1 Petrus 1:3

New Birth to Joy and Holiness

1:3 Blessed be ¹  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Petrus 1:7

1:7 Such trials show the proven character of your faith, ²  which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away ³  – and will bring praise ⁴  and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁵ 

1 Petrus 2:9

2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues ⁶  of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Petrus 2:15

2:15 For God wants you ⁷  to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.

1 Petrus 3:4

3:4 but the inner person ⁸  of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

1 Petrus 3:10

3:10 For

the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep ⁹  his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.

1 Petrus 3:13

3:13 For ¹⁰  who is going to harm you if you are devoted to what is good?

1 Petrus 3:17

3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, ¹¹  than for doing evil.

1 Petrus 3:20

3:20 after they were disobedient long ago ¹²  when God patiently waited ¹³  in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark ¹⁴  a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.

1 Petrus 4:13-14

4:13 But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed ¹⁵  you may also rejoice and be glad. ¹⁶  4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, ¹⁷  who is the Spirit of God, ¹⁸  rests ¹⁹  on you.

1 Petrus 4:17

4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house ²⁰  of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate ²¹  of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God?

1 Petrus 4:19--5:4

4:19 So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good. ²² 

Leading and Living in God’s Flock

5:1 So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you: 5:2 Give a shepherd’s care to ²³  God’s flock among you, exercising oversight ²⁴  not merely as a duty ²⁵  but willingly under God’s direction, ²⁶  not for shameful profit but eagerly. 5:3 And do not lord it over ²⁷  those entrusted to you, ²⁸  but be examples to the flock. 5:4 Then ²⁹  when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that never fades away.

1 Petrus 5:6

5:6 And God will exalt you in due time, ³⁰  if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand ³¹ 

1 Petrus 5:12

Final Greetings

5:12 Through Silvanus, ³²  whom I know to be a faithful brother, ³³  I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify ³⁴  that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. ³⁵ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn There is no verb in the Greek text; either the optative (“be”) or the indicative (“is”) can be supplied. The meaning of the term εὐλογητός (euloghtos) and the author’s intention at this point in the epistle must both come into play to determine which is the preferred nuance. εὐλογητός as an adjective can mean either that one is praised or that one is blessed, that is, in a place of favor and benefit. Two factors of the author’s style come into play. At this point the author is describing the reality of believers’ salvation and will soon explain believers’ necessary response; this is in emulation of Pauline style which generally follows the same logical order (although the author here discusses the reality in a much more compressed fashion). On the other hand, when imitating the Pauline greeting, which is normally verbless, the author inserts the optative (see v. 2 above). When considered as a whole, although a decision is difficult, the fact that the author in the immediate context has used the optative when imitating a Pauline stylized statement would argue for the optative here. The translation uses the term “blessed” in the sense “worthy of praise” as this is in keeping with the traditional translation of berakah psalms. Cf. also 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3.

[1:7]  ² tn Or “genuineness,” the result of testing. On the other hand it may denote the process of testing: “that the proving of your faith…may bring praise.”

[1:7]  sn The author is not asserting that the quality of the readers’ faith is in doubt and will be proven by future trials. He declares their faith to be a present reality in v. 5 and 9, so in context v. 8 affirms that their faith is indeed genuine.

[1:7]  ³ tn Grk “which is passing away but is tested by fire,” describing gold in a lesser-to-greater comparison with faith’s proven character.

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Grk “that the testing of your faith…may be found unto praise,” showing the result of the trials mentioned in v. 6.

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Grk “at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (cf. v. 13).

[2:9]  ⁶ sn This verse contains various allusions and quotations from Exod 19:5-6; 23:22 (LXX); Isa 43:20-21; and Mal 3:17.

[2:15]  ⁷ tn Grk “because thus it is God’s will.”

[3:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “the hidden man.” KJV’s “the hidden man of the heart,” referring to a wife, could be seriously misunderstood by the modern English reader.

[3:10]  ⁹ tn Grk “stop.”

[3:13]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “For” to indicate that what follows gives an explanation.

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Grk “if the will of God should will it.” As in 3:14 the Greek construction here implies that suffering for doing good was not what God normally willed, even though it could happen, and in fact may have happened to some of the readers (cf. 4:4, 12-19).

[3:20]  ¹² tn This reflects a Greek participle, literally “having been disobedient formerly,” that refers to the “spirits” in v. 19. Many translations take this as adjectival describing the spirits (“who had once been disobedient”; cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT, NRSV, TEV), but the grammatical construction strongly favors an adverbial interpretation describing the time of the preaching, as reflected above.

[3:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “the patience of God waited.”

[3:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “in which,” referring to the ark; the referent (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:13]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in the revelation of his glory.”

[4:13]  ¹⁶ tn The verb “be glad” is used also in 1:6 and 1:8. The verbs of v. 13b are used together in Matt 5:12 and Rev 19:7.

[4:14]  ¹⁷ tc Many mss, some of them important and early ([א] A P 33 81 323 945 1241 1739 pm bo), add καὶ δυνάμεως (kai dunamew"; “and of power”) here. The shorter reading is supported by Ì⁷² B K L Ψ 049 pm). Although the evidence is evenly divided, the longer reading looks to be an explanatory or liturgical expansion on the text and for this reason should be considered secondary.

[4:14]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the Spirit of glory and of God.”

[4:14]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation taken from Isa 11:2.

[4:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “to begin from the house.”

[4:17]  ²¹ tn Or “the end.”

[4:19]  ²² tn Grk “in doing good.”

[5:2]  ²³ tn Grk “shepherd,” “tend,” “pastor.”

[5:2]  ²⁴ tc A few important mss (א* B sa) lack ἐπισκοποῦντες (episkopounte", “exercising oversight”), but the participle enjoys otherwise good ms support (Ì⁷² א² A P Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat). A decision is difficult because normally the shorter reading is preferred, especially when found in excellent witnesses. However, in this instance the omission may be due to a hesitation among some scribes to associate oversight with elders, since the later church viewed overseer/bishop as a separate office from elder.

[5:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “not under compulsion/coercion.”

[5:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “according to God.”

[5:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “not as lording it over…but being examples.” The participles continue the command of v. 2 by describing how the shepherding should be carried out.

[5:3]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the ones allotted,” referring to those God has given over to their care.

[5:4]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Then” to reflect the logical sequence of events.

[5:6]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in time,” but connoting “the proper time, when the time is right” as in Matt 24:45; Luke 12:42.

[5:6]  ³¹ tn Grk “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that in due time he may exalt you.” The sentence was rearranged so that the English reader could more clearly see the connection between “casting” (v. 7) and “humble” (v. 6).

[5:12]  ³² sn The phrase Through Silvanus means either that Silvanus was the secretary (amanuensis) who assisted Peter in writing or composing the letter (cf. Rom 16:22) or that he carried the letter to the churches. The latter sense is more likely since this is the meaning of the Greek wording when it is used elsewhere (cf. Acts 15:23; Ignatius, Letter to the Romans 10:1; Letter to the Philadelphians 11:2; Letter to the Smyrnaeans 12:1; Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians 14), though it is perhaps possible that both ideas could be incorporated by this expression. For a detailed argument regarding this issue, see E. R. Richards, “Silvanus Was Not Peter’s Secretary: Theological Bias in Interpreting διὰ Σιλουανοῦ…ἔγραψα,” JETS 43 (September 2000): 417-32.

[5:12]  ³³ tn Grk “the faithful brother, as I think.”

[5:12]  ³⁴ tn These are participles (“encouraging and testifying”) showing purpose. The pronoun object “you” is omitted in Greek but implied by the context.

[5:12]  ³⁵ tn Grk “in which stand fast.” For emphasis, and due to constraints of contemporary English, this was made a separate sentence in the translation.