 2: 16, of our Epistle. That all 
 these servants were slaves cannot be jjroved ; 
 that none of them were slaves is entirely im- 
 probable; that a large majority of them wore 
 slaves is almoet certain. See the context, and 
 Eph. 6: 5-9; Col. 3 : 22; 4: 1; 1 Tim. 6: 1,2; 
 Tit. 2: 9, 10; and the Epistle to Philemon. 
 That Onesimus had been a slave would be 
 conceded by all interpreters. See Hncketton 
 the Epistle. With all fear— in fenr of ofl^end- 
 ing their masters, yet not with slavish fear, 
 
34 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 19 For this /.v thankworthy, if a aian for conscience 
 toward Uod endure grief, sufl'eriug wrougfully. 
 
 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be biifl'eted for 
 
 19 to tlie froward. For this is i acceptable, if for con- 
 science -toward God a man endureth griefs, sutt'er- 
 
 20 ing wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye 
 siu,andarebutfeted/ori<,ye shall take it patiently? 
 
 1 Gr. grace 2 Gr. o/. 
 
 slaves though they were — for they are Chris- I 
 tians; but with fear pervaded by fear of God. | 
 (i: 17.) ' All fear' ; fear at every point where 
 It would be necessary, in order to secure what 
 the apostle here requires them to do. The 
 good — the kind. The froward — the crooked, 
 that is, the perverse, fretful, easily angered. 
 " Untoward' is the translation in Acts 2 : 40, 
 and "crooked" in Phil. 3: 15 (Common Ver- 
 sion) ; more consistently in the Revised Ver- 
 sion, crooked in both places, but inconsistently 
 with the rendering here. The character of the 
 master, whether marked by kindness, or by 
 severity, is not to be the standard by which 
 the conduct of the servants is to be governed. 
 They are to submit to their masters for the 
 sake of One who is far above their masters, 
 yet took upon him the form of a bond-servant. 
 (5oOAo;. Phil. 2: 7.) They are to regard them- 
 selves as submitting to God rather than to 
 men. We shall tail to appreciate the spirit 
 of this inspired direction unless this is borne 
 in luind. See Eph. 0: 5-7; Col. 3: 22-24; 
 Tit. 2: 10. 
 
 This exhortation to servants no more im- 
 plies approval of slavery than the command 
 to submit to the king implies approval of 
 monarchy in distinction from republicanism. 
 The direction to submit was eminently wise, 
 as the state of society was at that time. But 
 while such wore the directions for the time 
 being, Christianity contemplated, by the 
 equality in Christ which it taught (icor.u: 13; 
 
 Gal. 3: 28; Philemon 16 ; Col. 4: !), the final TCmOVal of 
 
 slavery from the world. To Christianity is 
 due the removal thus far. In his translation 
 of Paul's Epistle to Philemon, Dr. Hackett 
 uses servant instead of slave; yet he has no 
 
 1 " Slave," he says in a note, " (softened from sklave, 
 and originally a national appellation, sklavonic, or 
 Sclavonic), is comparatively a modern word in our lan- 
 guage, and altogether too restricted to represent the 
 Greek SoCXot." Dr. T. J. Conant says on Matt. 8:9: 
 "The V! or A servant has, in English, the same extent of 
 application as the Greek word 6oOAo?. The latter 
 (properly a bondman, a slave, from fie<o, to bind), is 
 often employed where the English word hondman or 
 xlnve would be inappropriate. It is nsed, for example, 
 AS an expression of unlimited devotion to another's 
 
 doubt that Onesimus was a fugitive from 
 slavery. 1 
 
 19, 20. From ver. 19 to the close of the 
 chapter, the apostle enforces the duty ex- 
 pressed in ver. 18, chiefly by the duty of sub- 
 mission to masters whose treatment of them is 
 severe. It is enforced by two considerations : 
 1. God's approval ; 2. Christ's example. The 
 former is taught in the verses before us. For 
 this is thankworthy — what follows in the 
 same verse. The original of 'thankworthy ' 
 is a noun, and is often rendered grace, as in 
 the margin of the Revised Version. But some 
 insist that it here means praise. For this is 
 praise — that is, an object of praise. The mean- 
 ing may be as follows : For if a man for con- 
 science toward God endure grief, suffering 
 wrongfully — this is grace — that is, it shows 
 God's grace toward him ; or, it conciliates the 
 favor of God toward him. If a man — if any 
 one. For conscience toward God. Some 
 say : " The knowledge of God concerning us," 
 because God knows your sufferings ; but the 
 better view is that which makes it refer to 
 one's knowledge of God. The sense, then, is 
 this: If through one's knowledge of God, as 
 the Being who takes cognizance of all one's 
 sufferings, one endures, bears up under, in- 
 stead of sinking. Grief— grievances. Suf- 
 fering wrongfully ; allusion to such masters 
 as miglit indulge in severity. It was the pos- 
 sible severity which would lead to the griev- 
 ances. 
 
 Heaven me such uses send, 
 Not to pick bad from bad ; but, by bad mend. 
 
 20. For what glory— a strong denial that 
 there is any glory at all in so doing. Buf- 
 feted. The related noun means a box on the 
 
 will ; and this of his own free choice, and in the most 
 honorable relations. ... It is necessary in translating 
 to employ a term that has the same comprehension as 
 the Greek term. Compare, e. g.," [Luke] " 17 : 7-10. . . . 
 ver. 10: Say we are unprofitable servants; unprofitable 
 bondmen or slaves would not express the meaning." In 
 his " Authorized Version," Trench has a paragraph 
 upon the meaning of SoOAoi (servants), from which it is 
 clear that his view is substantially the same as that of 
 Hackett and Conant. 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 85 
 
 your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye 
 do well, and suffer /or il, ye t.ike it patiently, this is 
 acceptalik' with (iod. 
 
 21 l'"or oven hereunto were ye called: because Christ 
 also sulft>rcd for us, leaving us an example, that ye 
 should follow his steps: 
 
 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in bis 
 mouth : 
 
 but if when ye do well and sulTer for il, ye shall 
 
 21 take it patiently, this is > acceptable "with (iod. For 
 heriiinio were ye called: because Christ also suf- 
 fered for you, leavii>(j; you an example, that yc 
 
 22 should follow bis steps: who did no sin, neither 
 
 1 Or. grace. 
 
 ear, and so the verb means to give a box on the 
 ear. Sometimes the smiting was done with 
 the fist. Many of these Christian servants 
 were doubtless made to feel, practically, the 
 ctj^mological meaning of the word; but the 
 term was sometimes used to express a wider 
 range of abuse. For your faults — the entire 
 clause, more exactly, if dointj ivrong and being 
 buffeted; yet the abusive treatment is sup- 
 posed to be caused by the wrong doing. 
 'Doing wrong' is here, literally, missing the 
 ■mark— a, significant way of expressing the act 
 of committing sin. Take patiently — hear 
 up under. It has essentially the same mean- 
 ing as endure, in ver. 19. Acceptable with 
 God. In the Greek it is the word for grace, 
 as ver. 19 (^''thankworthy" ) ; this is grace, and 
 the word must have the same meaning as 
 there. Notice the addition, 'with God.' 
 Bearing up under abuse may be the result of 
 natural heroism, or of philosophic pride. As 
 enjoined by Peter, it is a virtue of heavenly 
 birth. 
 
 21. This enforces the duty (ver. is) by the 
 example of Christ. They should bear up 
 under the sufferings inflicted by masters, inas- 
 much as Christ suffered for them ; and he 
 suflTered fi)r them without sin, patiently, and 
 as their substitute. See Crit. Notes. Even 
 — unnecessarily inserted. Hereunto — not 
 unto slavery ; not, exclusively, unto suffering, 
 hut unto patience under suffering. Called. 
 See Acts 14: 22; Rom. 8: 28-30; 1 Thess. 
 3:3. It is only servants to whom he refers, 
 yet the spirit of the words is applicable to all 
 to whom the Epistle was sent. (3:8,9.) The 
 calling implies divine purpo.se, but divine 
 purpose relative to the patience enjoined, and 
 not also relative to the suff"erings inflicted, 
 would have been poor comfort. The Chris- 
 tian who believes suff'ering to be only the 
 result of natural law, or man's wickedness, or 
 the devil's malignity, surrenders himself so 
 far, however ignorantly, to one of the most 
 pestiferous principles of Paganism. "God 
 has nothing to do with it" — a very common 
 
 saying— is not the teaching of Christianity. 
 See what this same apostle taught on the Day 
 of Pentecost concerning God's purpose rela- 
 tive to Christ's crucifixion. (Act32:23.) Man's 
 wickedness, always committed freely, is part 
 of the good man's schooling. The point of 
 harmony between man's freedom in wrong 
 doing and God's purpose eludes us. Here 
 every man is an agnostic. Denying the exist- 
 ence of such a point is easy, but the ditBculty is 
 not thereby removed. To the sharper sight 
 of the next life that may be one of the things 
 brought within its angle; it nuiy not be. It 
 may not be visible in the brightest light of 
 eternity. Because. This assigns the rea-on 
 why these Christian servants are called to 
 suffer — namely, Christ also sutfered. It is 
 conceivable that Christ might have passed 
 through the world without suffering, but he 
 .suffered. Peter sends the argument home by 
 adding,/o7- you — for us, in Common Version, 
 but in Revised Version after the more ap- 
 proved Greek — for your good, or in your 
 stead. Concerning the meaning of the prepo- 
 sition — that is, whether it implies substitution 
 — see Crit. Note. Leaving us. Here, also, a 
 better reading requires you; leaving behind, a 
 clear allusion to the Lord's ascension. An 
 example. The word means literally a copy 
 to be followed in writing. As a child learns 
 to write by iinitating the copy at the head of 
 the page, so we must imitate the suffering 
 Christ by suffering ourselves, not complaining 
 because we are not allowed to choose the 
 kind, but accepting the kind which God 
 gives. Follow his steps — a change of figure 
 which rhetorical precision would condemn. 
 They are to imitate the copy that they may 
 follow upon bis footsteps. See the same figure 
 in Rom. 4: 12. Both figures being dropped, 
 the simple form is, leaving an example for 
 you to follow. 
 
 22. Who did no sin— the first fact in the 
 suffering Redeemer's case. Jesus suffered, 
 not as a wrong doer, but as a sinless one, which 
 makes appeal toservants yet stronger. Though 
 
36 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; 
 when he sultered, he threatened not; but committed 
 himself to him that judgeth righteously: 
 
 23 was guile found in his mouth : who, when he was 
 reviled, roviled not again ; when he suffered, threat- 
 ened not; but. committed '^himself to him who judg- 
 
 1 Or, hit cause. 
 
 Peter supposed them to be innocent under suf- 
 fering, yet in this representation of Christ's 
 sinlesaness, there is an indirect allusion to 
 their own want of sinlessness. The words 
 are still another evidence that Peter had 
 made the Old Testament a study. They are 
 quoted, as also the remaining words of the 
 verse, from Isa. 63: 9, not according to the 
 Hebrew, but according to the Septuagint, 
 which is believed to have been much used by 
 the Jews in our Lord's time. 
 
 No sin — though born of a daughter of Eve, 
 Jesus had no taint of the depravity of Eve. 
 He lived among great sinners, yet took no 
 harm from their character. He had human 
 appetites, but not one of them became his 
 master. He was capable of ambition, but no 
 such vice found place in his heart. No man 
 ever had greater reasons, greater opportuni- 
 ties, and greater power to indulge in revenge; 
 yet he forgave the greatest personal insults, 
 and loved the wrong doer even unto death. 
 Wise above all the men of his time, he neither 
 treasured up wisdom in self-gratification, nor, 
 when disclosing it, disclosed it in vanity. 
 "With capacity for a life of study and medita- 
 tion superior to that of any of his contempo- 
 raries, he gave himself to active toil for the 
 good of others, seeking solitude only that by 
 renewing his exhausted strength, and obtain- 
 ing fresh supplies of spiritual power, he might 
 continue his labors for the selfish and rebel- 
 lious. He sought honor neither from the bad 
 nor from the good ; and, with bold consistency, 
 cried in the ears of men, "How can ye believe 
 which (who) receive honour one of another, 
 and seek not the honour which cometh from 
 God only?" In suffering, not less than in 
 doing; in death, not less than in life, he was 
 distinctly conscious of thespiritof obedience to 
 the will of God, instead of being blindly im- 
 pelled by the divinity within him. His virtues 
 were not those of an angel or of God, but of man. 
 They were thoroughlj' human; yet they were 
 so united with the divine that the divine and 
 the human were scarcely distinguishable. So 
 in this God-man dwelt infinite excellence. 
 
 (Heb. 7: 26; 2 Cor. 5: 21.) Neither WaS gUilB 
 
 found. Though freedom from guile {deceit) 
 
 is included in freedom frt>m sin, yet Christ's 
 freedom from tliat particular form of evil, so 
 characteristic of fallen man, seemed to Peter 
 to require, for the sake of servants, special 
 mention. Nathanael was not sinless, but he 
 had no guile, even according to Chri.st him- 
 self. (JohQi:47.) Such Nathanacls are rare. 
 ' Was found ' — more expressive than was. No 
 guile could be detected in his words. (Rev. u: s.) 
 See Winer. Neither his enemies, nor his 
 friends, with the latter of whom he held the 
 most intimate relations, could ever see in him 
 the least deceit, though the former called him 
 while his body lay in Joseph's tomb (Matt. 27: 63), 
 "that deceiver." See more on 1 : 7 concerning 
 'might be found.' Deceit in the mouth has 
 bad parentage — deceit in the heart. (Mark 7: 22.) 
 " Naught, naught, saith the buyer ; but when 
 he is gone his way then he boasteth " (Prov.20: uj ; 
 the full-blown deception of not a few buj-ers 
 in the present time. Elymas, the sorcerer 
 (Acts 13: 8-10), "fullof all subtilty "— the deceit 
 of opposers of the gospel. Expose one such 
 deceiver, and another springs up. Simon 
 Magus (Acts 8: 23.24), the deceit of a hypocrite, 
 the worst kind. Nothing did the guileless 
 Saviour so severely denounce as the last. 
 Deceit in conducting religious affairs is sure 
 to rebound upon those who practice it. 
 
 23. The second fact : He suffey-ed patiently. 
 The chain of argument enforcing the dutj' of 
 servants to bear up under their sufferings, 
 must not be defective ; this link is therefore 
 added. Reviled. Christ was the object of 
 criticism during his entire public life, and 
 this at times broke forth into such malignant 
 accusations as that of being in league with 
 Satan; being a glutton and a wine-bibber; a 
 companion of persons loose in character; a 
 boaster (Matt. 26: ei); a pretender (claiming to 
 he the Messiah and King of Israel), and a 
 blasphemer. But under no form of reviling 
 did Christ revile in return. He threatened 
 not. He denounced hypocrites with severity 
 never equaled, but he never threatened in re- 
 venge for what he suffered. But committed. 
 in the original the verb has no object. We 
 may supply himself, or his affairs, or it (the 
 reviling and suffering). Perhaps his judg- 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 37 
 
 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body I 24 eth righteously: who his own self iliare our sins in 
 on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto 
 
 unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. | 
 
 1 Or, carried up ... to the tree. 
 
 ment— that is, judgment of himself, may ex- 
 press the thought which lay in the mind of 
 the writer. The Revised Version supplies 
 hhnself, and puts his cause in the tnargin. 
 Judgeth righteously. What confidence 
 that he should be vindicated I Compare Job 
 19 : 25-27. Nineteen centuries have passed, 
 and evidence of his blamelessness, not stronger 
 indeed than at first, is still spreading, and is 
 destined to spread till "he shall have put 
 down all rule, and all authority and power." 
 (icov. la: n.j In the patience of Christ under 
 suffering, his followers have a lesson of infi- 
 nite persuasiveness. 
 
 24. The tliird fact: He bare our si7is. 
 This point applies to others than servants. 
 Yet he returns to those who were suifering in 
 servitude. The verse is one of inexpressible 
 importance and preciousness. It answers the 
 question : How are we saved ? The meaning 
 of a preposition (/or, ver. 21 > is not here the 
 point. Who his own self— toAo himself. 
 Whatever is here affirmed as having been 
 done was done by Christ himself. Not an 
 angel aided him in bearing man's sin. The 
 strength ministered by an angel in Gethsem- 
 ane (Luke 22: 4:!) was ministered that he migiit 
 be able to bear it alone. Bare our sins — 
 evident!}' suggested by Isa. 53, especially ver. 
 11, 12. In what sense did Christ bear our 
 sins? By inking them away through the 
 influence of his love in suff"ering? Then his 
 sufferings were not a substitute for those 
 which we deserve; he did not suff'er in our 
 place. Three ways of getting an answer are 
 open to us: 1. We may show what Isaiah 
 meant, assuming tliat Peter's meaning must 
 be the same. 2. Without seeking Isaiah's 
 meaning, we may inquire for Peter's mean- 
 ing in tlie light of the New Testament. 3. We 
 may combine both methods. The twofold 
 method will bring us to the conclusion that 
 Christ bore our sins upon the cross in the 
 sense of suff'ering what God accepted in place 
 of the penalty deserved by ourselves. This 
 is the very least that can be said. Some think 
 that he bore our sins in the sense of suffering 
 the penalty itself— the penalty due to all the 
 sins of all human beings. As the sufl"erer 
 
 was God-man ; as his suff"erings were intense 
 beyond all human conception; as they were 
 chiefly the sufferings of the soul; and as there 
 was an unfathomable depth of mystery in 
 them, we cannot limit them by any known 
 standard; and yet, strictly speaking, penalty 
 (punishment) implies guilt. But tluit guilt 
 cannot be ascribed to Clirist is clear from ver. 
 22. If it be said tiiat guilt may be ascribed to 
 him figuratively, that is conceding that guilt 
 cannot be ascribed to him in the sense in 
 whicli it is ascribed to an actual sinner. For 
 the sake of precision of language, therefore 
 it seems better to restrict the term penalty to 
 punishment inflicted for one's own sin. In 
 John 1 : 29, a diff'erent Greek word is used for 
 taketh away; but as Meyer and others say, 
 that word may mean either take away, or 
 take upon himself in order to bear. Substitu- 
 tion is the meaning expressed there, as well as 
 in the passage before us. See Crit. Notes. 
 
 Alas! alas! 
 Why all the souls that were, were forfeit once ; 
 And he that might the vantage best have took 
 Found out the remedy: How would you be, 
 If he, which is the top of judgment, should 
 But judge as you are ? Oh, think on that ; 
 And mercy then will breathe within your lips. 
 Like man new made. 
 
 In his own body — in his body. Com- 
 pare " present your bodies a living sacrifice." 
 (Rom. 12 : 1.) No Contrast between the body and 
 the soul is intended. Christ bore our sins in 
 his soul as truly as in his body. Compare 
 Matt. 2fi : 38. But as it was the body which 
 was nailed to the cross, it was natural to make 
 it prominent in the tragic representation. Yet 
 'body' may be used here, as in Romans, for 
 the entire person. On the tree. Primary 
 meaning, on the wood, or on a beam of wood. 
 The use of the original word for cross was 
 borrowed from the Hebrew language, and is 
 therefore called a Hebraism. The chief baker 
 was to be hanged on a tree, (oen.-io: is.) A bodj' 
 was not to remain all night on a tree. (Dcut. 21 : 
 23.) Joshua hanged five kings on five trees. 
 (Josh. 10: 26.) "Tree, like treow in Anglo Saxon, 
 was often used in early English in the sense 
 of ' wood ' in general, as ' vessells of tre ' 
 
38 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now 
 returued uuto the teliepheid and Bishop of your souls. 
 
 sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose 
 25 1 stripes ye were healed. For ye were going astray 
 like sheep ; but are now returned unto the Shep- 
 herd and 2 Bishop ol' your souls. 
 
 1 Gr. bruise 2 Or, Overseer. 
 
 (Chaucer), ' cuppe of tre' ; and also specifi- 
 cally to denote something made of wood, par- 
 ticularly a bar or beam ; a meaning still pre- 
 served in the compounds axle-tree, cross-tree, 
 whipple-tree. . . . The cross in early English 
 poetry is often called 'Chrisios tre' (Chau- 
 cer)."— Ezra Abbott in "Smith's Bib. Diet.," 
 p. 3321. There were modes of putting crimi- 
 nals to death in our Lord's day to which such 
 deep disgrace would not have been affixed. 
 The final object of Christ's death, in the case 
 of men themselves, was to make them "dead 
 to sins and alive unto righteousness." See Kom. 
 6: 11, and consider the relation of this great 
 inward change, wrought by the Saviour's sub- 
 stituted sutferings, to baptism. (Rom. 6: 36.) Dead 
 to sins, not dead in sins. (Eph. i: i.) in the 
 latter case sins are viewed as the "efficient 
 cause" of the state of death. By whose 
 stripes — not scourging, but the effect of it. 
 The Greek word is in the singular number, 
 and ma3^ refer, therefore, not merely to 
 scourging, but to his entire course of suffering 
 •^death as the culmination of all. Were 
 healed. Sin is a fearful disease; regenera- 
 tion is restoration to health. Sinlessnoss, to 
 which the regenerate are to attain, is life in 
 the form of perfect health ; and this liff is at- 
 tributed to the death inflicted upon Christ. 
 Self-healine is impossible, for the tendency of 
 man is ever toward a worse state ; and great 
 care should be taken by those who use means 
 to heal others, that the means be not such as to 
 heal slightly. (Jer.6:u.) Bodily disease may 
 need change of treatment ; for diseases of the 
 soul the apostolic method is still good, and in 
 revivals of .eligion departure from that method 
 shows how little reliance is placed upon God 
 to do the needed work. Giving the wrong 
 medicine shows ignorance of the disease. On 
 the "Satisfaction of Christ," as treated by 
 Grotius against Socinius, see in "Bib. Sac," 
 1879, a translation of the Latin treatise by 
 Kev. F. H. Foster. Grotius' view, that the 
 sufferings of Christ were a penalty or 
 punishment inflicted upon Christ himself— 
 that is, the penalty which is deserved by us, 
 would now find few advocates; but the treat- 
 
 ise as a whole, it is quite superfluous to say, is 
 one of great power against those errors of So- 
 cinians which are more or less distinctly re- 
 produced in Unitarianism. 
 
 25. The writer has said that we should live 
 unto righteousness, and that they have been 
 healed. This easily suggests their former 
 state, and all the more easily the figure by 
 which it is represented, because in the very 
 chapter (isa. 53) which has supplied him with 
 the main thought, men are represented as 
 going astray like sheep, (ver. e.) As sheep 
 going astray— by the more approved Greek, 
 Ye were straying as sheep. In most afl'ecting 
 terms it expresses the fact of their former 
 separation from God. Plato represents men 
 as God's sheep, but not for the purpose of 
 showing that they have strayed. The remark- 
 able thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, in which 
 the metaphor, greatly expanded, is applied to 
 Israel, should be read in connection with the 
 description by Peter. See also John 10 and 
 Ps. 23. Not as slaves, but as sinners, they 
 were once straying, yet their state of servi- 
 tude before conversion adds to the effect of 
 the description. Straying sheep enct)Untor 
 want and wolves, and straying men are fear- 
 full3^ exposed to teachers of error (thieves, 
 robbers, hirelings, wolves, John 10: 8, 12). 
 False teachers are both straying sheep and 
 prowlers. Are now returned — Aowe now 
 turned, but this is not an implication that 
 divinely ministered strength to turn was not 
 needed and given. Bishop — overseer. The 
 Common Version and the Revised Version 
 are alike unfortunate; for bishop does not 
 necessarily imply oversight, which is precisely 
 what is implied in the Greek. A bishop, in 
 the sense used not long after the apostles died, 
 was unknown. The Shepherd and Bishop 
 (overseer) — Christ, not God, though in 5: 2 
 Peter calls the elect the flock of God. That 
 Christ is meant is clear from Ezek. 34: 23, 24. 
 He is the chief Shepherd. (5: «.) Your souls 
 — connected with 'Shepherd' as well as with 
 ' Bishop.' 
 
 Thus is the duty of bearing up under their 
 suflferings enjoined upon the servants by the 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 39 
 
 example of Christ as a sufferer; more particu- 
 larly by the three facts that his sufferings 
 were bortie without sin, with patience, and as 
 a substitute. The appeal is adapted to all 
 Christian sufferers of all times. This chapter 
 is even richer than the first. Like that, it is 
 chiefly hortatory, but here also the practical 
 is not without strong support in doctrine. 
 Wliile the exhortations of the first are radiant 
 with electing love, shining indeed, also, with 
 that glory of Christ which was to come after 
 his sufferings, the exhortations of this chapter 
 glow with ineffable brightness; for Christ's 
 death appears in its mightiest efficacy. Verses 
 24, 25 give additional evidence (compare 1 : 18, 
 19) of Peter's attainment of correct views 
 concerning the necessity and object of Christ's 
 death. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES. — CHAPTER II. 
 
 3. ۥ'? crcuTTjpt'ai/ (unto salvatioTi) is found after 
 aufTjeijTe (may grow) in so many valuable manu- 
 scripts, that it is judged to have been originally 
 a part of the Epistle. It is accepted as genuine 
 by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, West- 
 cott and Hort, and the Revisers. "It indi- 
 cates," says Huther, "the aim of all Christian 
 growth." 
 
 The Greek word for honour (rifiTj) occurs in 
 Peter, in not one case with the meaning pre- 
 ciousness, unless it has it here. It occurs in 
 1:7; 3:7; 2 Peter 1 : 17, and in the Common 
 Version is translated honor. The Revised 
 Testairent of the Bible Union translates 
 honor in the case before us. The English and 
 American Revision translates preciousness, 
 but puts honor in the margin. It translates 
 in all the other passages honor. Translating 
 differently here is one of the few inconsisten- 
 cies of the Revised Version. Not only the 
 context, but the ustis loquendi (customary way 
 of speaking), shows that honor is the true 
 meaning. The old interpreter Bengel, born 
 in 1687, understood it as the Revisers of 1611 
 did, but in the American translation of his 
 Notes he is corrected by the editor, who says 
 that the rendering of the English is quite out 
 of the question. In the Gorman, Luther's 
 translation, is the same as that of the Common 
 English Version. On the other hand, the 
 view which is here taken is that of "Wiesinger, 
 Gerhard, De Wette, Bruckner, Weiss, Schott 
 (all from Huther), of Huther himself, Fron- 
 
 miiller, and Alford. Lillie seems to prefer 
 preciotisness, and applies it to the Saviour, 
 but afterwards in a note admits that hoiior 
 would be rather more agreeable to current 
 Greek usage. The before honor points to 
 ivTi.ii.ov (^honored, "precious") in ver. 6. The 
 stone is honored; and he that believeth in 
 him shall not be dishonored. You believe; 
 therefore to you is not dishonor, but the 
 honor. This view is held by Dr. Robinson 
 also, who defines njii) as a state of honor con- 
 ferred in reward. The position of jnaTeuouaii' 
 {who believe^ is worthy of notice : Unto [for) 
 you, therefore, is the honor, for you who be- 
 lieve, so that even if Tt/ni) should be translated 
 preciousness, and should be applied to Christ, 
 not that but ni(rTtvov(rtv {believe) would be the 
 emphatic word. 
 
 7. cii (into) stands before »c«(^aAr)i' (head). If 
 the genius of the English tongue permitted it 
 to be translated, the entire clause would stand 
 thus: This has become for the corner-stone. 
 In the Greek, the preposition expresses design 
 and result — that is, adesigned result — a mean- 
 ing which, according to Buttmann, «ts some- 
 times has. That eyevriiri (has become), though 
 a passive, may be rendered as above (with an 
 intransitive sense), see Buttmann, pp. 51, 52; 
 and that, though an aorist, it may express by 
 the implication of the context, "the continu- 
 ance of the action, and its working down to 
 the present time." see Buttmann, pp. 197, 198. 
 
 10. They were ov Ao6s (a not-people); Aods 
 (people), av (not). The latter word standing 
 before the former is an instance of what is 
 called negatived substantives. The peculiarity 
 is distinctly recognized by Winer: "Ou com- 
 bined with nouns into one idea, obliterates 
 their meaning altogether (Rom. lo: i9; iPat.'ii lo), 
 all quotations from the Old Testament." It 
 is more neatly expressed by Buttmann : "Ex- 
 amples of negatived substantives — {. e., of sub- 
 stantives transformed by the negative into 
 their opposites, and blending with it, as it 
 were, into a single word, occur only in Old 
 Testament quotations. The negative then is 
 alwa3's ou, because compounds of the sort are 
 formed in Hebrew with X'S. Rom. 9: 25; 
 1 Pet. 2: 10; ... Rom. 10: 19." 
 
 13, 18. uiroTayijTe — Submit yourselves (ver. is) 
 
 is the aorist passive, with the sense of the mid- 
 dle voice; "a pure reflexive," as Buttmann 
 says of the same word in James 4 : 7. Humble 
 
40 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 yourselves (iPet. s: 6; James*: lo); joined them- 
 selves (Aou5:3t.); but here the manuscripts 
 difler. On the general subject (the use in the 
 New Testament of the aorist passive in a re- 
 flexive sense), see Winer, ^ o9, p. 261, Huther 
 on this (ver. 13), and Buttmann, pp. 51, 52. An- 
 ticipating in part the consideration of ver. 18 
 and 3 : 1, it may be added that the participle 
 i/iTOTaaaoixevoi. — be subject (»er. 18), be in subjection 
 (3: 1) stands in both cases in connection with 
 inrorayijTt — submit yourselves (ver. 13), thus: Sub- 
 mit yourselves to every ordinance of man 
 . . . servants being subject to masters, . . . 
 wives being subject to their husbands. Though 
 participles, they are not improperly translated 
 into English as if they were verbs. 
 
 21. Christ suffered for you. Did Christ 
 suffer for men in the sense of suffering for 
 their good? or did he suffer for them in the 
 sense of suffering in their place — that is, was 
 Christ the sinner's substitute ? The difference 
 is very great, and involves the entire question 
 of the way of salvation. The Revisers of 1611 
 use the same for to translate two different 
 Greek prepositions, avn and vitfp. But there 
 are passages in which the former means, in 
 
 place of (Luke 11 : 11 ; 1 Cor. 11 : 15; Matt. 20: 28) ; are 
 
 there any in which the latter has the same 
 meaning? That it is generally used in the 
 sense of /or, for the good of is evident; but 
 that it is never used in the sense of iristead, in 
 place of — that is, that it never conveys the 
 idea of substitution, is more, probably, than 
 ought to be aflBrmed. See Philemon, ver. 13: 
 "Whom I would have retained with me, 
 that in thy stead (in€p<rov) he might have min- 
 istered unto me"; "as his representative — 
 substitute" (Hackett), and the same inter- 
 preter cites 2 Cor. 5: 21 : " For he made him 
 to be sin for ms" (iirhp ruimv). "Winer, after 
 giving to v»rep in several passages the meaning 
 for, for the benefit of adds: "In most cases, 
 one who acts in behalf of another takes his 
 place (iTim.2: 6: 2Cor. 5: 15) ; hcncc, vjrep is Some- 
 times nearly equivalent to avri, instead, loco" 
 (in place of). He refers to the very decisive 
 Philemon 13. One is surprised to hear Winer 
 say after this, in a note, "Still, in doctrinal 
 passages relating to Christ's death (Gai.3:i3; 
 
 Rom. 5:6, 8;U:15;lPet. 3:18,etc.), it is not justifiable 
 
 to render vwep i/^iv and the like rigorously by 
 instead of. 'Ai/Tt is the more definite of the 
 two prepositions. 'YTrep signifies merely for 
 men, for their deliverance ; and leaves unde- 
 termined the precise sense in which Christ 
 died for them." Robinson admits the sense 
 instead of in Philemon, and thinks it may be 
 the meaning in 2 Cor. 5: 20; Eph. 6: 20. 
 Compare 1 Pet. 3: 18. The question, how- 
 ever, in what sense Christ died for sinners 
 does not turn wholly upon the meaning of a 
 preposition. See upon ver. 24. 
 
 24. The Greek for bare is av^veyKev, from ivo- 
 <j>epu> — iva (up) and4>epu> (bear) ; to bear up from 
 a lower to a higher place. Where the Com- 
 mon Version says on, the Greek uses ewl (upon). 
 The verb and the preposition taken together 
 mean bore up upon, and as sacrifices were car- 
 ried up to the altar and offered (compare James 
 2: 21), it has been insisted that Peter here 
 views the cross as an altar, and represents 
 Christ as bearing our sins up to the cross to 
 sacrifice them there. See Col. 2: 14. But the 
 cross of Christ is never represented in the New 
 Testament as an altar; and neither in the Old 
 Testament, nor in the New, are our sins viewed 
 as the sacrifice which is brought to the altar. 
 (Huther.) Bearing our sins he ascended the 
 cross is another way of expressing the mean- 
 ing. ava<t)ipui does notalways mean to bear up, 
 in the sense of taking the object to a higher 
 place. See Heb. 9: 28; Lsa. 53: 12; in the 
 latter of which verses the word is used in the 
 Septuagint for XK'J and 730. " But there is 
 no necessity for regarding the case as any- 
 thing more than the very common one of «iri, 
 with an accusative; when the verb of motion, 
 appropriate to such a construction is sup- 
 pressed, and it is to be only mentally supplied : 
 bare our sins in his body [when lifted up] upon 
 the tree." (Lillie.) The Revised Version has 
 in the margin, "Or, carried up . . . to the 
 tree," a suggestion made by the American 
 Committee. Farrar ("Early Days of Chris- 
 tianity ") makes substantially' the same, but 
 less elegant, rendering: "Carried up our sins 
 in his own body on to the tree." The mar- 
 ginal reading of the Revised Version maj' be 
 accepted, without attributing the idea of altar 
 and sacrifice to the verb. 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 41 
 
 LIKEWISE, ye wives, be in subjection to your own 
 husbands ; that, if any obey not the word, they also 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In like manner, ye wives, he in subjection to your 
 
 Ch. 3 : Second Series of Exhortations 
 
 (continued). 
 
 1. Third Exhortation {particular), ad- 
 dressed to wives whose husbiinds are unbe- 
 lievers. Likewise. Beginning a new exiiort- 
 ation, it directs to the preceding one (2: is), 
 but it must not be understood as hinting that 
 the "subjection" of wives to their husbands 
 is of the same nature as that of servants to 
 their masters. Be in subjection. As in 
 2: 18, the exact translation is, being subject, 
 and, like the participle in that place, must be 
 connected with the verb in 2: 13. Your own. 
 No such contrast between their own husbands 
 and other men is intended as to imply warn- 
 ing against being led into illicit connections, 
 though some strongly insist that there is. On 
 the other hand, the original word, which is 
 not a mere possessive pronoun, seems intended 
 to express something more than the mere fact 
 that they are their husbands. See Critical 
 Notes. 
 
 The duty enjoined can neither be reasoned 
 away nor ridiculed away. The same require- 
 ment is made by the Holy Spirit through 
 
 Paul. (Eph. 5: 22-24; Col. 3 : 18; 1 Tim. 2 : 11, 12; Titus 2 : 5.) 
 
 That Paul was never married is nothing to 
 the purpose; it is certain that the Spirit of 
 God could give a just command to wives 
 through an unmarried apo>tle; but as if to 
 rebuke mockers of Paul, a married apostle is 
 authorized to say the same thing. " It is cer- 
 tainly a noticeable coincidence that these ex- 
 hortations should be found exclusively in the 
 Epistles addressed to Asiatics, nor is it improb- 
 able that they were more particularly needed 
 for them than for Europeans." But in Rome, 
 Athens, and Corinth, the relation of husband 
 and wife had long been so very unlike what 
 it ought to have been, that to us there seems 
 to have been no less necessity for exhorting 
 Christian wives there to be in subjection to 
 their husbands, than Christian wives in Asia 
 Minor; and no less necessity for exhorting 
 husbands to love their wives. The silence 
 referred to by the writer above cited is of 
 little consequence; it was not to be expected 
 that such a singling out of classes would be 
 made in every epistle. The prominence 
 
 recently given to the subject of man's rela- 
 tion to woman should make us more desirous 
 to ascertain, fearlessly, the teachings of the 
 Bible. These can be indicated onlj' in the 
 briefest manner. 
 
 Bkfore the Fall. 
 
 1. The subordination of the woman to the 
 man was ordained by the Creator. The man 
 was created tirst; the woman next. The man 
 was created from the earth ; the woman "from 
 the body of man. By this the priority and 
 superiority of the man, and the dependence 
 of the woman upon the man, are clearly 
 established as an ordinance of divine crea- 
 tion." (Keil.) See Gen. 2 : 7, 21, 22. "To 
 create another human being wholly distinct 
 in substance from himself, would introduce 
 into the world a being independent of him- 
 self, antagonistic to him, and having no hold 
 on his sympathy as part of himself." (Dr. T. 
 J. Conant. ) 2. This original authority of 
 the husband and subordination of the wife, 
 so far at least as it is based upon the ground 
 that the man was created first, is recognized 
 by Paul. (1 Tim. 2:13.) 3. Nature teaches that 
 unless the marriage tie may be dissolved upon 
 every difference of opinion which may arise 
 between the husband and the wife, some 
 means must be used for adjusting the differ- 
 ence. One way of effecting this would be 
 force — the method most prevalent among 
 those not enlightened by Christianity. The 
 weaker — be it the man or the woman— would 
 be under the necessity of yielding. But the 
 use of force is forbidden by nature. Another 
 way remains — i. e., subordination either of the 
 man to the woman, orof the woman to the man. 
 Had the woman been created first, and had the 
 man been formed out of one of the woman's 
 ribs, it is clear that the worn an should have been 
 regarded as having the authority, and then 
 the man would have been under obligation to 
 receive the woman's decision in case of differ- 
 ence of opinion. 4. That this subordination 
 of the woman to the man, even while both 
 were without moral fault, was to be main- 
 tained in love by the woman, and that' the 
 superiority of the man was to be maintained 
 
42 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 in tenderness, and not in lordly supercilious- 
 ness, is clear from two facts: a. That the 
 woman was made from the man. b. That 
 she was to be a helpmeet for him — "a helper 
 suited to him" (Conant) ; "'a help of his 
 like' (Keil) — 'that is, a helping being, in 
 which, as soon as he sees it, he may recognize 
 himself" (Delitzsch.) In her subordination 
 Eve was not restive, and in his superiority 
 Adam was not exacting. 
 
 After the Fall. 
 
 1. The woman loses sight of the relation in 
 which she stood to Adam, and, in independ- 
 ence of his authority, does what will issue in 
 destroying the purer form of the love which 
 had existed between them. She should have 
 done nothing which would seem like aiming 
 to be her husband's co-ordinate, much less 
 what would seem like aiming to get the upper 
 hand of him. "Adam might have done the 
 same thing." Possibly, but it is the business 
 of the interpreter to deal with the actual 
 rather than with the possible. This disregard 
 of her relation to Adam as her constituted 
 superior, is not, indeed, the main thing in her 
 sin, but it is that with which we are just now 
 concerned. 2. "Thy desire shall be to 
 thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 
 (Gen. 3: 16.) This forctclls the subordination 
 of the wife as it was to become in consequence 
 of the fall. Subordination, in this new form, 
 intensified by human passion on both sides, is 
 here represented as a punishment of the 
 woman for her sin. How fearfull3' has the 
 prophecy been fulfilled ! In Pagan and 
 Mohammedan countries the wife has failed 
 to recognize in any religiousness of spirit her 
 subordination to the husband. The husband 
 has equally failed to recognize the tender 
 nature of the authority with which he was 
 originally invested. 
 
 I will be master of what is mine own ; 
 
 She is my goods, my chattels ; she is my house, 
 
 My household stuff, my field, my barn, 
 
 My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing; 
 
 And here she stands, touch her whoever dare. 
 
 This is true, not only of the half-civilized and 
 the savage, but also of Athenians and Romans. 
 The wife has been rebellious, and no won- 
 
 der; the husband has been a tyrant, and no 
 wonder. 
 
 After the Coming of Christ. 
 
 1. Christianity aims to restore the husband 
 and the wife to tl'e right relation. It requires 
 the husband to love his wife (Eph. 5: 25, 28; coi. 
 3:19) as a companion, a helper, an adviser; 
 and it aims to make the wife worthy of such 
 love. It aims to bring to an end (1 cor. 9: 5; Gai. 
 3: 26-28) that separation of interests which has 
 so marked domestic life since the fall, and to 
 make the interests of the husband and the 
 wife as completely one ' as that between 
 Christ and the Church. "Not a rivalry 
 with the functions of man, but an elevation 
 of her own functions as high as his" (Glad- 
 stone), is the further aim of Christianity. 
 But Christianity does not purpose to accom- 
 plish this by reversing the original relation. 
 It therefore says most distinctly that the 
 husband is the head of the wife (Eph. 5: 23), even 
 as Christ is the Head of the Church, and 
 enjoins upon the wife submission to the hus- 
 band. "Without making the wife the co- 
 ordinateof the husband, itgiveshersubstantial 
 equality with him. When the husband recog- 
 nizes all this as the aim of Christianity, and 
 when the wife also recognizes it, happiness 
 will mark the domestic state. "Authority, 
 kindly exercised, and subordination, quietly 
 acknowledged, promote the development of 
 the aflPections, to which there is nothing more 
 dangerous than rivalry." (Hugh Davey 
 Evans, LL. D.) 
 
 2. In spite of the elevating influence of 
 Christianity upon woman, views have been 
 urged upon the public which, if generally 
 adopted, would sling domestic life into chaos. 
 The viler doctrines pnnnulgated can never, 
 perhaps, be generally received ; but the ten- 
 dency of some modern views is to turn married 
 life back into that state of separate and rival 
 interests which has been the curse of both the 
 husband and the wife wherever revealed 
 religion has been unknown or disregarded. 
 Secretiveness, and even deception in either 
 toward the other, may thus come to char- 
 acterize the relation which, more than any 
 other of an earthly kind, Christianity requires 
 
 'See the speech of Queen Katharine to the king, in Henry VIII., act 2, scene 4, in illustration of conscious 
 loyalty to a husband. 
 
Ch. Ill] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 43 
 
 may without the word be woq by the conversation of 
 the wivi's; 
 
 ■I U'liile they behold your chaste conversation coujiled 
 with leur. 
 
 ;i Whose adorning, let it not be that outward luiorn- 
 ing of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of 
 putting on of apparel ; 
 
 own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, 
 they uiay without the word be gained by the l behav- 
 2 lour of their wives; beholding your chaste l behav- 
 'i iour cou/iltd with fear. Whose iidontiiiy let it not 
 be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of 
 wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel ; 
 
 1 Or, manner of life. 
 
 to be distinguished for openness and confi- 
 dence. Peter's direction, then, viewed in the 
 light shed upon it from other parts of the 
 word of God, is at once most important and 
 just. Reduced to the last point, there remains 
 this: AVhen, after mutual presentation of 
 views upon a given course, agreement is 
 impossible, the woman should yield to the 
 opinion of her husband, those cases excepted 
 in which she would sin by so doing; and in 
 yielding, should feel herself not dishonored, 
 but honored ; because doing precisely that 
 which Christianity requires. In yielding to 
 her husband, she yields to hiin who is the 
 ■wise Author of the relation. Submission to 
 the final decision of the husband may be 
 pointed and poisoned by the accusation that 
 the decision is unjust; in which case, the very 
 quintessence of obstinacy can be seen through 
 the thin disguise of submission. It may be 
 added that in much that has recently been 
 said concerning woman's subordination to 
 man, the entire tendency is to disregard the 
 teachings of the Scriptures as of no account. 
 But the Bible is as good authority upon this 
 question as upon the duty of man to do all in 
 his power to eflTect the intellectual and religious 
 elevation of woman. 
 
 That if any. 'That' indicates the reason 
 why they should submit. Also is misplaced; 
 it should stand before if, and be changed into 
 even, thus: that even if any (some) obey not. 
 It may perhaps be inferred that the husbands 
 of most of them were believers. But ev«n if 
 some obeyed not, it was possible that they 
 might be won, etc. Obey not. It seems to 
 imply positive rejection of the word. (2: Sand 
 compare 1 : 22.) Without the Avord. Peter 
 uses no article—' Without word.' He refers, 
 not to the word as publicly preached, but 
 probably to talking by the wives themselves; 
 not that all speaking to their husbands is for- 
 bidden, but he suggests as the chief means of 
 winning them their conversation— i.e., ii;a^/fc, 
 conduct — 
 
 The silence often of pure innocence 
 
 Persuades, when speaking fails. 
 
 Sharp criticism of the husband on account 
 of his defects, even if they are moral defects, 
 and a habit of complaining at her lot, will not 
 only not win him to the gospel— it will make 
 his rejection of it the slifier. Paul says: 
 "Faith Cometh by hearing, and hearing by 
 the word of God"; and so if the husband 
 shall be won by means of the holy walk of the 
 wife, it will be none the less true that the 
 word will lie at the basis of the other instru- 
 mentality. 
 
 2. While they behold. See on 2: 12. 
 Your chaste, etc.— your deportment chaste 
 i/i /ear— 'chaste' used in the general sense of 
 pure, as in James 3: 17. Fear — awe either 
 toward God or toward the husband ; more 
 probably the latter. As the husband is ex- 
 horted (ver. 7) to honor his wife, the fear is far 
 from slavish. It is holy apprehension of 
 doing anything which shall appear to conflict 
 with the duty enjoined in ver. 1, and so creat- 
 ing an obstacle to his conversion. 
 
 3. In this and ver. 4, submission to their 
 husbands is still enjoined, but this is done by 
 exhorting them to the exercise of qualities 
 which will certainly lead to it— meekness and 
 quietness of spirit; and to these qualities they 
 are exhorted negatively, in contrast with that 
 vanity which would lead them to make the 
 adornment of their persons, their bodies in- 
 deed, the chief object of concern. Literally, 
 whose adorning let it be, not the outward of 
 plaiting the hair, etc. In the Common Ver- 
 sion 'adorning' is repeated, and is printed in 
 italics. The repetition is necessary, in order 
 to express what the Greek says without repe- 
 tition, and that very necessity makes the 
 italics needless: Whose adorning let it be, not 
 the outward adorning, . . . but let it be, etc. 
 Plaiting — braiding, not for convenience, 
 which might be allowable, but for ornament. 
 Gold — golden ornaments, jewels of gold. (Re- 
 vised Version.) A.T^j*Sive\— garments (plural 
 in the original), worn for show; no reference 
 to convenience. 'Plaiting,' 'wearing,' 'put- 
 ting on.' Notice the activity of women in 
 this sort of self-adorning. Vanity makes 
 
44 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 4 But lei it be the hiddeu man of the heart, in that 
 which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a uieek 
 and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great 
 price. 
 
 5 For after this manner in the old time the holy 
 women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, 
 being in subjection unlo their own husbands: 
 
 ti Even as 8arah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: 
 
 4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the in- 
 corruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, 
 
 5 wliich is in the sight of God, of great price. For 
 alter this mauuer aforetime the holy women also, 
 who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in 
 
 6 subjectiou to their own ' husbands: as fSarah obeyed 
 Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now 
 
 1 Or, liuebands (.as Sarah 
 
 ye are become), doing well, and not being a/raid. 
 
 nimble fingers. Notice also the very em- 
 phiitic position of 'not'; yet the negative 
 thought which it introduces is not the leading 
 one; that is introduced bj' 'but.' (ver. 4.) 
 The meaning of this prohibition will escape 
 us, unless we bear in mind the extravagant 
 love of ornament which characterized the 
 Oriental mind, and the great irreligiousness 
 which led to it. The Egyptian monuments 
 tell surprising tales of female vanity, and the 
 inspired prophet speaks of "the bravery of 
 their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and 
 their cauls, and their round tires like the 
 moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the 
 mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of 
 the legs, and the head bands, and the tablets, 
 and the ear rings, the rings, and the nose 
 jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and 
 the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisp- 
 ing pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and 
 the hoods, and the vails." (isa.s: 18-23.) It is 
 what Calvin calls the morbum vanitati.s quo 
 mulieres laborant (in Huther), the disease of 
 vanity under ivJdch tvomen labor, that Peter 
 blames. Woman's love of ornament is a root 
 of all evil, not less than man's love of money. 
 "Women may sin by wearing too little cloth- 
 ing as well as by wearing too much ornament. 
 As the remedy for love of money in man is 
 holiness (i: i5, 16; 2:9), so also is holiness the 
 remedy for love of outward adornment in 
 woman. Giving too little attention to the 
 decoration of their bodies will not, probably, 
 very soon become a besetting sin of women. 
 
 4. The apostle tells them what their adorn- 
 ing ought to be. The hidden man of the 
 heart. This is the general form of express- 
 ing the contrast with outward adorning. The 
 ornaments in which their irreligious neigh- 
 bors delight appeal to the eye; this, the man 
 of the heart, is 'hidden,' pertains to what is 
 within. Compare Rom. 7: 22 (the inward 
 man); Eph. 3: 16 (the inner man) ; 2 Cor. 4 : 
 16 (the inward man). In that which is not 
 corruptible, etc., may be rendered: in the 
 incorruptibleness of a meek and quiet spirit. 
 
 It is this of which the hidden man consists. 
 Instead of fondness for outward ornament, 
 they should adorn themselves with meekness 
 (Matt. 5: 5) and quletuess ; and, unlike gold and 
 superfluous apparel, such qualities are not 
 corruptible— are imperishable. With such 
 virtues they cannot fail to be submissive to 
 their husbands. This spirit, whatever may 
 be said of the world's judgment, is in the 
 sight of God of great price. God is in- 
 finitely able to estimate the respective values. 
 Man judges by a false standard. ' Great price,' 
 costly; applied by Paul (i Tim. 2: 9) to "array " 
 (raiment), and by Mark (u: s) to "spikenard." 
 Compare ver. 3, 4, with 1 Tim. 2: 9, 10. 
 
 5. For strengthens the main exhortation 
 (ver. 1) and the subordinate one of vs. 3, 4. 
 After this manner — in the way just de- 
 scribed. He draws an illustration from the 
 times of the Old Testament. Trusted in 
 God — hoped. The comma of the English 
 (both the Common and the Revised 'N''ersion) 
 ought not to have been inserted between 'also' 
 and 'who'; the connection is closer than the 
 comma indicates. It was not holy women 
 only who adorned themselves, but holy women 
 'who hoped in God.' According to the com- 
 monly received Greek, hoped u2Jon God ; but 
 according to valuable manuscripts, hojjed in 
 God. They were adorned within. Being 
 in subjection. See on the same in ver. 1. 
 Submitting themselves to their own husbands 
 was one of the manifestations of their meek- 
 ness and quietness. Their own. See on the 
 same in ver. 1, and in Critical Notes. 
 
 6. An eminent example is seen in Sarah, 
 the wife of their distinguished progenitor. 
 Even — a needless insertion. Obeyed. The 
 original term is a mild one, listened. She 
 listened to him, and it is implied that she 
 listened to him in submissiveness of spirit. 
 Calling him lord (Gen. 18:12); doubtless the 
 customary way of addressing him. Sarah was 
 not faultless. In the affair of Hagar and Ish- 
 mael she showed more independence than was 
 delicate, and more feeling than was necessary. 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 45 
 
 whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are 
 not afraid with any amazement. 
 
 7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with Ihem according 
 to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the 
 
 are, if ye do well, and are not i put in fear by any 
 terror. 
 7 Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your 
 wives according to knowledge, giving honour i unto 
 
 1 Or, afraid with 2 Gr. unto the female vessel, as weaker. 
 
 A meek and quiet spirit even then would have 
 been more womanly, and better would it have 
 been had she respectfully and gently declined 
 to unite with her liege lord in one or two in- 
 stances of deception. Yet she was usually so 
 decorous and obedient that the apostle deemed 
 her worthy of imitation by all pious women. 
 "There be many women now-a-days that 
 break away from their husbands." Compare 
 1 Sam. 25: 10. Whose daughters. The 
 Greek means c/(iWrew, whether sons or daugh- 
 ters. Whose children ye are (becatne at the 
 time of their conversion, but implying that 
 they are so now), in the sense of spiritual de- 
 scent. As long as — inserted by the Kevision- 
 ists of 1611 to aid in bringing out what they 
 supposed to be the meaning; but reference to 
 time is erroncus. Nor ought {/(Revised Ver- 
 sion) to be supplied, as if thej' became Sarah's 
 spiritual children on condition that they do 
 good; nor because, as if they became children 
 of Sarah because they do good. The meaning 
 may be expressed thus : Whose children ye 
 became, as shown by your well-doing — that is, 
 in "their entire course of life, with especial ref- 
 erence to their marriage relations." (Huther. ) 
 Are not afraid, etc., is, literally, fearing no 
 frightening, no dread; or, as some, not quite 
 exactly, would say, /eff;-i«^ no /ear. "Feared 
 exceedingly" (Mark 4: 41), is, literally, /ea?-erf a 
 great fear. In 1 John 5 : 16 is a similar pecu- 
 liarity, "sin a sin" ; in Col. 2: 19, "increaseth 
 with the increase." It is an intense form of 
 expression, and was not very seldom used in 
 the Hebrew language before it came into use 
 in the Greek. The peculiarity, though not 
 quite so marked, is found here also. The 
 apostle exhorts them not to fear that which, 
 in itself, is adapted to make them fear; or, 
 not to fear those who may attempt to make 
 them fear. The men of the world, or, as the 
 context requires, their ungodly husbands, 
 may oppose; but they are not to fear. Some 
 take frotn 'as' to 'ye are' as a parenthesis; 
 thus: being in subjection to their own hus- 
 bands (as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling 
 him lord, whose children ye are become), 
 doing well, and not being afraid. This as- 
 
 sumes that the participle for 'doing well' is 
 to be connected with ' women ' in ver. 5. If 
 this is the right construction (which is by no 
 means certain), it follows that after speaking 
 of the ' holy women ' of former times, the 
 writer pauses a moment to illustrate by the 
 case of Sarah as one of the class, and then, 
 resuming, completes his description of the 
 holy women, characterizing them as 'doing 
 well,' etc. The Revised Version has this form 
 in the margin as an alternative reading, and 
 W^estcott and Hort's Greek Testament has the 
 same. 
 
 7. Fourth Exhortation (particular); 
 addressed to husbands. Likewise — directs 
 to the exhortation given to wives at ver. 1, 
 and hints that husbands are under obligations 
 to their wives, as well as wives to their hus- 
 bands. The form of the obligation is in part 
 different. Husbands, neither here nor else- 
 where, are required to be in subjection to their 
 wives. The spirit of the obligation is the same 
 — that is, the same in so far as both the hus- 
 band and the wife are to be controlled by 
 love. DAvell with them — refers to general 
 daily intercourse. According to knowl- 
 edge. In your marriage relations show 
 intelligence and judgment. Giving honour, 
 etc. In this part of the verse the meaning is 
 not well given. Translate : Dwelling accord- 
 ing to knowledge with the female vessel as the 
 weaker, rendering honor [to them] as also 
 fellow heirs. 'Vessel.' The husband is a 
 vessel as well as the wife ; but the wife is the 
 weaker vessel. The word is applied to men 
 (1 Thess. 4: 4) ; to human belngs without dis- 
 tinction of sex. (Kom.9:2i.) 'Weaker.' Not 
 the man is a weak vessel, and the woman a 
 weaker one. No such comparison is intended, 
 and such a comparison would spoil theappeai ; 
 for it is just because the man is here assumed 
 to be a strong vessel that he is exhorted to 
 discharge his obligations to the woman. ' The 
 weaker' cannot mean weaker in mind, for 
 that women as a class would prove themselves, 
 under equally favorable conditions, constitu- 
 tionally inferior to men as a class, has not 3'et 
 been shown to be even probable. Every cen- 
 
46 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. hi. 
 
 weaker vessel, and as being heirs togetlier of the grace 
 of life; that your prayers be not hindered. 
 8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion 
 
 the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being also 
 joint-heirs of the grace of life ; to the end that your 
 prayers be not hindered. 
 8 Finally, be ye all likeminded, i compassionate, lov- 
 
 1 Gr. sympathetic. 
 
 tury has been brilliant with women of mental 
 capacity which quite overtopped that of a 
 larfje majority of men. The wife is the weaker 
 vessel because she has been made subordinate. 
 In harmony with this subordination she is 
 inferior to man in strength of body. "But 
 Peter spealcs of the woman as the weaker 
 vessel without intending thereby disparage- 
 ment or offence to the sex, or to any particu- 
 larly strong-minded or strong-bodied member 
 of it. It is no insult to the vine to say that it 
 is weaker than the tree to which it clings; or 
 to the rose to say that it is weaker than the 
 bush which bears it." (Lillie.) Giving 
 honour unto the wife — expresses the chief 
 thought. The wife's submission, then, is not 
 dishonorable. And as being fellow heirs, 
 etc. Not fellow heirs with one another, but 
 with their husbands. The wife is to receive 
 the incorruptible possession (1=*), as well as 
 the husband, which is a good reason for ren- 
 dering honor — i. e., by esteeming her. See 
 Kom. 8: 17; Eph. 3:6; Heb. 11: 9. Grace 
 of life — grace consisting of life. Your pray- 
 ers — perha])s family prayers offered by the 
 husband or by both. Of Philip Henry it is 
 said that "he and his wife constantly prayed 
 together morning and evening; and never, if 
 they were together at home or abroad, was it 
 intermitted." (Dr. Mombert in Fronmiiller.) 
 Inference: Their married life must have been 
 harmonious. They must have constantly 
 borne in mind the relation which each was 
 required to maintain toward the other, with- 
 oiit, however, being distinctly conscious of a 
 purpose to do so. Private prayers may be in- 
 cluded. Hindered — cut into, cut in pieces, 
 from which came the meaning — impede, hin- 
 der. (Huther.) Some say, prevented from ris- 
 ing to the throne of God ; but Peter is aiming 
 to prevent their prayers from being omitted. 
 What may cause them to be omitted? Not 
 dwelling accordingto knowledge with the wife 
 as the weaker vessel, and not honoring her as 
 a fellow heir, etc. The disharmony which 
 will result will cut prayer to pieces; the ser- 
 vices will be wholly omitted. The same thing 
 might happen if the wife should be unmindful 
 
 of her own obligation ; but Peter plies the wife 
 with one kind of argument, and the husband 
 with another kind. 
 
 8. Exhortations to distinct classes having 
 been closed, the apostle concludes this second 
 series with exhortations to all, growing out of 
 their relations to persecutors. It is remark- 
 able that in this section the most simple prac- 
 tical hints are found in juxtaposition with one 
 of the most difficult passages in the Bible. 
 Working quietly and openly among the easy 
 things of the Christian life, the apostle sud- 
 denly plunges (18-20) out of sight into a subject 
 of the most difficult nature. Finally — indioa- 
 tive not of the termination of the Epistle, but 
 of a purpose to avoid further particulars, and 
 to utter thoughts of a general nature. All — 
 every individual of every class named. What 
 follows is expressed by means of five adjectives, 
 no other word being used. It is a beautiful 
 cluster of virtues — united, sympathetic, broth- 
 erly, compassionate, humble; or, using the 
 more active form — like-minded, sympathizing, 
 brother-loving, tender-hearted, lowly-minded. 
 Liike-minded refers more to feeling than to 
 opinion, yet union of heart tends to create 
 greater union of opinion. Opinions, however 
 unlike, ought not to bristle with prejudice. 
 Christendom has long needed more oneness 
 of doctrine, but much more has it needed 
 oneness of heart. Even true churches have 
 always needed this divine exhortation (Rom. 12: 
 
 16; 15: 5; 2 Cor. 13: 11; Phil. 2:2; 1 Cor. 1 : 10; Eph. 4 3); 
 
 how much more has Christendom needed it! 
 Making infants church members in the early 
 ages of Christianity at length filled churches 
 with unregenerate persons, and the practice 
 continuing to the present day, doctrines and 
 rites have been forced upon men by assem- 
 blies, councils, emperors, popes, and legisla- 
 tures, concerning which the Scriptures say 
 nothing whatever. The divisions of Christen- 
 dom are the progeny, not of Christianity, but 
 of the world. Having compassion — sympa- 
 thizing, sympathy — brought into our language 
 from the Greek, \s feeling with. The readers 
 are dissimilar, socially and intellectually, yet 
 each is required to make the joys, and espe- 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 47 
 
 one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be cour- 
 teous ; 
 
 9 Not renderint; evil for evil, or railing for railing: 
 but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are there- 
 unto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 
 
 10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let 
 hiiu refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they 
 speak no guile: 
 
 11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek 
 peace, and ensue it. 
 
 9 ing as brethren, tenderhearted, hunibleniinded: not 
 reudering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but 
 contrariwise blessing; for hereunto were ye called, 
 
 10 that ye should inherit u blessing. For, 
 
 He that would love life, 
 
 And see gnod day.s. 
 
 Let him rcfr:iin hi^ tongue from evil, 
 
 And his lips that they speak no guile: 
 
 11 And let him turn away Irom evil, and do good; 
 Let him seek peace, and pursue it. 
 
 cially the sorrows of others, his own. (Rom. 
 
 U: 15; I Cor. 12: 26; Heb. 13: 3.) 
 
 So two, together weeping, make one woe. 
 
 Symiiathy is a rational emotion ; may be 
 much developed ; and, though often moving 
 with great rapidity, may become, under the in- 
 fluence of the moral judgment enlightened by 
 the Scriptures, a permanent power, bearing 
 thesoul forward with planet-like order through 
 the entire course of life. Mock suffering (the 
 theatre) and suffering described (fiction) are 
 but feeble stimulants to sympathy. Tears 
 may be wasted when sympathy is hoarded. 
 Liove as hrethern—bj-otherl]/, in the Greek, 
 philadelphoi. A philadelphian is a lover of 
 his brethren, (i: 22; 4: s; Rom. 12: lo.) TheEng- 
 lish, love as brethren, may leave an erroneous 
 impression. Pitiful — tender-hearted, so trans- 
 lated in Eph. 4 : 32. Courteous. This stands 
 for a word which has much less manuscript 
 authority than another, which is properly 
 rendered as above, lowly-minded. The trait 
 is to be manifested toward one another (5:5; 
 Phil. 2:3), and especially toward God. (5:6; 
 Acts 20: 19.) The opposite is self-conceit, which 
 is self-esteem with its eyes shut against God. 
 The wolf may dwell with the lamb, but self- 
 conceit with humility never. 
 
 9. The previous verse refers to their rela- 
 tions to each other, this to their relations 
 to the unregenerate world ; yet the virtues 
 enjoined in ver. 8 have an anticipatory refer- 
 ence to what was about to be said concerning 
 their relations to the world. Evil for evil- 
 evil deeds; railing — words. Peter knows 
 that his Lord did neither (Mati. 26: 62,63; 27: 12) ; 
 and he remembers what a wrong use he 
 himself once made of the sword. (Matt. 26: 51.) 
 But contrariwise — on the contrary. Do 
 directly the opposite, and talk directly the 
 opposite. Implore blessing upon them, 
 bodily and spiritual, temporal and eternal. 
 "Wonderful precepts! and with the strength 
 of Christ as easily obeyed as any others, if 
 
 one has the lowliness of mind enjoined at the 
 close of ver. 8. Pride is the spur of retali- 
 ation. Knowing. The Greek has little 
 reason for being accepted as genuine. Kcad 
 thus : Because to this end ye were called, that 
 ye should inherit blessing ; that ye should 
 come into possession of the blessings of the 
 gospel provided for this life and the next. 
 They were called (2-21) by the Holy Spirit. 
 If they are possessors of such blessings, surely 
 they ought to implore blessings on those who 
 maltreat and malign them. 
 
 10. The Old Testament (P8.34: 12-16) again 
 lends its aid to the apostle of the New, for 
 the purpose of strengthening the exhorta- 
 tions of ver. 9. The usuul form of quotation 
 is wanting, yet with slight variations the 
 words are those of David, as reproduced in 
 the Septuagint. For is Peter's, and connects 
 the quotation with the preceding verse. He 
 that will love life. 'Will' is not the usual 
 auxiliary sign of the future. Read : He that 
 desires to love life ; or, that would. It takes 
 for granted that life may be one of true happi- 
 ness. The thought is peculiar. It is Peter's 
 rather than David's; for David says: "He 
 that desireth life." Peter gives prominence 
 to loving life. The pessimist, if consistent, 
 hates life. To see good days is to experi- 
 ence them— that is, to have them and enjoy 
 them. Notice the use of the word in Luke 
 2: 26; Heb. 11: 5; John 3: 3. 'Good days,' 
 in this life — the possession of none but be- 
 lievers. Even the sorrow of those who love 
 God cannot make good days bad days. (Rom. 8: 
 28; 2Cor.4: 16; 6: 10.) Let hiui fcfrain, etc. — 
 as if it were impossible to desire to love life, 
 if the tongue were allowed to have its way. 
 See James 3. Guile, deceit. See on 2: 
 1, 22. 
 
 11. Escnew, etc. — turn away from evil. 
 It is a general, comprehensive precept, re- 
 ferring to evil of whatever kind. And do 
 good, also a comprehensive precept, but it 
 enjoins a positive virtue. " Went about doing 
 
48 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, 
 and his ears are o/jen unto tlieir prayers: but the face 
 of the Lord is against them that do evil. 
 
 13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be fol- 
 lowers of that which is good? 
 
 14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy 
 are ye : and be not afraid of their terror, neither be 
 troubled ; 
 
 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be 
 
 12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous 
 And his ears unto their supplication: 
 
 But the face of the Lord ia upon them that do 
 evil. 
 
 13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be zeal- 
 
 14 ous of that which is good? But and if ye should 
 sutler for righteousness' sake, blessed are ye: and 
 
 15 fear not their fear, neither be troubled ; but sanctify 
 in your hearts Christ as Lord : being ready always to 
 
 good," was said of Christ by this very apostle. 
 (Acts 10: 38.) The farmer who merely abstains 
 from sowing bad seed will reap nothing. 
 Seek peace — a more particular direction. 
 See Matt. 5:9. To live peaceably in heaven 
 with all will be easy ; to live so here with all 
 is scarcely possible (Eom. 12: is) ; yet we are not 
 only to seek peace, but we are to ensue {pur- 
 sue) it. We are to make a vigorous and de- 
 termined effort to make others peaceable and 
 peaceful, and this is most easily done by being 
 peaceable and peaceful ourselves. Much free- 
 dom must be granted to one another to do the 
 usual work of life in the way preferred — in 
 the family for example, and in the place of 
 business, if peace is to thrive. There is no 
 better trade to which to put a child than 
 peace-making. In affairs moral and reli- 
 gious, we must be "first pure, then peaceable ' ' 
 (James 3: 17), yet pcrsecution for religious opin- 
 ions, even in the mild form of uncharitable- 
 ness, is utterly contrary to the spirit of Christ. 
 
 13. For. This, too, is Peter's word, not 
 David's. It points to the ground upon which 
 the exhortations of ver. 11 rest — namely, the 
 Lord's relation to the righteous and the 
 wicked. Are over — are upon; that is, turned 
 upon. Unto their -prayers— toward them. 
 'Against,' 'upon' — the same word in the 
 Greek as stands before the word Unrighteous. 
 The contrast, then, between the Lord's course 
 toward the righteous and toward the wicked 
 is not expressed in the preposition, nor in /ace. 
 The contrast is expressed by but— and the 
 contrast how great! Lord. As nothing in 
 the context requires it to be applied to Christ, 
 it may have the reference which it has in the 
 Psalm from which the words are taken. 
 
 13. Intensity is given to the thought by the 
 interrogative form. Peter once had sharp 
 experience of the power of questions. (John 21 : 
 1 -n.i The apostle would here confirm the 
 exhortation to do good. Will harm — too 
 feeble. The rendering is stronger in Acts 7: 
 6, 19 {entreat evil, evil entreated) \ in 12: 1 
 {vex); in 18: 10 {to hurt thee). Followers — 
 
 imitators. But valuable manuscripts have a 
 word which means zealous — if ye are zealous 
 of that which is good. There are two possible 
 meanings of the first part of the question : 
 Who is he that will be able to do you evil? 
 and, Who is he that will be disposed to do you 
 evil? If the latter is the meaning, the ques- 
 tion must have been asked in view of the 
 supposition that usually the world will not 
 be disposed to persecute those who lead a 
 truly Christian life; but it can scarcely be 
 said that in apostolic times this was usually 
 the case. If the former is the sense, it implies 
 that no one can do them any real and essential 
 evil. God will parry the blow. Which is the 
 correct view is uncertain. See Isa. 50 : 9 ; 
 Rum. 8: 31, 33, 34. 
 
 14. But and if— a "barbarous" translation 
 (Lillie), an "innocent archaism" (Schaff). 
 The English Revisers, as the latter reminds 
 us, naturally adhere to these archaisms. 
 Read : But if also ye should suffer. For 
 righteousness' sake — on account of their 
 Christian life. See righteous in ver. 12, a 
 good conscience and good conversation in 
 ver. 16, and ivell doing in ver. 17. Happy — 
 blessed, which is less suggestive of hap, luck, 
 chance. 'Happ3'' has taken on a Christian 
 meaning, but even now it has less aroma than 
 blessed. The sentiment which Peter here 
 expresses fell upon his ear from the lips of 
 Christ when upon the Mount (Matt. 5: 11.) 
 Persecution will make these Christians more 
 blessed here, and this fragrant result of suffer- 
 ing will extend into the next life, never to be 
 diminished., but ever to be augmented. Be 
 not afraid of their terror— /ca?" 7iot their 
 fear; be not afraid of the terror with which 
 they would harass you. See on ver. 6. Those 
 words and the first clause in ver. 15 may be a 
 "free translation" of Isa. 8: 12, 13. 
 
 15. But sanctify — reverence as holy. Com- 
 pare "Hallowed be thy name." (Matt. 6:9.) 
 The Lord God~Lo7'd the Christ; or per- 
 haps better, the Christ as Lord, according to 
 the approved reading. The exhortation stands 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 49 
 
 ready always to give an answer to every man that 
 aakL-ih you a reason of the hope that is in you, with 
 meekness and fear: 
 
 Iti Having a good conscience; that, whereas they 
 speak evil of you, ;is of evil doers, they may be ashamed 
 thai falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 
 
 17 For (7 i.v better, if the will of tiod be so, that ye 
 sutler for well doing, than for evil doing. 
 
 give answer to every man that asketh you a reason 
 concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meek- 
 
 16 ness and fear: havingagood conscience; that, where- 
 in ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame 
 
 17 who revile your good manner of life in Clirist. For 
 it is better, if the will of God should so will, that 
 
 18 ye sutler for well-doing than for evil-doing. Be- 
 
 in contrast with tho one immediately preced- defence must be made in the right spirit, 
 ing : Fear not them, but fear as holy the Christ \ Thej' must avoid the appearance of arrogance, 
 
 as Lord. Isa. 8: 13 is literally: "Sanctify 
 Jehovah of hosts." For Jehovah Peter uses 
 Lord. Thus the apostle enjoins the duty of 
 sanctifying Christ as Jehovah, which may be 
 a proof of Christ's Deity. Had Peter, at an 
 earlier period, had more reverence for the 
 Lord, he would not have feared men, and 
 denied him. Compare Matt. 10: 28. He has 
 been qualified by bitter experience to exhort 
 others. Fearing God makes one superior to 
 the fear of men. Some fear the world even 
 when the world bears no sword. In your 
 hearts — otherwise there is no reverence. 
 And be ready — being ready. The Greek for 
 'and' is not genuine. They must not only 
 reverence Christ in the heart, but must also 
 be ready to make an oral expression. To 
 give an answer— literally, be ready for an 
 apology — that is, for a "defence" (piiH- i: ») ; 
 "what clearing of yourselves" (2 Cor. 7: u) ; 
 "answer" (ati.u. *: le.) The use of the word 
 implies that those who are sujiposed to ask for 
 the reason of their hope, ask with little sym- 
 pathy, not to say with some opposition, 
 (ver. u, 16.) The answcr given is therefore of 
 the nature of a defence. Always— never 
 unprepared, never unwilling, never timid. 
 Every man — without respect to his position 
 or his character. A reason of— a reason 
 concerning. The hope — the hope in Christ, 
 with all the blessed results. See on 1:3, 13, 
 21. Be ready to make as full a statement as 
 the circumstances may require. As thej- are 
 to be always ready to do it, it follows that the 
 reference is not specially to the first profession 
 of faith. Lips which opened then, but never 
 afterward, would seem to have opened nne- 
 chanioally, not under the sweet influence of a 
 renewed heart. Too many are like the silent 
 letters of our language — nothing would be 
 lost if they were all dropped out. With 
 meekness, etc. In several manuscripts the 
 Greek is preceded by a word meaning but or 
 yet, which makes the contrast more striking. 
 
 and must fear lest their defence be such as to 
 do more harm khan good. 
 
 16. Having a good conscience. This 
 connects with ' ready.' (ver. 15.) A good con- 
 science is aconscience unstained with conscious 
 guilt, or with unforgiven sin, or with intention 
 to do wrong. It implies that the conscience 
 has been made white through faith in Christ. 
 Without a good conscience, their readiness for 
 defence would be false. That whereas, 
 wherein, or, in the matter in which. It is 
 similar to the form of expression in 2: 12, 
 upon which see note. Your good conver- 
 sation in Christ — good manner of life in 
 communio7i with Christ. Be ashamed — de- 
 sirable even if nothing more should come 
 from it. Oh, that the consciences of all were so 
 pure that the accusations were false and the 
 accusers ashamed ! 
 
 17. For. In ver. 16 the apostle virtually 
 exhorts them to have a good conscience, and 
 now hegives a reason in support of the exhorta- 
 tion. If the will of God be so, literally, 
 if the will of God should will it. The noun 
 refers to the will of God as a faculty, and the 
 verb to exerting the faculty. 'The will of 
 God" refers to the suffering. The form of the 
 verb implies the joossi6i^i^y that such maybe 
 God's will. Should it be his will that you 
 suffer at all, it is better to suffer for the reason 
 that you do well than for the reason that you 
 do ill. See 2: 20 and comments. Better — 
 more for the honor of Christ, better for your- 
 selves, for such suffering will bring the usual 
 blessed result^sanctification. Or, let better be 
 explained by 2: 19-21. 
 
 18-20. The De.scent of Chri.st to 
 Hell. Such is the title which a large majority 
 of interpreters, whether Roman Catholic or 
 Protestant, would prefix to this section, with 
 what reason may appear after examination. 
 No passage in the New Testament, none per- 
 haps in the Bible, has been considered during 
 at least fourteen hundred years more difficult. 
 
 They must be ready with a defence, but the ' The main statement, with the subordinate 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 18 Far Christ also hath once sufl'ered for sins, the 
 just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being 
 put to death iu the Uesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 
 
 19 By whicli also he went and preached uuto the 
 spirits in prison ; 
 
 cause Christ also i suffered for sins once, the right- 
 eous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us 
 to God ; being put to death in the liesh, but quick- 
 19 ened in the spirit; in wMch also he went and 
 
 1 Many ancieut autboriiies read died. 
 
 clauses, has received almost innumerable ex- 
 planations. Many of the people, while disin- 
 clined to accept the view that Christ, in the 
 interval between his death and resurrection, 
 descended to the abode of lost spirits and 
 preached to them, yet have been so bewildered 
 by what Peter is made by our translators and 
 many of the expositors to say, that they have 
 settled down in despair of ever arriving at a 
 satisfactory view. The meaning is made no 
 plainer by the Revised Version. Some of the 
 reasons for the interpretation about to be given 
 will be found in the Critical Note. 
 
 For, because. It indicates that the apostle 
 is to give a reason for something, and that 
 something is implied in ver. 17 — namely, the 
 duty of bearing up under suffering in well- 
 doing. This duty is urged by two considera- 
 tions : 1. Christ suffered; 2. He preached to 
 wrong-doers. The wrong-doing is set in a 
 stronger light by presentation of the circum- 
 stances under which it continued to be com- 
 mitted. To preach to such men required 
 long-suffering. Also is to be connected with 
 suffered for si7is. Notice the striking con- 
 trast between their suffering for well-doing 
 jind Christ's suffering for sins. The appeal, 
 which is from the greater to the less, is one of 
 incomparable strength. For sins, on account 
 of sins. Once. It implies only once. See 
 Heb. 9: 26,28; Rom. 6: 9, 10. It may be 
 referred to the entire period of his earthly suf- 
 fering, but the context shows that the apostle 
 was thinkingchiefly of his final sufferings. The 
 just for the unjust, the righteous for the 
 unrifihteous. Hath suffered, should be suf- 
 fered, for Peter refers to what occurred and 
 was completed at some previous time. Some 
 manuscriptsgive another reading, which means 
 died, and this is put in the margin of the 
 Revised Version. Many critics prefer it. 
 'For' the unjust. See Critical Note on the 
 same preposition in 2: 21. The idea of sub- 
 stitution is clearly indicated in the context, 
 even if it is not expressed in the preposition 
 itself. That he might bring us to God. 
 Men are separated from God — that is, they are 
 
 in want of that life which consists of com- 
 munion with God. So far, then, as respectvS 
 themselves, the object of Christ's suffering is 
 to restore them to God's life — that is, to bring 
 them into constant communion with their 
 Creator. The verb implies very near approach 
 to God. The scientific saying, Omne vivutn 
 ex vivo {all life conies from Life) fails of verifi- 
 cation in man viewed as a being of spiritual 
 capacities; for in man there is no life to gen- 
 erate life. SeeEph.2: 5 ("when we were rfearf 
 . . . quickened us"). "The spiritual life is 
 the gift of the living Spirit." (Drummond, 
 "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," Bio- 
 genesis.) Being put to death in the flesh, 
 but quickened by the Spirit ; in spirit is the 
 more correct rendering. The meaning is not, 
 thatfleshas mere flesh died, and that the spirit as 
 mere spirit was made alive, but that the death 
 of Christ was the death of Christ in flesh, and 
 that the quickening of Christ was the quicken- 
 ing of Christ in spirit. The Common Version, 
 by the Spirit (as if there were allusion to the 
 Holy Spirit), is here wrong. In the Greek 
 the contrast is more strongly expressed. See 
 Rom. 1 : 3, 4; 1 Tim. 3: 16. As pre-existent, 
 Jesus Christ was glorious in his ".spiritual 
 essence," but through all his earthly life that 
 glory was partly veiled in flesh, and in flesh 
 he was put to death. But at his resurrection, 
 (compare ver. 21) he was quickened in spirit — 
 that is, he came into repossession of the glory 
 of his spiritual nature. That this quickening 
 in spirit occurred at the resurrection, not be- 
 tween the death and the resurrection, is clear 
 from Rom. 1: 4. How, then, could Christ be 
 said to have gone in that spirit (ver. i9) to the 
 abode of the lost between his death and his 
 resurrection? But whether he went at all is 
 to be seen chiefly in ver. 19, 20. 
 
 19. By which — in which spiritual nature. 
 Also — not, as Lange and some others, even. 
 It looks back to the also of ver. 18, thus: 
 Because Chri.st also suffered, etc. (the one 
 fact) ; he also preached (the other fact). 
 These two facts are reasons why the readers 
 should bear up under suffering in well-doing. 
 
Ch. III.] I. PETER. 51 
 
 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once tlie I 20 preached unto the spirits in prison, who afore- 
 longsutfering of God waited iu the days of Noah, while | time were disobedient, when the lougsutl'eriug of 
 
 He went, etc. Transhite the remainder of 
 the verse and the first clause of ver. 20, not as 
 in the Revised Version, but, he went and 
 preached to the spirits in prison when for- 
 merly they were disobedieyit. Those who 
 heard the preaching, heard it when they were 
 living in disobedience. They rejected the 
 ))reaching, werelost (ver. 20, last clause; 2 Pet. 
 2: 5), and now, while Peter is writing, are 
 in prison, disembodied, and are therefore 
 spoken of as spirits. In prison. See Rev. 
 20: 7; Matt. 5: 25. The word is of frequent 
 occurrence in the New Testament, and means 
 a i)lace of confinement. Here it means the 
 place in which the wicked are punished after 
 death. It is very necessary to the correct 
 understanding of this passage, to notice that 
 the word does not express the idea which 
 the ancient classics attached to hades, and 
 the ancient Hebrews, sometimes, to sheol— 
 namely, the place of disembodied spirits, 
 good and bad. The conception of such a 
 place is entirely foreign to the New Testa- 
 ment. In the New Testament, hades is the 
 place in which the wicked are punished 
 (Lukei6:23); in the Comnion Version, hell, 
 transferred in the Revised Version, hades. 
 The good are not there. They are in heaven, 
 called, in three instances, paradise. (Luke23: 
 43; 2Cor. 12; u; ReT.2: 7.) Jesus died before the 
 robbers. (Jobn i9: 32, as.) Those who affirm 
 that Christ went to hades — descended to hell 
 (the phrase found in some of the most widely- 
 accepted creeds), and there preached to the 
 wiclced, invariably imply that he went imme- 
 diately. But if he went immediately, he 
 must have torn himself from his impenitent 
 hearers just as their attention was becoming 
 aroused, in order to fulfill his promise by 
 mcetmf^ a. penitent in paradise. The contra- 
 diction between the words of Jesus {Luke23; 43), 
 " Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be 
 with me in paradise,"' and the representation 
 made by Peter, as comm,only explained, is 
 complete. Christ could not have been with 
 tlie saved robber in Paradise, and, at the same 
 tiniQj with the lost antediluvians in "hell." 
 A very remarkable attempt has recently been 
 made' by Dr. Davidson, of London, to save 
 
 Peter as witness to a second probation for the 
 
 antediluvians, by denying the authenticity 
 of the words in Luke. The denial is based 
 upon the one fact that the words were wanting 
 in the copy used by Marcion, a heretic ; and 
 though admitting that Epiphanius says that 
 Marcion "cut them off," Dr. Davidson will 
 not admit that Epiphanius is in this to be 
 believed. The scholar may do well to consult 
 the Critical Apparatus in the Eightli Edition of 
 Tischendorfs Greek Testament. Marcion took 
 liberty with the text of Luke, which is not to 
 be justified. (" Westcott on the Canon.") If 
 the interpretation of Peter now tf> be given is 
 correct, there is no contradiction between the 
 apostle and the evangelist. But the question 
 turns chiefly on the meaning of the next 
 verse. Preached. The original word is not 
 the word which means to preach the gospel ; 
 it is more general, meaning to ]}roclaim, to 
 announce, from which some have inferred 
 that it was the preaching, not of glad tidings, 
 but of condemnation. But the more general 
 word is so often used to express the preaching 
 
 of the gospel (Matt. *: n; in: 7; U; l; Mark l: SS), 
 
 that this may be its import here. Went. 
 Great weight has been attached to this word 
 in support of the view that Christ went in 
 person to the prison of the lost. But the 
 word does not necessarily imply personal 
 locomotion. See Gen. 11: 5-7, and especially 
 Eph. 2: 17. Such language would have been 
 entirely admissible (for it would liave been 
 in harmony with the genius of the Greek 
 tongue), had Peter desired to say that Christ 
 brought himself into connection witli the 
 persons in question, either b\'his Spirit, or by 
 means of some pious inhabitant of the earth. 
 20. Which sometime were disobedient 
 — when formerly they were disobedient. See 
 the translation above and Critical Notes. The 
 preaching occurred at the time of the disobe- 
 dience, not thousands of years afterward. 
 That it occurred long after the disobedient 
 were swept away has been taught by the 
 majority of expositors, including some recent 
 distinguished interpreters of Germany. The 
 common view is held in most remarkable dis- 
 regard of the construction of the Greek. 
 
 >See The Christian Register, March 19, 1885. 
 
52 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight I God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark 
 souls were saved bj water. was a preparing, i wherein few, that is, eight souls, 
 
 I 21 were saved through water : which also ^ after a true 
 
 1 Or, into which few, that U, eight souls, were br9ught safely through water *i Or, ivt the antitype. 
 
 In the next two clauses, Peter makes a 
 more distinct statement of time and persons. 
 Once. For this the Greek has scarcely any- 
 manuscript authority. When the long suf- 
 fering of God, etc. The spirits who were in 
 prison when Peter was writing these words 
 were persons who lived their eartlily life in 
 tiie days of Noah. God's forbearance toward 
 sinners is often mentioned in the Scriptures — 
 €. g.,'Rom. 2: i; 9:22; and here much vivid- 
 ness is added to the description by waited, 
 especially in the original, where the word for 
 waited is intense, to wait out, to wait long for. 
 God waited one hundred and twenty years 
 
 (Gen. 6: 3), not, aS SOmC Say, SCVen dayS. (Oen. 7:4.) 
 
 "This sentence, as we may gather from the 
 context, was made known to Noah in his four 
 hundred and eightieth year, to be published 
 by him as a 'preacher of righteousness' 
 (2Pet. 2: 5) to the degenerate race." (Keil.) He 
 was six hundred years old when the flood 
 came. What long suffering does God still 
 manifest in waiting for the repentance of sin- 
 ners! While the ark was a preparing — an 
 ark being in the process of building. Here 
 the time of the long sufl^ering is very exactly 
 given. Every blow of the ax and the ham- 
 mer was a call to repentance. 'Ark.' Gen. 
 6: 14-16. See Matt. 24: 38; Luke 17: 27; 
 Heb. 11 : 7. Wherein— in which, though 
 strictly the original preposition is such as to 
 imply that they first ivent into it. That is, 
 eight — a tragical explanation ! Souls. In 
 most cases this word is not a mere equivalent 
 for a personal pronoun — e. g., "And I will 
 very gladly spend and be spent for your 
 souls " (Common Version, for you, 2 Cor. 12: 
 15), but the word gives prominence to their 
 spiritual nature as that which was the chief 
 subject of regeneration. The use of the word 
 soul instead of you contributes to vivacity. 
 (Winer.) The verse before us, however, is 
 one of the few in which the Greek for souls 
 may have no special significance, in which it 
 is equivalent, that is, to persons. 'Eight.' 
 (Gen. 7:7.) Saved by — through, by means of. 
 In the margin of the Kevised Version is the 
 alternative rendering— ?'?i^o which few, that is, 
 eight souls, were brought safely through 
 
 water. But in the next verse the apostle 
 represents water, in baptism, as saving us, 
 and therefore, if the contrast is to be deemed 
 pertinent, it was water through which, by 
 means of which, Noah and his family were 
 saved. But how could they be said to be 
 saved by means of water? Was not the nrk 
 the means? Notice again the preposition 
 (ei«) — into which few {going) were saved by 
 means of water. The apostle associates the 
 idea of going into the ark with the idea of 
 being saved by water. It is impossible to sepa- 
 rate the one idea from the other, though, if 
 we make the mistake of interpreting accord- 
 ing to the mere letter, we sliall say that only 
 the water without its relation to the act of 
 going into the ark was the means of their 
 being saved. But from what were they 
 saved? Clearly, that from which all the 
 others were no^ saved — that is, from perishing, 
 from death. They were indeed delivered 
 from the f)revailing corruption, but this is not 
 the fact here intended. The infants that per- 
 ished by drowning were as truly saved from 
 the prevailing corruption as the "eight." 
 Punishment (in the case of all but the infants) 
 did indeed follow the drowning, but the first 
 and palpable fact is that they perished by loss 
 of life. Noah and his family were saved. 
 They continued to live. Farrar hits in this 
 case nearer than he sometimes does, for he 
 says: "Perhaps this means 'by water as an 
 instrument' — i. e., because the water floated 
 the ark." 
 
 Thus we learn that those to whom Christ 
 preached were the unbelieving people of 
 Noah's time. But Aow did he preach? That 
 is a question of little importance, and one on 
 which the interpretation of the passage as a 
 whole ought not in any degree to be made to 
 turn. Peter himself does not answer it, yet 
 Christ may have preached through Noah's 
 preaching, for the Spirit of Christ was in the 
 prophets, and testified, etc. ('^n) Or he 
 may have preached by an influence exerted 
 more directly upon their minds. See John 1: 
 4, 5 for proof that before the incarnation the 
 Word was in tlie world, and wrought upon the 
 souls of men. [See note on John 1 : 4, 5 for 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 53 
 
 a slightly different view.— A. H.] Those 
 words show that whatever light the antedi- 
 luvians had, came from Christ before he be- 
 came flesh. Yet the preaching was more 
 than the general influence of the word upon 
 men before his incarnation. 
 
 21. The water by which Noah was saved 
 suggests to Peter the water of baptism. The 
 meaning of the accepted Greek is, which 
 (water), as an antitype (as something resem- 
 bling it, as a like figure), is now saving you 
 also — namely, baptistn. Antitype may not 
 imply that the flood was a type of baptism in 
 the usual sense of the word type. It may 
 express only the idea of resemblance to the 
 flood. As water saved Noah, so baptism is 
 now saving you. You is the rendering of the 
 genuine Greek. But what is meant by baptism 
 saving them ? There are a few passages in the 
 New Testament which seem to teach, like 
 this, that baptism precedes in the order of 
 time forgiveness, regeneration, salvation. On 
 the other hand, there are many passages which 
 certainly do teach that baptism must not pre- 
 cede, but follow. To the latter class belong, 
 for example, Matt. 3: 6-8; 28: 19, 20; Mark 
 16: 16; Acts 2: 41 (presenting an argument 
 of cumulative force, because the number of 
 cases in which baptism followed the spiritual 
 change was three thousand) ; 8: 12; 8: 30-39; 
 9: 17, 18; 10: 43-48; 16: 14, 15, 29-34. Be- 
 sides these and other proof-texts, the general 
 spirit of the New Testament implies that 
 baptism is preceded by regeneration. The 
 chief passages which seem to teach the pre- 
 cedence of baptism, or, as some would say, 
 regeneration or forgiveness of sin in baptism, 
 are, besides the one before us, the following: 
 " Except a man be born of water, and of the 
 Spirit" — more exactly, of water and the 
 Spirit (John 3:5); "Arise and be baptized, and 
 wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
 the Lord " (Acts22:i6); "Kepentand be bap- 
 tized, every one of you . . . for the remission 
 of sins." (Acts 2: 38.) Ought these special ex- 
 ceptions to the general rule to govern the 
 interpretation of the very numerous passages 
 above cited, or ought the many passages to 
 govern the interpretation of these few? If 
 
 I the latter, then the few passages cannot mean 
 that water-bajitism is a condition of baptism 
 by the Spirit, and the doctrine that men must 
 be baptized in order to be born again is un- 
 scriptural. Equally unscriptural, therefore, 
 is the view that regeneration cannot be ex- 
 pected to occur "on the sea or in the chamber, 
 on the highway or in the field, in ttie mill, 
 the shop, or the store" — "at any point of time 
 in man's life." After coming to a result by 
 this general law of interpretiny the few pas- 
 sages by the many, one may examine eacli of 
 the few passages in detail, and it will be seen 
 that not one of them teaches the doctrine 
 of baptismal regeneration, so strongly pro- 
 nounced by Professor Adams to be the "key- 
 stone of the arch " of all the Christian doc- 
 trines, including even "the atonement of our 
 blessed Redeemer."'' 
 
 Administered as it always ought to be, in 
 its primitive form, baptism is a vivid repro- 
 duction in figure, in symbol, of the great 
 FACT, already accomplished, that the soul, 
 having been regenerated by the Spirit of 
 God, has been buried to sin and been raised 
 to holiness; and a vivid representation in 
 figure, in symbol, of the twofold event, yet 
 future, the burial and resurrection of the 
 body, the latter guaranteed by the resur- 
 rection of Christ. The figurative representa- 
 tion of the bodily change is so vivid, that the 
 change seems by faith to be occurring 7iov) — 
 that is, in the very act of being baptized; and 
 the figurative reproduction of the spiritual 
 change is so vivid that this change also seems 
 by faith to be brought forward to the same 
 point. One might as truly say, therefore, 
 with Christ, Ve tnust be born of water and the 
 Spirit; or, with Ananias, Be baptized, and 
 wash away thy sins; or, with Peter, The like 
 figure whereunto even baptism doth also now 
 save us — as to say. Believe, and be baptized. 
 The latter direction is plain— not figurative, 
 not symbolic, and therefore it expresses ex- 
 actly the time-relation of faith and baptism.; 
 the former directions are not plain, but are 
 symbolic, figurative, and therefore the exact 
 time-relation is not given. Thus the inter- 
 pretation of the few, and, it may be added, 
 
 > Prof. Wm. Adams, of the Episcopal Church (" Regeneration in Baptism"). 
 
 2 For an explanation of the passages supposed to teach baptismal regeneration, the reader is referred to the 
 Appendix to the Commentary on the Gospel of John. — A. H. 
 
54 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also 
 now save us, (nut the putting away of the tilth of the 
 flesh, but the answer ot a good conscience toward God,) 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 
 
 likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the 
 
 putting away of the filth" of the flesh, but the Mn- 
 
 terrogatiou of a good conscience toward God, through 
 
 22 the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is on the rignt 
 
 ] Or, inqtLiry ; or, appeal. 
 
 obscure, passages by the many, concerning 
 which there is no obscurity whatever, is 
 justified. Baptism, then, is the symbolic 
 representation of what literally took place 
 before. ^^ It pictures in the present whut has 
 been experienced in the past. . . . The past 
 is presented again emblematically in baptism, 
 as if it were present." (President A. Hovey. ) 
 Coming "to the baptismal font," the soul 
 "comes to ratify in the appointed way its own 
 previous act of surrender.'' (Lillie.) Thus, 
 not more necessary is it here than in the other 
 passages with which it has been classed to 
 see the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 
 Save us {you), as well as Noah and his 
 family. Now contrasts the present time with 
 thatof Noah. Doth save — not, saved, or will 
 save. The present may here be used to ex- 
 press the general fact that baptism saves; or, 
 it may denote continuance of action, is saving 
 you. In the latter case, it denotes the spir- 
 itual influence of baptism continued through 
 life. Such continued influence will be greater 
 or less, according to one's clearness of spiritual 
 perception. It is to be feared that with many 
 persons it is painfully small. 
 
 Baptism. The act denoted by this word is 
 an immersion of the entire bod}^ As regen- 
 eration had respect to the entire man, as the 
 entire man in regeneration is buried to sin and 
 is raised to holiness, and as the bodies of the 
 regenerate are to be buried and to be raised 
 from the grave, the rite is beautifully and 
 wonderfully expressive. (Rom. 6: 3,4; coi. 2: 12.) 
 "And how, as for a moment the prostrate 
 form of the disciple disappears beneath the 
 wave, is the whole solemn story of our 
 death in Christ silently rehearsed!" (Dr. 
 A.J. Gordon, "In Christ.") "There can 
 be no doubt," says Dean Goulburn of the 
 Episcopal Church, "that baptism, when ad- 
 ministered in the primitive and most correct 
 form, is a divinely constituted emblem of bod- 
 ily resurrection." 
 
 Not the putting away, etc. — a definition, 
 first negative then positive, of what baptism is. 
 Heb. 9: 10, 13 makes it not improbable, that 
 Peter had Jewish ceremonials in his eye. In 
 
 any case, baptism as such has no effect in im- 
 proving the outward man, though millions 
 have been taught to think otherwise. But 
 the answer, etc. The diflJculties of the pass- 
 age pertain chiefly to the word translated 
 answer. It is certain that this translation is 
 incorrect, but as the word occurs nowhere else 
 in the New Testament, scholars are not agreed 
 as to its meaning. The Eevisers show their 
 own uncertainty by translating "interroga- 
 tion," and putting in the margin, "Or, inqidry, 
 or appeal.^' Qi/estion, request, inquiry, seek- 
 ing after, aski7ig, are the chief meanings 
 assigned. It is also queried whether the ' good 
 conscience' is already the possession of him 
 who requests or whether it is the object of the 
 request. Some translate: The inquiry of a 
 good conscience after God; some, the question 
 directed to God for a good conscience; some, 
 the asking of a good conscience, meaning, the 
 asking in which we address God with a good 
 conscience, our sins being forgiven and re- 
 nounced; some, the siipvlation (promise) 
 toward God of a good conscience. It is clear 
 that with such variety of translation, posilive- 
 ness relative to the meaning would be unseem- 
 ly. On the whole, inquiry or requirement is 
 perhaps the best rendering: Baptism, is the 
 requirement of a good conscience toward God. 
 Baptism is something which a conscience, 
 made sensitive and pure relative to the will 
 of God requires, or, something concerning 
 which it makesinquiry. A good conscience 
 is a conscience sprinkled with the blood of 
 Christ and also purified by the Spirit. (Heb.9: u; 
 10:2,22.) It is such a conscience which makes 
 request. It became such before baptism, which 
 implies that the subject had already been 
 regenerated. By the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ. T/)ro?/^A is here better than &y. Con- 
 nect with saves and notice its relation to 
 quickened in spirit, (vcr. is.) It gives the means 
 by which baptism is made sj'mbolically so 
 efficacious. Seel: 3. There seems to be a 
 silent reference to Christ's death. All turns 
 on the question whether Christ rose from the 
 dead. (1 cor.is: u-17.) 
 Before leaving this part of the chapter, a 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 55 
 
 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand 
 of God; angels and authorities and powers being made 
 subject unto hiui. I 
 
 hand of God, having gone into heaven ; angels and 
 authorities and powers being made subject unto him. 
 
 brief quotation from Dean Stanley's " Chris- 
 tian Institution " (Chiip. I., "Baptism"), may 
 not be amiss : " Baptism was not only a bath, 
 but a plunge — an entire submersion in the 
 deep water, a leap as into the rolling sea or the 
 rushing river, where, for the moment, the 
 waves close over the bather's head, and he 
 emerges again as from a momentary grave. 
 . . . This was the part of the ceremony on 
 which the apostles laid so much stress. It 
 seemed to them like a burial of tlie old former 
 self and the rising again of the new life. . . . 
 The essence of the material form is gone. 
 There is now no disappearance as in a watery 
 grave. . . . It is but thefewdropssprinkled." 
 Saddening as is the departure from apostolic 
 pj-actice, by which a "human invention" 
 (Dean Stanley) has been introduced into the 
 Christian world in place of that which God 
 requires, the Dean expresses himself with en- 
 tirely too great positiveness, since the apostolic 
 act of baptism is retained throughout the 
 large Greek Church, and is practiced by a 
 great company of believers in the United 
 States, by many in England, and many in 
 other countries, and is pretty rapidly working 
 its way into nearly all the evangelical churclies 
 of Christendom. 
 
 22. The ascension of Christ, hitherto im- 
 plied (1:21), is now affirmed. Thus, in this 
 unique passage (18-22) has the apostle swept 
 from the spiritual activity of the unincarnated 
 "Word, in the earlier period of human history, 
 through the deep vale of earthly suffering, to 
 the triumphal appearance on the mediatorial 
 throne. The Sufferer is Sufferer no more. 
 The groundwork of appeal to suffering Chris- 
 tians is complete. Who is gone into 
 heaven, etc. — who is on the right hand of 
 God, having goyie into heaven, is more exact, 
 as in the Revised Version. (Rom. s: 34; Mark i6: 19; 
 Heb. 1: 3; coi.3: 1.) To sit on God's right hand 
 is a peculiar honor granted to Jesus Christ. 
 See Ps. 110: 1, quoted by our apostle in his 
 discourse on the Day of Pentecost. ( acu 2 : 34. 35.) 
 "Supreme dominion is most clearly meant" ; 
 "his being seated on the mediatorial throne 
 as the result and reward of his sufferings" ; 
 "the sacred writers never speak respecting the 
 Logos (Word, John 1: 1) considered simply 
 9 
 
 in his divine nature, as being seated at the 
 right hand of God ; but onl^' of the Logos in- 
 carnate, or the Mediator, as being seated 
 there." (Stuart on " Ilehrews," p. 559, 18;')3.) 
 See Hackett, "Acts" (belonging to the present 
 Series), 2: 34, who makes an ampler quotation 
 from Stuart. Angels and authorities and 
 powers — not any class of human beings, 
 whether on earth or in heaven, but heavenly 
 beings. Of their difference and emploj'ments 
 we know little. But see lleb. 1 : 14. The 
 three classes may be mentioned in the order 
 of their rank; their rank may be the same. 
 We may know more of tliem hereafter. More 
 study of God and less inquisitiveness concern- 
 ing angels would have made some people 
 wiser. Paul uses the same or similar words. 
 See Eph. 1 : 21 ; Col. 1 : 16. However ex- 
 alted the beings are, they are made subject 
 — are subjected to Christ. Thus Christ as 
 Mediator is over all. (Heb. i; Coi. i: is.) 
 
 CRITICAIi NOTES. — CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. iSiow is here, and in most other places, 
 properly translated your own — that is, it ex- 
 presses more emphasis than the Greek personal 
 pronoun. Denied by Meyer; Fronmuller 
 goes to the other extreme. Lillie takes the 
 medium view, as Ellicott also on the parallel 
 passage (Eph. 5:22), the latter saying, "Vour 
 own husbands — those especially yours, whom 
 feeling, therefore, as well as duty, must 
 prompt you to obey. Compare 1 Pet. 3: 1. 
 The pronominal adjective i&ioi.<; {'' your own' ) is 
 clearly more than a possessive pronoun (De 
 Wette), or, what is virtuallj' the same, than a 
 formal designation of the husband. ... It 
 seems rather both here, and in 1 Pet. 3: 1, to 
 retain its proper force, and imply, by a latent 
 antithesis, the legiti-)nacy (compare John 4: 
 18), exclusiveness (1 Cor. 7: 2), and specialty 
 (1 Cor. 14:35) of the Connection. ... It may 
 .still be remarked that the use of I'SiW in 
 later writers is such as to make us cautious 
 how far in all cases in the New Testament 
 (see Matt. 22: 5; John 1: 42), we press the 
 usual meaning." It is not the classic way of 
 expressing the possessive and reflexive sense, 
 but it is the way of the New Testament 
 writers. 
 
56 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 20. The New Testament of the Bible Union, 
 the Common Version, and the Kevised Ver- 
 sion, transhite the words rehitive to preaching 
 to the spirits in prison in essentially the same 
 way. They all use a relative pronoun and a 
 verb: Which {who) were disobedient. In the 
 same way are the words translated by per- 
 haps the majority. If this rendering is cor- 
 rect, there is no escape from the conclusion 
 that Christ preached to the sinners of Noah's 
 day two thousand years after they died. If 
 the interpretation, which is now to be contro- 
 verted and rejected is deemed to be necessary 
 (and that is the plea) as a defense of the char- 
 acter of God, it would seem to be the duty of 
 those who take that view to reconcile the 
 hypothesis with the remarkable fact that God 
 permitted those sinners to suffer two thousand 
 years before using any means whatever to 
 bring them to repentance. That two thousand 
 years was a short period compared with eter- 
 nity is not at all to the purpose. If giving 
 them "another chance" was necessary as a 
 vindication of divine goodness, it is impossi- 
 ble to see the justice of postponing the offer so 
 long. 
 
 An examination of the construction, made 
 bj' President S. C. Bartlett, appeared in the 
 " New Englander," October, 1872. The sub- 
 ject is discussed in the " Bibliotheca Sacra," 
 by Prof. Cowles, and in the "Presbyterian 
 Quarterly," by Dr. Nathaniel West. Dr. 
 Bartlett's article was examined, and its main 
 position rejected, by Dr. W. W. Patton, in 
 the "New Englander," July, 1882. To this 
 President Bartlett rejoins in the "Bibliotheca 
 Sacra" for April, 1883. It is important to see 
 the points at issue. Unto the spirits which 
 
 were disobedient (roit nveviiacnv aireifljjtrao-ii'). 
 
 Here is a noun with the article, followed by 
 an aorist participle without the article. It is 
 admitted that if the participle had the article, 
 it could properly be translated with a relative 
 pronoun and verb. Then antecedency of time 
 would not be expressed, and Christ might 
 have preached long after the disobedience. 
 As the participle has no article, it cannot 
 properly be translated who were disobedient. 
 That the aorist participle without the article 
 should be tran.slated in some other way than 
 by using the relative pronoun and the verb, is 
 clear from the teachings of grammarians and 
 from usage. 
 
 I. The grammarians are agreed in recog- 
 nizing the aorist participle when connected 
 with a verb as expressing what occurred before 
 the action of the main verb, as Winer, Butt- 
 mann, Kuhner, Goodwin, and many others. 
 The grammarians more or less distinctly rec- 
 ognize also the difference between the aorist 
 participle with the article and the aorist 
 participle without the article. With much 
 unanimity they teach, that with the article 
 the participle is attributive — attributes some 
 quality; and without the article \?, predicative 
 — predicates or affirms something; and in the 
 latter case, whatever else may be included, 
 expresses antecedency of time. 
 
 II. Usage is very clear in support of these 
 distinctions, and this must be the last ground 
 of appeal. President Bartlett cites chiefly 
 from Matthew. We may notice the usage in 
 the Acts. ''''When they had fasted," having 
 fasted (13:3) (aorist). "'When Paul and his 
 companions loosed they came"; or, as in the 
 Revised Version: "Paul and his company 
 set sail and came"; ^''Having put to sea they 
 came." (i3:i3.) (Hackett.) In both cases the 
 aorist was required, because the act preceded 
 the act of the verb. Either of the three ways 
 of rendering in the hist instance expresses 
 antecedency. "David, having served, after 
 he had served, fell asleep." (i3:36.) "The 
 apostles, having heard, having sent, they ran 
 in." (u:u.) The hearing and the sending tooli 
 place before the running (aorist therefore). 
 "Whom ye slew and hanged." (5:30.) Over- 
 looking the aorist of the participle, the Com- 
 mon Version makes the Jews first to have 
 slain Jesus, and then to have hanged him on 
 a tree! Whom ye slew, having hanged him, 
 or more freely, by hanging him. Many more 
 cases could be cited from the Acts. This 
 usage pervades the New Testament. Presi- 
 dent Bartlett has "counted more than a hun- 
 dred in the first sixteen chapters of Matthew, 
 all denoting preliminary action." Winer 
 (§20,1) cites 1 Pet. 5: 10: "Peculiarly instruct- 
 ive," he says, "respecting the use and the 
 omission of the articles with participles": 
 "But the God of all grace, ^vho hath called 
 us, after that ye have suffered awhile." Here 
 are both forms, a participle with the article 
 [attributive), and therefore properly trans- 
 lated by means of a pronoun and a verb {who 
 hath called) ; and a participle without the 
 
Ch. IV.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 57 
 
 F 
 
 ORASMUCII then as Christ hath suffered for us in 
 the flesh, arm yourselves liliewise with the saiue 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Forasmuch then as Christ suIFered in the flesh, 
 
 article, and therefore correctly translated not 
 witli the pronoun but with some sign of time, 
 as when or after. Were tlie three English 
 Versions, already mentioned, as regardless of 
 Greek usage here as they are in the verses be- 
 fore us, they would say, not after that ye have 
 suffered, but who have suffered. Then we 
 should have, who called us who suffered. But 
 the apostle praj's that the readers may be 
 perfected, stablished, and strengthened, after 
 they have escaped; hence theaorist participle 
 without the article. The usage of the Greek- 
 language, then, as appears from these and 
 very many other instances which might be 
 cited, shows that the translation, unto the 
 spirits which were disobedient, cannot be sus- 
 tained. The Greek should be rendered in 
 such a way as to show that the act expressed 
 by the participle occurred before and at the 
 time of the preaching, thus: He preached 
 unto the spirits when formerly they were dis- 
 ohedient ; or, "on their being once upon a 
 time disobedient." The participle te'ls us 
 tohen Christ did the preaching — when the sin- 
 nitig was done, not thousands of years after- 
 ward. See additional confirmation of this 
 view in a note in Smith's "Dictionary of the 
 Bible," p. 2786, American edition, by Prof. 
 Thayer. 
 
 "Probably," saj's President Bartlett, "the 
 Vulgate ^or, rather, Itala) is largely respon- 
 sible for the acceptance of the common ren- 
 dering; and it was facilitated by the doctrine 
 of the descent into hades, which, at a later 
 period, found its way into the 'Apostles' 
 Creed,' and thus into the 'Articles of the 
 Church of England,' the Lutheran 'Formula 
 of Confession,' and even into Calvin's 'Insti- 
 tutes.' The theological bias of Christendom 
 has favored the erroneous rendering." It is 
 deeply to be regretted that the doctrine of 
 Christ's "Descent to Hell" should still be 
 taught as a doctrine of Scripture. See Huther, 
 Fronmiiller, with an Excursus by Dr. Mom- 
 bert in the English translation, Farrar in 
 "Early Days of Christianity," and many 
 others. Farrar, with no examination, in the 
 work cited, of the Greek construction, pro- 
 nounces the doctrine of Christ's "Descent 
 
 into Hades" ("Descent into JYeW," three pages 
 furtlier on) as "inestimably precious," and 
 complains of "the torturing of the passage 
 and of the human perversity expended upon 
 it." It is in support of the dogma of a second 
 probation — that is, a probation after death— 
 that fresh interest in the passage has recently 
 been awakened in certain quarters in our own 
 country ; but, if the Greek bears the interpre- 
 tation here most heartily accepted, that doc- 
 trine finds no countenance in this part of our 
 Epistle. If there are any sinners to whom 
 God grants a second probation, they are not 
 such sinners as the contemporaries of Noah. 
 These were giants in wickedness. They had 
 light enough to make their guilt of awful dye. 
 They were among the last persons to whom 
 Peter would represent God as granting an- 
 other probation; for mark carefully what he 
 says in his Second Epistle. (2:5); '^ God spared 
 not the old world, but saved (preserved) 
 Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of right- 
 eousness, bringing in the flood upon the world 
 of the ungodly." See also what Christ himself 
 says in Matt. 24: 38, 39. 
 
 In religion, 
 What damned error, but some sober brow 
 Will bless it, and approve it with a text 
 Hiding the grossness with ornament. 
 
 Ch. 4 : 1-6. Second Series of Exhorta- 
 tions {continued). 
 
 The exhortations arising from the relation 
 of the Christians to persecutors are continued. 
 Ver. 1 has general connection with the entire 
 section (3= 18-22), hut is closelj' related to ver. 
 18. 
 
 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suf- 
 fered — Christ, then, having suffered, is more 
 literal. "We have already been reminded b^' 
 similar allusions, that Peter once repelled the 
 thought that his Lord was to suffer, saying, 
 "This shall not be unto thee." (Matt. 16: 22.) 
 Four times since the opening of the Epistle 
 has he given special prominence to the fact. 
 (1:11; 2: 21; 3: 18; 4:1.) He had bccn instructed 
 
 (Matt.l6:21; Luke9:3l), but his SCl f-COnfidcUCe 
 
 was strong ; and, besides, he held the opinion, 
 then prevalent, that the Messiah, whenever he 
 
58 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IV. 
 
 mind : for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased 
 Irom sin ; 
 
 2 Tliat lie no longer should live the rest of his time 
 in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 
 
 3 For the time past of our life may sutiice us to have 
 wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in 
 lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquel- 
 iugs, and abominable idolatries: 
 
 arm ye yourselves slso with the same i mind ; for he 
 that halh sutfered in the flesh hath ceased '■'from 
 
 2 sin ; thai 3 ye no longer should live the rest of your 
 time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will 
 
 3 of God. For the time past may suflice to have 
 wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to have 
 walked in lasciviousness, lusts, winebibbings, revel- 
 
 4 lings, carousings, and abominable idolatries: where- 
 
 1 Or, thought 2 Some ancieut »utaorlties read unto <m< 3 Or, he no longer . . . his time. 
 
 might come, was not to die. His present con- 
 victions respecting the necessity of Christ's 
 sutierings are as strong as Paul's. In the 
 flesh — as to the flesh, in that state. Christ's 
 death is included in the suttering. Arm your- 
 selves likewise — do ye also arm yourselves. 
 As ships and chariots were equipped for bat- 
 tle, so they also as well as Christ are to be 
 morally furnished. The same mind — same 
 thought or disjyosition. Christ had the dispo- 
 sition to suifer, and they must be equipped 
 with the same. The disposition will be as 
 armor in which to meet their persecutors. He 
 who has no mind to suifer, who assumes that 
 suffering is unnecessary, that so far as it 
 s]3rings from man it is even unjust, is like an 
 unarmed man on the field of battle. Not 
 seeking suff"ering as merit, but calmly awaiting 
 it, is imitation of Christ! For he that . . . 
 from sin has the nature of a parenthesis. It 
 is to be referred, not to Christ, but to the Chris- 
 tian. He who with conscious reference to 
 Christ's disposition to suffer, has himself suf- 
 fered in the flesh, has been madeto cease from 
 sin (sins, Wescott and Hort), has been trans- 
 ferred from sin to holiness. Through suffering, 
 sin has ceased to rule over him. [Does not 
 the expression "sufl^ered in the flesh " (o naiiiv 
 (Tapxi) refer to death ? The suflTering of Christ 
 just referred to was a suffering of death. The 
 clause may be regarded as parenthetic. — A. H.] 
 For us (virep T)iaiv) is to be rejected. Hath 
 ceased (rrevavTai) may be taken in the passive 
 sense: he has rest from sin, is preserved from 
 sin. 
 
 2. That. Connect with 'arm yourselves.' 
 The third person singular (he) is no reason 
 whj' the clause may not be connected with 
 one containing a word in the second person 
 plural, for in the Greek there is no pronoun 
 whatever. It may therefore be rendered as 
 in Kevised Version: That ye may no longer 
 . . . your time. It assigns the end of the 
 arming. The rest — an impressive hint that 
 a part of their earthh' life has gone beyond 
 
 their control. In the flesh. It marks them 
 as still being in this life. It is not used, as 
 Paul often uses it, in the sense of depraved 
 nature. To the lusts— according to, and 
 lusts of the grosser kind, (ver.3, 4.) To the 
 will — according to. How opposite these rules 
 of life! so opposite that the former is not a 
 rule; sin is defiance of all rule. Compare 
 Eph. 2:12; Gal. 5:17; Kom. 6: 20. Tlie 
 obligation to live 'according to the will of 
 God,' presupposes that will to be righteous. 
 The contrast between men and God is as great 
 as between lust and infinite purity. No longer 
 holds a very emphatic position. 
 
 3. May suflice — a striking way of hint- 
 ing that their former mode of life ought not 
 to have existed at all, but it is also a rhe- 
 torical softening of the description. Us. 
 This seems to class the writer himself with 
 the others; but (1) it need not be supposed 
 that all the readers, much less Peter, had 
 been addicted to tliese different kinds of vice, 
 and (2) the Greek for us is rejected as of little 
 authority'. Will {desire) of the Gentiles — 
 a proof, say some, especially as they had been 
 guiltj' of idolatry, from which the Jews had 
 certainly become free, that the readers were 
 Gentiles. It may be sufficient evidence that 
 some of the readers were Gentiles, as other 
 expressions are proof that some of them were 
 Jews. 'The will of the Gentiles' and 'the 
 will of God' — thoroughly antagonistic, and 
 this fact is the foundation of missions. Walked 
 —customary. Lasciviousness. The Greek 
 of all the nouns is plural, which, perhaps, 
 indicates the variety of the forms of evil. 
 Excess of wine. The correct rendering is 
 simply vrine-drinkings, or, as in the Revised 
 Version, wine-bibbings. Revellings, ban> 
 quetings — carousings, riotings after supper, 
 "the guests often sallying into the streets 
 with torches, music, frolic, and songs in honor 
 especially of Bacchus." Abominable idol- 
 atries—unlawful idol-worship, including the 
 terrible immorjility connected with it. It 
 
Ch. IV.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 59 
 
 4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not 
 with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of 
 you : 
 
 5 Who shall give account to him that is ready to 
 judge the quick and the dead. 
 
 in they think it strange that ye run not with (hem 
 into the same i excess of ri(jt, speaking evil of you: 
 
 5 who shall give account to liim that is ready to judge 
 
 6 the quick and the dead. For unto this end 2 was the 
 
 1 Or, Jlood, 2 Or, were thegood tidings preached. 
 
 was unlawful, for it was contrary to the will 
 of God. Compare this description with that 
 of Paul. (Rom. 1 : 19-32.) Peter and Paul failed to 
 make the discovery made by the sharp eyes 
 of some modern religionists, that there is about 
 as much truth at the bottom of idolatry as in 
 Christianity. See Critical Notes. 
 
 4. Wherein. The original, being in the 
 singular, it is difficult to refer this to the 
 various vices with which it stands in such 
 close relation. Some refer it to ' suffice '(ver. 3), 
 and would express the meaning thus: They 
 think it strange that it suffices you to have 
 wrought the will of the Gentiles. Some refer 
 it to what follows: That ye run not with 
 them, etc. It may be referred to what pre- 
 cedes, taken as a whole, yet the prominent 
 thought is that the unconverted Gentiles 
 think strange, are surpri-sed (the surprise 
 manifesting itself in slander) at the change 
 from such habits of wickedness to their pre- 
 sent mode of life. The text gives a graphic 
 description of the torrent-like excitability of 
 men who are borne by their passions into 
 evil. To the same— i?i^o the same. Excess 
 {flood) of riot — outpouring of debauchery'. 
 It is a metaphor of great strength. The form 
 of expression was doubtless drawn from what 
 was observed in the rushing of flood- waters 
 into excavations of the land. Their wicked 
 neighbors and townsmen were amazed that 
 they did not still rush with them into the 
 outpourings or overflowings of debauchery. 
 They slandered them for it. These are not 
 the sins in which most Christians of modern 
 times indulged before their conversion, and 
 therefore they are not the sins into which they 
 are in greatest danger of running with the 
 ungodly. Running with the world is possible 
 without running with it into the grosser evils. 
 The more velvety forms of social sin are now, 
 in Christian countries, the more dangerous. 
 The life of God in the soul of man includes 
 morality; but moralitj', and that of a high 
 order, is possible without life. 
 
 5. Give account. An account (see on 3: 
 16) was sometimes demanded of Christians by 
 
 men of the world, even by opposers; but 
 these shall give account to Christ. A solemn 
 sight will It be when all who rejected Christ 
 and slandered his people are standing before 
 the Judge, and are required to make a report 
 of their manner of life and of their reasons for 
 pursuing it. Matt. 12: 36. Compare Heb. 
 13: 17. To him. Christ is to be the Judge. 
 (Acts 10 : 42 ; 2 Tim. 4: 1.) Sometimes he is said to 
 be the Being through whom God will judge. 
 (Acts 17: 31.) The quick and the dead — those 
 who are alive and those who are dead. Of 
 course, it includes those who may be alive at 
 Christ's second coming and all who may have 
 died. Thus are meant all human beings 
 whatsoever. Ready. Some explain this word 
 by "the end of all things is at hand" (ver. 7), 
 as if the readiness consisted in being about to 
 do it, which is a good explanation on condi- 
 tion that the latter words are evidence that 
 Peter was expecting the coming of Christ to 
 be very near. But even without such ref- 
 erence the words are solemnly significant. 
 Jesus Christ is ready \>y personal qualification 
 to ascend the tribunal at any moment when 
 the purposes of God relative to the salvation 
 of men shall have been accomplished. 
 
 Heaven is above all yet ; there sits a judge 
 That no king can corrupt. 
 
 6. It is sufficiently surprising that the 
 Roman Catholic Church should here, as in 3: 
 19, 20, find purgatory, but it is more surpris- 
 ing that as there so here even some Protestant 
 scholars should as easily find "Christ's De- 
 scent to Hell." Recently men of rationalistic 
 and men of "broad church" views have been 
 fired anew in support of the latter interpreta- 
 tion. If this passage teaches the doctrine of a 
 second probation, the Descent to Universalism 
 would seem to be less difficult. Their inter- 
 pretation proceeds upon two unproved as- 
 sumptions: 1. That God has no right to 
 punish men who have never heard the gospel. 
 But see Rom. 1 : 19, 20. 2. That even those 
 who may have heard and rejected, ought to 
 have "another chance." Two more prelimi- 
 
60 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IV. 
 
 6 For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to 
 them that are dead, that they might be judged accord- 
 ing to men in the flesh, but live according to God in 
 the spirit. ^ 
 
 gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be 
 judged according to men in the flesh, but live ac- 
 cording to Uod in the spirit. 
 
 nary remarks may be made: 1. That even 
 if it were impossible, as perhaps it is, to arrive 
 at entirely satisfactory results, it is certainly 
 impossible to obtain from the text, by any 
 process of interpretation which will not put it 
 into contradiction to the teachings of Christ, 
 and to otherteachingsof the apostles, the doc- 
 trine that Christ descended to hades to give 
 the lost "another chance" to be saved. 2. 
 The advocates of the "Descent" are utterly 
 and hopelessly at variance among themselves 
 relative to the object for which the "Descent" 
 was made; whether to preach to the antedi- 
 luvians who perished in the flood impenitent, 
 or to those who perished repenting at the last 
 moment; whether to all sinners of the ancient 
 world, or to Old Testaments saints; and 
 whether the object was to preach the gospel, 
 or to preach condemnation. 
 
 For. It gives the verse a particular con- 
 nection with 'to judge the quick and the 
 dead,' and a general connection with the en- 
 tire section beginning at ver. 1. There the 
 exhortation is, to arm themselves with the 
 same mind that Christ had — namely, the mind 
 to suffer— a thought which lies with great 
 weight upon the heart of the writer; for he 
 knows that they have already sufl'ered, and 
 evidently believes that yet greater sufferings 
 await them. In this verse he continues to en- 
 courage them. For this canse^for to this 
 end. The end is introduced by 'i/irtl' Also — to 
 those who are dead as well as to those who are 
 still living. Some translate by even ; preached 
 eveti to them who are now dead. Them that 
 are dead — more briefly and exactly, to the 
 dead. The chief question here is. Who are 
 meant by the dead ? The dead spiritually? or 
 the dead physically? The latter is clearly 
 the meaning in the closing word of the pre- 
 vious verse, and this may lead us to presume 
 that is the meaning here. But not all the 
 dead are meant, for to many of the dead the 
 gospel had never been preached. The refer- 
 ence is to dead believers. That, etc. All 
 that follows, to the close of the verse, ex- 
 presses the end for which the gospel was 
 preached to those notv dead; namely, that 
 they might be judged, etc. But how could 
 
 the gospel have been preached to them for 
 such an end ? The pertinency of the state- 
 ment in the last clause is easily seen, but not 
 the pertinency of what is said here. The difii- 
 culty may be removed by supposing that 
 the sign used to express the end (that), passes 
 over the former of the two clauses and con- 
 nects itself only with the latter. Upon that 
 view the meaning may be given thus: that 
 though they might be judged according 
 to men in the fiesii, yet, etc. In support of 
 this view maybe adduced Kom. 6: 17: "But 
 God be thanked that ye were (that having once 
 been) the servants of sin, ye have obej'ed," etc. 
 But in what sense might these now deceased 
 Christians have been judged according to men 
 in the flesh ? Two different answers have 
 been given : 1. Their death may be called a 
 judgment or condemnation, since death comes 
 upon all men. Christians not excepted, as 
 condemnation for sin. 2. They may have 
 been judicially condeinned to death — martyrs. 
 Though they may have been judged in the 
 one way or in the other, yet the gospel was 
 preached to them that they might live accord- 
 ing to God in the spirit. According to men 
 — after the manner of men. Thus the readers 
 may be encouraged to bear up under their 
 sufferings by the consideration that those who 
 have already died, whether unjustly con- 
 demned by the judicial power, or adjudged 
 to the death of the body in the ordinary course 
 of nature — that they live in . . the spirit. 
 The life was eternal ; it was the life of the 
 spirit; it was a divine life, for it was accord- 
 ing to God ; s.nd the gospel was preached 
 to them that that very end might be accom- 
 plished. The writer is far from confident that 
 this interpretation of the most difficult passage 
 in the Epistle is correct. He is not satisfied 
 with any interpretation which he has seen ; 
 but, as it would conflict with a great multi- 
 tude of passages, he is utterly unable to accept 
 the explanation that the apostle teaches a 
 second probation. 
 
 Ch. 4: 7-5: 9. Third Series of Ex- 
 hortations. 
 This series pertains to their general church 
 
Ch. IV.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 61 
 
 7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye there- 
 fore sober, and watch unto prayer. 
 
 7 But the end of all things is at hand : be ye there- 
 
 life. It is pervaded with deep solemnity, 
 being tinged with thoughts in reference to the 
 end of all things {ver. 7), the second coming 
 of Christ (5: •4), and the judgment, (ver. n, is.) 
 
 7. First Exhortation. But does not 
 contrast what follows with what precedes; it 
 is rather an index to another line of thought. 
 The verse contains a proposition and an ex- 
 hortation ; the exhortation being clothed in 
 the form of an inference. To the proposition 
 is given the prominent place, though, in tact, 
 the exhortation is the main thing. The end 
 of all things. See on 'the last time ' (i:5); 
 on the appearing of Jesus Christ (•:'); and 
 also on 'the revelation of Jesus Christ' (i: is). 
 The words before us can not possibly be referred 
 to the time of each man's death. To what can 
 they refer but to the supposed coming of 
 Christ? Is at hand — more exactly, has come 
 near. But in what sense do Peter and Paul 
 and other apostles teach that the end of ail 
 things has come near? One view, which, 
 perhaps, is the correct one, has been lucidly 
 expressed by Hackett on Acts 3: 20. The 
 importance of the subject will justify the 
 quoting of almost the entire passage : " Nearly 
 all critics understand this passage as referring 
 to the return of Ciirist at the end of the world. 
 The similarity of the language to that of 
 other passages which announce that event 
 demands this interpretation. The apostle en- 
 forces his exhortation to repent, by an appeal 
 to the final coming of Christ, not because he 
 would represent it as near in point of time, 
 but because that event was always near to the 
 feelings and consciousness of the first be- 
 lievers. It was the great consummation on 
 which the strongest desires of their souls were 
 fixed, to which their thoughts and hopes were 
 habitually turned. They lived with reference 
 to this event. They labored to be prepared 
 for it. They were constantly, in the express- 
 ive language of Peter, looking for and (in 
 their impatience as it were) hastening the arri- 
 val of the day of Ood. (2Pet.3: 12.) It is then 
 that Christ will reveal himself in glory, will 
 come "taking vengeance on them that know 
 not the gospel," and "admired in all them 
 that believe" (iThesa. i: 8,10), will raise the dead 
 (John 5: 28, 29), invest the redeemed with an incor- 
 ruptible body (Phii.3:2i), and introduce them 
 
 for the first time, and forever, into the state 
 of perfect holiness and happiness prepared for 
 them in his kingdom. Theapostles, as well as 
 the first Christians in general, comprehended 
 the grandeur of that occasion. It filled their 
 circle of view, stood forth to their contem- 
 plations as the point of culminating interest 
 in their own and the world's history; threw 
 into comparative insignificance the present 
 time, death, all intermediate events ; and made 
 them feel that the manifestation of Christ, 
 with its consequences of indescribable moment 
 to all true believers, was the grand object 
 which they were to keep in view as the end 
 of their toils, the commencement and per- 
 fection of their glorious immortality. In such 
 a state of intimate sympathy with an event so 
 habitually present to their thoughts, they de- 
 rived, and must have derived, their chief 
 incentives to action from the prospect of that 
 future glory. As we should exi)ect, they hold 
 it up to the people of God to encourage them 
 in afiliction, to awaken them to fidelity, zeal, 
 perseverance, and, on the other hand, appeal 
 to it to warn the wicked and impress upon 
 them the necessity of preparation for the 
 revelation of the final day. For examples of 
 this habit the reader may see Acts 17 : 30, 31 ; 1 
 Tim. 6: 13, seq.; 2Tim. 4: 8; Titus2: 11, seq.; 2 
 Pet. 3 : 11, seq., etc. Some have ascribed the 
 frequency of such passages in the New Testa- 
 ment to a definite expectation on the part of 
 the apostles, that the personal advent of Christ 
 was nigh at hand ; but such a view is not only 
 unnecessary, in order to account for such ref- 
 erences to the day of the Lord, but at variance 
 with 2 Thess. 2 : 2. The Apostle Paul declares 
 there, that the expectation in question was 
 unfounded, and that he himself did not enter- 
 tain it or teach it to others. But while he 
 corrects the opinion of those at Thessalonica, 
 who imagined that the return of Christ was 
 then near, neither he nor any other inspired 
 writer has informed us how remote that event 
 may be, or when it will take place." 
 
 [It is doubted by many whethtir Dr. Hack- 
 ett's view of 2 Thess. 2: 2 is correct, though it 
 is still defended \>y able scholars. Thus, the 
 Revi.sed Version by the Bible Union trans- 
 lates (viiTTriKtv^ is at hand; the Revised Eng- 
 lish Bible, were close at hand; Prof. Noyes, 
 
62 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IV. 
 
 8 And above all things have fervent charity among I fore of sound mind, and be sober unto ipraver: 
 yourselves: for charily shall cover the multitude of 8 above all things being fervent in your love aniong 
 s'ns- I yourselves ; for love covereth a multitude of sins : 
 
 1 Gr. prayers. 
 
 were close at hand. But Alford translates the 
 word, is come; Ellicott, is now come. With 
 the former agree Robinson in his Lexicon 
 (s. V. iviuTTiiiL) and Grimm, "Lexicon Graeco- 
 Latinum in Libros N. T." In favor of the 
 view assumed by Dr. Hackett to be correct 
 is the consideration that, according to 1 Thess. 
 4: 16, the advent of tlie Lord was to be in 
 visible glory, and the Thessalonians could 
 scarcely have supposed that he had thus come 
 already. Or, if they had adopted so erroneous 
 a view, it would have been most effectual ly 
 refuted by assuring them that Christ's Pres- 
 ence was to be a visible one at his coming. — 
 A. H.] 
 
 Be ye therefore sober. In view of the 
 end be sober, of sound mind. It is opposed 
 to erratic, insane views of things. Control 
 yourselves in the use of the appetites and 
 passions. Watch. See on the word sober 
 (5:13), where the original is the same as here. 
 Unto prayer — unto prayers. 'Praj'er' is to 
 be connected with 'be sober' as well as with 
 'watch'; be sober unto prayers as well as 
 watch unto prayers. 'Unto' indicates the ewe? 
 of the soberness and watchfulness; namely, 
 'prayers'; that is, they are to be in such a 
 state of mind that the spirit of prayer shall be 
 kept alive and be strengthened. The plural 
 is no evidence of allusion to public written 
 prayers. Compare Eph. 6: 18; Matt. 26: 41. 
 Praying may precede watching, as watching 
 may precede praying. The two cannot well 
 be separated. Had Oliver Cromwell's army 
 done all the pra^'ing which it is reported to 
 have done, without any watching, its victories 
 had been ignominious defeats. Yet watching 
 without praying is almost sure to lead into 
 some tempestuous Euroclydon. (Acts27:i4.) 
 Had Peter watched, not all the demons of 
 perdition would have been able to make him 
 deny Christ; had he prayed more, he would 
 have watched more, and so would have re- 
 mained steadfast. His exhortation was indeed 
 prompted by an impressive view of Christ's 
 second coming, yet his own sad fall must have 
 made him conscious of a stronger impulse to 
 give it. 
 
 8. Skcond Exhortation. It is more 
 
 closely related to that of ver. 7 than it appears 
 to be. Be sober and watch ; have, rather, 
 having fervent charity. In connection ivith 
 sobriety and watchfulness have charity ilove). 
 And is to be rejected from the text. Above 
 all things. But the love which is here set 
 so high is mutual love, love to God not being 
 mentioned. Love to one another is put not 
 above love to God, but above all the duties 
 which they owe to each other. Without mu- 
 tual love, the churches of which they were 
 members would be disintegrated or petrified. 
 In either case, all other duties toward one 
 another would go undone. The love must 
 not be merely negative, only saving them 
 from biting and devouring one another (Gai5: 
 ", 15), but it must be ' fervent ' {intense). See 
 on 'fervently,' 1: 22. Compare 1 Cor. 13: 
 4-7; 14: 1. Such love should be cultivated. 
 The true construction is : Above all things 
 having your love toward one another intense. 
 They are not exhorted to love, but to love 
 with intensity. For charity shall cover 
 (covereth) the (rather, a) multitude of 
 sins ; a reason given, enforcing the duty. 
 Proverbs 10: 12, is: "Hatred stirreth up 
 strifes; but love covereth all sins." The latter 
 half is to be understood in the light of the 
 former half, for they are in contrast. Hatred 
 produces and inflames strife; love neither 
 inflames nor produces sin ; more than this, 
 which is only negative, it keeps down sin, 
 prevents it from rising; or, if it is rising, 
 quenches it as a garment may smother an 
 outbursting flame. Such being the meaning 
 of the passage in Proverbs, this must be sub- 
 stantially the meaning here. 'A multitude.' 
 One virtue may be more than a match for 
 many sins, not in itself, but as nourished by 
 the life of God, as, in the strictest sense, orig- 
 inating in that life. It is sin in another which 
 is meant. Some Roman Catholic expositors 
 deny this, and the denial is believed by some 
 to be the natural offspring of extravagant 
 views relative to personal merit. Sinners 
 need mercy, since they have no merit. Per- 
 haps the latter half expresses forgiveness of 
 sin committed ; or, it may express the effect 
 of love in preventing the committal. Peter 
 
Ch. IV] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 63 
 
 9 Use hospitality <:ne to another without grudging. 
 
 10 As every mau hath received the gilt, eren xu min- 
 ister tlie same one to another, as good stewards of the 
 manifold grace of God. 
 
 11 If any man speak, lei him, speak as the oracles of 
 God; if any man mini ter, lei him do il as of the abil- 
 
 9 using hospitality one to another without murmur- 
 
 10 ing: according as each hath received a gift, min- 
 istering it among yourselves, as good stewards of 
 
 11 the manifold grace of God; if any mau speaketh, 
 speaking as it were oracles of God; if any man min- 
 istereth, minislering as of the strength which God 
 
 learned this precious truth from his Lord. 
 See Matt. 18: 21, 22. He had asked how 
 often he ought to forgive an ofl'ending bro- 
 ther, and probably thought he put the number 
 high when he asked, "till seven times"? 
 "Seventy times seven," was the Lord's reply. 
 So Peter, well qualified to say it, tells his 
 readers that love covereth a multitude of sins. 
 
 9. One of the ynanifestations of the love en- 
 joined in ver. 8. One to another. It should 
 be kept in mind that the Epistle is directed to 
 many, and these scattered in different prov- 
 inces. (1-1-) It follows that opportunities for 
 showing hospitality would not be few. Hos- 
 pitality is sometimes shown by savages, but is 
 purest and most constant where Christianity 
 exerts its strongest influence, whether in the 
 city or in the country. Compare Kom. 12: 13; 
 Heb. 13: 2; 3 John 5; 1 Tim. 3: 2; 5: 10. See 
 a singular illustration of inhospitableness in 
 Diotrephes. (3John9, lo.) Jesus extolled the 
 virtue in Peter's hearing (Matt. 25: 35,36), but 
 condemned selfish forms of it. (Lukeu:i2-u.) 
 "Wisdom is necessary lest hospitality be with- 
 held from the worthy and conferred upon the 
 worthless. Without grudging. To grudge 
 was formerly to ymcrrnur openly,, but it now 
 means what it was beginning to mean even 
 when the Common Version was made (Trench, 
 Authorized Version),, to repine inwardly. The 
 Revised Version renders, murmuring. The 
 Greek seems to be used in one case (John 7: 12, 
 compare 13) to express "whispering, low and 
 suppressed discourse." (Robinson.) If given 
 at all, hospitality should be given with cheer- 
 fulness. It is possible to give it with hypocrit- 
 ical cheerfulness, in comparison with which it 
 would be better to imitate certain Samaritan 
 villagers. (Luke 9: 53.) Of the two, he who 
 gives hospitality and murmurs when the guest 
 has gone that he came, and he who refuses to 
 give it to one who needs it, the former would 
 seem the more richly to deserve the fire. 
 (Luke 9: 54.) But it is difficult to know his state 
 of mind before commanding the fire to de- 
 scend; so false are his words and face. 
 
 10. Anf)'iher manifestation of love. The 
 gift — a gift. In the times of the early Church, 
 
 miraculous endowments were conferred at 
 baptism, and these were charismata (gifts). 
 See Rom. 12: 6-8; 1 Cor. 12: 4, 28. But the 
 apostle may also refer to natural endowments 
 and the usual endowments of grace. What 
 ever gift any Christian has should be used, 
 not merely or chiefly for his own advantage, 
 but for the good of others. The entire church 
 should have the benefit of it. He should 
 'minister' it, should employ it in the service 
 of others ; should not deem it beneath him to 
 do so. Even so is an unnecessary insertion. 
 As good stewards— as is fitting men who do 
 not possess the gifts in their own right. They 
 are but stewards; they hold the gifts in 
 accountability to him who is the Lord of 
 stewards — God. The Christian who has an 
 impressive view of this cardinal fact, and acts 
 accordingly in all his church relations, is 
 probably as near perfection as he will ever be 
 in this life. The grace is manifold — various, 
 many-colored, because of the variety of the 
 gifts which grace confers. 
 
 11. Two kinds of gifts are specified, .^peak- 
 ing and ministering. If any man speak. 
 Speaking in the church, to which alone is the 
 reference, was either in the form of prophesy- 
 ing, or teaching, or exhorting. (Rem. 12: e-s.) 
 As the oracles of God. What he speaks he 
 must speak, not as if it were woven out of 
 himself, but as communications from God, 
 drawn either from the Old Covenant or from 
 the New. [Does not Aoyia eeoO (oracles of God) 
 taken in connection with xap'o^Ma (gift, ver. 10) 
 point to i//.5;n>^(j? communications, uttered by 
 one who has the gift of prophecy, rather than 
 to communications taken from inspired 
 sources? — A. H.] Let him speak as. The 
 words supplied 'let him speak,' are connected 
 by some with 'minister' in ver. 10, which will 
 be made clear by supplyingJwiwj.si'^Hn^r, thus — 
 as ministering the oracles. Whatever the 
 gift, he must minister it for the good of others. 
 But it is better to supply, as in the Common 
 Version and the Revision, 'let him s])eak,' or, 
 speaking. If any man has the gift of speak- 
 ing, that he must minister. If any man 
 minister ... as of the ability, etc.— that 
 
64 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IV. 
 
 ity which God giveth; that God in all things may be 
 glorified through Jesus Christ: to whom bu praise and 
 aomiriion lor ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery 
 trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing 
 happened unto you: 
 
 i:j Hut rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
 Christ's suri'erings; that, when his glory shall be re- 
 vealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 
 
 supplieth: that in all things God will be glorified 
 through Jesus ( hrist, whose is the glory and the 
 dominion • for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 12 Ueloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery 
 trial among yon, which cometh upon you to prove 
 you, as though a strange thing happened unto you: 
 
 13 but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's suf- 
 ferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory 
 
 14 also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy. If ye are 
 
 1 Or. unto the agei of the age: 
 
 is, as ministering of, out of, the strength, etc. 
 It is evident that 'minister' is here used in a 
 narrower sense than in ver. 10. This specific 
 ministering consisted probably for the most 
 part of relieving the poor, the sicl\, and the 
 aged. Wliatever service is done must be done 
 in conscious acknowledgment of the fact that 
 it is done, and all the good which inay result 
 froin it, in strength given from above— an 
 exliortatioii always needed, so prone is religi- 
 ous activity to forget its divine origin. That 
 the end declared ; natnely — that God, not 
 themselves, may have the honor of the ability 
 and success. Through Jesus Christ— since 
 Christ is the Mediator through whom God 
 ministers strength. To whom — to God, is on 
 the whole the more probable, since God stands 
 as the subject in the preceding clause. (Hu- 
 ther. ) Forever and ever — one among the 
 many instances in which the words express 
 unending duration. Amen — as an adjective, 
 true, faithful; as an adverb, truly, verily. 
 It was sometimes used as a response, (icor.u: is.) 
 At the close of doxologies, it means as here, 
 so be it. Thus, even before the approaching 
 end of the Epistle (5: n), the ajtostle hastens to 
 give utterance to his overflowing spirit of 
 praise in a sublime doxology. He praise 
 (gloryl and dominion — whose is the glory 
 and the dominion. It is not the expression of 
 a wish ; it is a declaration. See on 1 : 3. The 
 article is never used either in classic or New 
 Testament Greek by chance : it always means 
 something. Here it hints that praise and 
 dominion rightfully belong to God ; the glory 
 and the dominion which are his due. 
 
 12. Third Exhoktation, growing out of 
 their relation to persecutors. With the re- 
 lated thoughts it extends to the end of the 
 chapter. Beloved. See on 2: 11. Think 
 it not strange, etc. — be not surprised at. 
 The fiery tri.il — literally, burning, applied 
 figuratively to trial, calamity, here ' fiery 
 trial,'— a "felicitious rendering." Our trans- 
 lators have taken no notice of two words 
 
 which stand before the Greek for ' fiery trial. ' 
 Translating them, we have the fiery trial 
 among you. The trial affected, or threatened 
 to afiect, them all; it was among thetn viewed 
 as a community. The trial may have been in 
 part the beginning of the persecution by Nero, 
 or it may have been the slanders of those 
 among whom they dwelt. (2: 20;3: 9, ib; 4: 4.) 
 Which is to try you. Putting their Chris- 
 tian character to the test for the sake of im- 
 proving it was the end of the fiery trial. That 
 the human activity employed to test them was 
 itself sinful is no evidence that the end was 
 not designed by the Holy One. He who 
 passes through life without sharp trials is 
 more to be pitied than congratulated. Hap- 
 jtened — were befalling you. Be not surprised, 
 for your trials are the fruit of God's purpose. 
 Good men in all ages have been called to suffer, 
 and blessed will be the results. 
 
 13. Rejoice. Kejoice in the fiery trial, 
 which is better than to be surprised at it. 
 They are not merely to "hold still" and let 
 the test work out the intended result, but they 
 are to rejoice. Inasmuch — in proportion as, 
 or, in so far as. It may be arranged thus: So 
 far as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, 
 rejoice. Their enemies would persecute Christ 
 if he were among them, for it is really he who 
 is the object of their hatred; and, therefore, in 
 being persecuted themselves, they are par- 
 takers of Christ's sufferings. See Col. 1: 24. 
 But the chief reference must be to the sufferings 
 which Christ himself bore. Shall be revealed 
 — should be, in the revelation. Also — should 
 be brought in earlier than it is either in the 
 Common Version or the Kevision, thus : that 
 also in the revelation, etc. It puts in contrast 
 the joy which they are to have in the future 
 with the joy which they ought to have now. 
 'The revelation'; to be made at his second 
 coming, and the glory which will eternally fol- 
 low. Compare Matt. 25: 31 ; Col. 3: 4. Glad, 
 etc. Though the same strong word in the origi- 
 nal is applied (i: 6») to their state of mind in 
 
Ch. IV.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 65 
 
 14 If ye be reproached fur the name of Christ, hapj))' 
 are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God restelli upon 
 you; on their part he is evil spokeu uf, but on your 
 part he is glorilied. 
 
 15 But let none of you sutler as a murderer, or ns a 
 thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy-body in other 
 men's matters. 
 
 reproachal ' for the name of Christ, blestied are ye ; 
 
 because tlie Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God 
 1.5 resteth upon you. For let none of you sutler as a 
 
 murderer, or a tliief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler 
 IG in other men's matters: but if a man suffer as a 
 
 this life, yet here it seems to be put in contrast 
 with the weaker term, rendered 'rejoice' 
 They should rejoice now, and doing so, tiiey 
 will rejoice exultingly then. Peter learned 
 long before to do wliat he here exhorts others 
 to do. He is not a mere theorist. A golden 
 experience makes golden utterances. The 
 possibility of rejoicing in trials has had many 
 signal illustrations in the history of the Lord's 
 people, not only in martyrdom, but in sick- 
 ness and povertj'. The writer once had ac- 
 quaintance with a Christian woman who was 
 remarkable for spirituality and for sweetness 
 of disposition under long protracted and pain- 
 ful sickness. In one of his calks, he ventured 
 to ask how she thought she could receive the 
 announcement that she was to lie in such 
 suffering seven years more ? With quiet firm- 
 ness, and with what no one who knew her 
 could doubt was the result of profound self- 
 knowledge, she replied : " It would make no 
 difference to me — ^just as my Saviour chooses." 
 Seven years more of suffering were allotted 
 her — confined to the bed fourteen years — but 
 her spirit continued to the last in the same 
 sweet harmony with the will of God. 
 
 14. A confirmation of ver. 12, 13, by a dis- 
 tinct reference to the reproach (railing), as 
 caused by their relation to Christ. Be re- 
 proached — are reproached. For the name 
 of Christ. The meaning is made clear by 
 Mark 9: 4 (a cup of water to drink in my 
 nam.e, because ye belong to Christ). In our 
 passage the original preposition is the same as 
 in Mark, and instead of for the name might 
 stand in the name. Peter might have added, as 
 Jesus added, the explanatory words, " because 
 ye belong to Christ." Happy — blessed. See 
 on the same word, 3: 14. For {because) — 
 points to the proof that they are blessed. The 
 Spirit of glory— the Holy Spirit; and he is 
 called the Spirit of glory as Christ is called 
 tlie Lord of glory (icor.2:8), and God the 
 Father of glory. (Eph. i:i7.) The glory of 
 the Spirit is seen in his nature and work. 
 Notice the contrast implied in reproach and 
 
 glory. To you belongs reproach ; to the 
 Spirit, glory. On the other hand, the glory 
 of the Spirit becomes yours, resteth upon 
 you. The enemies of Christians are in truth 
 the only ones that have reason to regard them- 
 selves as objects of shame. The Christians 
 could have avoided reproach by continuing 
 with the men of the world, but they would 
 not have gained the abiding glory of the 
 Spirit. And of God. If we translate even 
 instead of 'and,' we make Spirit of God ex- 
 planatory of Spirit of glory. "The Spirit of 
 glory and (consequently) the Spirit of God — 
 the Spirit of glory, which is no other than the 
 Spirit of God himself." Meyer, ^ 20, p. 132. 
 The Revised Version trpnslates with and. 
 The reference is both to the Holy Spirit and 
 to God the Father. The remainder of the 
 verse has little manuscript authority, and is 
 rejected by leading critics. 
 
 15. But— /o7\ Peter introduces the warn- 
 ing with this particle, in order to impress upon 
 his readers the fact that the blessedness can be 
 tiieirs only on condition that sufferings come 
 upon them as Christians. Should they be 
 guilty of murder, or of theft, Or, speaking 
 more generally, of any kind of immorality, 
 and suffer in consequence, that will change 
 the case; no blessedness can be theirs, for the 
 Spirit of glory and of God will not rest upon 
 them. As. The supply of this word before 
 thief and evil doer is unnecessary. It 
 stands before busybody— and this for the 
 purpose of giving that word special promi- 
 nence. 'As,' as being a murderer. But 
 what the apostle means by the Greek, repre- 
 sented by ' busybody,' is not quite clear. Only 
 here is the word found in the New Testament, 
 and in Greek classics it is unknown. Accord- 
 ing to it" etymology it means an overseer of 
 other men's matters; the last part of the com- 
 pound being the very word which is some- 
 timers, though erroneously, rendered bishop; 
 and so, figuratively, it may be one who, ' as it 
 were, plays the bishop in another's diocese.' 
 (Cited by Lillie.) Busybody or intermcddler 
 
66 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. IV. 
 
 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not 
 be ashamed ; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 
 
 17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at 
 the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall 
 the end he of them that obey not the gospel of God ? 
 
 IS And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where 
 shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 
 19 Wherefore, let them that sutler according to the 
 
 Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him 
 
 17 glorify God in this name. For the time is come for 
 judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it 
 begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that 
 
 18 obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous 
 is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and siii- 
 
 19 ner appear? Wherefore let them also thai suffer 
 
 is probably not far from correct. Paul showed 
 similar anxiety relative to the Christians in 
 
 TheSSalonica. (l Thess. 4: U ; ZThess. 3: ii.) Robin- 
 
 son suggests as probable that Peter intended 
 to warn them against being indiscreet zealots 
 relative to heathen manners and customs. 
 There might have been some danger at that 
 point. Busybodies are even now not wholly 
 unknown. Advancing civilization seems to 
 do little in restraining the fertility of the 
 brood. 
 
 16. Peter likes to reiterate the thought that 
 the suffering must be suffering which is borne 
 on account of Christ. As a Christian. The 
 disciples were called Christians tirst in Anti- 
 och. See Acts 11 : 26 ; also Acts 26 : 28 ; James 
 2:7. ' The origin of the term is left in some 
 uncertainty. It has been thought that the 
 name was invented by the Romans or by the 
 Greeks. It would not have been applied first 
 by the Jews, for they would not have admitted 
 the implication of the term, that Jesus was 
 the Messiah. It is improbable that the Chris- 
 tians themselves assumed it; such an origin 
 would be inconsistent with its infrequent use 
 in the New Testament. The term may not 
 have been at first opprobrious, but distinctive 
 merely.' (Hackett.) Glorify God. See ver. 
 11, and 2: 20; compare 2: 12. On this be- 
 half. Another and preferred reading gives, 
 in this name — that is, the name of Christian. 
 
 17. For. What follows is given as the 
 reason for not being ashamed on account of 
 their sufiTerings and for glorifying God. For 
 the time, etc.— /or it is the time of the begiti- 
 ning of judgm,ent. Even the Christians must 
 be regarded as under judgment; for their 
 trials, though a ground of joj% yet being 
 needed to free them from sin, are in some 
 respects a judgment. See Matt. 24 : 9-13. 
 The fiery trial (ver. 12) begins the judgment of 
 believers. Compare Jer. 25: 29; Ezek. 9: 6. 
 " Begin at my sanctuary." But the judgment 
 of Christians will not issue in their destruction. 
 Christians will be saved, (ver. is.) At the 
 house— /rom the house. The preposition in- 
 dicates more than the English at. It begins 
 
 at and goes onward toward others. (Huther.) 
 House of God— the church. 1 Tim. 3: 15; 
 compare 2: 5. Think of Ananias and Sap- 
 phira. If first at us. The apostle conceives 
 the judgment as beginning from Christians 
 first, because the first act in the drama is the 
 persecution which they suffer. He now brings 
 out the chief thought, wliich, for the sake of 
 emphatic contrast, is preceded by reference 
 to the judgment of Christians. The end — 
 the final issue. Obey not — disbelieve, imply- 
 ing opposition. Gospel of God — good news 
 proclaimed from God by the Messiah and the 
 apostles. (1 Thess.2:9.) It is also called the 
 gospel of Christ. (Rom. 15 : 19.) It is called so by 
 Mark (i; 1), who wrote in some sense under 
 the supervision of Peter himself. The apostle 
 purposely uses such comprehensive language 
 that he may include, not onlj' the immoral, 
 but the moral, if rejecting the gospel. 
 
 18. A more solemn development of the 
 reason for not being 'ashamed.' It isaquota- 
 tion of the Greek translation of Prov. 11 : 31, 
 which varies from the Hebrew. The right- 
 eous. It is in the singular number, meaning 
 the righteous ^nian' ; he who has become 
 righteous, not necessarily sinless, through faith 
 in Christ. Even such a man is scarcely, 
 with difficulty, saved. The pitfalls of life are 
 many, and his sight has not become perfect. 
 He is saved (Phii. i: 6), but notice the difBcultj' 
 as implied in Phil. 2: 12, and see 2 Pet. 1 : 10. 
 Compare 2 Pet. 1 : 11. An abundant eniVAXice 
 is possible, after all. How striking that no an- 
 swer to the solemn questions is attempted! 
 What the end? Where appear? Some 
 are attempting to answer them by saying that 
 the end will be eternal bliss; they will appear 
 among the holy ones of heaven : if not im- 
 mediately, yet after an indefinite period of 
 suffering. Peter answers not, which is the 
 most solemn way possible of saying that the 
 'end' will be eternal death, and the place 
 where will be the one prepared for the devil 
 and his angels. (Matt. 25: «.) 
 
 19. Wherefore — in view of all that has 
 been said concerning suflfering, especially the 
 
Ch. v.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 67 
 
 will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him 
 in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 
 
 according to the will of God commit their souls in 
 well-doiug unto a faithful Creator. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE elders which are among you I exhort, who am | 
 also an elder, and a witness of the suflerings of \ 
 
 1 The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am 
 a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sutferings of 
 
 blessed results of suffering. " Also " is found 
 in the Bible Union and the Revised Versions, 
 and should have appeared in the Common 
 Version ; let thorn also that suffer. Accord- 
 ing to the will of God. Their sufferings 
 must be those of true Christians (ver. 15, i6), for 
 then they can be sure that they suffer accord- 
 ing to God's will, and then, also, they will be 
 able to commit their souls to a faithful Creator. 
 [May not the reference be to martyrdom 
 chiefly or exclusively? See Luke 23: 46; 
 Acts?: 59.— A. H.] Commit the keeping 
 of— entrust their souls. Expunge ' the keep- 
 ing of.' Souls. See on the same word 1 : 9, 
 and especially as used 3: 20. As should not 
 be retained. Read — entrnut their souls to a 
 faithful Creator in well doing. Thus Peter 
 would impress upon them the fact of the 
 divine faithfulness; God will do all that he 
 has promised to do. Persecution may destroy 
 the body, but it cannot touch the soul. In 
 Avell doing. They must continue to do well, 
 andthen there will be noinconsistency between 
 the life and entrusting their souls to God. 
 
 This chitpter, while precious in practical 
 precepts, and while occasionally re-echoing in 
 subdued notes the praise and exultant joy of 
 the sections preceding, is characterized, as 
 are no other parts of the Epistle, by great 
 solemnity. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE.— CHAPTER IV. 
 
 , 3. The manuscripts differ considerably in 
 the Greek of this verse. Besides the instance 
 already noted, the rejection of (iiiiiv) us, it 
 should be mentioned that (toO piov) the life is 
 wanting in many of the best manuscripts. It 
 is rejected by Lachniann, Tregelles, Tis- 
 chendorf, and Westcott and Hort. SeArj/ua 
 {will) is rejected for /Sou'ATj/na, which, how- 
 ever, is also properly rendered will. Karepyd- 
 aatreai (to have wrought] has but feeble support, 
 but there is good authority for Karo.pya.aeai.. 
 
 Ch. 5. Third Series of Exhortations 
 {continued). 
 
 The remainder of the final series divides 
 itself into two parts: the first (i-a) addressed 
 
 to elders and to younger persons; the second 
 (^■!*) to the readers generally. 
 
 1. The elders. Another and accepted 
 reading gives, elders therefore. Presbyter is 
 the Greek in English spelling, and partly 
 upon the original word as used here and else- 
 where is based the conviction of some, that 
 the Presbyterian form of church government 
 is the Scriptural form. But in the primitive 
 churches the minister was sometimes called 
 elder, and sometimes bishop. The explanation 
 is not difficult. The original word for elder 
 
 (npec^vrepoi) WaS of Jewisll origin (Kx.3:16); 
 
 the original word for bishop (initTKono^) was of 
 Greek origin. It was natural, therefore, in 
 writing to Jews to use elder, and in writing to 
 others to use bishop. Every minister was a 
 bishop, and every minister was an elder. See 
 Acts 20: 17, and compare ver. 28; Titus 1: 5, 
 and compare ver. 7. Bishop and elder, then, 
 were applied to the same church officer, and 
 no other church officer was known except 
 deacon. The office of apostle was temporary. 
 It was of such a nature that it could not be 
 transmitted: it was impossible for an apostle 
 to have a successor. Were a list of qualifica- 
 tions of the bishop and of the elder to be ar- 
 ranged in two columns, one could write either 
 bishop or elder over either, and neither would 
 be inappropriate. It is not improbable that 
 the elders as a class consisted of men some- 
 what advanced in age, for the churches were 
 yet to make the discovery that it was not well 
 to put themselves under men of experience. 
 On the contrary, it was necessary to guard the 
 churches against thinking too lightlj' of young 
 men. 1 Tim. 4:12: " Let no man despise thy 
 youth." Among yon. The readers are sup- 
 posed to belong to different churches (i:i)) 
 and one or more of these elders may have 
 been connected with each church, or possibly 
 some of the smallest churches had no elders at 
 all of their own, but were visited by elders 
 of some large church. I exhort — a tender 
 word. Who am also an elder — who am 
 a fellow-elder. Though an apostle (i; i; Matt. 
 10- 2), Peter puts himself in genuine humility 
 upon an equality with elders. Never, by act 
 
68 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. V. 
 
 Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be 
 revealed : 
 
 2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking 
 the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly ; 
 not lor lilthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; 
 
 Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that 
 
 2 shall be revealed : Tend the flock of God which is 
 anioug yoii, i exercising the oversight, not of con- 
 straint, but willingly, 2 according to the will oj God; 
 
 3 nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither 
 
 1 Some aoeieot authorities omit exercising the oversight 2 Some ancient autliorities omit according to the will of God. 
 
 or word, does he show that he considers him- 
 self superior in rank to other preachers, 
 whether elders or apostles. Witness of the 
 sufferings of Christ— both eye-witness and 
 preacher. (Acts 5:32.) He had seen his Mas- 
 ter's entire course of sutlering. It is difficult 
 to believe that having bitterly repented of his 
 denial, he did not see the crucifixion itself, 
 though in the anguish of his spirit he n.ay 
 have stood afar off. This is the sixth time 
 that he has made distinct mention of his Mas- 
 ter's sufferings. What he saw he preached. 
 And a.\so— who am also, as in the Revised 
 Version. It is an emphatic connection of the 
 two ideas of suffering and glory, and connec- 
 tion of the two is a favorite thing with the 
 
 apostles. (*: 13; 2: 20; 1: 7; Eom.8: 18.) The glOry 
 
 that shall be revealed. Col. 3:4; 1 John 
 3: 2. The glory of Christ which will shine 
 out at his second coming and onward through 
 eternity — shine upon his people, and shine 
 out from them, is meant. Of that glory of 
 Christ the apostle has the most beautiful as- 
 surance that he is even now a sharer. Equally 
 strong may be, and ought to be, the convic- 
 tion of all the elect. 
 
 2, 3. Feed. The original is more compre- 
 hensive. It includes feeding, watching over, 
 guiding, protecting. Tend includes all. How 
 affectionate is this apostolic echo of the Lord's 
 command to Peter himself: Feed (tend) my 
 sheep. (John 21: 16.) The elders must iustruct, 
 comfort, reprove, guide, the several churches, 
 and the individual members of which they 
 are composed. Flock. See on 2: 25. Once 
 straying like sheep, thej' need even now the 
 faithful care of divinely appointed shepherds. 
 Of God. How penetrating the appeal 1 Can 
 they neglect the flock which belongs to God? 
 Among you — in the different provinces (i: i) 
 where you live. The elders were among the 
 Chri,stians (ver. i), and the Christians were 
 among the elders. Taking the oversight. 
 The original word is akin to episcopos trans- 
 lated in 2: 25 bishop, but it would be as great 
 an error to translate it perform the duties of 
 a bishop as was committed in using bishop in 
 
 2 : 25. It means substantially what the Com- 
 mon Version says. It is taking the spiritual 
 care of those over whom they are placed, and 
 this is intended by the apostle as an explana- 
 tion of tending. After all, it is doubtful 
 whether the words should appear. Tlie Re- 
 visers accept the Greek as the correct reading, 
 and translate exercising the oversight, yet say 
 in the margin that some omit the words. The 
 Greek is rejected by Westcott and Hort. The 
 spirit in which the oversight is to be taken is 
 presented with rhetorical fullness in a three- 
 fold antithetical form : (a) Not bj' constraint, 
 but willingly; (6) Not for filthy lucre, but 
 of a ready mind; (c) Neither as being lords 
 over God's heritage, but as being ensamples to 
 the flock. Constraint— necessity. They are 
 to perform their duty not under an impulse 
 from without, but under an impulse from 
 within ; their service must be rendered icill- 
 ingly, heartily. He who would gladly escape 
 from the ministry if he could escape without 
 loss of reputation or bread, is but a minister 
 in mask. Paul indeed says (icor. 9:i6), that 
 necessity is laid upon him, but necessity is 
 not used in the same sense as here. He was 
 willingly impelled (ver. n) by consciousness 
 of obligation. It was an inward, not an out- 
 ward, necessity. Filthy lucre — sordidly (an 
 adverb in the original) ; that is, for the pur- 
 pose of making money. The monej'^ made, 
 would, under the circumstances, be filthy 
 lucre. The elders had the right, as the apos- 
 tles had, to a support from the churches 
 (icor. 9: T-u), but they were not to make even 
 a support the motive for entering or continu- 
 ing in the ministry. Constitutional love of 
 gain, habitual "anxiety to save," is a disquali- 
 fication for the Christian ministry. Compare 
 1 Tim. 3: 3; 6: 5-10; 2 Tim. 4: 10, and re- 
 member Judas Iscariot. It is equally true 
 that a spendthrift cannot be a "good minis- 
 ter" of Christ. Penuriousness and extrava- 
 gance, though like two oxen, pulling hard 
 apart, yet draw under the same j'oke. Of a 
 ready minA— readily (here, also, in the 
 Greek, an adverb, corresponding to the ad- 
 
Ch. v.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 69 
 
 3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but 
 being ensamples to the flock. 
 
 4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 
 shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 
 
 as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but 
 
 4 making yourselves ensamples to the flock. And 
 
 when the chief Shepherd shall be mauitesied, ye 
 
 verb above named, sordidty) or, better, will- 
 ingly. It implies cheerful alacrity. He who 
 works in the ministry sordidly, will soon find 
 the filthy lucre a clog. Neither as being 
 lords over God's— nei^/ter as lording against 
 or over. "God's" is an insertion by the 
 translators. The partici pie for lording is com- 
 bined with a preposition, the meaning of 
 which is down, down upon. The combined 
 words express intensity of action. Lording 
 down upon is lording against; or as one may 
 say in good English, lording over. The prep- 
 osition causes the verb to express greater 
 arrogance and severity. Heritage— Me her- 
 itages. The article points them out as well 
 known ; they are the churches over which 
 the elders preside. The Greek originally 
 meant lot, portion, what is conferred as inher- 
 itance or possession. (Acts 26: 18; Col. I: 12.) It is 
 
 the Greek word from which clergy (K\rip<K) 
 was derived, and therefore some, hastening to 
 give the word a meaning which it never had 
 in apostolic times, have considered the apostle 
 as requiring the elders not to lord it over 
 the clergy. To apply the word to national 
 churches is an equally great mistake, for a 
 national Christian Church is a body of which 
 Peter " died without the sight." Being en- 
 samples — becoming exnynples. Their in- 
 fluence must be that of ? pure and gentle life. 
 Flock. As this answers to heritages, it may 
 be seen that the latter must refer, as above, to 
 churches. As Dean Howson saj's (Horce Pe- 
 trince), " Nothing could be more simple, more 
 lowly, more affectionate. No contrast in lit- 
 erature is more striking than the difference 
 between the style of St. Peter's own epistles, 
 and that in which his so-called successors have 
 often written. Here is no trace of any con- 
 sciousness of a divine grant of supreme juris- 
 diction. If the plenitude of teaching and of 
 ruling were vested in St. Peter and his suc- 
 cessors, we should surely find the assertion of 
 it here. But we do not find it here." 
 
 This exhortation to elders seems like a warn- 
 ing prophecy of the changes which were to 
 come. The sessions of a Presbyterian Church, 
 consisting of the pastor and ruling elders, is 
 
 a judicatory for the exercise of government 
 and discipline.' It has power to receive 
 members and power to exclude. * These elders 
 hold office through life. The pt)wer of the 
 people has been lost, however, chiefly through 
 the rise of Episcopacy. Within one hundred 
 years after the apostles, the original oneness 
 of bisht»pand elder began to disappear; bishop 
 came to be applied to a small class of minis- 
 ters, while other ministers continued to be 
 called elders; the bishops grew in ambition, 
 dared to call themselves the successors of the 
 apostles, arrogated the exclusive right to 
 ordain, and claimed that the Holy Ghost 
 would not be given through any other fingers 
 than their own. Diocesan power became 
 metropolitan power, metropolitan power be- 
 came patriarchal power, and patriarchal 
 power became papal power. Bishops deposed 
 bishops. Councils came into vogue, and, be- 
 coming the tools of the higher clergy, had the 
 arrogance to demand of the churches the 
 acceptance of creeds hammered out upon 
 their own anvils. It is not surprising that in 
 view of the quarrels and lust of bishops an 
 ancient idolater said: "Make me a bishop, 
 and I will surely become a Christian." 
 
 Ecclesiastical monarchy still prevails. In 
 the papal form of development it has brought 
 upon itself the strongest condemnation by 
 that quintessence of all arrogance — infalli- 
 bility. Millions of human souls are ground 
 into the dust by being denied that right "of 
 private judgment in matters of religion in 
 opposition to authority," which, as the Roman 
 Catholic Archbishop Spalding says,^ "is the 
 fatal source of all this mischief "—"American 
 infidelity and indiflTerenoe." 
 
 4. This verse states the certainty of the 
 blessed result which will accrue to the elders, 
 if they shall obey the exhortation just given. 
 The reward will be conferred at the appearing 
 of the chief Shepherd, Christ himself, called 
 in 2: 25 the Shepherd; in Heb. 13: 20 the great 
 Shepherd, and by himself (Johnio: u) the good 
 Shepherd. Chief. The elders, then, are shep- 
 herds in the service of Christ. But Christ is 
 the Shephefd of all the flock— that is, all the 
 
 i"The Form of Government." Book 1, Chap. 5. 
 
 */ff., Book 1, Chap. 9: 7. 
 
 8" Miscellanea," p. 383. 
 
70 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. V. 
 
 5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the 
 elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to auother, and 
 be clothed witli humility: for God re^isteth the proud, 
 and giveth grace to the humble 
 
 shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not 
 5 away. > Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the 
 elder. Yea, all ol you gird yourselves with hu- 
 mility, to serve one another: lor God resisteth the 
 
 1 Or, Likewise . . . elder ; yea, all of you one to another. Gird yourselves with humility. 
 
 elect. Shall appear — shall be manifested. 
 It refers to the second coming, viewed by 
 Peter in his con.sciousness as near, tiiough, 
 perhaps, not viewed as near in time. See on 
 4: 7, and see Col. 3: 4; 1 John 2: 28. A 
 crown — the crown; no other like it. Ve shall 
 receive the aniara?ithine crown of glory, is the 
 literal rendering. In 1 : 4 occurs fadeth not, 
 the original of which is akin to the Greek 
 used here. Whether the apostle has in his 
 eye the beautiful conception of a never-fading 
 flower (amaranth) "is very doubtful" (Lillie), 
 but Huther otherwise. 'Crown.' Probably 
 Peter has in mind a wreath of flowers; nor 
 is it improbable that he thinks of those in the 
 Grecian games on whose heads such a wreath 
 was placed in token of victory. Still, as we 
 are reminded, such flower-wreaths were used 
 among the Jews. Glory — the bliss of heaven, 
 the chief element of which will be the life of 
 God poured into the soul through Christ. 
 This figurative method of representing the 
 rewards of the future is one which the New 
 Testament writers freely use. See 1 Cor. 
 9: 25, an incorruptible crown; 2 Tim. 4 : 8, a 
 crown of righteousness; James 1: 12, the 
 crown of life. What activity and what pow- 
 ers of endurance under trial should ministers 
 of the gospel manifest! 
 
 5. Likewise. Compare the use of this 
 word in 3: 1, 7. It implies that, as the writer 
 had an exhortation for the elders, he now 
 has one 'likewise,' also, for the younger. 
 Younger — in age, not in office, in support of 
 which latter view has been adduced the case 
 of the young men who buried Ananias and 
 Sapphira. (Acts5:6, lo.) But who are the eWe?-s.? 
 The elders of ver. 1? — that is, elders in oflSce? 
 But why should Peter select only the younger 
 in age as needing an exhortation to submit to 
 elders in office? It is replied that the younger 
 would be more inclined to have their own 
 way. Probably; but it would be strange if 
 the other members, the middle-aged, were 
 wholly su])erior to the necessity of similar 
 exhortation. It is quite in accordance with 
 the practice of the New Testament writers to 
 use the same word twice in diff'erent senses. 
 
 even though the words may stand near each 
 other. 'Elder' may therefore be understood 
 as elder in age. That would include all the 
 other members, whether in or out of office. 
 It is, then, an exhortation to those who are 
 younger in age to submit to those who are 
 older in age. Peter's knowledge of human 
 nature should be noticed. The exhortation 
 is needed now. Deference toward the older 
 members of a church by the younger is a 
 virtue which has never been known to grow 
 too rank. A few passages may aid in the cul- 
 tivation of so beautiful a trait of Cliristian 
 character. See 1 Kings 12 : 6-8; Prov. 16: 31; 
 20 : 29 ; Job 32 : 7 ; Lev. 19 : 32. 
 
 Yea, all. The apostle here speaks more 
 generally. What he requires of the younger 
 in their relation to the elder, he requires of aY^ 
 in relation to all — a marvel of practical the- 
 ology. The rich must submit themselves to 
 the poor, not less than the poor to the rich ; 
 the learned to the ignorant, as well as the 
 ignorant to the learned ; and even the elder to 
 the younger, equally with the younger to the 
 elder. See Luke22: 24-'26. "Contradictory 
 and absurd" the world cries; but he who is 
 "clothed with humility" sees the reasonable- 
 ness and harmony of it all. Clothed. The 
 original, found nowhere else in the New 
 Testament, is a peculiar word ; not the word 
 which the Greeks commonly used to express 
 the simple idea of being clothed. Some think 
 the word was derived from the name of a 
 slave's frock, and infer its peculiar appro- 
 priateness to express humility. This is too 
 artificial. Others give it a meaning almost 
 the opposite — ornaynent yourselves. The word 
 is more probably derived from one which ex- 
 presses that by means of which a garment is 
 fastened, and so, according to some, it enjoins 
 the duty of being girded\N\i\\ humilitj'. The 
 question is one pertaining only to the shade oi 
 meaning which the word may have as a figu- 
 rative one. The general meaning is clear 
 enough, and is expressed by Bengcl thus — 
 "Pwi on and wrap yourselves in, so that 
 the covering of humility cannot possibly be 
 stripped from you." With humility. The 
 
Ch. v.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 71 
 
 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty 
 hand of God, that be may exalt you iu due time: 
 
 7 Casting all your care upon film ; for he careth for 
 you. 
 
 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary tbe 
 devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom 
 he mav devour: 
 
 6 proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble 
 yourselves therefore under tbe mifjbty handof Ood, 
 
 7 that be may exalt you in due lime; casting all your 
 
 8 anxiety upon him, because he careth lor you. Be 
 sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a 
 roiiring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may 
 
 duty is also enjoined in Eph. 4:2; Phil. 2:3; 
 Rom. 12: 16. Often had Peter learned the lesson 
 
 fl-Oin ll is Master. (Matt. ISl-l; Maik lO: IS; Johiii:^: U-n.) 
 
 As so often before, the exhortation is supported 
 hy a citation from the Old Testament— that is, 
 from the Septuagint translation of Prov. 3 : 34. 
 Compare Luke 1: 51, 52. The passage is cited 
 also by James. (Jas. 4: e. ) 
 
 6. Therefore — because to the humble grace 
 is given. Under the mighty hand of God. 
 This is the more forcible, because enjoined 
 upon all without respect to position. It refers 
 to the endurance of sufferings, which is evi- 
 dent from ver. 7. Thej' must bear with 
 humility the sufferings which God, as with a 
 mighty hand, lays upon them. See Deut. 
 3 : 24. Exaltation to spiritual honor is most 
 desirable, and that they must consider as the 
 end. In due time — whenever God siiall see 
 fit to do so. It may occur partly in this life, 
 but it will certainly occur in the next life. 
 The worlds were made by the mighty hand of 
 God, and are held in his might}' hand, but in 
 suffering the Christian is under his mighty 
 hand. 
 
 7. All your care — anxious care. The ori- 
 ginal word is aicin to that found in Matt. 6: 25, 
 " Take wo thought" ; thought, when the Com- 
 mon Version was made, having strictly tlie 
 meaning of anxiety, or solicitous care. 
 (Trench.) They were to throvv off upon God 
 all their burden of anxiet}'. For he careth 
 for you. The Greek does not have such re- 
 lated words as appear in the English, care, 
 careth, but for rhetorical emphasis it brings 
 into proximity the two pronouns rendered re- 
 spectively him and he, thus— Casting all your 
 care upon him, for to him, belongs care for 
 you. Compare the beautiful exhortation in 
 Ps. 55: 22, "Castthj' burden upon the Lord 
 and he shall sustain thee," with which, 
 evidently, Peter was familiar. No sweeter 
 thought has yet been uttered in the ear of these 
 suffering Christians. 
 
 8. The requirement to throw off upon God 
 their burden of solicitude implies no grant of 
 carnal security. Be sober — twice before. 
 
 10 
 
 (i:i3i4:7.) See OH the formcr. Be vigilant — 
 
 ivatch. Notice the rapid energy of the style. 
 He hastens from the former to the latter with- 
 out stopping to use a connecting particle ; and 
 if the critics must be followed, or rather as 
 the best manuscripts ought to be followed, 
 because must be expunged, and this makes 
 the swiftness and energy of the thought still 
 greater. With characteristic power, and flash- 
 ing as if in heated remembrance of his own 
 narrow escape (Luiie n-. 31,32), he says — Be 
 sober! watch! the devil seeks you ! Your ad- 
 versary. An antagonist in law was called 
 an ' adversary ' (antidikos), and the terra was 
 applied in a general sense to any one who put 
 himself in hostility to another. The Scrip- 
 tures everywhere recognize, Christ himself 
 recognized, the existence of a being, who, 
 though once in possession of a will in harmony 
 with God's, is now hostile to the Creator, 
 especially in his work of .«aving men through 
 Christ; and this is the being to whom the 
 apostle refers. The devil. It points out the 
 antagonist by a well-known name. Satan is 
 of Hebrew origin. (Jobi:6.) Z)ia6o^i(.9 (devil) 
 of Greek origin. The attempt to disprove the 
 personality of such a being has been a failure. 
 Satan would have been better pleased had the 
 people been led to believe the attempt success- 
 ful. As a roaring lion, etc. See Gen. 49:9, 
 where Judah is called a lion's whelp. Christ 
 is called a Lion (Rev.5:5), but, as Augustine 
 says, cited by Huther, ^^ Ch^-istus leo propter 
 fortitndinem, diabolus propter feritatem ; ille 
 leo ad vincendnyn, iste leo adnocenduni. (Christ 
 is a lion on account of his courage, the devil 
 on account of his ferocity; the former is a 
 lion to conquer, the latter to injure.) ' Roar- 
 ing,' which is frequently referred to in the 
 Old Testament as a terrible characteristic of 
 the lion, adds power to the description. 
 Smiling, however, is as easy for the devil as 
 roaring — an adept at both, and whichever 
 doing, is bent on evil. Walketh about — is 
 walking; his custom. He was walking very 
 near where Peter himself was at the time 
 of his fearf\il sin. He is continually in 
 
72 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. V. 
 
 9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, Icnowing that 
 the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren 
 that are in the world. 
 
 10 But the (jod of all grace, who hath called us unto 
 his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have 
 suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, 
 settle you. 
 
 9 devour: whom withstand stedfast in lyour faith, 
 knowing that the same sufferings are 2 accomplished 
 
 10 in your s brethren who are in the world. And the 
 God of all grace, who called you unto hi.s eternal 
 glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little 
 while, shall himself * perfect, stablish, strengthen 
 
 1 Or, the 2 Gr. bting accomplished 3 Gr. brotherhood 4 Or, restore. 
 
 motion. He is above the necessity of 
 taking rest, which is not contradictory to 
 Matt. 12: 43 ("When the unclean spirit is 
 gone out of a man, he walketh through dry 
 pUices, seeking rest"); for these words do not 
 indicateceasingfrom the pursuit of victims, but 
 they show tlie opposite — the restlessness of a 
 demon when cast out of a man. Seeking 
 whom — or, possibly, someone. He may de- 
 vour — or sivallow down. The figure expresses 
 ruin, and implies ruin of body and soul. Satan 
 desired to have Peter himself. (Luke 22: 31.) 
 
 9. As in ver. 8 the apostle guards them 
 against the indolence which might result 
 from casting their care upon God, so now he 
 guards them against the danger of trusting in 
 the activity enjoined. They must resist, 
 but they must resist steadfast, _/?rm, in the 
 faith. No resistance of the devil will be suc- 
 cessful which is made in their own strength- 
 still anotlier clear echo of Peter's experience. 
 Christ once prayed that his faith might not 
 fail. Here, too, the case of Ananias and Sap- 
 phira is solemnly instructive. It was this 
 very apostle, who, after bitter experience of 
 the sinfulness of yielding to Satan, and after 
 the deepest sorrow for doing so, faithfully re- 
 proved those corrupt members of the Church 
 in Jerusalem. "Ananias, why hath Satan 
 filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" 
 Fearful illustrations of the consequences of 
 not resisting the evil one! (James 4: 7.) When 
 seeking whom he may devour he walks, when 
 resisted he flees: the spirit is the same. Peter 
 sees him walking about; James sees him flee- 
 ing. Knowing. Their knowledge of the 
 fact will lead them to cultivate the habit of 
 considering it. The same afflictions which 
 they are suff'ering are accomplished (con- 
 tinuance of action) upon their brethren, 
 their 6?'o^AerAoorf, literallj'. See 2: 17. Con- 
 sidering the fact of the suiferings of their 
 brotherhood in the world will be one means 
 of strengthening their faith, and of qualify- 
 ing them to resist. What suffering believers 
 have been able to do and to bear, may be 
 
 seen in Paul and his companions (2 cor. 4: s-io; 
 6:9,10), and even in many of the Old Cove- 
 nant time. For the latter, see Heb. 11. Peter 
 and James (4: 7), as well as Peter and Paul, 
 are in harmony. The brotherhood of Chris- 
 tians, viewed as a general fact, is a precious 
 one: brotherhood in suffering will be followed 
 by brotherhood in eternal glory. Tlie third 
 series of exhortations is ended. 
 
 10, 11. A promise and a doxology. The 
 Common Version gives the expression of a 
 wish rather than a promise, but the tense of 
 the Greek now generally adopted is the 
 future : ivill make j'ou perfect, will establish, 
 etc. All grace. All the grace which is 
 shown toward men is God's grace; or it may 
 refer to variety in the gifts which result from 
 grace. Grace. See on the same word in 1: 
 2. Hath called— should be, called. They 
 were called at a given time in the past — that 
 is, when they were regenerated, as in 2: 9. 
 Compare 2: 21. Unto his eternal glory. 
 Notice that it is his (God's) glory to which 
 they were called; therefore the meaning is, 
 that they were to share God's glorj-. The 
 same rich thought is expressed by Paul in 1 
 Thess. 2: 12; 2 Thess. 2: 14. They share it 
 here, but the fullness of the gift is reserved 
 for the future. By Jesus Christ — in Jesus 
 Christ. It expresses not instrumentality, but 
 communion with Christ's life — a ftivorite idea. 
 Westcott and Hort with some others consider 
 'Jesus' as not supported bj^ sufficient manu- 
 script authority. After that ye have suf- 
 fered a while (a little time). The perfecting, 
 etc., is indeed carried on r«AiZe they are suflTer- 
 ing, which thought has been elsewhere ex- 
 pressed, but the apostle conceives the grand 
 result as occurring after the sufl^'erings. But 
 another explanation is more usually given ; 
 that which connects the suflFering with being 
 called unto his glory, thus : loho called its unto 
 his eternal glory, after we have suffered. Suf- 
 fering precedes glory. Make you perfect. 
 The Common Version takes no notice of an 
 emphatic pronoun; hhnself will make you 
 
Ch. v.] 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 73 
 
 11 To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 12 By Silvanus, a faitliful brother unto you, as I sup- 
 pose, I have written brietly, exliortiug, and testifyiug 
 that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. 
 
 13 Tlie church that is at Babylon, elected together 
 with you, saluteth you ; and so doth Marcus my son. 
 
 11 lyou. To him be the dominion ^ for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 12 By Silvanus, 'our faithful brother, as I account 
 Arm, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting, 
 and testifying that this is the true grace of tied: 
 
 13 stand ye fast therein. <Slie tliat is in Babylon, 
 elect together with yoa, saluteth you; and so doik 
 
 1 Many ancient authorities add settle 2 Gr. unto the ages o/ the ages 3 Or. the 4 That Is, The church, or the sister. 
 
 perfect. It excludes all others. 'Perfect,' will 
 fully fur7ush—t\\BX is, such as one should be, 
 deficient ii) no part. (Robinson.) See Heb. 
 13: 21. Stablish— will make firm. (2Thess. 
 2: 17; 3: 3.) It is the Same word in the Greek 
 as is found in Luke 22: 32: "Strengthen thy 
 brethren." How his Lord's command must 
 have imprinted itself uf^on the apostle's heart! 
 So the exhortation given to Peter is by Peter 
 transformed into one of the richest of promises. 
 Settle you — will ground you upon an im- 
 movable foundation. The original word is 
 used in Matt. 7: 25, "founded" upon a rock, 
 and in Eph. 3: 17, "grounded," in love. 
 Here, also, Peter flashes onward in quick, 
 sudden strokes, without connecting particles. 
 The Greek for 'settle' is omitted by West- 
 cott and Hort. As to the doxology, see on 
 4: 11. 
 
 12. Silvanus — the same, probably, as is 
 mentioned in Acts by tlie name of Silas. The 
 Epistles always use the form found here. It 
 was not unusual for Jews to have two names. 
 Saul was also called Paul. Silas was prob- 
 ablj- the Jewish and Silvanus the foreign 
 name; yet it need not be supposed that he 
 was never called Silas excei)t in Palestine or 
 by Jews. Silvanus stood high among early 
 Christian laborers. He is classed with Paul, 
 Barnabas, and Judas Barsabas, as a leading 
 man among the brethren. (Act^is:-.'?.) He was 
 appointed to one of the most important serv- 
 ices of apostolic times. (Actsis: i-si.) He was 
 a public teacher. (Actsi5:32.) He was Paul's 
 companion on his second missionary tour. 
 He was imprisoned with Paul at Philippi, 
 where, with the apostle, he poured forth 
 thanksgiving to God in songs constructed 
 probably from poetic portions of the Old 
 Testament. (Actsie: i9-40.) How long he con- 
 tinned to labor with Paul, or what special 
 object brought him into this brief connection 
 with Peter, is unknown. Peter writes the 
 Epistle by him — that is, ho sends by him the 
 Epistle which he him^^elf wrote. Have writ- 
 ten — ivrote. The Epistle is nearly completed, 
 
 and the apostle conceives it as finished. See 
 Crit. Notes. A faithful brother — the faith- 
 ful brother; a pleasant testimonial. Upon 
 the "sharp" disagreement of Paul and Bar- 
 nabas concerning Mark, Silas was preferred 
 by Paul as a co-worker instead of Mark, who 
 was chosen by Barnabas. (Acts 15 : 37-40.) As 
 Mark was closely allied with Peter (for ex- 
 atnple, in the preparation of the gospel which 
 bears his name), it would not have been 
 strange had Peter's special relation with 
 Mark led him to show a touch of unsanctified 
 human nature toward Silas; hnt Silas is the 
 faithful brother. Some connect ' unto you ' 
 with write, and sonje (the Common Version) 
 with faithful. It is not easy to decide which 
 the apostle intended. But See Crit. Note. 
 As I suppose. Too weak, or if this transla- 
 tion is retained it must not be considered as 
 showing doubt. The apostle says he thinks, 
 he considers, he accounts (Revised Version) 
 the brother as faithful ; and this is a judg- 
 ment formed upon what he knows of his 
 Christian character. Briefly. He could have 
 written more, for his heart is full of desire for 
 their comfort and growth under sufferings. 
 Exhorting and testifying. See Introduc- 
 tion, II. This is the true grace— not the 
 grace of which he has been writing, but that 
 which they received at their renewal. 'Grace' 
 — divine favor, implying always that those to 
 whom it is shown do not merit it. 'True'— 
 having reality, a veritable existence. It is 
 not intended as a contrast with error of doc- 
 trine. (Huther.) It has been supposed that 
 the apostle here refers to Paul, and intends 
 to say that Paul's preaching, which they 
 are supposed to have heard, was true; but 
 there is nothing to ju.etify that view. Wherein 
 ye stand. Some manuscripts give another 
 form of the verb, which several critics accept: 
 in itihich stand. 
 
 13. The church that is . . . you. The 
 English reader will notice that these words 
 are in italics. For these the Greek has no 
 corresponding words. The Sinaitic manu- 
 
74 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. V. 
 
 14 Greet ye one another with a kiss of cliarity. 
 Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Ameu. 
 
 14 Mark my son. Salute one another with a kiss of 
 love. 
 Peace be unto you all that are in Christ. 
 
 script, which is sit least one of the oldest, has 
 the Greek word for 'church' after Bubj'lon, 
 but the manuscripts in general have no noun 
 whatever. Literal rendering: The co-elect in 
 Babylon saluteth you. The two principal 
 views are: 1. That Peter's wife is meant 
 (1 Cor. 9:5); 2. A Christian church. The 
 former view seems unentitled to acceptance, 
 since it is ditficult to see how it could be nec- 
 essary to add in Babylon. It would seem to 
 be enough to say, the co-elect saluteth you. 
 But it would have been very natural to add 
 the name of the place, if a church were 
 meant. Notice the correspondence between 
 co-elect here and elect in 1 : 2. The considera- 
 tion by itself, however, is by no means deci- 
 sive. Babylon. Most Roman Catholic ex- 
 positors insist that Roni,e is meant. But if 
 Rome is meant, 'Babylon' is used figura- 
 tively; yet in this very simple, unimaginative 
 close of the Epistle, such a figurative (sym- 
 bolic) form of expression would have been 
 contrary to the way in which the human 
 mind usually works. Not Babylon in Egypt 
 can be meant, for tiiat was scarcely more than 
 a military post. Babylon in Cbaldea was 
 still sufficiently large to be a place of some 
 importance, and it is known to have been a 
 place of residence for Jews. It is true that 
 according to Josephus, many of the Jews 
 had been driven away, but there is no reason 
 to suppose that there were none remaining. 
 That is probably the Babylon to which Peter 
 refers. It is singular that Roman Catholics 
 should incline to apply to Rome the name of 
 such a city as Babylon, but it is intended to 
 help a theory which greatly needs all possible 
 support. Marcus— son of a Mary who lived 
 in Jerusalem (Acts 12: 12), and into whose house 
 Peter went after his release from prison ; 
 
 John Mark (Act3l2:12; 15:37) ; JoAn (Acts 13 : 5, 13).; 
 
 Mark. (Acts is: 39.) J-ohn was his Jewish, and 
 Mark his Roman name. Mark was a cousin 
 to Barnabas (Coi. 4:io), which may have influ- 
 enced the latter's choice. (Acts 15: 37.) His re- 
 luctance to accompany Paul on one of the 
 apostle's missionary journeys was a fault 
 (Acts 13:13), but Paul's magnanimous reference 
 to him (2 Tim. 4:11) is Worthy of special note. 
 
 He was with Paul in Rome when the latter 
 was a prisoner. (Coi. 4: 10 ; Philemon 24.) He was 
 doubtless the writer of the gospel which bears 
 his name. My son— spiritually ; probably 
 converted by Peter's means. 
 14. Greet — salute. A kiss of charity — 
 
 of love. A holy kiss. (Rom. I6: I6; 1 Cor. 16: 20; 2 
 Cor. 13:12; IThess. 5:26.) This sigH WaS not tO be 
 
 given them as from Peter, but Peter exhorts 
 that they give it to one another, and, as 
 Meyer suggests on 1 Cor. 16: 20, they prob- 
 ably gave it immediately after reading the 
 Epistle. This was not merely a form of salu- 
 tation; it was a method of expressing their 
 Christian love, and "was, specifically, a rec- 
 ognition or ratification of one another's Chris- 
 tian character. The kiss, as a token of love 
 or friendship or respect, was as common in 
 Oriental countries as shaking hands is in 
 Europe and the United States. Esau kissed 
 his father (Gen. 27: 27) ; Laban his sister's son 
 (Gen. 29: 13) ; the woman who was a sinner ki.<sed 
 the Saviour, applying the token to the feet as 
 expressive of her humility; Simon violated 
 custom in not kissing Jesus (Luke 7: 45, 
 'Thou gavest me no kiss')." The Epistle 
 concludes with the expression of desire that 
 peace may be with them. All that are in 
 Christ Jesus — all that are in communion 
 with him, all who have become sharers in his 
 spiritual life. 'Jesus' and Amen have little 
 sanction from manuscripts. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE.— CHAPTER Y. 
 The objection to connecting vixlv (you) with 
 eypa^a (wrote) is that the former is brought in 
 so early, standing between Aii "XiXovavov [by 
 Silvanus) and toO wio-toO ahtK^ov (the faithful 
 brother). Translated in the order of the 
 Greek : By Silvanus to you the faithful 
 brother^ as I suppose^ briefly I wrote. But 
 the objection seems greatly weakened, if not 
 wholly removed, by comparing the arrange- 
 ment with a similar one in Gal. 6: 11: "iSere 
 TrjjAiicois vixlv ypaii-iiatTiv iypa\\ia (ye See hoio large to 
 you a letter I wrote). Here it is evident that 
 vii.iv (you) must be connected with eypailia 
 (ivrote). Such, therefore, may be the con- 
 nection in the verse before us. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 I. WAS PETER THE WRITER? 
 
 It would be an error to affirm that the Epistle to the Hebrews, if not written by Paul, 
 was forged, for it does not profess to have been written by him. But the Epistle which 
 goes under the name of "The Second Epistle of Peter" must have been forged if not 
 written by Peter. The question before us is therefore one of great importance. As is the 
 case with all the other epistles, the sources of evidence are either external or internal. 
 
 I. External. This is not very strong. The Epistle has been accepted since A. D. 
 363 as belonging to the Canon of Scripture. The decision to receive it was made by the 
 Council of Laodicea. But this is not evidence that Peter wrote it. Quotations from the 
 Epistle in the earliest Christian writings would afford strong evidence in its favor, but it is 
 affirmed that no quotations can be found. " The Epistle is not quoted," says Farrar, " and 
 is not certainly referred to by a single writer in the first or second century. Neither Poly- 
 carp, nor Ignatius, nor Barnabas, nor Clement of Rome, nor Justin Martyr, nor Theophilus 
 of Antioch, nor Iren^eus, nor Tertullian, nor Cyprian can be proved to allude to it. . . . 
 During the first two centuries the only traces of it, if traces they can be called, are to be 
 found in the Pastor of Hermas, and in a recently discovered passage of Melito of Sardis ; 
 but even these are of so distant and general a nature that it is impossible to determine 
 whether we should regard them as reminiscences of the language of the Epistle, or 
 accidental approximations to it. " (" Early Da5'S of Christianity. ") On the other hand, 
 in works of most of the above-named writers, several of whom, because following first 
 after the apostles are called Apostolic Fathers, Dietlein thinks he has discovered many 
 allusions. Not a few, however, besides Farrar, think that Dietlein is entirely mistaken. 
 
 A serious difficulty (" entirely new and very formidable," " Early Christianity ") arises 
 from resemblance to the writings of Josephus. In "The Expositor" for 1882, an 
 English periodical, the authorship of our Epistle is discussed in three articles by Rev. 
 Edwin A. Abbott, D. D. In the first article is considered the question, " Had the author 
 read Josephus ? " in the second, " Had the author read St. Jude?" in the third, "Was 
 the author St. Peter ? " The nature of the question at issue in the first article is expressed 
 by Dr. Abbott as follows : " If it could be shown that the author had borrqwed from some 
 work of which the date is known to be late — e. g., the "Antiquities" of Josephus, pub- 
 lished in A. D. 93, the date of the Epistle would then be determined to be after 93 A. D., 
 and the author of the Epistle would be known to be not St. Peter. " Dr. Abbott attempts 
 to prove that the author of the Epistle had read the "Antiquities " of Josephus. If his 
 attempt has been successful, it is certain that the Epistle was not written by Peter, for 
 Peter died many years before Josephus wrote his "Antiquities." That the author of our 
 Epistle imitated Josephus, not Josephus the author of the Epistle, appears clear to Dr. 
 Abbott for the following reasons : " It exhibits, 1. A very large number of similar words 
 
 75 
 
76 INTEODUCTION TO THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 and i)hrases in the two authors ; 2. All the phrases and words od which stress has been 
 laid above are words and phrases rare or non-existent in the New Testament and LXX, 
 and therefore completely out of the author's natural sphere ; 3. The groups of similarities 
 between the Epistle and the 'Antiquities' are found in just those portions of the latter 
 which our author would be likely to have studied ; 4. Besides parallelism of thought in 
 the two passages selected above to exhibit the parallelism of language, we find two others 
 in which our author agrees with Josephus in diverging from, or at all events adding to, 
 the Bible narrative." These considerations, which are given at the close of Dr. Abbott's 
 article, are illustrated by previous citations from the two writers. An examination of Dr. 
 Abbott's "Discovery" would be out of place in the present work, but the writer may 
 take the liberty of saying that it is by no means certain that the author of our Epistle 
 borrowed from Josephus. The arguments against that view are so weighty that the people 
 of God need not feel called upon to consider the Epistle as the work of some other than 
 the Apostle Peter. He feels constrained to add that Dr. Abbott's third article,^ "Was 
 the author St. Peter? " is so extravagant in its representation of the style of the Epistle 
 as to amount to a caricature. It were possible so to translate almost any paragraph of the 
 Bible as to justify the application of " vulgar pomposity " and "verbose pedantry " to 
 the original. "He leadeth me beside the gentle liquidities " (Ps. 23: 2), is scarcely an 
 adequate illustration of the unfairness and absurdity of many of Dr. Abbott's renderings 
 of the Epistle of Peter. We give one instance, and to those who desire to pursue the 
 subject farther, we suggest the reading of Farrar's article in "The Expositor" of the 
 same year, in which he makes an examination of Dr. Abbott's third article. The Common 
 Version (2 : 22) is — The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and, the sow that was washed 
 to her wallowing in the mire. Dr. Abbott translates (?), " The dog having returned to his 
 own evacuation, and the sow having bathed to her wallowance." A more judicial treat- 
 ment of the entire question is desirable. The spirit of the mere advocate is not favorable 
 to ascertaining truth. 
 
 Such are some of the difficulties drawn from external sources. As in the case of one 
 or two other books of the New Testament, this Epistle was longer in coming into general 
 acceptance. To this ftict there is a favorable side, for it shows that Christians of early 
 times were not disposed to receive in haste every book which might profess to be inspired. 
 It may be added that the Epistle is received by a large number of modern scholars even 
 in Germany, though in part, perhaps chiefly, on internal grounds. Even Farrar, though 
 deeming the difficulty arising from the similarities between the Epistle and Josephus as 
 "very formidable," does not reject it. 
 
 But something of a more favorable kind concerning even external evidence remains to 
 be said. 1. In the works which have come from one of the greatest of the Fathers, 
 Augustine, bishop from A. D. 395, is "a list of the books of the New Testament exactly 
 agreeing with our present Canon." (Westcott, " On the Canon of the New Testament") 
 2. Jerome, A. D. 390, has a Catalogue in which occurs the Second Epistle of Peter, and 
 the doubts which some had relative to the authenticity of the Epistle were not shared by 
 that well-informed Father. 3. Receding from this date toward the apostolic age, we find 
 a Catalogue of all our present books in the works of Gregory Nazianzen, A. D. 328-389. 
 4. Eusebius, A. D. 270-340, was one of the celebrated Christian men of early times. He 
 
 ' [In Prof Salmon's " Introduction to the Books of the New Testament " the reader will find a satisfactory 
 answer to the argument of Dr. Abbott against the genuineness of the Second Epistle of Peter. — A. H.] 
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 77 
 
 was a voluminous writer, a liistorian, and it is through him tliat we obtain knowledge ot* 
 the opinions of many who lived before him. From his works it is clear that he was 
 acquainted with the Second Epistle of Peter, and that, because it appeared useful to 
 many, it was generally read. Yet it must be admitted that while he did not reject it as 
 spurious, Eusebius was not prepared to admit it to an equal footing with the books which 
 are now received. 5. Origen, in Eusebius. This Father was born in iVlexandria, Egyjjt, 
 A. D. 185, and died at Tyre, A. D. 254. In the Greek text of his writings are no quota- 
 tions from Second Peter, but in the Latin translation by Rufinus are many— e. g., 1 : i. 
 " Peter," he says, " has left behind one Epistle generally acknowledged ; perhaps also a 
 second, for it is a disputed question." In the Latin Homily on Joshua 7 is the following : 
 " Peter, moreover, sounds loudly on the twofold trumpet of his Epistles. " It is clear that 
 Origen did not reject our Epistle as spurious ; he only held its genuineness as not entirely 
 settled. Too much dependence, however, must not be placed on the Latin translation. 
 6. Firmilian, A. D. 256, Bishop of Cesarea, in Cappadocia, speaks in a letter to Cyprian 
 of Paul and Peter as condemning heretics in the epistles ; but as First Peter makes no 
 allusion to heretics, it may be inferred that he alludes to Second Peter. 7. Clement of 
 Alexandria, A. D. 165-220, gave, according to Eusebius, "explanations of all the Canon- 
 ical Scriptures without omitting the disputed books." (Westcott.) One of the disputed 
 books was Second Peter. By some this testimony is thought to be slightly weakened by 
 a remark of Cassiodorus, but by others not at all. 8. Tertullian, born in the last of the 
 second century, and Cyprian, converted to Christianity A. D. 246, make no allusion to it. 
 9. Justin Martyr, A. D. 138, and Irenasus, who died about A. D. 202, are believed by 
 some to make unmistakable allusions to our Epistle ; but by others, as seen above, the 
 references are not deemed certain. 
 
 II. Internal. As already remarked, the Epistle is Peter's, or it is a forgery. That it 
 is not a forgery may be safely concluded from the following considerations: 1. Its 
 general tone. Though some of its views are peculiar, yet the entire Epistle is in harmony 
 with other Epistles known, on abundant historical evidence, to be authentic. In this 
 respect the writer has made no slip by which one might be led to suspect forgery. But 
 it is also positively spiritual, devout, and trustful. It contains nothing puerile, nothing 
 feeble, which is far more than can be said of most of the writings which immediately 
 followed the apostolic age. It has been confidently affirmed that not one of the Apostolic 
 Fathers could have produced a writing evincing such intellectual ability and such elevated 
 spirituality. It must, therefore, have been written before their time — i. e , in the apostolic 
 age itself. 2. Tlie writer is confiilent that he shall soon die. Yet it is possible that one 
 might deliberately allow one's self to forge even in the face of approaching death ; for 
 many a man has died with a lie on his lips, but in such cases that particular sin has been 
 in accordance with the entire life. It is morally impossible that an Epistle which is 
 throughout unexceptionable in morality and piety, should have been written by one 
 who.se approach to death was marked by one of the boldest falsehoods ever told. 3. The 
 writer professes to have been with Christ at the Transfiguration, which was one of the 
 falsehoods told, if he was not with him. But the difficulty of supposing it to be a false- 
 hood is expressed above. 4. In ver. 1 the writer distinctly avows himself to be Simon 
 Peter, a servant and an apo.stle of Jesus Christ, and the objection to calling this a falsehood 
 is also to be seen above. The supposition that the Epistle is a forgery is too nearly absurd 
 to allow its acceptance. Then it was written by Peter. Some writers have laid much 
 stress upon the fact that the Epistle is, in style and spirit, very unlike the First ; but, 
 
78 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 though the differences in these respects are indeed striking, they are not more so than 
 is to be seen in the writings of many an author, even when the writings were composed 
 with no longer interval of time than is supposed to have existed between these two 
 Epistles. This objection, without others of more weight, may well be offset by the 
 striking resemblances. 
 
 II. PLAN AND OBJECT. 
 
 The Epistle consists of two parts, and each part of two sections. In section first 
 (1 : 1-11) of part first, after the address, the readers are reminded of the gifts conferred 
 upon them by divine power ; are exhorted to bring forth certain specified virtues, and to 
 be earnest in securing the salvation to which God has elected them ; they are assured 
 that on that condition they shall not fail of entering into the kingdom of Christ. In 
 section second (12-21), the writer gives the reason which prompted him to write, and 
 assures the readers that what he has taught relative to the Second Coming of Christ is 
 true. In section first (2 : 1-22) of part second are described certain false teachers, liber- 
 tinists, licentious men, and their overthrow and punishment are foretold. In section 
 second (3 : 1-10), the writer describes the scoffers who deny the Second Coming of Christ, 
 and accuses them of willful ignorance relative to the origin and the destruction of the 
 world, and assures the readers that the coming of the Lord will certainly occur. He 
 closes with an exhortation based upon these facts, alludes to Paul and his Epistles, and 
 again exhorts to steadfastness. 
 
 III. IS THE EPISTLE IN PART A COPY OF JUDE'S EPISTLE? 
 
 A comparison of the two Epistles shows some remarkable resemblances. Compare 
 1 : 5 with Jude 3 ; 2 : 1 with Jude 4 ; 2 : 4 with Jude 6 ; 2 : 6-10 with Jude 7 ; 2 : 10 with 
 Jude 8 ; 2:11 with Jude 9 ; 2 : 12 with Jude 10. The resemblance of these passages is 
 so striking, that many have affirmed intentional copying, though with some changes ; as 
 condensation, expansion, more simplicity or less. Resemblances granted, the question is : 
 Which Epistle was written first? As in the past, so, doubtless, in the future, there will 
 be no oneness upon the point. The view that Peter wrote first seems on the whole to be 
 the more probable. The resemblances and the differences constitute an interesting literary 
 question ; but they have little significance as related to the authenticity of either epistle, 
 and none as related to our spiritual life. See on the same subject, III., Introduction to 
 the Epistle of Jude. 
 
 IV. WHEN WRITTEN, AND WHERE ? 
 
 There are no means of deciding. Possibly it was written from Rome ; for, as there 
 can be no doubt that Peter suffered martyrdom there, he probably went to Rome after he 
 wrote the First. 
 
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 s 
 
 IMON Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, to them that have obtained like precious 
 
 1 1 Simon Peter, a 2 servant and apostle of Jesus 
 Christ to them that have obtained » a like precious 
 
 1 Many ancieut autborities read Symeon 2 Gr. bondservanl 3 Gr. an equally preeiout. 
 
 Ch. 1:1,2. Introduction. The Introduc- 
 tion gives the inscription, the character of the 
 persons addressed, and the salutation. Simon 
 — Sytncon, or Simeon. Simon is the Greek 
 form, and Symeon the Hebrew form. Even 
 the Hebrew name had some variations. See 
 Gen. 29: 33 (Simeon); 1 Ciiron. 4: 20 
 (Shimon.) Simeon is used in Acts 13: 1 by 
 the historian, and in Acts 15: 14 by James in 
 his speech before the assembly in Jerusalem. 
 Simon is the form generally used. It is un- 
 certain which is here the true reading, Simon 
 or Symeon. The name was n(jt uncommon 
 among Romans and was verj' common among 
 Jews. It means hearing. The application of 
 the name to a child implied, at least some- 
 times, that God had heard. (Gen. 29: 33.) The 
 man who, in the temple, took up the infant 
 Jesus in his arms, and, blessing God, uttered 
 the singularly rich prophecy concerning the 
 object of the child's advent, bore the name 
 Simeon. (Luke 2: 25.) The New Testament 
 mentions, also, among others, Simon the 
 " Canaanite," ^ one of the twelve apostles, 
 Simon of Cyrene, Simon the leper, Simon 
 Magus, Simon the tanner, Simon the father 
 of Judas Iscariot. Peter. Sec on 1 Pet. 1 : 
 1. Simon, who is called Peter, is found in 
 Matt. 10: 2. It has been suggested that the 
 apostle here uses both names in conscious 
 reference to his earlier state, and that into 
 which he is supposed to have come afterward. 
 The suggestion is not without a basis of possi- 
 bility, but the probability of such a reference 
 is slender. For some account of the apostle's 
 life, and for a brief characterization, see "I. 
 Introduction to the First Epistle." A servant 
 and an apostle. In the First Epi-stle the offi- 
 cial designation is briefer, "an apostle." In 
 Jude, also, it is briefer, but there it is "serv- 
 ant." Paul sometimes designated himself 
 
 in the longer form (Rom. 1 : 1 ; tuus \ -. 1), and some- 
 times in the shorter. (l Cor. l: l; 2Cor. l: l; Cal. l: 
 
 1, etc.) Neither James nor Jude says "apos- 
 tle"; each says "servant." Here "servant" 
 (bondservant) is not used merely in the sense 
 in which it may be applied to Christians in 
 general ; it is doubtle^^s an official use of the 
 term, indicatingthatthe writer regards himself 
 as a servant in niinisteral labor, while "apos- 
 tle " is the narrower term, expressing not only 
 the form of ministerial labor peculiar to the 
 twelve, but also the authority peculiar to 
 them. Farrar(" Early Days of Christianity ") 
 translates "slave," which is scarcely a just 
 representation of the Greek. See upon this 
 question the last part of the notes on 1 Peter 
 2: 18. Peter's acknowledgment of himself 
 as a servant of Christ, was an acknowledg- 
 ment that Christ had the right to direct him 
 in all his ministerial life; and it was precisely 
 that right in which the apostle gloried. Like 
 Peter, ministers of all times should wait for 
 Christ's "orders," not for man's, and when 
 the orders come should obey with promptness 
 and alacrity. "An apostle"; one sent away, 
 and while the word was applied in this gen- 
 eral sense to tiie twelve, it had the special 
 meaning implied in their peculiar official posi- 
 tion in distinction from that of all other min- 
 isters. Peter has been called the first pope; 
 he never calls himself pope. See further on 
 1 Pet. 1: 1, and also on 6: 1, on the nature 
 of the apostleship. Jesus Christ — as in 1 
 Pet. 1 : 1. Paul usually said the same, though 
 in most cases, according to the approved 
 reading,^ he put "Christ" first, which fact 
 has special significance. "Jesus" is the 
 Greek form, while Joshua is the Hebrew 
 form. Joshua is a shorter form of Jehoshua 
 (helj) of Jehovah, Saviouj-). The Greek form 
 is used for Joshua in Heb. 4: 8. ("For if 
 
 1 The wrong spelling. The apostle here meant was 
 not a Canaanite, for, as Dr. Schaff reminds us ("Com- 
 panion to Greek Testament and Knglish Version "), 
 "None of the apostles belonged to the race of Caaaan- 
 
 ites." Simon the Cananean is correct. See Matt. 10: 
 4. Revised Version. 
 
 * Concerning different readings of Greek maiu- 
 ecripts, see remarks on 1 Pet. 1 : 8. 
 
 79 
 
80 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. L 
 
 faith with us through the righteousness of God aud 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ: 
 
 2 Grace aud peace be multiplied unto you through 
 the knowledge of God, aud of Jesus our Lord, 
 
 faith with us in the righteousness of 'our God and 
 
 2 the Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace to you aud peace be 
 
 multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus 
 
 1 Or, our God and Saviour. 
 
 Jesus had given them rest.") "Jesus" was 
 a common Jewish name, but was given to the 
 first born son of the virgin Mary for the 
 special reason that he was to save his people 
 fromtheirsins. (Matt, i: 'ii.) "Christ," anointed. 
 It is used by the New Testament writers to 
 designate the Being who was believed by the 
 Jews of Old Testament times as appointed 
 to come (Matt. 11:3), God's Anointed. It is 
 equivalent to Messiah. "We have found 
 the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the 
 Christ." (John 1:41.) To them that have ob' 
 taiiied, etc. This is one of the cases, so com- 
 mon in the Greek, of a short method of ex- 
 pression. Given fully : to them that have ob- 
 tained faith equally precious with that which 
 we have obtained. "Them" and "us" must 
 not be referred to Gentiles and Jews; the 
 former refers to all who are described, whether 
 Jews or Gentiles, and the latter to Peter him- 
 self, or to the apostles as a class. Faith — not 
 Christianity as external, but that faith which 
 Christianity inspires. Peter writes, not merely 
 to the Christians of Asia Minor, as in his 
 First Epistle, but to all Christians then living; 
 and indeed, according to the intention of the 
 Holy Spirit, to all the saints of all the ages 
 that were to follow. Comprehensive benevo- 
 lence in a forger! As to the word "Gen- 
 eral" in the title of the Authorized Version, 
 see on the same word in the title of the 
 First Epistle, first paragraph of the notes. 
 Precious. See 1 Pet. 1 : 18, 19 (precious 
 blood.) Here we have through the right- 
 eousness, etc. Precious also is this faith as 
 the foundation of Christian character, as in- 
 vesting the present life with something of the 
 power of the future life, and as giving the 
 possessor ability to appropriate the future life 
 as one of unending bliss. Like — as precious 
 in kind as that of Peter and the other apos- 
 tles. Whether it is equally strong in all 
 Christians is a question not touched. Have 
 obtained — literally, obtained by lot. See 
 Luke 1 : 9; John 19: 24. The faith was "ob- 
 tained"; it came from a source external to 
 themselves. In no sense did thej'^ originate 
 it; personal merit, then, is not to be thought 
 
 of. The righteousness, etc.— not, as Fron- 
 miiller, " an attribute of God," not " the per- 
 sonal righteousness of believers" viewed as 
 God's because given by him, but the entire 
 scheme of the gospel as an exhibition of 
 divine righteousness and mercy. Here is the 
 germ of the doctrine so much enforced by 
 
 Paul in Romans. (l: 17; 3: 21,22, K; *: ISandelse- 
 
 where.) See also Galatians, and Crit. Notes. 
 
 "Through," either in or by means of. The 
 Greek preposition means primarily in, but 
 in the New Testament often expresses instru- 
 mentality. The righteousness is the medium 
 orsource of faith. Of God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ — o? our God, etc. The question 
 is, whether "God and Saviour" are both to 
 be connected with "Jesus Christ" — that is, 
 whether Jesus Christ is here called God as 
 well as Saviour; or whether two distinct per- 
 sons are meant, God the Father and Jesus 
 Christ. In ver. 2 an evident distinction is 
 made : of God, and of Jesus our Lord. See 
 ver. 11, "our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," 
 where the arrangement of the Greek is the 
 same as here, but, which is a very important 
 difference, Lord (Kiipiot) is used instead of God 
 (9eds). See also 2: 20, "of the Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ" ; 3: 18, "of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ." In Titus 2: 13, 
 "of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." Nowhere, unless here, does Peter 
 apply directly to Jesus Christ the word God, 
 which is a strong, perhaps decisive, consider- 
 ation that he does not so apply it here. See 
 Crit. Notes. 
 
 2. Grace ... unto you. See on 1 Peter 
 1:2. Though (iw) the knowledge. Peter 
 makes free use of this word knowledge (i; 3,5, 
 8; 2:20; 3: 18), but ncvcr in the sensc in which 
 it was used by the false philosophy which 
 soon attempted to force its way into the 
 churches. The kindred verb was used by 
 Christ in his memorable prayer. (John n: 3-) 
 Knowledge of God, in Scriptural use, is not 
 mere speculative knowledge: it pertains to the 
 heart quite as much as to the intellect; it im- 
 plies knowledge of Jesus our Lord. A very 
 few who, in consequence of having no written 
 
Ch. I] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 81 
 
 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us 
 all things that perlain unto life and godliness, through 
 the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory aud 
 virtue : 
 
 3 our Lord ; seeing that his divine power hath granted 
 unto us all things that pertain unto lil'e and godli- 
 ress through the knowledge ol hiiu tiiat called us 
 
 4 I by his own glory and virtue; whereby he hath 
 
 1 Some ancieDt authorities read through glory and virtue. 
 
 revelation, were ignorantof Christ, m&y have 
 attained, nevertheless, to some knowledge of 
 God, but such knowledge of God as it is possi- 
 ble for men to attain, is impossible if Christ is 
 not known. Professing to know God, and at 
 tlie same time rejecting Christ, is proof of 
 great and culpable ignorance — ignorance 
 which comes more from disease of the heart 
 than fr.om weakness of the head. Peter uses 
 two words, both of which are represented in 
 the English by knowledge {i-nlyviaa<.%2ir\(\yvit<Tt<!). 
 The former occurs in ver. 2, 3, 8; 2: 20; the 
 latter in ver. 5,6; 3: 18. The context of 
 these verses makes it very improbable that 
 tlie writer used the words in different 
 senses, though the former may in itself in- 
 clude the idea of acknowledging in addition 
 to the idea of knowledge, which is the exclu- 
 sive meaning of the latter. It may sometimes 
 be used in a stronger sense, fidl knowledge. 
 Knowledge ( yvwo-u) is a term which was much 
 used in Alexandria and elsewhere. Gnosti- 
 cism (the word is akin to that used by Peter) 
 was one of the most dangerous errors of 
 ancient times. It was a foolish kind of wis- 
 doni. Possibly Peter had the germ of the 
 error in his eye. The "agnosticism" of the 
 present is remarkable for being neither foolish 
 nor wise, since it knows nothing at all. 
 
 Part I. Section First. 
 
 Ch. 1 : 3-11. The superscription and salu- 
 tation being ended, the Epistle proper begins. 
 This section divides itself thus: 1. What has 
 been done for them ; 2. What they themselves 
 ought to do. The latter is hortatory; the 
 former is the doctrinal foundation. The 
 method is this : As God has done given things 
 for them for a given end, they are earnestly 
 to strive for given Christian traits. The sec- 
 ond verse is closed by some with a period, 
 and by some with a colon. The connection 
 of ver. 3 with that verse is not so close as a 
 comma indicates. 
 
 3. According as — inasmuch as. The sense 
 is, persuaded, or knowing that. In the origi- 
 nal, all tilings is made emphatic by being 
 l)ut next after the conjunction : Inasmuch as 
 
 all things have been given. It is difficult to 
 see what Peter could have intended in the all 
 things, unless it were the promises. (Vcr. *.) 
 These, through application to the heart by the 
 H0I3' tSpirit, would promote both life and 
 godliness. That pertain — and therefore sub- 
 serve. Life — spiritual life, the result of being 
 begotten by the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Ciirist. (tPet. iiu.) It implies blessed- 
 ness, but that is not the principal thing meant. 
 The difference between their former state of 
 death and their present state of life is more 
 than can be told. When men lose their 
 prejudice against '"theology," and speak as 
 educators, as men of business, as employers 
 or employed, they have no difficulty in feel- 
 ing that men are depraved, which is what the 
 Scriptures mean by being dead. Conscious- 
 ness of depravity, however, is not generally 
 as marked as consciousness of life. Keason : 
 Depravity ever tends to diminish self knowl- 
 edge, while life ever tends to increase it. 
 Hence, one may come to have little of that' 
 unhappiness which is the natural fruit of sin ; 
 while another cannot but be conscious of the 
 blessedness which is the fruit of life. Godli- 
 ness—a righteous state of heart toward God, 
 but manifesting itself in holy activity. This 
 is imparted righteousness. As to the distinc- 
 tion between imparted and imputed righteous- 
 ness, see note on ver. 1. Of him — of God, as 
 in 1 Pet. 1: 15; 2: 9. The call came indeed 
 "through" the Holy Spirit, on the ground of 
 Christ's mediatorial work, but it came from 
 God. The New Testament writers never be- 
 come weary of referring the change which 
 had been wrought upon the souls of their 
 readers to the call of God. They give no 
 prominence to the activity of man in conver- 
 sion, except as the result of divine, effectual 
 calling. To glory and virtue. Revised Ver- 
 sion : by his oum glory arid virtue. (Westcott 
 and Hort : Sta Sofij? koI apeT^s, through glory 
 and virtue; but they put in the margin, ISia 
 fioffj Koi aperj)', by his ov)n glory and virtue.) 
 Which is the true reading is uncertain. By 
 "glory" may be meant liis glorious nature, 
 and by "virtue" his "superiority revealed in 
 
82 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
 precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers 
 
 granted unto us his precious and exceeding great 
 promises ; that through these ye may become par- 
 
 the work of salvation." "See Acts 2: 11 
 (the wonderful works of God)." — Cremer. 
 The glory and virtue were the means by 
 which they were called — means, because they 
 were used in eflecting their regeneration. It 
 is impossible to conceive how the apostle could 
 have mure strongly represented God as the 
 source of all which the readers have above 
 what they had by nature. But he has yet 
 more to say (ver. 4) as preparatory to the ex- 
 hortation of ver. 5-11. 
 
 ' Virtue^ ("ApeTij) is a word of much histori- 
 cal interest, the New Testament use being 
 very unlike that which prevailed in Greek 
 literature. Intense worldliness and Pagan 
 viciousness are to be seen in its derivation. 
 It is traceable to Ares ("Apij?), Mars, son of 
 Jupiter, and Juno, god of war. Hence, it 
 was applied to war itself Some trace it to the 
 word signifying m«n (iviip), and it is certain 
 that manliness or bravery in war was the 
 principal idea which it expressed. The Latin 
 equivalent, virtus, was used by the Romans 
 in the same way. As Trench says ("Study 
 of "Words " ) : " It is as if for them all virtues 
 were included in warlike courage alone." As 
 the same writer also reminds us, the Italians 
 of to-day "degrade the word virtuoso, or the 
 virtuous, to signify one accomplished in paint- 
 ing, music, and sculpture, such things as are 
 the ornamental fringe of a nation's life, but 
 can never be made, without loss of all manli- 
 ness of character, its main texture and woof, 
 not to say that excellence in these fine arts 
 has been in too many cases divorced from all 
 true virtue and worth." Christianity took 
 the word 'virtue' (aper^) out from the ignoble 
 uses to which it had been consecrated, and 
 made it the watchword of Godlike excellence. 
 The application of the word to God is very 
 unusual, and has led to severe stricture of the 
 Epistle (as not Peter's) by Dr. Edwin A. 
 Abbott. See the "Introduction, I., Was 
 Peter the Writer?" But the same word in 
 the plural is applied to God in the First 
 Epistle 2: 9 ("shew forth the praises — virtues 
 — of him"), and not, as Farrar ("Early 
 Days") says it is, "in a very different sense." 
 The sense seems to be essentially the same 
 here as there. 
 
 4. Whereby — by which — that is, by which 
 
 glory and power. Are given — he hath given 
 (^granted as a gift) ; him that called us 
 
 (ver. n) — still referring the readers to the divine 
 source of all. Exceeding great — literally, 
 the greatest and precious, according to the 
 Textus Receptus. But the manuscripts difler. 
 Wescott and Hort, interchanging the adjec- 
 tives say, precious and exceeding great. So 
 the Revised Version. Promises whic^i are so 
 great cannot be of little value. The prom- 
 ises of God to the elect are resolvable into two 
 classes: the one pertains to the coming of a 
 Saviour ; tiie other, to the coming of the Holy 
 Spirit. The latter is the complement of the 
 former. It would not have been in accord- 
 ance with the boundless sweep of the divine 
 benevolence to give the one and withhold the 
 other. Neither class alone would have had 
 any practical preciousness; but conjoined, the 
 two classes of promises are of infinite value : 
 for they have as their object the glory of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
 in making men partakers of the divine nature. 
 For the first promise of the first class, see Gen. 
 3: 15. See in many of the Psalms, in Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, Micah, etc., promises 
 of each class so great and precious as to have 
 awakened the intensest interest of prophets 
 and angels. (i let. i: 10-12.) Us— both Peter 
 and those to whom he is writing. That — the 
 end for which the promises were given; for 
 these refers to projnises, not, as some say, to 
 glory and virtue. The contents of the prom- 
 ises, applied to their hearts, had already made 
 them so far like God that they are justly 
 called God's children. In so far as they are 
 the children of God, they have already be- 
 come partakers of the divine nature. But 
 the change is not complete. The efiect of the 
 promises will not be fully realized till the 
 next life. Might be — may become. Partak- 
 ing of the divine nature implies no loss of 
 their own individuality, no absorption of their 
 personality in the personality of God. They 
 partake of God's nature while retaining 
 their own nature. Thej' lose their own nature 
 viewed as depravity, but viewed as organic 
 and constitutional their nature cannot be ab- 
 sorbed into the nature of God. In regenera- 
 tion God's spiritual life, not his essence, is 
 communicated to the soul. In that sense they 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 83 
 
 of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption 
 that is ill tlie world througli lust. 
 
 5 And besides this, giving all diligence, add to yuiir 
 faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 
 
 takers of 'the divine nature, having escaped from 
 
 5 the corruption tliat is in the world by lust. Vea, 
 and lor tliis very cause adding on your part all dili- 
 gence, in your faith supply virtue; aud in your 
 
 6 virtue knowledge; aud in yuur knowledge -teuiper- 
 
 1 Or, a '2 Or, self-control. 
 
 become sharers of God's nature, and only in 
 that sense can they be said to have a new na- 
 ture. See Heb. 12: 10 ("partakers of his 
 holiness"); 1 John 3: 2 ("shall be like 
 him"); and compare John 1: 12, 13; 1 Pet. 1: 
 23. May become implies growth, but might 
 be expresses (which the apostle does not mean 
 to express) a sudden, instantaneous, and com- 
 pleted participation. Having escaped— a 
 strong representation, having escaped from. 
 It hints their activity, but makes prominent 
 the result of God's interposition— a wonderful 
 deliverance, since that from which they were 
 delivered was so terrible. The corruption. 
 It describes the moral filth of the world with- 
 out Christianity. (2 : 12, 19.) Paul uses the same 
 word in Rom. 8: 21 ("bondage of corrup- 
 tion"), contrasting it with the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God, and in Gal. 6: 8 
 ("sli^ll of the flesh reap corruption"). The 
 fearful immorality which, with few excep- 
 tions, characterized the social life of Greece 
 and Rome, the highest state as well as the 
 lowest, and which has equally marked non- 
 Christian society in all lands and all times, 
 fully justifies the apostolic application of the 
 term 'corruption.' The vileness of man left 
 traces of itself in durable form on the walls 
 of dwellings and in bronze castings, the detail 
 of which would be indecorous to relate; and 
 in proportion as society, after being purified 
 by Christianity, has withdrawn from the puri- 
 fying influence, it has relapsed into similar 
 pollution. The world's corruption, which is 
 founded in lust, expresses the meaning. 
 
 5-7. What God has done for them should 
 lead them to the manifestation of appropriate 
 Christian traits. The contrast, on the one 
 hand, between divine power, life, and godli- 
 ness, knowledge of God, divine calling, glory 
 and virtue, precious and exceeding great 
 promises, sharing the divine nature; and, on 
 'the other hand, the corruption, which, origi- 
 nating in lust, pervades the world, is a strong 
 ground of appeal. And besides this— but 
 for this very reason also. The connection is 
 with 'according as' in ver. 3, thus: Inasmuch 
 
 as, or, as explained above, knowhig that, all 
 things have been given to us by his divine 
 power, etc.— /or this very reason manifest the 
 Christian virtues which I am about to enu- 
 merate. If Paul was the first Christian logi- 
 cian of the apo^tolic time, certainly Puter was 
 the second. Paul reasoned more, but Peter, 
 when he reasoned, reasoned as divinely as 
 Paul. In ver. 3 and 4 we have premises 
 which are laid in God's power, glory, and 
 promise, and here in ver. 5-7 are practical 
 conclusions, under the popular form of ex- 
 hortation, which flow from the premises with 
 conclusiveness, not inferior to that which 
 marks any section of Paul's great Epistle to 
 the Romans. Giving all diligence— ea^Ai6- 
 iting on your part earnestness. The apostle 
 has told them in ver. 3, 4 what God has 
 given them, and now he tells them what they 
 ought to do. Add. From this word the 
 pulpit has drawn material for its rhetoric, 
 but the idea of arithmetical addition is not 
 Peter's. Furnish or yninister, or sjipply (Re- 
 vised Version), probably expresses the sense. 
 See ver. 11, where for "shall be ministered" 
 {shall be supplied. Revised Version) is the 
 same Greek word; 2 Cor. 9: 10, ministereth 
 (supplieth, Revised Version); Gal. 3: 5, min- 
 istereth {supplieth, Revised Version). The 
 preposition in (iv) is not, strange to say, trans- 
 lated at all in the Common Version, for to was 
 not intended as a rendering of the Greek 
 preposition. But in is the onlj' translation 
 which the word here admits. Thus the apos- 
 tle says, in your faith minister (or supply) 
 virtue. You have faith; see that it be such 
 as to include virtue, leading to it and em- 
 bracing it. By virtut may be meant some- 
 thing more specific than moral excellence, as 
 fortitude, energy, vigor (in the Cliristian life, 
 and therefore a Christian virtue). Cremer 
 gives it the more general meaning. And 
 to {in) virtue {supply) iinowledge. For 
 the meaning of 'knowledge,' as used in ver. 
 2, 3, see on ver. 2. While not excluding the 
 ideas there expressed, it mjiy here be used 
 more distinctly of the practical understand- 
 
84 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 6 And to knowledge, temperance; and to temper- 
 ance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; 
 
 7 And to gudliuess, brotherly kindness ; and to broth- 
 erly kinilness, charity. 
 
 S For if these things be in you, and abound, they 
 make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruillul 
 in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 ance; and in your i temperance ^ patience; and in 
 
 7 your ^patience godliness; and in your godliness 
 ii brotherly kindness; and in yowr 3 brotherly kind- 
 
 8 ness love. For if these things are yours and 
 abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful 
 
 1 Or, ^e^f■control 2 Or, stead/aatneas 3 6r. loveo/the brethren. 
 
 ing which is so necessary to the successful 
 accomplishment of the ends of tiieir new life. 
 They must not be satisfied with virtue. In 
 it should be supplied knowledge. Without 
 knowledge their virtue miglit be erratic. 
 And to (in) knowledge (supp/y) temper- 
 ance. You have knowledge; let it be such 
 as to include temperance. By 'temperance' is 
 meant self-control in ail respects, tiiough witli 
 special reference to the passions. See Acts 
 24: 25; Gal. 5: 23. And to (in) temperance 
 (supply) patience — patience under trials, 
 whether of cares or of persecutions — a virtue 
 often enjoined in the First Epistle. And to 
 {in) patience {siipply) godliness— i. e., 
 right disposition toward God. 
 
 7. And to (in) godliness {supply) bro- 
 therly kindness. Let your godliness be 
 such as to lead to and so include brotherly 
 kindness. The Greek is the same as in 1 Pet. 
 1:22 ("love of the brethren"'); 3: 8 ("love 
 as brethren "). Eight disposition toward God 
 (godliness) implies love toward Christian 
 brethren, though it is equally true that love. 
 Christian love, toward the disciples of Christ 
 implies right disposition toward God. See 1 
 John 4: 20; 2: 9; 3: 11, 14, 17; 4: 11. And 
 to (in) brotherly kindness (supply) charity 
 {love). The latter is tlie more comprehensive, 
 all mankind being its object, (i Tress. 3: 12; cai. 
 6:10.) One of the few infelicitous renderings 
 by the Revised Version is this final clause of 
 the series : in your love of the brethren love. 
 Twice they use the same English word love 
 where the Greek usesVlifferent words: brotherly 
 love or kindness (ii>i\aSe\(i>ia.) and love (ayamiv). 
 To the Greek reader of the Epistle, there 
 could have been nothing so "intolerable" as 
 the Revised Version gives us. The American 
 Committee would have preferred brotherly 
 kindness, and in some American editions this 
 rendering is substitued. The sense of this 
 clause may be expressed like that of the 
 others: as you have love for the brethren, let 
 it be such as to lead to universal love. If it 
 is such as it ought to be, it will produce love 
 
 for all mankind. It should be noticed, then, 
 that these virtues are organically related. 
 The relation is somewhat of a causal nature — 
 that is, faith may cause virtue, and virtue 
 may cause knovdedge — not, strictly, originat- 
 ing, but causing a more abundant fruitage of 
 what had already been originated. 
 
 8. For points to the reason why they should 
 minister in their faith such virtues: they will 
 attain to much knowledge of Christ. So the 
 Spirit leads back the apostle to the very posi- 
 tion which he took in ver. 2. There he wishes 
 them knowledge; here he assures them that 
 having the virtues they will have the knowl- 
 edge. Such knowledge as Peter means is 
 heart knowledge quite as much as head knowl- 
 edge, and therefore the knowledge and the 
 virtues may not alwaj's be easily distinguished. 
 Which precedes, it is difficult to say. God's 
 working is not limited to a given order. 
 Know God and his Son Jesus Christ, and 
 Christian graces will thrive; cultivate Ciiris- 
 tian graces, and knowledge of God will in- 
 crease. These things — the virtues of ver. .5-7. 
 Be in you — are (really) yours. Abound — 
 an expressive word in the Greek — literall}', to 
 do, or, be more (than enough j. Not dwarfs, 
 but amply developed and ever developing 
 must all these virtues be, if the result men- 
 tioned in the latter part of the verse is to be 
 attained. If does not imply doubt. No Avord 
 for 'if is used in the original. These things 
 being in you and abounding is the literal ren- 
 dering. 'Barren— idle or slothful. They 
 make. According to Lillie the idea is, ren- 
 der, constitute, you, establish your character 
 as, not idle, not unfruitful in (as to) the true 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. A bet- 
 ter view is that which, making in (eU) equiva- 
 lent to into, represents the knowledge as the 
 aim toward an ever greater measure of which 
 they are continually to advance. They ren- 
 der you neither slothful nor unfruitful into 
 the knowledge — that is, in advancing in the 
 knowledge of. Yet, as hinted above, this 
 does not imply that in no degree is practicing 
 
Ch. L] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 85 
 
 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can- 
 not see afar otl', and hatti forgotten that he was purged 
 from his old sins. 
 
 9 unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For 
 he that laeketh these tilings is blind, 'seeing only 
 what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from 
 
 1 Or, closing hit eyes. 
 
 the Christian virtues preceded by the knowl- 
 edge of Christ. Notice that it is not, as in 
 ver. 2, knowledge of God and of Jesus our 
 Lord. Knowledge of Christ, then, is knowl- 
 edge of God. In this verse are traces of the 
 Lord's teaching: 'idle' in the market place 
 (Man. '20: 3); hebecomcth 'unfruitful' (Matt. is : 22). 
 There may have been no conscious reference 
 to the Lord's use of the words, yet the words 
 are like reflected touches of light, which the 
 artist's pencil has left upon the canvas. See 
 a remarkably condensed expression of the 
 same sentiment made by the Lord to his dis- 
 ciples on the mountain : " Blessed are the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 (Matt. 5: 8.) The jottj'c in heart is expanded by 
 the apostle, not consciously, perhaps, into the 
 numerous virtues of ver. 5-7, and 'see God' 
 is represented in 'the knowledge of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ.' 
 
 9, But should be /or. The positive (ver. s) 
 is offset by the negative view, and is thereby 
 confirmed — not an uncommon rhetorical way 
 of enforcing a truth. What is called the 
 rhetorical way may be the natural way. The 
 apostle perhaps knew little of rhetoric; but 
 illumined, controlled, inspired, by the Spirit 
 of God, he wrote according to nature. These 
 things corresponds with these things in ver. 
 8, and therefore to the virtues specified in ver. 
 5-7. That lacketh— in striking contrast with 
 him 'who abounds.' These virtues no man 
 has till he has been born again, but most men 
 have the opposite sins. Is blind. Applied 
 originally to the eyes, it was applied figura- 
 tively and with great significance to the 
 mind; and while the intellect of man is blind, 
 it is chiefly the heart (the affections) in which 
 blindness is seated. The blindness is aliena- 
 tion from spiritual things, which does in- 
 deed produce stupidity of understanding; 
 but the latter is more the effect of the former 
 than the cause. See Matt. 15: 14; Luke 4: 
 18; Rom. 2: 19; Rev. 3: 17. Cannot see 
 afar off— not a waste of words, but explana- 
 tory of 'blind.' He is so fi\r blind that he 
 cannot see afar off {seeing only what is near, 
 Revised Version); he is near-sighted. The 
 Greek word is compounded of two, which 
 
 mean to close or blink the eyes, which is a 
 peculiarity of many near-sighted persons 
 when, without artificial help, they desire to 
 see a distant object. Those who lack the vir- 
 tues in question are near-sighted, inasmuch as 
 they cannot see things which are eternal and 
 invisible. (2Cor. 4:i8.) God is invisible (Coi. i: 
 15; 1 Tim. 1: 17) ; his attributes are invisible (Rom. 
 1: 20) ; but according to Heb. 11 : 27, the unseen 
 can be seen. Tliough lacking Christian vir- 
 tues, yet one may have sharp sight relative to 
 things which are near — of this world. And 
 hath forgotten. When the heart has lost 
 interest in the invisible, memory is brittle 
 relative to things spiritual. It will fail to do 
 its oflBce respecting even the work which has 
 been done, or is believed to have been done, 
 on the very mind of which memory is itself 
 one of the faculties ; as, for example, the work 
 of being cleansed from former sins. That 
 he was purged — more literally, having for- 
 gotten the cleansing. The Greek for 'cleans- 
 ing' is the same as is used in Heb. 1: 3 
 ("When he \\?id prirged, cleansed, our sins"). 
 It was used of Jewish ceremonial washings 
 (.iohn2:6), and of the purification of lepers. 
 (Luke 5: 14.) But in what sense is he here said 
 to be cleansed from his sins? It should be 
 remarked as preliminary that the case is a 
 supposed one rather than one directly and 
 positively aflfirmed, though this does not ap- 
 pear from the Common Version or from the 
 Revision. The sense is this : For he to whom 
 these may be wanting — he who, by supposi- 
 tion, i« lacking these things. It may, there- 
 fore, refer to a regenerated soul, without 
 necessarily teaching, in contradiction to other 
 Scriptures, an actual and continued fall. 
 Like many other passages, it may be of the 
 nature of a warning against apostasy. (Heb. 2: 
 1-3; 4: i| 6:1-9; io:2fi-29.) If it refer to a regene- 
 rated person, he was cleansed from his sins 
 in the sense of being delivered from their 
 dominion, which deliverance was effected 
 through the atoning death of Christ received 
 by faith. It may not be justifiable, however, 
 to ground so important a view upon a very 
 delicate peculiarity of the Greek tongue. In 
 that case it must be assumed, in harmony 
 
86 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence 
 to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do 
 these things ye shall never fall: 
 
 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you 
 abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 10 his old sins. Wherefore, brethren, give the more 
 diligence to make your calling and election sure: 
 for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: 
 
 11 for thus shall be richly supi)lied unto you the en- 
 trance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 with numerous passages which teach that no 
 regenerated person will suffer a final, fatal 
 fall ; that being unregenerated, he belongs to 
 that class of which there are not a few in 
 every age, who are greatly enlightened and 
 deeply affected by spiritual things, and at 
 length identify themselves with the people of 
 God by baptism, and show during a short 
 period much interest in whatever concerns 
 the kingdom of Christ, but, having no root in 
 themiselves, wither away. (Matt, ltib.) Such a 
 man forgets that he was, as he thought and as 
 he appeared to others, cleansed from his old 
 sins, such, perhaps, as are described in 1 Pet. 
 4: 3. 
 
 10. The arrangement of the Greek is very 
 emphatic: Wherefore the rather, brethren, 
 be in earnest, sure your calling and election to 
 vtake, for these things doing, not by any 
 means shall ye fall ever. Every word drives 
 the nail further, and the last clinches it be- 
 yond the possibility of being drawn. Where- 
 fore — in view of the assurance ('er. s), and the 
 warning. (ver9.) The rather — all the more 
 in view of the assurance and the warning. 
 Brethren — never used in the First Epistle, 
 and used only here in this. He addresses in 
 the same way those who killed the Prince of 
 Life (Acts 3: 17) ; but Only as descendants with 
 himself from the founder of the nation, Abra- 
 ham. The readers are his brethren as born, 
 like himself, from above. It is even more 
 significant than dearly beloved in 1 Pet. 2: 11. 
 He and they have one Father. The rather 
 {the more) give diligence— //ire the more 
 diligence — i. e., be the more earnest. Calling. 
 See on elect. (i .'»et. i:2.) 'Calling' stands 
 before election — not because they were first 
 called, and then, having accepted the call, 
 were elected; but because he is just now giv- 
 ing special prominence to what has been done 
 for them in this life, not to what God did 
 from eternity. But can they do anything 
 toward making their calling and election 
 sure ? "What can be surer than God's eternal 
 purpose and God's call? But how are Mey 
 to feel sure that they were elected and called? 
 Ananias and Sapphira must have felt quite 
 
 confident at the time of their baptism that 
 the question of their salvation had been settled 
 in the counsels of God ; and it had been settled, 
 but not in the way they supposed. Dishonesty 
 and Ij'ing spoke terribly against the supposi- 
 tion that they had been elected ; for those who 
 are elected are elected to holiness, not less 
 than to heaven. The readers are to make 
 their calling and election sure by doing these 
 things — that is, by having (abounding in) the 
 Christian virtues. So a holy life will prove 
 to themselves that they were elected and 
 called. Peter strikes hard blows at Antino- 
 mianism. Shall never fall — shall not by any 
 means ever stum,ble, and so hise salvation. 
 Peter has not forgotten his Master's doctrine. 
 They shall never perish. ( Johu lo : as.) 
 
 11. This verse gives the blessed result ; and 
 this, as an expansion of the thought ' Ye shall 
 never fall,' enforces the duty of doing these 
 things : {for so). Ministered. The Greek 
 for ' ministered ' is the same as in ver. 3 {add 
 to). Abundantly — richly; a word which, 
 though applied to earthly things, is beauti- 
 fully applied also to things spiritual. En- 
 trance. Strictly, ' ministered richly ' quali- 
 fies ' entrance ' ; yet the idea pertains to what 
 is to come after the entrance — eternal bli.ss. 
 Compare 1 Pet. 4: 18 (the righteous scarcely 
 saved), and see notes, first paragraph. That 
 one should be satisfied with the prospect of 
 being barely able to pass through the heavenly 
 gate, speaks poorly for hisviewof the " wide- 
 ness of God's mercy." The gate is strait and 
 the way is narrow which leadeth unto life ; but 
 the gate at the other end is broad to him who 
 has been neither slothful nor unfruitful in the 
 knowledge of Christ. Kingdom— a word 
 often used by our Lord, but rare in the writ- 
 ings of our apostle. It expresses substantially 
 the same as 'inheritance' (i Pet. i: 4) ; but that 
 views heaven as related to the believer, this as 
 related to Christ. Heaven is conceived as a 
 kingdom over which Christ reigns, yet as cm- 
 braced within certain limits ; whence the ex- 
 pression, ' entrance into.' The conceptinn of 
 a kingdom into which the subjects of Christ 
 are to enter after death is not contradictory to 
 
Ch. L] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 87 
 
 12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put yon al- 
 ways in reuieiubrance of these things, though ye know 
 (hem, and be eslablislied in the present truth. 
 
 \'i Yet', 1 lliink it meet, as long as I am in this taber- 
 nacle, to stir you up by putting ymi in remembrance; 
 
 14 Knjwiug that shortly I nmst put otl' this my tab- 
 ernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 
 
 15 Moreover 1 will endeavour tliat ye may be able 
 
 12 Wherefore I shall be ready always to |)ut you in 
 remembrance of these things, though ye know'tliem, 
 and are established in the truth which is with ij<„.. 
 
 13 And 1 think it right, as long as I am in this tatier- 
 nacle, to stir you up by jiutting you in remem- 
 
 14 braiice; knowing that the putting off of my taber- 
 nacle Cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus I hrist 
 
 15 signified unto me. Yea, I will give diligence that 
 
 the idea of a kingdom in this world. (Matt. 3:2.) 
 The kingdom has been already set up, and 
 Christ is even now reigning; but as it is not here 
 in its completed form, it is represented as it is 
 in the v'er.-;e before us. See Matt. 8: 11. The 
 conception of ti kingdom consisting of persons 
 regenerated by the Holy Spirit is expressed in 
 Jer. 23 : 5 ; Dan. 2 : 44, and many other places. 
 Christ's kingdom msiy be viewed as external, 
 as internal, as beginning, as advancing, as 
 completed. God the Father is represented as 
 King, and as having a kingdom: "Our 
 Father who art in heaven. Thy kingdom 
 come." But the kingdom is generally viewed 
 as reigned over by Christ. Christ reigns over 
 itas Glad's Vicegerent. In thismediatorialca- 
 pacit}% Christ must reign tillhe hasputallene- 
 mies under his feet (1 Cor. is: 25), and when that 
 glorious end shall havecotiie, he will relinquish 
 his mediatorial character, delivering up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father ; but the 
 kingdom itself will continue forever. It is 
 impossible that that should come to an end, 
 unless those who constitute it shall all either 
 become disloyal, or be annihilated. Ever- 
 lasting — eternal; used also in Matt. 25: 46; 
 and, what is very striking, the Greek word is 
 there applied to future punishment as well as 
 to future bliss. 
 
 12-21. Section Second. The reason 
 which prompted the apostle to write, and the 
 truth of what he has taught, rehitive to the 
 second coming of Christ. 
 
 12. Wherefore— in view of all I have said, 
 but especiallj' in view of the grand final result, 
 (ver.u.) Will notbenegligent. Anotherand 
 approved Greek reading gives the meaning, / 
 vnU, I intend, and mtiy be rendered freely, / 
 will be ready. These things— the things 
 concerning which he has been writing. Peter, 
 so fofgetfiil of some things in the early part 
 of hi-: Christian life, is deeply impressed with 
 the importance of reminding the readers con- 
 cerning all these gracious things. Though 
 ye know. Memory is frail even respecting 
 things which we know ; the more worldly the 
 more forgetful. Present truth— truth of the 
 11 
 
 present gospel ; truth now preached by apos- 
 tles, and now believed by the readers. 
 
 13. Yea— rather, but — but though ye know 
 them. Meet— proper or ft. This taber- 
 nacle — this tent, the human body. (2Cor. 5: 1.) 
 Like a soldier's or a traveler's tent, the body 
 is only for temporary use, is frail, and is easily 
 taken down. As a tent is for human beings to 
 dwell in, so the body is the earthly dwelling 
 place of the immortal spirit. Hence it would 
 be improper to apply the figure to animals. As 
 long as. The apostle has no thought of " re- 
 tiring." Stir you up— not that they were 
 asleep, as he himself once slept in Gethsemane, 
 but that he purposes not to allow them to 
 sleep. Literally, 'to stir you up' in remem- 
 brance. As long as he shall continue to live, 
 he will continue to put them in mind, so that 
 his exhortations may be remembered. 
 
 14. He is the more strongly impelled to this 
 by the fact that the opportunity to do so will 
 soon be closed. Knowing that shortly — 
 more exactly, swiftly, as in the Kevised Ver- 
 sion. He knows that his death is to be sudden. 
 How many of the apostles left the world by 
 means of sickness is unknown. Peter ex- 
 pects to die by martyrdom, as his Lord (J.'hn 21 : 
 18.19) shewed him (not hath shewed him), 
 indicated to him. Some say he learned it by 
 revelation made at a later time— possible, not 
 probable. The verb is in just the tense which 
 Peter would have used had he meant the time 
 referred to in John. The apostle has no re- 
 luctance to call to mind the fact of his de- 
 parture from this world, and the fact that he 
 must suffer death at the hands of the wicked. 
 He is indeed to meet him whom he once de- 
 nied, but long ago he received assurance of 
 his Master's readiness to recognize him as his 
 penitent disciple whenever the hour of his 
 martyrdom should come. 
 
 For when thy deadly need is bitterest, 
 Thou shalt not be denied, as I am here — 
 
 My voice, to (Jod and angels, shall attest,— 
 Because I know this man, let him be clear. 
 
 15. Moreover— but also. The 'also' points 
 to the time after he shall Imve- gone. They 
 
88 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 after my decease to have these things always in re- 
 membrance. 
 
 16 For we have not followed cunningly devised 
 fables, when we made known unto you the power 
 and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
 witnesses of his majesty. 
 
 at every time ye may be able after my i decease 
 16 to call these things to remembrance. For we did 
 not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made 
 known unto you the power and '^coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of 
 
 1 Or, departure 2 Gr. presence. 
 
 must remember the things, not only before, 
 but ' also ' after, he dies. But how are they to 
 be aided in remembering them? By this 
 very Epistle. Some think he refers to the 
 Gospel of Mark. That is possible, but it would 
 meet the requirement of the case if he should 
 be supposed to refer only to the present Epis- 
 tle. After my decease — literally, after my 
 exodus, departure, journey out of; that is, 
 out of this world. This word (efoSos) in the 
 sense of death is rare, and it is an interesting 
 fact that the death of the apostle's Master, 
 which formed the subject of conversation on 
 the Mount of Transfiguration, is expressed 
 by the same word : " Who appeared in glory 
 and spake of his decease" {his exodus). Does 
 Peter make this uncommon use of the word 
 because he remembers it as used then ? It 
 viay not have been used in the conversation 
 itself, but as Luke uses it in his narrative 
 (9: 31) it is probable that it had been used in 
 the conversation. In ver. 11 is the opposite 
 word (eicroSos, a joumey into, "entrance"). 
 To go out of such a world as this without go- 
 ing into such a world as heaven is inconceiv- 
 ably deplorable. Always. A periodical re- 
 membrance will not suffice. Alternation of 
 remembering and forgetting is condemned. 
 Romanism has sharp sight. It is able to see 
 here the doctrine of the saint's intercession 
 in heaven on behalf of saints on the earth. 
 Peter is instructing Christians that he will in- 
 tercede for them after his decease ! A logical 
 inference would be that all Christians on the 
 earth may pray to Peter in heaven to pray to 
 God for them. See "Path to Paradise; or 
 Catholic Christians' Manual," pp. 141-145, 
 Dublin, 1846, in which is a long list of per- 
 sons from that of "Holy Mary" to "St. 
 Bridget" and all the "holy virgins and 
 •widows," for whose prayers Roman Catholics 
 are taught to pray, and in the list are the 
 names of the apostles headed by that of Peter. 
 16. For. The writer now proceeds to 
 strengthen the position which he has taken. 
 In his teaching he gave prominence to the 
 power and coming of Christ, and he purposes 
 
 to show that that teaching was truth : 1. By 
 what he knew had occurred on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration ; 2. By ancient prophecy. 
 This shown, he will have justified the preced- 
 ing exhortation. Have not followed — did 
 not follow. Fables — myths, and these wore 
 devised (invented and wrought) cunningly 
 (with great skill). A myth is a story with 
 little or no historical basis. The mj'th has 
 been defended as adapted to do the people 
 good, but instead of healing the fever of sin it 
 inflamed it. The Jews had their myths, as well 
 as the Greeks and the Romans. Scarcely any 
 people have been without a large stock of 
 fabulous stories, and nearly all of them have 
 been supremely silly. 
 
 Let all the heathen writers join 
 
 To form one perfect book ; 
 Great God, if once compared with thine, 
 
 How mean their writings look ! 
 
 Fables like -^sop's belong to a different 
 class. They are simple, beautiful, and in- 
 structive. In his preface to "Antiquities of 
 the Jews," Josephus says: "For as to other 
 legislators" (contrasting them with Moses), 
 "they followed fables; and by their dis- 
 courses transferred the most reproachful of 
 human vices unto the gods, and so afforded 
 wicked men plausible excuses for their 
 crimes." Elsewhere he speaks of Moses as 
 having "preserved his writings from those 
 indecent fables which others have framed." 
 To what myths Peter referred is of no import- 
 ance. When we — the apostles in general, 
 and in particular John and James, those 
 being the two who, with himself, were in the 
 holy mount, (ve-.w.) They made known by 
 preaching, and perhaps by their writings. It 
 is possible that Peter includes his own First 
 Epistle. The power and coming of, etc. 
 
 'Coming' (3: <; Matt, it: 3, 27; 1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 
 
 2: 19) at the last day to judge the world ; ' the 
 power' displayed at that time. They are 
 viewed as prefigured in the events of the 
 Transfiguration, and only so is his argument 
 pertinent. Were eye-witnesses. TheEleu- 
 i sinia were a celebrated religious festival of the 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 89 
 
 17 For he received from God the Father honour and 
 glory, when there caiue such a voice to hiiu from the 
 excellent glory, This is my beloved Sou, in whom I am 
 well pleased. 
 
 IS And this voice which came from heaven we heard, 
 when we were with him in the holy mount. 
 
 17 his majesty. For he ' received from God the Father 
 honour and glory, when there was borne such a 
 voice to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my 
 
 18 beloved Son, in whom 1 am well pleased: and tins 
 voice we ourstlves heard borne out of heaven, when 
 
 1 Gr. Aautn; received. 
 
 Greeks in honor of two of their deities. 
 Everything dune was supposed to be a mys- 
 tery, and hence the name, ELeiisinian Myste- 
 ries. Initiation into the mysteries was con- 
 sidered as one of the most obligatory and 
 sacred of all human rites. In one year, pass- 
 ing from the less mysteries, they were initi- 
 ated into the greater, and then were called 
 epoptai (erroTTTai), the name implying that they 
 now look upon, see, the mysteries. This is 
 the word used by the apostle : we were ' eye- 
 witnesses' of his majesty. Of course, the 
 word is used in a Christian sense, but its use 
 seems to imply that what he and his compan- 
 i(ms, James and John, saw on the Mount was 
 of the nature of a secret or mystery to which 
 they were admitted, in distinction from the 
 other apostles. His majesty— ^r^or?/, as seen 
 on the Mount. The Greek word is the same 
 as was used by Demetrius, the silversmith, 
 who made little portable temples containing 
 an image of Diana: "And her ')nagnificence 
 (glor\') should be destroyed.'' (Acts i9: 27.) 
 The glory of Christ, and the glory of the god- 
 dess Diana! Wealth of meaning in the one, 
 and shriveled poverty in the other! "Noth- 
 ing but myths," says the unbeliever. "We 
 have not followed artfully wrought myths," 
 saj's Peter. Let the Christian cling with the 
 confidence of an apostle to the gospel as con- 
 taining, not fables wrought by "the cunning 
 craftiness" of men, but truth revealed by 
 God himself. 
 
 17. For. He now shows, by what he had 
 himself seen on the Mount, that his teaching 
 relative to the coming of Christ was true. 
 He — Christ. Honor and glory. See Rom. 
 2: 7, 10. 'Glory'— not the brilliant light 
 whicTi proceeded from the Lord's person 
 (Malt. 17:2: Mark9:3); this was additional to that. 
 It came directly from Gnd the Father, and it 
 consisted of the remarkable audible expres- 
 sion of the Father's approval and love — an 
 approval of him not merely as a good man, 
 but as his beloved Son — as his Son in a sense 
 applicable to no other being. When, etc. — 
 literally, such a voice being borne to him. 
 
 From the excellent glory — by instead of 
 'from.' ''All other expositions,' saj's Winer, 
 "are arbitrary." By 'excellent (sublime) 
 glory' is meant, not heaven, but God himself, 
 the exalted Majesty. (Winer.) JMy beloved 
 Son. The original is very expressive, and 
 cannot be reproduced in good English. With 
 naked literalness it would be: the Son of me, 
 the beloved. The idea may be expressed thus: 
 My Son, who is the beloved. Whether the 
 words "the Son of God" are used in the 
 Scriptures to express the deity of Christ, or 
 only his Messianic office, has long been a 
 mooted question. It is certain that the Jews 
 understood it as implying equality with God. 
 (John 5: 18.) " Thou art my Son, this day have 
 I begotten thee" (Ps. 2:7) is clearly applicable 
 to Jesus Christ, as is the entire Psalm ; and 
 on the surface of the passage it seems to be 
 taught that the Sonship of Christ had a begin- 
 ning, and if it had a beginning, the beginning 
 may have been at the incarnation (Johni:u), 
 or at the baptism (Matt. 3: ib, n), or at the resur- 
 rection. (Rom. 1:4.) In either case it may be 
 only the declaration that he was the Son <if 
 God which is referred to. He may have been 
 God's Son from eternity, but the declaration 
 or recognition of the fact may have been 
 made in time. See Crit. Note. In whom, 
 etc. On whom I let my pleasure rest is a 
 more exact expression of the thought; or, my 
 good pleasnrejixed upon him. (Winer.) See 
 Crit. Notes. The verb expresses the feelings 
 which God had toward him before he came 
 into the world, while the context shows that 
 such are God's feelings still. He who is dis- 
 j)leased with one on whom God's pleasure is 
 fixed, needs something more than God's good- 
 ness: he needs God's mercy. 
 
 18. This voice, not the mere sound, they 
 guessing the meaning, but the words. Which 
 came. Correctl}', we heard borne out of 
 heaven (American Revisers); heard come 
 (English Revisers; in the margin, brought). 
 We — Peter, James, and John. Here, unlike 
 what is often the case, the pronoun in the 
 original is expressed, and for emphasis, we 
 
90 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; where- 
 unto ye do well that ye take heed, as umo a light that 
 shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the 
 daystar arise in your hearts: 
 
 20 Knowing this tirst, that no prophecy of the Scrip- 
 ture is of any private interpretation. 
 
 19 we were with him in the holy mount. And we have 
 the word of prophecy made more sure ; whereunto 
 ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining 
 iu a idark place, until the day dawn, and the day- 
 
 20 star arise in your hearts : knowing this first, that 
 
 1 Gr. squalid. 
 
 ourselves (Rev. Ver. ), not some other persons, 
 or perhaps better, we, consciously we, heard 
 it. When we were with him. It is when 
 we are in conscious communion with Christ 
 that we feel most deeply the force of the evi- 
 dence that Christ was and is the special object 
 of God's love. Holy mount— not yet cer- 
 tainly known. Mount Tabor has generally 
 had the honor, but without reason. It was 
 more probably an elevation near Mount Her- 
 mon. 'Holy': sacred in consequence of 
 the events which occurred. 
 
 19. With the last verse he completed his 
 first argument in support of his teaching con- 
 cerning Christ's power and coming, and he 
 now presents his second argument. The for- 
 mer is based upon what he had seen and 
 heard on the Mount, the latter upon the pro- 
 phetic Scriptures. Also {and) stands first in 
 the Greek, and points to this new source of 
 evidence. A more sure word of prophecy. 
 Either of two translations is possible: 1. We 
 have a surer, the prophetic, word. This makes 
 a direct and strong comparison with some- 
 thing else, and the question arises, "With 
 what? With the evidence drawn from what 
 he and two other apostles had witnessed? 
 But how could he seem to disparage the 
 strength of the first argument? Was not 
 that decisive, and strongly decisive, of the 
 truthfulness of his teaching? 2. We have as 
 surer (more certain), the prophetic word, 
 which is an equally correct rendering, and 
 saves from all disparaging contrast with the 
 evidence just given. Peter, then, may be un- 
 derstood as saying : " In consequence of what 
 we saw and heard, and of which miraculous 
 things you yourselves have heard, we may 
 feel that the prophetic word is made more 
 certain ; we can have no doubt of the truth of 
 ancient prophecy respecting the future power 
 and comingof Christ." Many other explana- 
 tions have been given, but while this is not 
 without its difficulties, those have greater 
 ones. Word. The apostle groups all the 
 prophecies together, even all the words of the 
 Old Testament, and views them in their unity. 
 
 To him the ancient Scriptures are as but one 
 harmonious utterance of the H0I3' Spirit, 
 (ver. 21.) Do well — are doing well. He com- 
 mends their present interest in the word. 
 Then the rejection of the Old Testament, or 
 any part of it, is ill-doing. The Christian 
 who has little interest in the " Jewish " Scrip- 
 tures is quite too ignorant of the relation 
 between the Old Testament and the New Tes- 
 tament. The "Jewish" Scriptures are Chris- 
 tian in the sense that they as truly, though 
 not as exclusively and clearly, as the New 
 Testament, give forth divine music rehitive 
 to the power and coming of Christ. The stu- 
 dent of botany is not uninterested in the roots 
 and stock of a plant. The beauty which is 
 unfolded in the flower depends upon the stock 
 and roots. To take heed. It implies, not 
 mere attention, which in itself is merely- an 
 act of the intellect, but attention originated 
 and continued in faith. A light, a lamp. 
 That shineth — not, that shone. So the Old 
 Testament still gives light. Dark place— 
 the times of the Old Testament, or the earlier 
 and less enlightened state of believers, or the 
 world in general as it was then and as it 
 always is, apart from the Bible. The last 
 meaning is to be preferred. Until — take heed 
 until. The day— omit the article. Day- 
 star arise. The Greek word is phosphorus 
 (<^u)<7<i)opos, light-bearer); not the sun, but the 
 morning-star. Christ is the Morning Star 
 (Rev. 22:16), but hcrc the allusion is not to 
 Christ. Arise (above the horizon). The 
 time referred to is probably that of the second 
 coming of Christ, in which, as already seen 
 (ipet. 1: 13; 4:7, 13), the apostlc has SO deep an 
 interest. In your hearts — not implying that 
 their hearts are now in darkness, but at the 
 second coming the light of Christ will shine 
 so much more brightly that one is justified 
 in using language which seems to imply that 
 their present state is one of darkness — a verse 
 rich in sentiment and beautiful in coloring. 
 
 20. Knowing — connected with 'do well to 
 take heed' — thus: to which j'e are doing well 
 to take heed, while ye know, or, for ye know. 
 
Ch. I.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 91 
 
 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will [ no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation, 
 of man : but holy men of God spake as Ikey were moved 21 For no prophecy ever -'came by the will of man : 
 by the Holy Ghost. but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy 
 
 I Spirit. 
 
 1 Or, special 2 Gr. was brought. 
 
 First — of all (iTim. 2:i); first of all, in your 
 recollection or consciousness. (Heb. io;34.) This 
 (standing first in the Greek) gives greater 
 prominence to wiiat is to follow. It calls at- 
 tention. Scripture — the Old Testament. Any 
 private interpretation. Kome easily solves 
 the difficulty which has been supposed to lie 
 in these words. In the Douay Version is this 
 note : " This shows plainly that the Scriptures 
 are not to be expounded by any one's private 
 judgment or private spirit. . . . Some may 
 tell us that many of our divines interpret the 
 Scriptures; they may do so, but they do it 
 always with a submission to the judgment of 
 the Church, and not otherwise." In "The 
 Most Reverend Dr. James Butlers Cate- 
 chism," revised by four Roman Catholic 
 archbishops of Ireland, is the question : "How 
 do we know with certainty, what God has 
 taught?" Answer: "By the authority of 
 his Church." Says Archbishop Spalding 
 ("Miscellanea," p. 392): "The fatal source 
 of all this mischief is the principle of private 
 judgment in matters of religion, in opposition 
 to that of authority. The distracting and dis- 
 organizing principle of individuality has set 
 itself up against the great conservative princi- 
 ple of an authority, based on antiquity, and 
 secured from error by divine promise." The 
 interpretation of these words by the Roman 
 Catholic Church is therefore this : that noth- 
 ing in Scripture is to be explained by any in- 
 dividual for himself He must take the inter- 
 pretation made by the "Church," which is 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and only that. 
 As that body has itself often been fearfully 
 convulsed by warring opinions?, it follows that 
 the final decision must be made by the pope. 
 However immoral, the pope cannot err in 
 his interpretations of God's holy word, 
 and all other men whatsoever, relinqui.^hing 
 their own judgment, must rest upon his. Even 
 Protestants, while rejecting the Romish view, 
 are not quite agreed as to the meaning; but 
 the best view seems to be this: ^" That no 
 prophecy of Scripture is matter of one's ow7i 
 exj^lanation — that is, the prophets do not origi- 
 nate their own prophecies ; they receive them 
 
 entirely from above, as is clear from the fact 
 given in the next verse. Peter, therefore, 
 must be understood as saying nothing what- 
 ever relative to interpreting the Scriptures. 
 
 21. For confirms what he has just said con- 
 cerning the prophets as not originating pro- 
 phecy. The prophecy— omit 'the'— pro- 
 phecy in general. Came not— or, better, teas 
 never borne — in old time. By the will of 
 man. Not the human will, but the Holy 
 Spirit, was the source-of prophecy; j'et the 
 Holy Spirit did not impart the spirit of pro- 
 phecy to men, not even to Christian men, in 
 general; but, as we learn from other Scrip- 
 tures, to comparatively few, and these were 
 holy men of God. Were moved — borne by. 
 They were not, strictly speaking, passive, for 
 each prophet showed, in the stj'le of language 
 in which he uttered his prophecies, his own 
 mental peculiarities. 'Holy men of God' 
 (ayioi Seou ai/6pa)7rot), is regarded by textual 
 critics as of inferior authority to men from 
 God (aiTo S(ov avSpuiTToi) . Westcott and Hort 
 adopt this text. Assuming this as the correct 
 reading, we should have the translation, but 
 borne by the Holy Spirit, men spake from 
 God. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES. — CHAPTER I. 
 
 1. The student who has not access to the 
 work may desire to become acquainted with 
 what Cremer says ("Lexicon of New Testa- 
 ment Greek") concerning this much disputed 
 word, StKaiocrvvn (righteousness). "The right- 
 eousness of God is a state called forth by 
 God's act of justification — namely, by judicial 
 disengagement, or release from all that stands 
 in the way of iixaio? elvai" {becotning right- 
 eous), "a liberation of which man becomes 
 partaker by meansof faith. Hence, &ik. TriVTewt" 
 (righteousness of faith). "Rom. 4: 11-13, 
 €K TTiVTeuj ' • [from faith) \ "Rom. 9: 30; 10: 6, 
 to which expressions the others. Si*. Oioii (right- 
 eousness of God), « fleoO (righteousness from 
 God) — correspond. Comp. Heb. 11 : 7, rij^ «toTa 
 TTiiTTiv &iK. K. T. A." (the righteousness which is 
 by faith, etc.). "We see, therefore, that the 
 Pauline conception of righteousness, which, 
 
92 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. I. 
 
 as to form, always expresses a relation to the 
 judgment of God, includes this special fea- 
 ture—namely, it denotes the state of the believ- 
 ing man called forth by the divine acquittal, 
 and this is its force in all the passages in 
 question, Eom. 8: 10; Eph. 6: 14; 4: 24; 
 Kom. 5: 21; 6: 16; 2 Cor. G: 7, 14, etc. This 
 conception is to be recognized also in 2 Pet. 
 1:1,... where the absence of the article in 
 iv SiK." {in, or through, righteousness), "which 
 is more closely qualified by the following 
 genitive, and therefore cannot be taken ad- 
 verbially, as in Acts 17: 31, makes it more 
 diflScult to understand Uk t. *., k. t. a." (right- 
 eousness of God, etc.) "as the principle on 
 which it is communicated, and thus as the 
 subjective righteousness of God." It will be 
 noticed that iinpai-ted righteousness is not at 
 all Cremer's conception. Righteousness, or, 
 more specifically, holiness, is imparted to him 
 who accepts God's righteousness as above ex- 
 plained. Righteousness, as taught by Paul in 
 his Epistle to the Komans, is '"'' reckoned^ ^ (Ke- 
 vised Version) to the sinner, or, to use the old 
 word, which really means scarcely anything 
 different, imputed. Righteousness reckoned 
 is the foundation of righteousness imjoar^erf. 
 As the life of God is breathed into the soul at 
 the moment when righteousness is reckoned 
 to it, it is unnecessary to suppose any lapse of 
 time between the reckoning of righteousness 
 and the imparting of righteousness. For 
 aught we know, the two acts may be simulta- 
 neous, but their natures are different. 
 
 1. ToC fleoO ritt-Siv (cat (ToiT^pos 'IrjeroO Xpi<7Tov (oM/" 
 
 God and Saviour Jestis Christ). It will be 
 noticed that the Greek for Saviour has no 
 article. Our God and the Saviour would have 
 made it quite certain that two persons are 
 meant, God the Father and also the Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. Does the absence of the article 
 prove that two distinct persons are Jio^ meant? 
 and may we infer from this absence our 
 Saviour's deity? Reply: The exact reason 
 why Greek writers use the article, or do not 
 use it, cannot always be given. To make, 
 therefore, an important doctrine, like that of 
 the deity of Christ, turn on the presence or 
 the absence of the article is seldom to be justi- 
 fied. Still, as has been affirmed by learned 
 grammarians, it is grammatically possible in 
 the passage under consideration to refer fleoO 
 (God) as well as crwr^pos {Saviour) to 'IijaoO 
 
 XpitTTou {Jesus Christ) — that is, there is nothing 
 in the construction of the Greek language to 
 forbid it. On the other hand, it is remarka- 
 ble that Peter nowhere else, if here, applies 
 Seos (Goc?) to Jesus Christ. Expositors differ 
 concerning the question. The weight of crit- 
 ical authority is against the view that but one 
 is referred to. [It seems to me not only 
 "grammatically possible," but grammatically 
 natural to refer 8eov as well as ctut^pos to 'irjo-oC 
 xpicTToO. We need a positive reason for not 
 doing so. The circumstance that Peter does 
 not elsewhere call Jesus Christ God is of some 
 weight, but by no means decisive. Yet, as 
 tiiere is this ground for doubt, it is improper 
 to rely on the passage as a proof-text. — 
 A. H.] ■ 
 
 5, 7. That iiTLxopriyjiaaTe should not be trans- 
 lated add but minister or supply, and that ev 
 should be rendered in is held by the majority 
 of critical scholars. This is one of the pas- 
 sages used by Trench to illustrate the fact 
 that "our translators do not always seize the 
 precise force of the prepositions." "Tyn- 
 dale," he says, "had rendered the passage: 
 In your faith minister virtue, and i7i your 
 virtue knowledge, etc., and all the transla- 
 tions up to the Authorized had followed him. 
 Henry More ("On Godliness" b. 8; c. 3) has 
 well expressed the objection to 'the present 
 version: 'Grotius would have {hi) {iv) to be 
 redundant here ; so his suffrage is for the Eng- 
 lish translation. But, for my own part, I 
 think that iv is so far from being redundant 
 that it is essential to the sentence, and inter- 
 posed that we might understand a greater 
 mj'stery than the mere adding of so many 
 virtues one to another, which would be all 
 that could be expressly signified if iv were 
 left out. But the preposition here signifying 
 causality there is more than a mere enumera- 
 tion of those divine graces. For there is also 
 implied how naturally they rise one out of 
 another, and that they have a causal depend- 
 ence one of another.' See this thought 
 beautifully carried out in detail by Bengel." 
 
 When the passage is correctly understood, 
 the thought is felt to be one of great richness, 
 and the form of expression one of great 
 beauty. No figurative representation of these 
 eight virtues can do justice to the apostle's 
 thoughts. Links of a golden chain ; fruits 
 growing on the same tree ; faith the root and 
 
Ch. IL] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 B 
 
 UT there were false prophets also among the people, 
 
 even as there shall be I'alse teachers aiuuiig you, 
 
 who privily shall briug iu damnable heresies, even 
 
 1 But there arose false prophets also among the 
 people, as among you also there shall be fase teach- 
 ers, who shall privily briug iu 'destructive heresies, 
 
 1 Or, aecH of perdition. 
 
 love the flower; a building with fiiith for the 
 foundation and love as the crowning glory; 
 rosary and conjugation of Christian virtues; 
 adjoining colors of the rainbow all coalescing 
 into one bright orb of beauty; a garland of 
 virtues; the divine garden of a Christian 
 heart,— all which metaphors have been used 
 by different writers,— add little to Peter's de- 
 scription. The originality, simplicity, natu- 
 ralness, and easy flow of the inspired words 
 are remarkable. It is divine music. It is an 
 oratorio surpassing all that the great masters 
 have written. But apart from its beauty and 
 power, to what fullness of Christian character 
 does it incite us! Can it be the work of a 
 forger? The writer cannot refrain from say- 
 ing, that this one passage (si) with the verse 
 following should have saved the Epistle from 
 such severity of treatment as it has received 
 from a Christian scholar of England. 
 
 9. The Greek tongue has "two orders of 
 negatives," in the one of which is ov (not)., 
 and in tlie other of which is firi (not). The 
 former denies directly, the latter indirectly — 
 that is, the latter is used in general when the 
 writer wishes to express supposition or condi- 
 tion. See Winer, p. 453, ? 55, and Buttmann, 
 p. 344, § 148. Now, in ver. 9 the negative is 
 jt^: For he to whom these things are not{\y\\o 
 lacketh these things), as I am supposing; or 
 to whom these things tnay not be; or, again, 
 in better English, he who may not have these 
 things. The use of the conditional may 
 brings out with some degree of accuracy the 
 meaning intended to be expressed. 
 
 17. On whom my good pleasure fixed. The 
 preposition is els {in, Common Version and 
 the Revision), whereas in Matthew's own ac- 
 count of the Transfiguration (n: 5) it is iv {in). 
 The variation is worthy of being noticed; for, 
 as it has been well said, it is not the way in 
 which a forger would have acted. He would 
 have kept more closely to his model. 
 
 Part II. Section First. 
 Ch. 2. In this section (122) are described 
 the character and overthrow of false teachers. 
 
 Nothing so intensely severe is to be found in 
 the Bible, except in Matt. 23, and in the 
 Epistle of Jude. Jude's fiery bolts are hurled 
 against a simihir class of persons, and the ter- 
 rible woes recorded by Matthew fell from the 
 lips of Christ upon hypocrites. Peter's de- 
 nunciations crash along through the chapter 
 like successive peals of tiiunder. A moment's 
 pause at the mention of righteous Noah, just 
 Lot, and the forbearing angels, and the 
 thunder peals forth again more terrifically 
 than ever. That in this respect the Epistle 
 differs greatly from the First Epistle is no 
 more evidence that the Epistle was not 
 written bj' the author of the First, than the 
 great severity of the address in Matt. 23 
 proves that the address was not uttered by 
 him who delivered the remarkably tender 
 address of John 14. 
 
 1. But . . . also — in allusion to the true 
 prophets of former times. 'But' (on the 
 other hand), there aro-se 'also' (in addition 
 to them) very different prophets. False 
 prophets. False brethren (2Cor. n:26) were 
 persons who pretended to be real brethren 
 (related by regeneration to Christians) ; false 
 apostles (2 Cor. 11 : 13) were men who professed to 
 be apostles, but were not; a false Christ (Matt. 
 24:24) was a Christ only in pretence, not in 
 fact. By 'false prophets' is meant not, pri- 
 marily, i)ersons who prophesied false things, 
 but those who falsely professed to be prophets. 
 It implies, however, that such pretenders 
 prophesied false things. The people— the 
 
 Jews of ancient times. (Jer. 5: 31 ; 6: 13; 29-9;l3». 
 
 30:io;Ezek. 13:3, 6-9.) This historical fact is intro- 
 duced to prepare the way for speaking of 
 those who will soon arise among even Chris- 
 tians themselves. False teachers— persons 
 who falsely affirmed that they were true 
 teachers. It implies that they taught false- 
 hood. Even as— 'as' among you also. 
 Who privily, etc.— who shall bring in 
 stealthily (slyly). Damnnhie — does not ex- 
 press the meaning. The heresies were here- 
 sies of destruction, and that because they led 
 to destruction. Here the destruction of those 
 
94 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon 
 themselves swift destruction. 
 
 2 And many shall follow their pernicious wavs; 
 by reason of whom the way of truth shall be e"vil 
 spoken of. 
 
 denying even the Master that bought them, bring- 
 
 2 ing upon themselves swift destruction. And many 
 
 shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of 
 
 whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of. 
 
 who were taught may be implied, but chiefly, 
 as is clear from the last clause, of those who 
 taught. The word for 'damnable' is the same 
 as the word there used for destruction. 
 Heresies. This word, now so commonly 
 used to express false doctrine, has, generally, 
 in the Acts, the simple meaning of sect (Acts 
 
 5: 17; 15:5; 24:5,14; 26:5; 28: 22) ; jn the EpistlcS, 
 
 party divisions, sect^ but implying factious- 
 ness. (1 Cor. U: 19; Gal. 5: 20.) In TitUS 3 : 10, a 
 
 man that is a heretic is literally a heretical 
 (factious) man. In the verse before us, the 
 word seems to be working away from the 
 meaning of sect, and to be taking on thus 
 early the meaning of heresy in the sense of 
 false doctrine, but, implying, of course, the 
 existence of a sect or factious set of men. 
 Even denying the Lord— (iJohn2: 23), deny- 
 ing even the Master. The Greek for Lord 
 {Master) is stronger than the word usually so 
 rendered. How freely does he who once 
 himself denied that he knew Jesus, now 
 speak of denying the Master; but from his 
 eyes fell hot tears of penitence, while the 
 depth and sincerity of his sorrow even now 
 are manifest by the freedom with which he is 
 willing to associate his former sin with an 
 Epistle which is to be sent to the universal 
 Church. That bought them — the participle 
 (ayopadavra) put first for emphasis: him who 
 bought them, the Master, denying. Christ 
 bought them with a price, (icor. 6:20.) The 
 price paid was his Mood (Rev. 5:9); precious 
 blood. (1 Pet. 1 : 19.) Thesc men will themselves 
 profess to have been bought with the blood of 
 Christ, for they are evidently to arise among 
 the members of the churches. Compare Acts 
 20: 30; 1 John 2: 19. ' That bought them.' 
 See here evidence of a general atonement in 
 distinction from a particular atonement. 
 President Hovey ("Manual of Theology and 
 Ethics," p. 351), on Heb. 2: 9 {tha.t he should 
 taste death for every man), says that 'every 
 man' {navroi) " must here signify everyone 
 of our race, or every believer of our race. 
 The former is the natural meaning, and 
 should therefore be preferred. 2 Peter 2: 1; 
 compare Luke 7: 30; 19: 44; Acts 13: 46; 
 2 Cor. 2: 15." And bring. Omit 'and,' 
 
 and read bringing upon. The clause is con- 
 nected with the two preceding ones. The 
 consequence of smuggling heresies into the 
 churches, and of denying the Li>rd is, that 
 Ihey bring upon themselves swift destruc- 
 tion. In 1 : 14 the same word is translated 
 shortly (suddenly). Notice the striking two- 
 fold use of the word ' destruction ' : they will 
 stealthily introduce into the churches heresies 
 of destruction; they will bring upon them- 
 selves destruction. Their heretical plans may 
 a while have some success, but they themselves 
 will meet the fate they deserve. 
 
 3. Pernicious ways — excesses (lustful). 
 Their ways will be licentious. It is not easy 
 in every case to separate the origin of error 
 from the origin of immorality. They iiave a 
 common parentage — opposition to the will of 
 God. In some cases error may seem to be 
 the fir.st born, and in others immorality. The 
 great Church Father, Augustine, said: "To 
 love is to know." Many. Compare Matt. 7 : 
 13 ("Manj' there be which go in thereat"). 
 But there many includes all kinds of sinners ; 
 here it includes but one kind. And what is 
 saddening, those included are for the most 
 part professing disciples. See 1 Tim. 4: 1; 
 2 Tim. 2: 17, 18; 3: 1, 6; Tit. 1: 10-14. 
 The early Church suffered from two causes: 
 Ritualism and Gnosticism ; the former the 
 outgrowth of deteriorated Judaism, which, 
 overlooking the harmony between the gospel 
 and true Judaism taught by prophets, at- 
 tempted to engraft Mosaic rites upon Chris- 
 tianity ; the latter, the Alexandrian philoso- 
 phy, which, briefly expressed, was substan- 
 tially an efl^"ort of the human reason to free 
 itself from what it pronounced to be shackles 
 of faith. The germ of these two great errors, 
 more especially of ritualism, was much de- 
 veloped even in the days of the apostles. See 
 Acts 15 : 1-32. Hence the frequent allusion 
 to error and errorists. By reason of whom 
 — 071 accoiint of whom. ' Whom ' maj' refer 
 both to the false teachers and to those who 
 followed them. The way of truth — of the 
 truth. Compare John 14: 6 (" I am the way, 
 the truth, and the life"); Acts 13: 10 ("the 
 right ways of the Lord ") ; 2: 15 ("the right 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 95 
 
 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned 
 words make merchandise of you : whosu judgment now 
 of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation sluni- 
 bereth not. 
 
 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
 
 3 And in covetousness shall they with feigned words 
 make merchandise of you : whose sentence now 
 from of old lingereth not, and their destruction 
 
 4 slumbereth not. For if God spared not angels 
 
 way"). The way of truth is the gospel 
 viewed as leading to a mode of life conform- 
 able to its requirements. Evil spokeu of— 
 sometimes rendered blasphemed. 
 
 Lessons. 1. Do not lose heart at the rise 
 and arrogance of error; 2. Be not surprised 
 that even members of churches should follow 
 after error, and fall into dishonesty or licen- 
 tiousness; 3. Be yourself firm in the ways of 
 the Lord; 4. Kesist the errors and immorali- 
 ties of others, and do so without fear of being 
 called intolerant. 5. Many; no proof of 
 rightness. 
 
 3. Through {in) covetousness. Covet- 
 ousness, insatiable desire to have more, is 
 viewed as the element in wliich they live. A 
 covetous man lives in his covetousness, as a 
 fish lives in the water or a bird in the air. 
 Feigned words — words plastic, words art- 
 fully formed and put together for the purpose 
 of deceiving. Make merchandise — cheat, 
 say some ; make gain of you is more proba- 
 bly the sense. The real end of their false 
 words is gain. (Rom. i6: 18.) See 1 Tim. 6: 5; 
 Tit. 1: 11. This is deplorable — under the 
 guise of truth to utter falsehood, and that 
 concerning religious things; and then to 
 plaster over with fair words the real purpose — 
 making gain of their fellow church members, 
 and dragging them down to destruction with 
 themselves. 
 
 O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint. 
 With saints dost bait tby hook ! 
 
 Whose judgment— for whom the judgment, 
 the condemnation (implying punishment). 
 Now of a long time— no Greek for no7v, 
 though perhaps necessary to bring out the ex- 
 act meaning. Lingereth not. The contra- 
 diction between 'long time' and 'lingereth 
 not' is only apparent. The sen.se is: Long 
 ago, in anticipation of their errors, excesses, 
 and enticements, God's purpose to punish 
 them had real existence, and that purpose has 
 never been withdrawn. It has hastened on 
 with every revolving period. It has not lin- 
 gered, and the consummation is as certain as if 
 it had already taken place. Damnation — 
 deHtruction ; the same word in the original as 
 in ver. 1 (twice). See above on ' damnable 
 
 heresies.' God's delay in punishing the 
 wicked is a fact which arrested the attention 
 of distinguished pagan writers in ancient 
 titnes, and is considered at sonie length in the 
 Book of Job. The actual infliction of punish- 
 ment is often delayed, but the condemnation, 
 and even the destruction, in so far as it is pur- 
 posed, is not delayed ('lingereth not'). Dis- 
 approval, in the strong form of condemnation, 
 flashes instantly upon the committal of the 
 wrong. Much of the Hebrew poetrj' is char- 
 acterized by what is called "Parolk-lism of 
 Members." One form of the peculiarity con- 
 sists in the repetition of nearly the same 
 thought in equivalent words. This has been 
 called "Synonymous Parallelism." Ps. 144: 
 6 is an example: "Cast forth lightning, and 
 scatter them ; shoot out thine arrows, and de- 
 stroy them." Instiinces of Parallelism are 
 found in prose: "There is nothing covered 
 that shall not be revealed ; and hid that shall 
 not be known." In like manner the last two 
 clauses of the verse before us give an instance 
 of Parallelism. 'Destruction' corresponds 
 with ^ condetnnntion,' and ''slumbereth not' 
 with ''lingereth not.' The style rises toward 
 the poetic. 
 
 4. The apostle fortifies his declaration that 
 the false teachers shall meet with deserved 
 punishment; and this he effects by the case: 
 1. Of sinning angels ; 2. Of the ungodly ante- 
 diluvians ; 3. Of Sodom and Gomorrah. From 
 the fate of these three classes it is certain that 
 punishment will be visited upon those de- 
 scribed. For connects the illustrations with 
 that which is to be illustrated. I aflfirm it to 
 be so, for facts which occurred under the gov- 
 ernment of God in past ages prove it. 
 
 First Illustration. If, as so often be- 
 fore, is not expressive of doubt. 'If (as is 
 the ease) God spared not, etc. See Rom. 
 8: 22 ("He that spared not his own Son, but 
 delivered him up" to death); the same verbs, 
 but how different the end ! The Son was de- 
 livered to suffering for our sins ; sinning an- 
 gels were delivered to punishment on account 
 of their own sins: the Son beloved ; sinning 
 angels the objects of hol.y wrath. How tragi- 
 cal the application of the same words, spared 
 
96 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 cast th^m down to bell, aud delivered Ihem into chains 
 of darkness, to be reserved unto judgiuer.t; 
 
 5 And spared nut tbe old world, but saved Noah the 
 eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in 
 the flood upon the world of the ungodly ; 
 
 when they sinned, but least them down to 2 hell, 
 and committed them to 3 pits of darkness, to be re- 
 5 served unto judgment; and spared not the ancient 
 world, but preserved Noah with seven others, *a 
 preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood 
 
 1 Or, catt them into dungeons 'i Gr. Tarta 
 
 .3 Some aDcient authorities read chaina 4 Gr. a herald. 
 
 not and delivered, to the Holy Kedeemer as 
 are applied to spirits so proud and rebellious! 
 That sinned — wheii they sinned, they having 
 already sinned. The sinning was before the 
 sparing not. See Critical Note on 1 Pet. 3: 
 20: " Who sometime were disobedient." Si- 
 lence 'respecting the nature of their sin is a 
 lesson for us. A more groundless view is 
 scarcely possible than that the sin consisted in 
 impurity of conduct with the daughters of 
 men. (GeQ.6:2.) Nothing more definite can 
 be said than that they kept not their first 
 estate, but left their own habitation (Judee), 
 on which see comments. Cast them down 
 to hell — one word in the Greek, and that a 
 participle (rapTapwo-af, having tartarized them, 
 sent them to Tartarus). It is found nowhere 
 else in the Scriptures. Tartarus is a word of 
 pagan origin. In the earlier writers, it was 
 "a dark abyss, as deep below hades as earth 
 below heaven ; prison of Saturn, the Titans, 
 etc. Later, Tartarus was either the nether- 
 world generally, like hades, or the regions of 
 the damned, as opposed to the Elysian fields." 
 (Liddell and Scott.) No such conceptions 
 are embraced in the word as used by our apos- 
 tle; and on the other hand, it is not used to 
 express an intermediate state, answering to the 
 supposed intermediate state of the righteous. 
 An intermediate state of either the righteous 
 or the wicked, in any other sense than that of 
 a state in which the spirit is not yet in its 
 resurrection body, and has not yet passed 
 through the ordeal of the general judgment, 
 and may not, therefore, have received that 
 full weight of either bliss or suffering which 
 is probably connected with the repossession of 
 the body, is not taught in the Scriptures. As 
 used by Peter, the word probably means that 
 they were cast down to hades, which, as used 
 in the New Testament, is not the place of dis- 
 embodied spirits, good and bad (the earlier 
 conception of the Hebrews and the Greeks), 
 but the place of future, endless, punishment. 
 Chains — according to a weightier reading, 
 caverns or pits. Of darkness — a most ex- 
 pressive and solemn metaphor. It shows the 
 
 utter separation of these fallen spirits from 
 the light of God. Jude (e), speaking of the 
 same beings, says "'chains (bonds) under 
 darkness" ; but the original word is not the 
 same as the commonly-received Greek here. 
 To be reserved — reserved (the more ap- 
 proved reading), i. e., now reserved, or kept; 
 they are being reserved. Unto judgment. 
 Jude says: ^''Judgment of the great day.'''' 
 See Matt. 25: 41. In the days of our Lord 
 demons cried out, " Art thou come hither to 
 torment us before the time?" (Matt.s: -29.) That 
 is, before the general judgment. They seem 
 to know that they are hereafter to ha publicly 
 judged, and delivered over to a more fearful 
 punishment. All questioning relative to the 
 harmony of the two views — that the fallen 
 angels have already been sent to a place of 
 punishment, and that they are to be judged 
 hereafter — is as useless as similar questioning 
 relative to impenitent men, who are also to be 
 judged publicly after having been consigned 
 to punishment. The question is not one that 
 concerns us. All is known to God. 
 
 5. S econd'Illustr ATiON. — The old 
 Avorld — the ancient world, the antediluvians, 
 with the exceptions about to be mentioned; 
 all the men of the period immediately pre- 
 ceding the flood. Saxed— preserved, so that 
 he was neither swept away with the others, 
 nor in danger of it. Noah the eighth — a 
 peculiar way of saying, Noah ivith seven 
 others. (Buttmann.) See 1 Pet. 3: 20. The 
 keeping of the few is contrasted with the de- 
 struction of the many. In every age the 
 majority have been ungodly; whether it will 
 ever be otherwise depends upon the purpose 
 of God ; though it should be added that the 
 godly are required to put forth to the utmost 
 their own free powers to bring the ungodly 
 to knowledge of the way in which they may 
 become godly. A preacher of righteous- 
 ness — a proclaimer (herald) to the men of 
 his time (1 Pet. 3:19), not of the righteousness 
 which is distinctively that of the gospel (i:i; 
 
 Rom. 1: 17; 3:22,25,26), but of that which COnsistcd 
 
 of faith in the one God, of reverence for his 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 97 
 
 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 
 into ashes condemned tlmm with an overthrow, mak- 
 ing llifin an eusample unto those that after should livo 
 ungodly ; 
 
 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy con- 
 versation of the wicked : 
 
 G upon the world of the ungodly ; and turning the 
 cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned 
 them with ai; overthrow, having made them an ex- 
 
 7 ample unto those that should live ungodly; and 
 delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lasciv- 
 
 8 ious life of the wicked (for that righteous man 
 
 character, and of reiidiiiess to believe all that 
 God might see fit to make known. That was 
 the rigliteousness which Nonh preaciied, but 
 see Ileb. 11: 7 for the representation of what 
 lie himself became. Tlie ungodly were not 
 destroyed till after they had been permitted 
 to listen to faithful preaching. Bringing in. 
 Tliere is no Greek for 'in.' The connection 
 may be expressed thus: Saved Noah wheyi 
 he brought the flood. Noah's deliverance is 
 not a necessary part of the illustration. His 
 case could have been passed in silence, and 
 the illustration have been equally pertinent; 
 but strength is gained by putting in contrast 
 the antediluvians and the patriarch. This is 
 one of the passages (the other, Matt. 24: 37-39) 
 which Prof. George Rawlinson regards as 
 teaching with special emphasis the universal- 
 ity of the Flood. 
 
 6. Third Illustration.— Overthrow of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah. It is unnecessary to 
 suppose that the Dead Sea was formed at the 
 time of the overthrow of these cities. That 
 supposition, formerly held, is without sup- 
 port. A recent opinion puts the cities at the 
 northern end of the sea, but, unless some fur- 
 tlier investigation compel the adoption of that 
 view, the opinion that they were at the south- 
 ern end must stand. It was a matter of no 
 consequence to Peter at which end they 
 stood. The point with him was the illustra- 
 tion which their overthrow gave of the cer- 
 tainty that the false and licentious teachers 
 which were soon to arise would be also de- 
 stroyed. Turning . . . into ashes — having 
 burnt to ashes. Tiie original is one word, a 
 jiaiticiple coming from a noun which means 
 ashes. The way in which this was done is 
 not given. It might have been done by mir- 
 aculous or hy providential means; the former 
 is probable. It was God's act, by whatever 
 means effected. With an overthrow — to an 
 overthrow. But the Greek word for over- 
 tlirow (icoTo<rTpo<<>j7) is rejected by Weslcott and 
 Hort ; the Revisers retain it. The overthrow 
 is that to which the cities were condemned. 
 The punishment, however, was not chiefly 
 the destruction of material structures nor 
 
 temporal death. The latter might have been 
 followed by eternal life, in whicli case the 
 burning of the towns and the shorU.'ning of 
 life ought to have thrilled heaven with new 
 joy. An ensample unto — an example unto. 
 See comments on "are set forth for an exam- 
 ple" in Jude 7. A diflerent construction 
 may be the correct one: An example of. 
 Then the sense would be, that in respect to 
 punishment the people of Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah were made a specime7i of ungodly men, 
 and will continue to be such in all following 
 time. 
 
 7. Neither is this deliverance of Lot a 
 necessary part of the third illustration, but, 
 as in the second, it gives force to the view 
 presented. The writer might have said, with 
 less amplification : If sinning angels were 
 cast down to hell, if the ancient world was 
 destroyed by a flood, and if Sodom and Go- 
 morrah were reduced to ashes, how much 
 more will false and dissolute teachers be pun- 
 ished ; but, fruitful in thought and intense in 
 feeling, he gives a higher coloring to his de- 
 scription of both classes of sinners by con- 
 trasting them respectively with Noah and 
 Lot. He might as well have set off the sin of 
 the angels by contrasting with it the stead- 
 fastness of unfallen angels. As he advances, 
 however, he grows warmer and strikes off into 
 contrasts. Delivered — rescued; snatched 
 away is scarcely too strong. Just — righteous. 
 The word is akin to that which is rendered 
 righteousness in ver. 5, upon which see com- 
 ments. Vexed — 7oo7-n do7V7i. These were a 
 very troublesome, harassing set of sinners. 
 They were far enough from being Pharisees. 
 They sinned openly and audaciously. That 
 Lot lived with them so long is remarkable, 
 and that he lived among them so long with 
 no essential injury, is still more remarkable. 
 The false teachers of apostolic times drew 
 away many from the faith ; Lot withstood all 
 the people of four citie?. The filthy con- 
 versation — the licentious conduct. The 
 wicked — strictly, the lawless, men who defied 
 all law, human and divine. See a description 
 of "thy sister Sodom" in Ezek. 16: 49, 60. On 
 
98 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in 
 seeing and hearing, vexed his riglileous soul from day 
 to da}' with Ihfir unlawful deeds:) 
 
 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of 
 temptation, and to reserve the unjust uuto the day of 
 judgment to be punished: 
 
 10 But chielly them that walk after the flesh in the 
 lust of uncleauness, and despise government. Pre- 
 
 dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, i vexed 
 hU righteous soul from day to day with their law- 
 9 less deeds) : the Lord knoweth how to deliver the 
 godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous 
 10 under punishment unto the day of judgment; but 
 chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of 
 defilemeut, and despise dominion. Daring, self- 
 
 1 Or, tormented. 
 
 the expression, "full of bread" in Hamlet, a 
 commentator on Shakespeare says: "Shake- 
 speare found this remarkable expression in 
 the Bible: 'Behold this was the iniquity of 
 thy sister Sodom : pride, fulness of bread, 
 and abundance of idleness was in her and 
 in her daughter.' " 
 
 8. This verse is an expansion of the thought 
 expressed in the second member of verse 7. 
 In seeing and hearing stands first in the 
 Greek, and therefore is emphatic. The sin- 
 ners were so numerous that he could not help 
 seeing them, and so noisy that he could not 
 help hearing them. Not to see and hear was 
 impossible. The impression made, however, 
 by the entire passage is, that he was not wholly 
 silent. He must sometimes have protested 
 against their wickedness. Dwelling among 
 them — sad that he continued to do so ; yet his 
 righteous life, continually^ before them, was 
 necessary to give a climax to their guilt. 
 Vexed — tormented. He was so impressed 
 with the conviction of their lawlessness and 
 impurity, that his righteous soul was tor- 
 mented, and that from day to daj'. Peter uses 
 the active verb, perhaps to indicate that Lot 
 could not allow himself to sink down into 
 passive indifference to their sin, as if it were 
 so great ihiX all feeling concerning their state 
 was useless. ^ Vexed ^ (imperfect tense) indi- 
 cates a continuous state. The good man was 
 continually plagued, and as no other man of 
 that region was. 
 
 9. The first clause accounts for Lot's rescue, 
 (ver. 7.) The Lord kneio how to do it, yet it is 
 expressed in the general form so as to be ap- 
 plicable to all tempted saints. The Lord 
 knows ho7v — sometimes in one way and some- 
 times in another. To deliver — to rescue ; the 
 same in the Greek as in verse 7. Godly — the 
 opposite of ungodly in ver. 5, 6; those whose 
 hearts are right toward God (under the con- 
 trol of reverence and love). Temptation. 
 An edition of the Bible, 1867, by the Ameri- 
 can Bible Society, prints in the plural num- 
 
 ber ; a small New Testament of the same year, 
 by the same Society, prints in the singular 
 number. The latter is correct. And {but) 
 to reserve. Here, at last, the apostle con- 
 nects the thought, though not even now 
 strictly the words, with the thought in verse 
 4: For if God spared '^ot sinning angels, an- 
 tediluvians, and Sodomites, how much less 
 will he spare the false teachers. Yet he ex- 
 presses his thought not so definitely, but 
 generally — the unjust. To be punished — 
 not future. They are are even now undergo- 
 ing punishment. To keep them under pun- 
 ishment. (Revised Version.) The Jjord knows 
 how to keep wicked men for the Day of Judg- 
 ment and under punishment. From this 
 point onward the writer speaks of the errorists 
 as if they had already come ; not, as in verse 
 1, as if they were to arise in some future time. 
 It is clear, therefore, that the evils against 
 which he is warning the churches have al- 
 ready begun to appear, while it is equally 
 clear that they will continue for a consider- 
 able period in the future. 
 
 10. A definite description of the overthrow 
 of the false teachers, with a description of 
 their character. The latter extends to the 
 end of the chapter. But chiefly. It con- 
 trasts the weight of punishment which will 
 fall on the baser kind of sinners with that 
 which will be visited upon the less base kind. 
 (Ver. 9.) After the flesh — literally', behind the 
 flesh, an original use of the preposition (on-tVoi). 
 It is commonly used with respect to persons. 
 Jude (ver. 7) uses it as it is used here (going 
 after, behind, strange flesh). It is the same 
 word as is used in Matt. 10: 38 (and followeth 
 after vae), and in 1 Tim. 5: 15 (turned aside 
 after Satan). It implies that what is fol- 
 lowed after is a leader; that he who follows 
 after is a disciple or partisan. The errorists 
 are led by the flesh instead of leading it ; they 
 follow after it, go behind it, as their leader. 
 Flesh — their nature viewed as depraved, and 
 acting through the body. Lust of unclean- 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 99 
 
 sumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to 
 speak evil ol' dignities. 
 
 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and 
 might, bring not railing accusation against tiiem before 
 the Ijord. 
 
 I'.' But those, as natural brute beasts made to be taken 
 and (lestniyid, speak evil of the things that they un- 
 derstand n"(jt ; and shall utterly perish in their own 
 corrui)lion ; 
 
 1:5 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, 
 
 11 willed, they tremble not to rail at tdiu'uities: where- 
 as angels, tliou>;h greater in might and power, bring 
 not a railing judgment against them before the Lord. 
 
 12 But these, as creatures without reason, horn 2 niere 
 animals ^to he taken and destroyed, railing in mat- 
 ters whereof they are ignorant, shall in iheir'' de- 
 stroying surel}' be destroyed, sutfering wrong as the 
 
 13 hire of wrong-doing; men that count it pleasure to 
 
 1 Gr. glories 'i Gr. natural 3 Or, to take and to dettroy 4 Or, corruption. 
 
 ness — in which as the element of their life 
 they walk. The habit of depravity in the 
 form of lustful excesses is spoken of as a walk. 
 Goveriinieiit — dominion, probably all kinds 
 of human dominion. They despise all gov- 
 ernment except that of their own lusts! — not 
 unknown now. That the devil is meant can- 
 not be siiown. Compare .Jude 8. Presump- 
 tuous — audacious, bold. Self-willed. These 
 audacious men are self-willed — a humiliating 
 fact. Not afraid to speak evil, etc. — of 
 dignities they do not fear to speak evil. At 
 the thouglit of doing that they never tremble. 
 AVhat is meant by 'dignities' is uncertain. 
 The opinions of expositors greatly differ. The 
 translation of the word in many other places 
 is glory. The margin of the Revised Version, 
 glories. It is hazardous to speak definitely 
 when there is so little ground even for con- 
 jecture. The interpretation of the word has 
 been inade by some to turn on the meaning 
 of Jude, ver. 8, 9, which sire themselves, espe- 
 cially the latter, too difHcult to yield much 
 help. It is upon the ground of those verses that 
 some understand by dignities the devil, or at 
 least demons. But that meaning must be 
 rejected. It may possibly refer to the glories 
 of the Father and the Son, but even that has 
 little to support it. It may refer to beings 
 who are high in earthly official glory; possi- 
 bly, to all glorious religious things. 
 
 11. Whereas is not to be taken as express- 
 ing contrast ; it is nearly equivalent to 7/)/n(!e.- 
 while tlie heretics had a given spirit, angels 
 had an opposite spirit. Angels — good angels. 
 Greater— than the self-willed, audacious her- 
 etics. Railing accusation — railing judg- 
 ment. Against them — against dignities. 
 Some say, against the false teachers. Before 
 the Lord— in the Lord's presence. The 
 angels, tliough so superior, have sufficient 
 humility to abstain from such severity of 
 spirit, however wanting in the best elements 
 of character some earthl3' rulers inay be. But 
 
 the Greek for ' before the Lord ' is deemed by 
 some as not belonging to the true text. It is 
 accepted by the Revisers, but Westcott and 
 Hort mark it as an alternative reading, and 
 think it impossible to decide which reading 
 should be adopted. 
 
 \'X. But these— the teachers of error in 
 contrast with the good angels. As natural 
 brute beasts, etc. — as irrational creatures, 
 born naturally (with animal natures) for the 
 very purpose of being captured and destro^'ed. 
 A marginal reading in the Revised Version: 
 to take and to destroy. The comparison, 
 which is striking, implies that these men have 
 lowered themselves to a level with brutes, and 
 have fitted themselves to be destroyed, even 
 as the latter are fitted by nature to be taken. 
 See Crit. Notes. Speak evil, etc. — railing 
 in things of v)hich they are ignorant. If the 
 interpretation of 'government,' 'dignities,' 
 and 'them' (ver. 11) is correct, it follows that 
 the things of which they are ignorant pertain 
 to earthly rulers. They have not been in the 
 way of knowing much concerning political 
 government and political rulers, and were 
 there no other reason, that is sufficient to show 
 the wickedness of their railing. Shall ut- 
 terly perish — shall in their destructivenes 
 be destroyed, is an approximation to the play 
 upon words found in the Greek. According 
 to valuable manuscripts, even (icai), surely, 
 Revised Version, is the correct reading; shall 
 surely be destroyed. 
 
 1.3. And shall receive— not a new element 
 of punishment so much as the result of the 
 punishment expressed in the closing words of 
 ver. 12. The sense is: shall perish in their own 
 corruptior, thus receiving, as they ivill, the 
 reward of unrighteousness. All unrighteous- 
 ness has reward (reward for iniquity), but 
 how different from the reward obtained for 
 righteousness! Compare the case of Abel 
 
 (Heh. 11:4); Knoch (Heh. 11:5); MoSOS, (Heb. 11 : 24-26.) 
 
 Judas v;as the cause of a field being pur- 
 
100 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daj'tiiue. | 
 Spots Ifiey are and blemishes, sporting themselves with 
 their own deceivings while they feast with you ; 
 
 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot 
 cease from sin ; beguiling unstable souls : a heart 
 
 revel in the day-time, spots and blemishes, revel- 
 ling in their 1 deceivings while they feast with you 
 14 having eyes full of 2 adultery, and that cannot cease 
 from sin ; enticing unstedfast souls; having a heart 
 
 1 Some aocient authorities rend love-feasts 2 Gr. an adnilteress. 
 
 chased with the "reward of iniquity" (Acts 
 1:18), with wages obtained b3' iniquity. A 
 small field ; a great price. So these heretics 
 will receive great (terrible) pay fur their 
 heresy and vice. As they that count, etc., 
 (a participle), acccnmting I'eveling by day a 
 pleasure. Day — niaj- be equivalent to daily ; 
 it may express transientness in contrast with 
 eternal duration ; or it may stand in contrast 
 with night. If the last is correct, the men 
 are sunk so low, that, unlike those that were 
 drunken in the night (i Tness.s: 7), they revel 
 in the day. In the day — {iv rnxepa) stands 
 between the (riiv) and riot {rpv<t>riv) the-in-day 
 riot, and may therefore in Greek usage be 
 adjectival (the daily riot). See Buttmann, p. 
 331. Spots they are. The introduction by 
 King James' Revisers of unnecessary words 
 into the intense and vivacious style of this 
 chapter is unfortunate. Says the writer, 
 wrought up to the highest pitch of Christian 
 indignation : spots and staijis, reveling in 
 their own deceivings (not sporting themselves 
 vnth), while they feast with you. Few con- 
 nective particles are used, but the writer 
 drives on with a rattling rapidity of words 
 which is like the clashing of battle-axes. 
 Deceivings. Jude says (ver. 12), ''feasts of 
 charity," but in letters and sound the Greek 
 word is remarkably like the word used here. 
 Peter says: apatais ; Jude, agapais. It has 
 been considered either with Peter or with 
 Jude (which ever wrote first) as a play of 
 words. It should be added that, according to 
 some important manuscripts, Peter used the 
 same word as Jude. Westcott and Hort are 
 unable to decide, but have put the word for 
 (iTrarats) dcceivings in the text, and for love- 
 feasts (avaTTots) in the margin. While they 
 feast, etc. Jude (ver. 12) restricts it to 
 "love-feasts," concerning which see com- 
 ments; but Peter uses a more general word, 
 which may include the Lord's Supper, love- 
 feasts, and ordinary social festivals. These 
 graceless heretics had a fascinating power of 
 deception. They did not "wear their hearts 
 upon their sleeves." Adroit in address, they 
 were able to smother every spark of suspicion 
 
 in those whom they purpose to gain to their 
 lustful and avaricious ends. Such gross 
 forms of evil are now so wanting in evangeli- 
 cal churches that it is diflacult to see how 
 they could have arisen so early. When the 
 veil is lifted from European Church life in 
 not a few of the ages preceding the Reforma- 
 tion, evils are to be seen which are scarcely if 
 at all less. 
 
 14. This verse continues the description. 
 Eyes full of adultery. Here, too, the 
 manuscripts differ, but preponderate strongly 
 in favor of the word meaning adulteress: 
 eyes full of an adulteress. Not any given 
 woman can be meant, but the singular stands 
 as the representative of a class. So impure 
 are the heretics that their eyes, so to speak, 
 are filled with an adulteress. They can see 
 nothing else. An adulteress is pictured on 
 the retina — that is, their association of ideas 
 and feelings is habitually lustful. The im- 
 purity is in the heart, yet the impure do 
 undoubtedly often betray their real character 
 in the eye. 
 
 A sin prevailing much in youthful men, 
 Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing. 
 
 That organ which was intended to illustrate 
 so signally the wisdom' of the Creator is 
 transformed by the inward power of lust into 
 a tell-tale mirror. That— refers to eyes. It 
 is the eyes that cannot cease from sin. The 
 writer uses but one word where, perhaps, the 
 English requires three or four, and that one 
 an adjective: eye& unceasing ivoxn sin. Eyes 
 soiled, stained, by sin, would be the render- 
 ing of the word found in some of the manu- 
 scripts. The student will find the relative 
 value of the two readings considered in Butt- 
 mann's "Greek Grammar" p. 65. The sin 
 is that to which the context refers. The eyes 
 retain the picture because the mind retains its 
 impurity. Beguiling — ensnaring, as a man 
 may snare a bird or bait a fish. Unstable 
 (3: 16), in that they are not firmlj' fixed on 
 Christ as the foundation, (i Pet.s: 6,8.) The 
 snares and the ensnared — what a meeting 
 must it be at the Day of Judgment! The 
 latter were not necessarily weak in intellect; 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 101 
 
 they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed 
 children : 
 
 15 Which have forsaken tlie rit,'ht way, and are 
 goue astray, following the way ot lialaam, the. sun 
 of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 
 
 16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass 
 
 15 exercised in covetousness; children of cursing; for- 
 saking the right way, they went astray, having fol- 
 lowed the way of Balaam the .sou o'l 'Beor, who 
 
 16 loved the hire of wroiigHioiiig: but he was rebuked 
 for his own transgression: a dumb ass spake with 
 
 I Mao; aDcieiit autboriik-s read Botor. 
 
 the former were so bad that suspicion and re- 
 sistance ought to have been awakened. "I 
 was enticed:" that you played the fool is 
 equally true. A heart . . . exercised with 
 covetous practices — having a heart trained 
 in covetousness. (ua. 56:ii.) The word for trained 
 
 {yiyvyiva(Tii.evr]v) is that frotn which OUT WOI'd 
 
 gymnastic is derived. It came from a word 
 meaning naked (gymnos); for those who 
 among the Greeks were gymnastics practiced 
 nearly naked. These men were gymnastics 
 in covetousness. The heart was trained to it. 
 A man who is covet(JUS by nature may yet be 
 so unconscious of the sin, as to put himself 
 through a course of training which will make 
 him an atlilete in the detestable vice. Most 
 persons who are of penurious disposition are 
 totally unconscious of the fault, and were 
 they charged with it would resent it with 
 great spirit. Cursed children — literally, 
 children of a curse. See on 1 Pet. 1 : 14. 
 
 15. Which have foxsa\ien— forsaking (the 
 better reading) the right way. They vjent 
 astray brings out the relation of the first 
 clause (participial) to the second. And now 
 Peter recalls from the ancient history of the 
 Jews the case of one who was also for the 
 most part a false prophet; for the most' part, 
 for the history shows that Balaam was not a 
 mere heathen diviner. Though born and liv- 
 ing amotig idolaters, he had in some way ac- 
 quired some knowledge of the true God; for 
 in talking with the servants of Balak, he used 
 the peculiar name of the true God, Jehovah 
 (Num. 22: 8, 18, Common Version, Lord), in 
 distinction from the name applied also to pagan 
 gods. It is clear that Jehovah made to him for 
 a definite purpose a few i.>^olated revelations 
 
 (Num. 2:i; 12, '.'0; 23: 5-10,16-24; 24: 2-9,1519), but he WaS 
 
 never called to the office of a prophet. Pro- 
 fessionally, he was a diviner or magician after 
 a heathen pattern. For that reason, the com- 
 parison between him and the false prophets 
 of Peter's time could be justly made. (.ludcii ; 
 Rev. 2: 14.) The way of 'Ba\a.dim—h\«, manner 
 of life was crooked ; the wa^' which the here- 
 tics forsook was the right way (a straight 
 
 way). They followed Balaam's way in that 
 they uttered, as he generally did, falsehood, 
 were impure as he was (Num. 31: 16, com- 
 pare with Num. 25: 1-3), and were covetous. 
 Balaam's superiority to the love of money 
 was put on. He must have been known as 
 receiving pay for his services in the art of 
 divining, or Balak would not have sent him 
 the rewards of divination. (Num. 22: 7.) He 
 wanted to go with the messengers, but knew 
 that Jehovah might not permit it. See the 
 history. (Num., cuapiers 22-4.) Peter kncw that, 
 whatever were his pretensions, he loved 
 wages of unrighteousness. It is a striking 
 fact that these very words were used by Peter 
 in his address to the "men and brethren" 
 who were assembled in Jerusalem after the 
 ascension. (Actsiiis.) So far it is evidence 
 that Peter was the writer of this Epistle. Son 
 of Bosor— son of Beor. (Num. 22:5.) The a 
 is believed to have arisen from a peculiar way 
 of pronouncing the second consonant of the 
 Hebrew form of the word. The Kevisers : 
 Beor ; in the margin, Bosor, the latter hav- 
 ing considerable ancient support. 
 
 16. But hints that he was not allowed to 
 be his own master in wrong-doing; but was 
 rebuked. 
 
 .\nd that should teach us, 
 
 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 
 Rough-hew them how we will. 
 
 Yet Balaam's "indiscretion " did not serve 
 him "well"— it served the Lord's purpose 
 well. His iniquity— his own iniquity; and 
 by this is meant his desire to serve Balak by 
 cursing Israel for pay. Balaam's was a case 
 of informal, conditional contract. There was 
 no direct and positive agreement between him 
 and Balak ; yet the course taken was scarcely 
 less criminal than if he had said : " I will go 
 and curse, and you shall pay so much for the 
 work done." Such "indirection" of contract 
 may be specially mean; for, while it shows 
 purpose to efll'ect a given end, it provides, in 
 selfishness, a loop-hole of escape. The dumb 
 ass speaking. (Num. 22: jmo.) The denial 
 of a miracle here would logically lead to the 
 
102 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. II. 
 
 speaking with man's voice forbade tbe madness of the 
 prophet. 
 
 17 These are wells without water, clouds that are 
 carried with a tempest ; to whom the mist of dark- 
 ness is reserved for ever. 
 
 18 For when they speak great swelling words of 
 vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, 
 thruiiyh much wantonness, those that were clean es- 
 caped from them who live in error. 
 
 19 While they promise them liberty, they them- 
 
 man's voice and stayed the madness of the prophet. 
 
 17 These are springs without water, and mists driven 
 by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness 
 
 18 hath been reserved. For, uttering great swelling 
 u-ords of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the Hesh, 
 by lasciviousuess, those who are just escaping from 
 
 19 them that live in error; promising them liberty, 
 
 denial of a miracle everywhere else, and thus, 
 in the end, revealed religion would be reduced 
 to natural religion — that is, would be shorn 
 of reality. But does it teach (to use the lan- 
 guage of the schools) a subjective, or an object- 
 ive, act? — that is, was the miracle performed 
 directly upon the subject, Balaam? or, was it 
 done upon the object, the animal ? It is one 
 thing to work a miracle upon Balaam's ears, 
 so that he shall seem to hear articulate sounds 
 coming from the animal, and another thing 
 to work a miracle on the braying powers of 
 the beast, so that its braying shall become 
 articulate human sounds. If the former is 
 the true view, Peter has taken an odd way to 
 express it, for he says, 'the dumb ass speak- 
 ing,' he spoke with a man's voice. In replj' 
 to all objections, it is sufficient to say to one who 
 believes at all in miracles, that it was no more 
 difficult for God to utter thought through the 
 mouth of the ass in the words of men, than to 
 stop men, as he once did, from talking in a 
 given language and cause them to talk in 
 another. The ass wastes no words, but — 
 which is more than can be said of some 
 preachers — speaks with directness and force. 
 Forbade the madness of the prophet — 
 repressed it. His madness was not insanity, 
 but perverseness, downright folly concerning 
 religious things. See another allusion to Ba- 
 laam in Rev. 2: 14, with Dr. J. A. Smith's 
 notes in his " Commentary on Revelation." 
 
 17. The apostle continues the description 
 of the false teachers. Wells without water. 
 A well of water in Palestine, and other Orien- 
 tal lands, was formerly deemed one of the best 
 
 of earthly things. (Prov. lO: ll; Isa. SS: U; John 4: 6.) 
 
 These immoral errorists were dry wells. They 
 had no truth, no grace, and therefore no power 
 of refreshment. Such men, however, in our 
 own day, are believed by their admirers to be 
 wells full of water, sweet and medicinal withal. 
 Clouds— according to the true reading, 
 mists ; mists carried (driven) with (by) a 
 tempest. It expresses restlessness, want of 
 stability. (Jameairs.) One error leads to 
 
 another, and this to yet another. (Eph. 4:i4.) 
 The errorist has no anchorage. The feverisli 
 instability of one who is not grounded on 
 eternal truth is incurable, except by the grace 
 of God. The consequence: to whom the 
 mist (the blackness) of (the) darkness. See 
 2:4, 'chains (pits?) of darkness' ! There is 
 weighty manuscript authority for rejecting 
 the words forever (eU aiwva) from the text. 
 Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, and West- 
 cott and Hort, do not retain it. Nor do the 
 Revisers adopt it. 
 
 18. For. The apostle illustrates the empti- 
 ness of the wells and the unstableness of the 
 clouds. When they s-peak— speaking, a par- 
 ticiple with which the verb allure is con- 
 nected. Great swelling words of vanity 
 — literally, overswellings of vanity. Inele- 
 gant modern phrase would call them great 
 sivells. They abounded in high sounding 
 words, but these were as empty of ideas as 
 many of the wells of ancient Palestine were 
 empty of water in the days of our apostle. 
 Their words were even vanity itself. In the 
 utterance of their emptiness, they had as their 
 aim the enticement of others, but this was 
 accomplished through (rather in) the lusts 
 of the flesh — they lived in lust. Through 
 much wantonness — not put in apposition 
 with 'lusts of the flesh.' Our translators 
 sought to express the plural {iaeXyeian) debauch- 
 eries by means of much. Clean escaped — 
 a little escaping, barely escaping. He proba- 
 bly refers to persons who had very recently 
 professed conversion. In error — of life, the 
 yet unconverted. These converts, when just 
 beginning to escape from the influence of the 
 surrounding depravity, are enticed by these 
 pretended Christians, these impure heretics. 
 ' Clean (really) escaped ' (ovtus a.no<t>fvyovTai) 
 has much less right in the text than the words 
 for a little escaping (oAiyw? a7ro(<>euyo»'Ta?), on the 
 point of doing so. The latter has been adopted 
 by many well-known scholars. 
 
 19. While they promise — promising, 
 connected, like speaking, with 'allure' (ver. is): 
 
Ch. II.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 103 
 
 selves are the servants of corruption : for of whom 
 a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in 
 bondage. 
 
 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions 
 of the world through the knowledge of the Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled 
 therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with 
 them than the beginning. 
 
 21 For it had ueen better for them not to have 
 known the way of righteousne.-is, than, after tlii'v 
 have Icnown //, to turn from the holy comuiaud- 
 ment delivered unto them. 
 
 while they themselves are bondservants of corrup- 
 tion ; for of 'whom a man is overcome, of the same 
 
 20 is he al.so brought into bondage. I'or if, after ihey 
 have escaited the delilemeuts of the world througli 
 the knowledge of "-the l>ord and .Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, they are again entangled therein and over- 
 come, the last state is become worse with them 
 
 21 than the lirsl. For it were lietter lor them not to 
 have known the way of lighteoiisutss, than, after 
 knowing it, to turn hack Irom llie holy eom- 
 
 22 maudmeul delivered uulo them. It has happened 
 
 1 Or, what 2 Man}- aucient autlioiities read our. 
 
 they allure, promising liberty. The dry welll 
 the pompous but empty words ! The liberty 
 promised was liberty to yield to unbridled 
 indulgence i)f passion. Contrast the words of 
 Christ. (John 8: 32, 36.) This wretched working 
 of evil, beginning in the times of the apostles, 
 has often been repeated. In the history of a 
 body, which, for the most part, has been only 
 a politico-priestly organization, are some sad- 
 dening illustrations: and in our own country 
 tire individuals and communities of whom 
 the description in this verse is too true. The 
 servants — bond-servants. The original is the 
 word used by the Greeks for slave ; and were 
 slave used here, it would scarcely overmatch 
 in strength the other terms of the description. 
 For of whom. By what is grammatically- 
 possiMe. It is the expression of a general 
 fact, and has often been verified in war. 
 (1 Sam. 17 : 9.) It is here applied to the heretical 
 teachers. That in their case corruption may 
 be held as the overcoming power is a consid- 
 eration in favor of by what. They are over- 
 come by their own corruption. Hence it is 
 said they are the 'servants' of corruption. 
 
 20. For. The point is contained in the 
 last clause, and,' corresponding with the final 
 clause of ver. 19, is intended to explain it, 
 but it is a step in advance. The bondage is 
 such that the false teachers are in a worse 
 state than at first. If. As Huther has neatly' 
 expressed it, the reality, as often, is exjiressed 
 h ypothetically. The pollutions. Miasjns 
 is the Greek transferred into English; ^-et it 
 must not be supposed that the writer used the 
 term with figurative reference to that foulness 
 of the air which the word is now used to ex- 
 pres.s. Its original meaning is a coloring, 
 staining; hence, moral defilement. The 
 Avorld — those who live in wickedness {error, 
 ver. 18). Through {in) the knowledge of 
 the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. See 
 1 : 2, 8. In the knowledge of whom else is 
 12 
 
 escape possible? 'Lord and Saviour' are 
 both connected with 'Jesus Christ,' for there 
 is but one article for both words. The Greek 
 for 'our' (our Lord) is found in some mtinu- 
 scripts. Therein stands first in the original 
 for emphasis: but (omitted in the Common 
 Version, and even in the Revision) by these 
 (pollutions) having been again entangled, are 
 overcome. 'Entangled' is highly descriptive. 
 (2 Tim. 2: 4.) A Spider' s web is not more entan- 
 gling for the luckless fly than the world's pol- 
 lutions for unstable souls. The latter end — 
 literally, the last things: the beginning — 
 the first things. That is, the state into which 
 they have come is worse than even their state 
 before supposed conversion. (Matt. 12: «; Luke 
 n: 26;Heb.io: 26,27.) That in relapsing from the 
 Christian profession the soul becomes harder, 
 even more bitter, than it was, is a fact often 
 observed. Great scoffers are born of re-en- 
 tanglement in evil. 
 
 21. For. The startling statetnent just made 
 is confirmed, thougli not by formal proof. It 
 had been better— t^ were better. It is a 
 positive, unconditional declaration; there is 
 not the least reason to doubt that it were bet- 
 ter. Not to have known— and so by impli- 
 cation to be noiv ignorant of. The way of 
 righteousness is the way of righteousness 
 which comes by faith in Christ. Compare 
 'the way of truth' (ver. 2), and 'the right way.' 
 (Ver. 15.) See on 1: 1, especially the Critical 
 I^fote. Than (iits), after they have known 
 (it). It implies that they know it yet. The 
 knowledge of the way has not been lost: they 
 have not relapsed into that state of ignorance 
 in which they once were; that is impossible, 
 however fearfully they have relapsed in pro- 
 fession of interest in the way. The holy 
 commandment— essentially equivalent to 
 the way of righteousness, but representing the 
 way from a difl^erent point — that is, as a way 
 which they were commanded tft enter. It 
 
104 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 22 But it is happened unto them according to the 
 true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit 
 again ; and, The sow that was washed to her wal- 
 luwiug in tlie mire. 
 
 unto them according to the true proverb. The dog 
 turning to his owu vomit again, and the sow that 
 had washed to wallowing in the mire. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you ; I 
 in bulk which I stir up your pure minds by way of 
 remembrance: I 
 
 1 This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I 
 write unto you; and in both of them 1 stir up your 
 
 was holy in nature and end. Delivered — 
 Compare "faith once delivered to the saints." 
 
 ( Jude 3.) 
 
 22. But — not a genuine reading. It is 
 happened — it has come to pass. Literally, 
 that of (that contained in) the true prooerb 
 has happened unto them : A dog turning to 
 his own vomit ; and, a sow washed, into a wal- 
 lowing place of mire. In proverbs brevity 
 and sententiousness were secured by using no 
 verbs. It is almost as if the apostle pointed 
 his finger at them, and exclaimed : "A dog, 
 turning to his own vomit! a washed sow, 
 rusbing into and wallowing in the mire!" 
 It is possible that the first was derived from 
 Prov. 26: 11. Both must have been cur- 
 rent among the people. "Throughout the 
 whole East 'dog' is a term of reproach for 
 impure and profane persons, and in this 
 sense is used b^^ the Jews respecting the Gen- 
 tiles (Eev. 22: 15), and by all Mohammedans 
 respecting Christians. . . . We still use the 
 name of one of the noblest creatures in the 
 world as a term of contempt." (Smith's 
 " Bib. Diet.," p. 612.) Compare Matt. 7: 6; 
 Phil. 3: 2. 
 
 Query: In applying these proverbs to the 
 fitlse teachers, what is the point which the 
 apostle intended to make? The dog returns 
 to his vomit and the sow returns to the mire. 
 That, clearly, is the chief point; but can no 
 reference to the nature of the animals have 
 been intended? and to that, in their common 
 use of them, could the people among whom 
 the proverbs were current have had no refer- 
 ence? On the supposition that the writer be- 
 lieved such impure and deceitful men to have 
 been begotten into spiritual sonship (i Pet. i: 3), 
 would he have applied to them such terms as 
 'dog' and 'sow'? 1 John 2: 19 should be 
 noted. The descriptions of ver. 20 (escaped, 
 etc.) and of ver. 21 {known the way, etc.), are 
 indeed just such terms as might have been 
 applied to regenerated persons, but there is 
 nothing unreasonable in the supposition that 
 
 the application was made on the ground of 
 their appearaitce. They once appeared to be 
 renewed persons; they had professed to be 
 such. That would be sufficient to justify such 
 phraseology. The question should be an- 
 swered, not in support of a theological sy.stem, 
 be the system either this or that, but in view of 
 what the word of God teaches. It may seem 
 to be possible that regenerated men, falling 
 from grace, may never be restored, and may 
 therefore be forever lost; but a thorough ex- 
 amination of all the passages bearing on the 
 question makes it quite certain that God has 
 made provision for preventing the possibility 
 from ever becoming a fact. Praise to his 
 grace ! 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE.— CHAPTER II. 
 
 12. The Common Version makes natural 
 (<j>v(jiKa) an adjective belonging like brute 
 (aKoya) to beasts {i<fa), but the four oldest 
 manuscripts have the adjective after the par- 
 ticiple made (yeyevyiixeva.) , and this reading is 
 adopted by most of the ablest critics. On 
 that ground the above rendering is admis- 
 sible. 
 
 Part II. Section Second. 
 
 Ch. 3. This section warns the readers 
 against the mockers of the final coming of 
 Christ, exhorts to constant expectation of that 
 coming, and, after referring to Paul, urges 
 them to grow in the grace and knowledge of 
 Christ. It is both stimulating and strength- 
 ening. 
 
 1. This second — a reference to his First 
 Epistle. It aids in confirming the belief that 
 this is not a forgery, but was written by Peter 
 himself. Beloved— a touch of affection all 
 the more tender after the resounding of the 
 blows laid upon the heretics. He employs 
 the same loving address in 1 Pet. 2 : 11 ; 4 : 12. 
 Now write. Now qualifies second. This 
 notv second Epistle; or, this Epi.stle I write as 
 already the second. In both which. Though 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 105 
 
 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were 
 spoken belore by the holy prophets, and of the coiu- 
 uiandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 
 
 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come iu the 
 last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
 
 4 And saying. Where is the promise of liis coming? 
 for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
 they were from the beginning of the creation. 
 
 2 sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; that 
 ye should remember the words which were spoken 
 before by the holy prophets, and the commandment 
 of the Lord and .Saviour through your apostles: 
 
 3 knowing this first, that Mn the last days mockers 
 shall come with mockery, walking after their own 
 
 4 lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of his 
 ^coming? for, Iroiu the day that the fathers lell 
 asleep, all things continue as they were Ironi the 
 
 5 beginning of the creation. For this they wilfully 
 
 1 Gr. in the last of the days 2 Gr. presence. 
 
 the English supplies both, it was unnecessary 
 to print it in italics, for tvkich being in the 
 plural number, 'both' is necessary to a clear 
 rendering. Stir up, etc. See on 1 : 13. How 
 the anxiety of the aged apostle repeats itself! 
 His longing heart could not rest till it had 
 poured itself out once more, this time em- 
 bracing the elect of all lands, (i: i) Pure. 
 The Greek, a beautiful compound word, liter- 
 ally means, judged in sunlight. 
 
 2. Here is mentioned that which he desire? 
 them to keep in remembrance: the words 
 8puken before — in former ages, before the 
 birth of the Saviour. The holy prophets 
 were therefore those of the former dispensa- 
 tion, (i : 19-21 ; 1 1'et. 1 : 10-12.) Us — rather, your, 
 the authority for which is strong. The idea 
 may be expressed thus : and of your apostles^ 
 commandment of the Lord and Saviour — that 
 is, of the commandment which your apostles 
 received from the Lord. It is a general ex- 
 pression, including himself as well as other 
 apostles. Commandment. See on holy 
 commandment in 2: 21. Lord and Saviour 
 — the same being. (2:20.) Peter had not, like 
 some in later times, lost his interest in the Old 
 Testament. We learn here also that in au- 
 thority the writings of the apostles are equal 
 to the gospels. See on 1 Pet. 2: 6. 
 
 3. Knowing this first. See on the same 
 phrase in 1 : 20. Last days. See on 1 Pet. 1: 
 5. The margin of the Kevision says: "Gr. 
 in the last of the days." Scoffers, mockers 
 — so rendered, Jude 18. According to the 
 Greek now authorized, mockers iti tnockery — 
 that is, when they mock they are in their ele- 
 ment, and the converse is true, that when 
 they are in their element thoy mock. Walk- 
 ing after — {according to) their own lusts — 
 their customary mode of life. 'Their own' ; 
 in the original a strong expression and seldom 
 found in the Greek of the New Testament. 
 It is also used in ver. 16. The persons here 
 mentioned seem to be different from those 
 
 described in chap. 2, for their chara(!teristic 
 is denial of the second advent of Christ; yet; 
 like them they have no piety and indulge in 
 the lowest kind of immorality. Compare 1 
 Tim. 4: 1; 2 Tim. 3: 1-4. 
 
 4. Saying. The spirit of mockery will 
 not restrain itself; it will flash out in taunt- 
 ing words. Where? — a more contemptuous 
 form of denying than a direct affirmation. 
 See Mai. 2: 17; Ps. 42: 8. The affirmative, 
 the promise of his coming has failed, would 
 have been too weak to express the spirit of the 
 mockers. Infidelity is a system of stubborn 
 negation; skepticism of contemptuous inter- 
 rogation. Interrogation often leads to nega- 
 tion. Of his coming — Christ's second com- 
 ing, with special reference to the judgment of 
 the wicked. For. Even skepticism can use 
 the language of inspired reasoners, but its 
 reasoning is neither logical nor Scriptural. 
 The fathers — the ancestors of the human 
 race, or the founders of the Jewish nation, or 
 the first generation of Christians. The first 
 is the least probable; strong considerations 
 lie against the second; and even the last sup- 
 position is not free from difficulty. On the 
 whole is to be preferred those to whom the 
 promise of the second coming was made — that 
 is, the prophets (1: 19 compared with 1 : 10; 
 Heb. 1: 1; 1 Pet. 1: 10. 11) of ancient times, 
 to whom may be added all who were in 
 hearty sympathy with them. The connection 
 between since the fathers fell asleep and 
 from the beginning of creation is not 
 clear. "From the tiine when the fathers 
 fell asleep" gives one point of departure, and 
 "from the beginning of the creation" gives, 
 apparently, a different point. Perhaps the 
 idea is this: since the fathers fell asleep all 
 things so c<mtinue, and indeed all things so 
 continue from tlie beginning of creation. The 
 argument of the mockers is this : "From the 
 time when the universe was made, nature has 
 swept on its way with great uniformity " ; and, 
 
106 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
 word of God the heavens were of u\d, and the earth 
 standing out of the water and in the water: 
 
 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed 
 with water, perished: 
 
 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by 
 
 forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an 
 earth coiupaeted out of water, and i amidst water, 
 
 6 by the word of God ; by which means the world that 
 then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 
 
 7 but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the 
 
 1 Or, through. 
 
 applying this general thought to the case in 
 hand, their argument more specially expressed 
 is, that the uniformity has not been broi^en 
 since the time when, as Christians affirmed, a 
 promise was made that Christ would come a 
 second time. The question ' Where is the 
 promise of his coming?' is still heard, and, 
 under the broader generalizations of modern 
 discovery, is not less persistently and con- 
 temptuously asked than in early Christian 
 times. Even ministers and churches are giv- 
 ing little attention to that blessed event which 
 so fired the heart of our apostle. See on 1 
 Pet. 4: 7. 
 
 5. For, The apostle accounts for their 
 skepticism, and at the same time opposes it. 
 This — what follows — that by the word of 
 God, etc. Ignorant they are, hidden from 
 them it is; but their ignorance is voluntary, 
 and voluntary in the largest sense of the word 
 — that is, it implies both an act of the will and 
 a depraved state of the affections. "Willing 
 ignorance is conscious ignorance; and this is 
 more nearlj' universal than most apologizers 
 for human sinfulness are disposed to admit. 
 That, etc. The point which Peter makes is 
 this: The creation of the earth, and the 
 attendant material heavens, was effected by 
 God; and it was God who, after a long period 
 of apparent sameness in the operations of 
 nature, made a sudden and miraculous change 
 in the condition of the earth and its inhabit- 
 ants; yet it was unexpected by most of the 
 people then living — naj', they scoffed at it. 
 That change was effected by means of water. 
 However great the disposition to mock, God 
 can, and will, effect another change on the 
 same heavens and earth ; and that can be 
 effected by fire. It is at the time of such a 
 change that Christ will come. The word of 
 God — not the second person of the Trinity, as 
 in John 1: 1. See Gen. 1 : 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, etc. 
 (" And God said.") Speaking was equivalent 
 to acting. Even if it should be conceded that 
 the method in which creation came into 
 beingwas exclusively by "development," that 
 method would have been an expression of the 
 
 will of an Intelligent and Almighty Being. 
 Of old is to be referred to the beginning 
 of things. (Gen.i:!.) Standing— co7istihitcd. 
 " 'The earth,' says Peter, 'was constituted out 
 o/ water,' out of the material contained in the 
 water — not, ' rose up out of water.' " In the 
 water — by means of water. The earth was 
 formed by means of water (Gen. i: 6, 7, 9, lo) — 
 "i. e., through the action of water, which partly 
 retired to the low places, and partly formed 
 the clouds in the sky." (Winer.) Another 
 view is possible — that water yielded its solid 
 particles for the formation of the earth. The 
 account given by most heathen nations re- 
 specting the origin of water and land is very 
 absurd compared with the representation given 
 in the Scriptures. 
 
 6. Whereby — by which (means). The refer- 
 ence is doubtful, and is the more so because 
 the pronoun is in the plural. It is referred 
 by some to heavens and earth — b3' the heavens 
 pouring down their waters, and the earth 
 pouring them forth. But world here means 
 heaven and earth. It is the destruction of the 
 material world, involving, indeed, the destruc- 
 tion of men and animals, to which the writer 
 is referring ; and, therefore, he could not 
 have meant to say, by which heavens and 
 earth the heavens and earth were made to 
 perish. Some say : In consequence of which 
 arrangement of things. Others refer it to 
 water, and account for the plural by making 
 a double reference to water "as the material 
 out of which water was formed, and to water 
 as the means bj' which the earthy part of the 
 globe was made," or, as Huther adds, " which 
 is more natural, to the word of God as well as 
 to water, so that v)hereby (Sia iiv) is to be trans- 
 lated, by v)hich things.'^ Overflowed . . , 
 perished — not annihilated, but changed. Tlie 
 change was miraculous. It did not occur as a 
 mere development of natural law. It was 
 effected by the direct touch of the hand of 
 God, breaking up the natural order of things. 
 See Crit. Notes. 
 
 7. But contrasts destruction by water and 
 destruction by fire. The heavens, etc. 'The 
 
Ch. Ill] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 107 
 
 the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire 
 against the day of judguieut and perdition of ungodly 
 lueu. 
 
 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, 
 that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and 
 a thousand years as one day. 
 
 same word have been i stored up for fire, being re- 
 served against the day of judgment and destruction 
 of ungodly meu. 
 
 8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one 
 day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
 
 9 thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack 
 
 1 Or, stored with fire. 
 
 heavens' which are iioav is contrasted with 
 the world that then was. Kept in store . . . 
 fire. The Greek allows ' fire ' to be brought 
 in earlier; thus, as in the Revised Version, 
 stored up for fire, or stored up ivith fire. 
 Reserved — or, being reserved (while they 
 are reserved). See upon ver. 10. This, with 
 the related statements in ver. 10, 12, 13, is an 
 instance of Peter's originality, though remote 
 allusions to the destruction of the earth even 
 by fire, as connected with God's coming to 
 
 punish, are numerous. (Ps.SO: 3;97:3;102: 26;Isa. 
 
 34: 4; 51: 6; 66: 15.) Sucli allusion Is made ill 
 the words of Christ: "Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away" (Matt. 24 : as), by the writer of 
 Hebrews (12: 26,27), and by Paul. (2The^s. i: 8.) 
 "Very striking is the implication in Isa. 66: 22. 
 This representation of the certainty of the 
 world's destruction appears to be confirmed 
 by recent scientific conclusions. "Our earth is 
 approaching a finality through various causes 
 of change. Its surface is wearing out, and 
 its lands becoming sea-sediments. Its pro- 
 gressive refrigeration will result in the com- 
 plete absorption of atmosphere and water. 
 Tidal action will slacken the rate of rotation 
 until each side is turned alternately two weeks 
 toward the scorching sun, and two weeks 
 toward the cold regions of space. If this is not 
 enough, the sun is destined to be extinguished, 
 and the earth to be precipitated upon the 
 central funeral pile of our system. Any one 
 of these contingencies demonstrates that the 
 duration of the habitable globe is limited." 
 (Alexander Winchell, LL.D., Professor, Uni- 
 versity of Michigan, "Journal of Christian 
 Philosophy," Vol. I, No. 3.) " We can see 
 distinctly many causes in operation which 
 must finally result in an entire change of con- 
 ditions for the earth, and ultimately, unless 
 the course of affairs is somehow arrested in a 
 way we cannot even guess at now, must termi- 
 nate in its lifelessness or destruction." (C. A. 
 Young, LL. D., Professor, Princeton College, 
 idem. Vol. I, No. 2.) Kays the same distin- 
 guished astronomer, when speaking of the one 
 solar problem, "which excites the deepest 
 
 and most general interest "—"that relating to 
 the solar heat" — "I perceive no reason to 
 doubt the final cessation of the sun's activity, 
 and the consequent death of the system." 
 ("Christian Thought.") The gradual shrink- 
 ing of the earth's orbit, and the falling of the 
 earth upon the sun, millions of millions of 
 years from the present, seems to be a neces- 
 sary result of certain existing conditions. It 
 is added that "almost certainly one thing, of 
 great and decisive importance to the planetary 
 system, will happen before the earth has ap- 
 proached the sun a single mile under this 
 meteoric action." 
 
 But the reason why the heavens and the 
 earth are reserved is yet to be stated : they 
 are reserved with reference to the day of 
 judgment, and of the destruction of godless 
 men. The day of judgment will indeed be 
 the day of perdition (destruction, not annihi- 
 lation) for the godless. 
 
 8. The apostle proves from the nature of 
 the divine mind in relation to time, that 
 the objection of the scoffers (ver. 4) is ground- 
 less. They say : All things so continue from 
 the beginning of creation; there has been 
 delay in Christ's coming, and the delay has 
 been so great that we have the right to believe 
 that Christ will never come at all But, says 
 the apostle, the Lord's conception of duration 
 is such tliat the argument from long delay is 
 without force. To his infinite mind a tliousand 
 years are as one day : not that even the Lord 
 sees no more duration in a thousand years 
 than he sees in one day, but so far as respects 
 the accomplishment of his purposes, a thou- 
 sand years' delay is no more to him than one 
 hour's delay. The first part of the rei)ly, one 
 day as a thousand years, was doubtless 
 suggested to the apostle by Ps. 90: 4 (perhaps 
 he intended it as a quotation); but not seem- 
 ing to be a pertinent reply to the skeptics, he 
 adds, as his own conception, a thousand 
 years as one day. Peter's estimate of this 
 view is such tliat he gives it much prominence 
 in the words, this one thing, and also in the 
 emphatic position which he gives them. In 
 
108 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 9 The Ijord is noi slaok coucerning his promise, as 
 some lueii cuunl slackness ; but is longsutferiug to us- 
 ward, not willing that any should perish, but tliat all 
 sliould come to repentance. 
 
 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 
 night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
 
 concerning his promise, as some count slackness; 
 but is longsutferiug to you-ward, not wishing that 
 any should perish, but that all should come to re- 
 10 pentance. But the day of tlie Lord will coine as a 
 thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away 
 
 the Greek, thus: But this one thing Tp^rmxt 
 not to be hidden from you (do not lose sight 
 of it). 
 
 9. That there has been delay in the ful- 
 fillment of the promise is clear; but has this 
 delay been of the nature of dilatoriness? Has 
 the Lord shown slackness? Slackness is the 
 result of indifference or of inability ; has the 
 delay resulted from either? Not slack, says 
 our apostle with characteristic positiveness. 
 Man has not the " standard " time. As some 
 men count slackness — not as some think it 
 (the delay) to be slackness, but as some judge 
 what slackness is. Some think delay to be 
 slackness; not by such a "standard" is God 
 to be judged. Is the delay, then, the result 
 of arbitrariness ? May not the Lord have 
 some benevolent end in view ? Long-suffer- 
 ing. God's tender forbearance toward men 
 is the true explanation. (iPet. 3: 20; Lukeis: 7.) 
 To us- ward — toward you, according to the 
 better reading, 'you' referring to the readers; 
 but as the remainder of the verse refers to 
 men in general, it is most natural to suppose 
 that these also are included. Not willing. 
 Purposing that none shall perish would be 
 neither a fair expression of the meaning, nor 
 a justifiable inference. The original expresses 
 inclination, disposition. God's disposition is 
 such that he has no desire in itself that 
 men perish; and hence, to aflSrm, as does 
 the theological system of Dr. Emmons, that 
 God creates sinful volitions in men (in 
 Pharaoh, for example) for the purpose of 
 "damning" them, is untrue, and in the 
 highest degree derogatory to the character 
 of God. Peter here has nothing to say 
 concerning that eternal and loving purpose 
 by which the suflFerings of the Son are pre- 
 vented from being borne in vain ; but he is 
 accounting for the delay of Christ's coming 
 to judge the world. The judgment is delayed, 
 in order that, if possible, all men may be 
 saved. If men are lost before Christ comes, 
 it is not because no opportunity to be saved is 
 given them. Should come — to repentance; 
 should enter into repentance. And by 're- 
 pentance' is meant a change of mind, and 
 
 also a corresponding change of conduct, and 
 in relation to God not less than in relation to 
 men. The attempt has been made to apply 
 the last clause to the elect, thus: not willing 
 that any of the elect should perish, but that 
 all of them should enter into repentance. 
 Theology must not attempt to overmaster 
 interpretation ; nor will Scriptural theology 
 make the attempt. The words cannot be 
 restricted to the elect. Compare Mark 16 : 15 ; 
 1 Tim. 2 : 4 ; Ezek. 18 : 23 ; 33 : 11. The refer- 
 ence to men in general is so much more 
 natural that it is to be preferred. Disharmony 
 between the view which the apostle gives here 
 and that in 1 Pet. 1 : 2 cannot be shown. The 
 lesson from this verse is twofold : encourage- 
 ment to Christians — for the delay does not 
 spring from dilatoriness ; and to all men — for 
 it gives opportunity for repentance. 
 
 10. But the day of the Lord will come 
 warns against the presumption that in con- 
 sequence of the long-sufiFering of God the 
 coming of Christ may never occur. The 
 emphasis is remarkable : But come will the 
 day of the Lord. It is possible that but was 
 intended to direct back to ver. 4. The scoflFers 
 say : ' Where ? ' ' But,' says the apostle, ' that 
 day will come.' 'The day of the Lord'; a 
 striking expression, since all days are days of 
 the Lord In ver. 12 it is called 'the day 
 of God,' yet God's day is the day of the com- 
 ing of Christ. (Ver. 4.) See James 5: 7; 2 
 Thess. 2: 2. ("The day of Christ.") The 
 phrase was used in the times of the prophets. 
 
 (Joel 1 ; 15 ; Ezek. 13 : 5 ; Isa. 2 : 12.) To the elcCt the 
 
 day of the Lord will be resplendent with 
 joy; to scoflTers and sleepers a day of dismay 
 and despair. As a thief— unexpectedly and 
 suddenly. Our apostle's Divine Teacher used 
 the same comparison (Matt. 24:43, 44) ; and Paul. 
 (1 Thess. 5:2.) To thosc who Hvc in continual 
 expectation of the coming of Christ, that com- 
 ing cannot be sudden (1 Thess. 5:4) ; and in that 
 state of expectancy it is most precious to be. 
 A name to live while one is dead will make 
 Christ's coming like the coming of a thief. 
 (Rev. 3:3.) See the letter to the Church in 
 Sardis. In the night — the Greek not found 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 109 
 
 a great i.oise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat, the earth also ami the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up. 
 
 11 SeeiiKj then thai all these things shall be dissolved, 
 what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con- 
 versation and godliness, 
 
 with a great noise, and the ' elements shall be dis- 
 solved with fervent heat, and the earth and the 
 
 11 works that are therein siiall be "burned up. See- 
 ing that these things are thus all to bo dissolved, 
 what manner of persons ought ye to be in alt holy 
 
 12 living and godliness, looking for and ^earnestly 
 
 1 Or, heavenly bodice i Tbe most aacieot i 
 
 u^icripts read diecovered 3 Or, haetening. 
 
 in the best manuscripts. In the which— in 
 
 the whicli day. The heavens — the visible 
 iieaveiis surrounding the earth Will pass 
 away — compare comments on ver. 13. With 
 a great noise — the rendering of but one 
 word (an adverb), and used in the New Tes- 
 tament by Peter only (poi^ijSbc). Farrar 
 (■' Early Days of Christianity") gives it the 
 remarkable rendering, hurtling ly ! The Re- 
 vised Version adheres to the more simple 
 rendering of the Common Version. Like 
 7'asp, rattling, and many other words, the 
 sound of the Greek word, in pronunciation, 
 corresi)onds with thesoundof the act intended 
 to be expressed. The English seems to have 
 no word which is like it in both sense and 
 sound. "The crackling of destructive fire," 
 "the noise of falling houses," "crashing 
 roar," have all been suggested as expressive 
 of the sense. The elements — "the com- 
 ponent parts of the physical world" (Robin- 
 son) ; perhaps, as some say, the stars, sun, 
 and tnoon. Revision, in the margin, "Or, 
 heavenly bodies." Shall melt, etc. — literally, 
 the elements being burnt, shall be dissolved ; 
 that is, they shall be destroyed by being 
 burnt. The works that are therein— both 
 the works of man, and the natural material 
 found upon and within the earth. "This 
 grand epoch in the physical world, repre- 
 sented by the burning of the earth and the 
 melting of the elements, preparatory to a new 
 cycle of the divine manifestations, which the 
 glorified will see, but which it is not per- 
 mitted us to understand, is connected with the 
 coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, 
 and the final judgment." Professor Samuel 
 Harris, D. D., LL. D. ("Bib. Sac," Jan., 
 1873). There is in the text no intimation that 
 these groat events are to be followed by a 
 millennium. Compare 2 Tim. 4 : 1. The wide 
 prevalence of Christianity, with the conse- 
 quent prevalence of holiness and peace, is to 
 precede the dissolution of the earth, the resur- 
 rection, and the general judgment. One of 
 the theories of the premillenial advent of 
 Christ is "that the righteous dead will be 
 
 raised, living believers changed, and yet the 
 race be continued by natural generation; all, 
 or nearly all, who are born, being converted 
 in early life. In the millennium, therefore, 
 Christ will reign with his saints in their glori- 
 fied bodies over the race of mankind in their 
 natural bodies. It" [the above view] "is 
 inconsistent with the language of Peter. 
 (2 Pet. 3:10-13.) For tliis huiguagc prodlcts such 
 a dissolving of the earth by fire as will make 
 it a new earth, if the new earth be not rather 
 wholly distinct from it." (President Hovey.) 
 11. Seeing, etc. — literally, all these things 
 dissolving, in view of the fact that they are 
 dissolving, the apostle conceives the change as 
 even now in the process of accomplishment; 
 either, 1. Because dissolution is inherent in 
 the nature of things (Winer), or, 2. Because 
 God, having willed it, it is certain to occur. 
 "Winer gives the participle (Auo/AeVcof) the sense 
 of the present. Buttmann would justify the 
 Revisers ; for he says that present participles 
 are frequently used in a future sense, and 
 adduces this very case, (f 137, p. 206.) The 
 word here translated 'dissolved' is the same 
 as is rendered in ver. 10 ' shall melt.' The 
 researches of modern science afford a striking 
 confirmation of tliose inspired representations. 
 See the citations in the comments on ver. 7. 
 What manner — possiblj' a question, perhaps 
 an exclamation. Assuming the former, some 
 make the question end at be, and consider all 
 that follows to the end of ver. 12 as the 
 answer; but others extend the question to 
 godliness. ' What manner ' refers to quality 
 of Christian character. Ought — here the 
 obligation seems to be put only on the ground 
 of the dissolution of the earth ; but the context 
 shows that with this are connected the otlier 
 great final events, including (ver. m) even their 
 own entrance into the peace and purity of 
 heaven. Holy conversation and godii- 
 ness. The Greek words are in the plural: 
 all forms of holy deportment and piety. 
 Query: How much are the j)eople of God 
 to-day incited by such a motive to seek such 
 a character? 
 
no 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. III. 
 
 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the 
 day of Uod, wherein the heavens being on lire shall be 
 dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heal ? 
 
 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look 
 for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. 
 
 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such 
 things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in 
 peace, without spot, and blameless. 
 
 15 And account <Aa< the longsutfering of our Lord Is 
 salvation ; even as our beloved brother Paul also ac- 
 
 desiring the i coming of the day of God, by reason 
 of which the heavens being on fire shall be dis- 
 solved, and the -elements shall melt with fervent 
 
 13 heat? But, according to his promise, we look for 
 new lieavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleih 
 righteousness. 
 
 14 Wherelore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these 
 things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, 
 
 15 without spot and blameless in his sight. And ac- 
 count tliat the longsutfering of our l^ord is salva- 
 tion ; even as our beloved brother Paul also, accord- 
 
 1 Gr. presence 2 Or, heavenly bodies. 
 
 13. Looking for — expecting it. Hasting 
 unto — hastening. The Greek has no word for 
 ' unto.' See Matt. 22 : 42, 44; 1 Thess. 1 : 10. 
 The readers are exhorted to hasten the coming, 
 etc. The day was fixed in the purpose of God ; 
 yet, \iy constant growth in holiness (ver. is), 
 and by effort, in accordance with God's long- 
 suftering (vei. 9), to turn men to Christ, they 
 are to hasten its coming. Compare Phil. 3 : 
 20; Tit. 2: 13. As always, so here, the point 
 of harmony between God's purpose and man's 
 activity eludes us. Wherein — on account of 
 which day, or, perhaps, on account of the 
 coming of which day. The meaning is, that 
 the coming of the day will be the occasion of 
 the destruction of the heavens and the earth. 
 As to the remainder, see on ver. 10. 
 
 13. Nevertheless expresses the contrast 
 too strongly ; but is preferable New heavens 
 and a new earth is put first in the Greek 
 for emphasis; but new heavens and earth 
 new, according to his promise, we look for. 
 Promise, (isa. 65: n; 66: 22.) Righteousness 
 — to the exclusion forever of all unrighteous- 
 ness is certainly implied. It cannot, therefore, 
 refer to the condition of human society on 
 earth, after the supposed second advent of 
 Christ, during what some regard as the Mil- 
 lennium; for Premillenarianism teaches that 
 toward the end of the period unrighteousness 
 will again arise. 'New heavens and a new 
 earth ' — a figurative representation of the resur- 
 rection bliss of that lieaven to which Christ 
 ascended, where he now is, and will be for- 
 ever. There is, neither here nor elsewhere 
 in the Epistles of Peter, evidence that the 
 earth, after its destruction, will be refitted as 
 a dwelling-place for the elect. Innumerable 
 passages show that heaven has already an 
 actual existence, and the supposition that that 
 will be deserted for another, or that there will 
 be at length two heavens, the one there and 
 the other here, is groundless. That heaven, 
 
 strictly so called, is now elsewhere. See, among 
 many other passages, Matt. 6: 9; Jolin 14: 
 2, 3; 16: 28; 17: 24; Acts 7: 56; Phil. 1 : 
 28; ITirn. 6: 7. 
 
 14. Wherefore — a sign of inference. In 
 view of what is said in the preceding verse as 
 the object of their expectation. Seeing that 
 ye look — looking for, expecting — the same 
 form as in ver. 12. Be diligent {earnest), as 
 in 1: 10, 15; translated in Hebrews, "let us 
 labor." That ye may be found of him. 
 What Peter meant to express by the pronoun 
 is not clear. The meaning will depend on 
 the connection supposed to exist. Does he 
 mean to say, blameless by him ? or, may be 
 found by hiin? The former, probablj'. But 
 possibly the rendering should be, for him,. 
 Consult Winer g 31, 10, p. 219, and Buttmann 
 ? 138, p. 179, and § 184, p. 187. It is rendered 
 in the Revised Version, "in his sight," and 
 is connected with blameless. Notice the dou- 
 bleness of the motive: 1. The dissolution of 
 tlie earth (ver. 11) ; 2. The possession of a new 
 earth, (ver. 13.) In peace. Compare John 
 14: 27. How different with the wicked, first 
 in this life (i-a. 57: 20,21), and then in the next! 
 (Rev.i4:ii.) Sorrow over the immoralities 
 and errors of men, and even indignation af 
 the more Satanic forms of sin, are possible in 
 connection with habitual desire to be found by 
 Christ in peace. 
 
 15. The long-suffering—alreadj' referred 
 to in ver. 9. Is salvation — equivalent to 
 salvation, for it gives them time to make 
 their calling and election sure. (i:io.) Such 
 delay for such a purpose is not, however, ab- 
 solutely necessary ; otherwise the converted 
 robber (Luiie23: 40-43) needed more evidence that 
 he would be saved than his brief period of 
 repentance gave him. Very beautiful and 
 magnanimous is the reference to Paul, and 
 the more so inasmuch as Peter was once the 
 object of Paul's rebuke. (Gai.2: 11,12.) Peter's 
 
Ch. III.] 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 Ill 
 
 cording to the wisdom given unto him hath written 
 unto you ; 
 
 IG As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of 
 these things; in which are some things hard to be 
 understood, which they that are unlearned and un- 
 stable wrest, as t/iri/ do also the other Scriptures, unto 
 their own destruction. 
 
 17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye Icnow these things 
 before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the 
 error of the wicked, I'all from your own steadfastness. 
 
 16 ing to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you ; as 
 also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these 
 things; wherein are .some things hard to be under- 
 etoou, which the ignorant and uustedfast wrest, as 
 thai/ do also the other scriptures, unto their own 
 
 17 destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these 
 thiiiys beforehand, beware lest, being carried away 
 with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own 
 
 18 studlasluess. But grow in tlie grace and knowledge 
 
 fault was serious, and had not God already 
 raised up a man having broad views and a 
 decided will, and had Peter been willful and 
 stubborn, it is impossible to say what harm 
 the infant religion might not have suttered. 
 A note in the Douay Version calls Peter's 
 act "only a certain imprudence"; which is 
 intended to save the reputation of "the 
 founder" of the llomish Church, but, as it 
 detracts proportionally from the value of 
 Peter's allusion to Paul, little is gained for 
 "the founder." Wisdom given him— 
 partly' natural, chiefly supernatural. Hath 
 written — torote. Unto you. See 1: 1. 
 What epistle or epistles Peter means cannot 
 be determined. It has been assumed by too 
 many that he must refer to an epistle sent to 
 Christians of Asia Minor; but the present 
 Epistle was not sent to them alone, but to all 
 ■who had obtained like precious f^tith. The 
 epistle or epistles intended may have been 
 written to the Ephesians or to the Colossians, 
 but they must be presumed to have come into 
 circulation among those to whom Peter's 
 Second Epistle was sent. This supposition 
 will explain the 'you.' 
 
 16. All his epistles. Probably all Paul's 
 epistles were written before this time, and 
 most of them must have attained circulation 
 among other churches besides those to which 
 they were sent. Nearly all of them touch 
 some of the subjects which Peter presents, 
 and some make extended allusion to them. 
 In which — either among which things, or, 
 with another form of the Greek pronoun 
 (more probably correct), in v)hich epistles. 
 Hard to be understood — not only some 
 things which are common to Paul and Peter, 
 butsome things which only Paul has presented. 
 See for example, the 9th chapter of Romans; 
 1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 12: 1-7; Gal. 3: 24-28; 4: 
 21-31; IThess. 4: 13-17; 2 Thess. 2: 1-12; 
 and, assuming that Paul wrote it, many 
 things in Hebrews. A book professing to 
 come from a Being of infinite wisdom, yet 
 with nothing in it which needs to be studied, 
 
 nothing which, even with hard study, could 
 not be understood in this life, might be pre- 
 sumed to be more human than divine. The 
 Scriptures, as a whole, are easy to be under- 
 stood — much easier to most men than books 
 originated with men themselves upon philoso- 
 phy and law. Unlearned — not learned in 
 spiritual truth. Unstable. See on 2: 14. 
 The adjectives have but one article; they ap- 
 ply, therefore, to the same class of persons. 
 Ignorance and instability — a well-matched 
 pair, but bad for good service. Knowledge 
 of divine things the best foundation. Wrest 
 — by perverting the meaning, which is often 
 done. The other scriptures. The article 
 points, apparently, to all the current sacred 
 writings in addition to Paul's — that is, to the 
 Old Testament, the Gospels, the Acts, and 
 perhaps Peter's First Epistle. Unto indi- 
 cates result. Their own destruction. Eter- 
 nal punishment (Matt. 25: 4s), is the rcsiilt to 
 which their perversion of the Scriptures leads. 
 In attempting to destroy the Bible men de- 
 stroy themselves. 
 
 17, 18. These verses condense the exhorta- 
 tion which runs through the Epistle. In the 
 beginning the apostle desires that grace may 
 be multiplied unto them through the knowl- 
 edge of God, and here, at the end, he exhorts 
 them to grov) in grace and knowledge. 
 Therefore — in view of all that I have said. 
 Seeing ye know — knowing; the same form 
 of expression as in ver. 11, 14. 'Know.' 
 What? For no object is expressed in the 
 original. Know that lustful mockers are to 
 come. (Ver. 3.) They know it beforehand, be- 
 fore they come; for they learn it through this 
 very Epistle. Peter's prophecy will not fail, 
 for it is Christ who speaks through him. Ye 
 also. 'Also' has no corresponding word in 
 the original, and it makes the contrast between 
 the readers and others too great. Error. See 
 on the same word. («: is.) The wicked — 
 the lawless, as in 2: 7. Fall from — a warning 
 against apostasy. See Querj-, at the close of 
 comments on 2: 22. Your own steadfast- 
 
112 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 [Ch. hi. 
 
 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
 Lord aud Saviour Jesus Christ. To hiui be glory both 
 now and lor ever. Amen. 
 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be 
 the glory both now and i for ever. Amen. 
 
 1 Gr. unto the day of eternity. 
 
 ness — not originating with them, for that 
 general virtue is not less the fruit of the Holy 
 Spirit than particular virtue, (cai. 5: 22, 23,) A 
 quiet contrast between their own steadfastness 
 and the instability of those mentioned in ver. 
 16 may be intended. Steadfastness is not merely 
 continued adherence to the Church, its creeds 
 and rites; but, while including that, adher- 
 ence to Christ in spiritual life. But grow — 
 not fall from (ver. n), but on the contrary, 
 grow. Satisfaction with present attainments 
 may prove the beginning of a fall ; growth is 
 the only security. Grace — holiness, but with 
 reference to its origin as a gift of unmerited 
 mercy, and here called the grace of Christ. 
 Knowledge. Grow in grace and in the knowl- 
 edge. The repetition of in before knowledge, 
 and the use of the article in the one case, and 
 not in the other, has the effect to separate 
 growing in grace too widely from growing in 
 knowledge : in the grace and knowledge is 
 better. Growth in the knowledge of Christ 
 is indispensable to growth in the grace of 
 Christ. Ignorance cuts the sinews of spiritual 
 growth. Inference: The more knowledge 
 ministers have the better for their people, as 
 well as for themselves; the more they have, 
 the more, in that respect, are they like God. 
 The church which cares little whether its re- 
 ligious teacher be well furnished with knowl- 
 
 edge, dishonors the all-knowing Saviour more 
 than words can express. Preaching which is 
 not instructive, but "saws the air too much," 
 " tearing a passion to tatters," and "o'ersteps 
 the modesty of nature" ; preaching which is 
 "overdone or come tardy off," "making the 
 unskillful laugh and the judicious grieve" — 
 "pray you avoid it." 
 
 The doxology. See on 1 Peter 1 : 3; 4: 11. 
 The form here employed varies from that 
 found in 1 Pet. 4: 11. It is, literally: To 
 whom the glory both now and unto the day of 
 eternity. The remarkable combination of day 
 and eternity may have been unconsciously 
 suggested to the writer by what he had already 
 said in ver. 8. Bengel: "Eternity is a day, 
 without night, unmixed and perpetual." 
 Hutter: "The day in which eternity begins 
 as contrasted with time, but which day is also 
 eternity itself." Amen. See on 1 Pet. 4: 11. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE.— CHAPTER III. 
 
 Says Winer: " In 2 Pet. 3: 6, vSaTi [water] 
 would not be superfluous, even if iSdrmv were 
 supplied with SI S>v [whereby] ; it would desig- 
 nate water as an element, whereas vSara (comp. 
 Gen. 7: 11) would signify the concrete 
 (separate) bodies of water. Comp. further 
 Jude 4." 
 

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