{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"1PE","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"1 Peter","commonName":"1 Peter","introduction":"ITS GENUINENESS is attested by Pe2 3:1. On the authority of Second Peter, see the Introduction. Also by POLYCARP (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.14]), who, in writing to the Philippians, quotes many passages: in the second chapter he quotes Pe1 1:13, Pe1 1:21; Pe1 3:9; in the fifth chapter, Pe1 2:11. EUSEBIUS says of PAPIAS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39] that he, too, quotes Peter's First Epistle. IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 4.9.2] expressly mentions it; and in [4.16.5], Pe1 2:16. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 1.3, p. 544], quotes Pe1 2:11-12, Pe1 2:15-16; and [p. 562], Pe1 1:21-22; and [4, p. 584], Pe1 3:14-17; and [p. 585], Pe1 4:12-14. ORIGEN (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.25]) mentions this Epistle; in [Homily 7, on Joshua, vol. 2, p. 63], he mentions both Epistles; and [Commentary on Psalm 3 and on John], he mentions Pe1 3:18-21. TERTULLIAN [Antidote to the Scorpion's Sting, 12], quotes expressly Pe1 2:20-21; and [Antidote to the Scorpion's Sting, 14], Pe1 2:13, Pe1 2:17. EUSEBIUS states it as the opinion of those before him that this was among the universally acknowledged Epistles. The Peschito Syriac Version contains it. The fragment of the canon called MURATORI'S omits it. Excepting this, and the Paulician heretics, who rejected it, all ancient testimony is on its side. The internal evidence is equally strong. The author calls himself the apostle Peter, Pe1 1:1, and \"a witness of Christ's sufferings,\" and an \"elder,\" Pe1 5:1. The energy of the style harmonizes with the warmth of Peter's character; and, as ERASMUS says, this Epistle is full of apostolic dignity and authority and is worthy of the leader among the apostles.\n\nPETER'S PERSONAL HISTORY.--Simon, Or Simeon, was a native of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, son of Jonas or John. With his father and his brother Andrew he carried on trade as a fisherman at Capernaum, his subsequent place of abode. He was a married man, and tradition represents his wife's name as Concordia or Perpetua. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA says that she suffered martyrdom, her husband encouraging her to be faithful unto death, \"Remember, dear, our Lord.\" His wife's mother was restored from a fever by Christ. He was brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew, who had been a disciple of John the Baptist, but was pointed to the Saviour as \"the Lamb of God\" by his master (Joh 1:29). Jesus, on first beholding him, gave him the name by which chiefly he is known, indicative of his subsequent character and work in the Church, \"Peter\" (Greek) or \"Cephas\" (Aramaic), a stone (Mat 4:18). He did not join our Lord finally until a subsequent period. The leading incidents in his apostolic life are well known: his walking on the troubled waters to meet Jesus, but sinking through doubting (Mat 14:30); his bold and clear acknowledgment of the divine person and office of Jesus (Mat 16:16; Mar 8:29; Joh 11:27), notwithstanding the difficulties in the way of such belief, whence he was then also designated as the stone, or rock (Mat 16:18); but his rebuke of his Lord when announcing what was so unpalatable to carnal prejudices, Christ's coming passion and death (Mat 16:22); his passing from one extreme to the opposite, in reference to Christ's offer to wash his feet (Joh 13:8-9); his self-confident assertion that he would never forsake his Lord, whatever others might do (Mat 26:33), followed by his base denial of Christ thrice with curses (Mat 26:75); his deep penitence; Christ's full forgiveness and prophecy of his faithfulness unto death, after he had received from him a profession of \"love\" as often repeated as his previous denial (Joh 21:15-17). These incidents illustrate his character as zealous, pious, and ardently attached to the Lord, but at the same time impulsive in feeling, rather than calmly and continuously steadfast. Prompt in action and ready to avow his convictions boldly, he was hasty in judgment, precipitate, and too self-confident in the assertion of his own steadfastness; the result was that, though he abounded in animal courage, his moral courage was too easily overcome by fear of man's opinion. A wonderful change was wrought in him by his restoration after his fall, through the grace of his risen Lord. His zeal and ardor became sanctified, being chastened by a spirit of unaffected humility. His love to the Lord was, if possible, increased, while his mode of manifesting it now was in doing and suffering for His name, rather than in loud protestations. Thus, when imprisoned and tried before the Sanhedrim for preaching Christ, he boldly avowed his determination to continue to do so. He is well called \"the mouth of the apostles.\" His faithfulness led to his apprehension by Herod Agrippa, with a view to his execution, from which, however, he was delivered by the angel of the Lord.\n\nAfter the ascension he took the lead in the Church; and on the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he exercised the designed power of \"the keys\" of Christ's kingdom, by opening the door of the Church, in preaching, for the admission of thousands of Israelites; and still more so in opening (in obedience to a special revelation) an entrance to the \"devout\" (that is, Jewish proselyte from heathendom) Gentile, Cornelius: the forerunner of the harvest gathered in from idolatrous Gentiles at Antioch. This explains in what sense Christ used as to him the words, \"Upon this rock I will build my Church\" (Mat 16:18), namely, on the preaching of Christ, the true \"Rock,\" by connection with whom only he was given the designation: a title shared in common on the same grounds by the rest of the apostles, as the first founders of the Church on Christ, \"the chief corner-stone\" (Eph 2:20). A name is often given in Hebrew, not that the person is actually the thing itself, but has some special relation to it; as Elijah means Mighty Jehovah, so Simon is called Peter \"the rock,\" not that he is so, save by connection with Jesus, the only true Rock (Isa 28:16; Co1 3:11). As subsequently he identified himself with \"Satan,\" and is therefore called so (Mat 16:23), in the same way, by his clear confession of Christ, the Rock, he became identified with Him, and is accordingly so called (Mat 16:18). It is certain that there is no instance on record of Peter's having ever claimed or exercised supremacy; on the contrary, he is represented as sent by the apostles at Jerusalem to confirm the Samaritans baptized by Philip the deacon; again at the council of Jerusalem, not he, but James the president, or leading bishop in the Church of that city, pronounced the authoritative decision: Act 15:19, \"My sentence is,\" &c. A kind of primacy, doubtless (though certainly not supremacy), was given him on the ground of his age, and prominent earnestness, and boldness in taking the lead on many important occasions. Hence he is called \"first\" in enumerating the apostles. Hence, too, arise the phrases, \"Peter and the Eleven,\" \"Peter and the rest of the apostles\"; and Paul, in going up to Jerusalem after his conversion, went to see Peter in particular.\n\nOnce only he again betrayed the same spirit of vacillation through fear of man's reproach which had caused his denial of his Lord. Though at the Jerusalem council he advocated the exemption of Gentile converts from the ceremonial observances of the law, yet he, after having associated in closest intercourse with the Gentiles at Antioch, withdrew from them, through dread of the prejudices of his Jewish brethren who came from James, and timidly dissembled his conviction of the religious equality of Jew and Gentile; for this Paul openly withstood and rebuked him: a plain refutation of his alleged supremacy and infallibility (except where specially inspired, as in writing his Epistles). In all other cases he showed himself to be, indeed, as Paul calls him, \"a pillar\" (Gal 2:9). Subsequently we find him in \"Babylon,\" whence he wrote this First Epistle to the Israelite believers of the dispersion, and the Gentile Christians united in Christ, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.\n\nJEROME [On Illustrious Men, 1] states that \"Peter, after having been bishop of Antioch, and after having preached to the believers of the circumcision in Pontus, &c. [plainly inferred from Pe1 1:1], in the second year of Claudius went to Rome to refute Simon Magus, and for twenty-five years there held the episcopal chair, down to the last year of Nero, that is, the fourteenth, by whom he was crucified with his head downwards, declaring himself unworthy to be crucified as his Lord, and was buried in the Vatican, near the triumphal way.\" EUSEBIUS [Chronicles, Anno 3], also asserts his episcopate at Antioch; his assertion that Peter founded that Church contradicts Act 11:19-22. His journey to Rome to oppose Simon Magus arose from JUSTIN'S story of the statue found at Rome (really the statue of the Sabine god, Semo Sanctus, or Hercules, mistaken as if Simon Magus were worshipped by that name, \"Simoni Deo Sancto\"; found in the Tiber in 1574, or on an island in the Tiber in 1662), combined with the account in Acts 8:9-24. The twenty-five years' bishopric is chronologically impossible, as it would make Peter, at the interview with Paul at Antioch, to have been then for some years bishop of Rome! His crucifixion is certain from Christ's prophecy, Joh 21:18-19. DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25]) asserted in an epistle to the Romans, that Paul and Peter planted both the Roman and Corinthian churches, and endured martyrdom in Italy at the same time. So TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 4.5, and The Prescription Against Heretics, 36, 38]. Also Caius, the presbyter of Rome, in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25] asserts that some memorials of their martyrdom were to be seen at Rome on the road to Ostia. So EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25, and Demonstration of the Gospel, 3.116]. So LACTANTIUS [Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, 2]. Many of the details are palpably false; whether the whole be so or not is dubious, considering the tendency to concentrate at Rome events of interest [ALFORD]. What is certain is, that Peter was not there before the writing of the Epistle to the Romans (A.D. 58), otherwise he would have been mentioned in it; nor during Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, otherwise he would have been mentioned in some one of Paul's many other Epistles written from Rome; nor during Paul's second imprisonment, at least when he was writing the Second Epistle to Timothy, just before his martyrdom. He may have gone to Rome after Paul's death, and, as common tradition represents, been imprisoned in the Mamertine dungeon, and crucified on the Janiculum, on the eminence of St. Pietro in Montorio, and his remains deposited under the great altar in the center of the famous basilica of St. Peter. AMBROSE [Epistles, 33 (Edition Paris, 1586), p. 1022] relates that St. Peter, not long before his death, being overcome by the solicitations of his fellow Christians to save himself, was fleeing from Rome when he was met by our Lord, and on asking, \"Lord, whither goest Thou?\" received the answer, \"I go to be crucified afresh.\" On this he returned and joyfully went to martyrdom. The church called \"Domine quo vadis\" on the Appian Way, commemorates the legend. It is not unlikely that the whole tradition is built on the connection which existed between Paul and Peter. As Paul, \"the apostle of the uncircumcision,\" wrote Epistles to Galatia, Ephesus, and Colosse, and to Philemon at Colosse, making the Gentile Christians the persons prominently addressed, and the Jewish Christians subordinately so; so, vice versa, Peter, \"the apostle of the circumcision,\" addressed the same churches, the Jewish Christians in them primarily, and the Gentile Christians also, secondarily.\n\nTO WHOM HE ADDRESSES THIS EPISTLE.--The heading, Pe1 1:1, \"to the elect strangers (spiritually pilgrims) of the dispersion\" (Greek), clearly marks the Christians of the Jewish dispersion as prominently addressed, but still including also Gentile Christians as grafted into the Christian Jewish stock by adoption and faith, and so being part of the true Israel. Pe1 1:14; Pe1 2:9-10; Pe1 3:6; Pe1 4:3 clearly prove this. Thus he, the apostle of the circumcision, sought to unite in one Christ Jew and Gentile, promoting thereby the same work and doctrine as Paul the apostle of the uncircumcision. The provinces are named by Peter in the heading in the order proceeding from northeast to south and west. Pontus was the country of the Christian Jew Aquila. To Galatia Paul paid two visits, founding and confirming churches. Crescens, his companion, went there about the time of Paul's last imprisonment, just before his martyrdom. Ancyra was subsequently its ecclesiastical metropolis. Men of Cappadocia, as well as of \"Pontus\" and \"Asia,\" were among the hearers of Peter's effective sermon on the Pentecost whereon the Spirit decended on the Church; these probably brought home to their native land the first tidings of the Gospel. Proconsular \"Asia\" included Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Phrygia, Pisidia, and Lyaconia. In Lycaonia were the churches of Iconium, founded by Paul and Barnabas; of Lystra, Timothy's birthplace, where Paul was stoned at the instigation of the Jews; and of Derbe, the birthplace of Gaius, or Caius. In Pisidia was Antioch, where Paul was the instrument of converting many, but was driven out by the Jews. In Caria was Miletus, containing doubtless a Christian Church. In Phrygia, Paul preached both times when visiting Galatia in its neighborhood, and in it were the churches of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse, of which last Church Philemon and Onesimus were members, and Archippus and Epaphras leaders. In Lydia was the Philadelphian Church, favorably noticed in Rev 3:7, &c.; that of Sardis, the capital, and of Thyatira, and of Ephesus, founded by Paul, and a scene of the labors of Aquila and Priscilla and Apollos, and subsequently of more than two whole years' labor of Paul again, and subsequently censured for falling from its first love in Rev 2:4. Smyrna of Ionia was in the same quarter, and as one of the seven churches receives unqualified praise. In Mysia was Pergamos. Troas, too, is known as the scene of Paul's preaching and raising Eutychus to life (Act 20:6-10), and of his subsequently staying for a time with Carpus (Ti2 4:13). Of \"Bithynia,\" no Church is expressly named in Scripture elsewhere. When Paul at an earlier period \"assayed to go into Bithynia\" (Act 16:7), the Spirit suffered him not. But afterwards, we infer from Pe1 1:1, the Spirit did impart the Gospel to that country, possibly by Peter's ministry, In government, these several churches, it appears from this Epistle (Pe1 5:1-2, \"Feed,\" &c.), were much in the same states as when Paul addressed the Ephesian \"elders\" at Miletus (Act 20:17, Act 20:28, \"feed\") in very similar language; elders or presbyter-bishops ruled, while the apostles exercised the general superintendence. They were exposed to persecutions, though apparently not systematic, but rather annoyances and reproach arising from their not joining their heathen neighbors in riotous living, into which, however, some of them were in danger of falling. The evils which existed among themselves, and which are therefore reproved, were ambition and lucre-seeking on the part of the presbyters (Pe1 5:2-3), evil thoughts and words among the members in general, and a want of sympathy and generosity towards one another.\n\nHIS OBJECT seems to be, by the prospect of their heavenly portion and by Christ's example, to afford consolation to the persecuted, and prepare them for a greater approaching ordeal, and to exhort all, husbands, wives, servants, presbyters, and people, to a due discharge of relative duties, so as to give no handle to the enemy to reproach Christianity, but rather to win them to it, and so to establish them in \"the true grace of God wherein they stand\" (Pe1 5:12). However, see on Pe1 5:12, on the oldest reading. ALFORD rightly argues that \"exhorting and testifying\" there, refer to Peter's exhortations throughout the Epistle grounded on testimony which he bears to the Gospel truth, already well known to his readers by the teaching of Paul in those churches. They were already introduced \"into\" (so the Greek, Pe1 5:12) this grace of God as their safe standing-ground. Compare Co1 15:1, \"I declare unto you the Gospel wherein ye stand.\" Therefore he does not, in this Epistle, set forth a complete statement of this Gospel doctrine of grace, but falls back on it as already known. Compare Pe1 1:8, Pe1 1:18, \"ye know\"; Pe1 3:15; Pe2 3:1. Not that Peter servilely copies the style and mode of teaching of Paul, but as an independent witness in his own style attests the same truths. We may divide the Epistle into: (I) The inscription (Pe1 1:1-2). (II) The stirring-up of a pure feeling in believers as born again of God. By the motive of hope to which God has regenerated us (Pe1 1:3-12); bringing forth the fruit of faith, considering the costly price paid for our redemption from sin (Pe1 1:14-21). Being purified by the Spirit unto love of the brethren as begotten of God's eternal word, as spiritual priest-kings, to whom alone Christ is precious (Pe1 1:22; Pe1 2:10); after Christ's example in suffering, maintaining a good conversation in every relation (Pe1 2:10; Pe1 3:14), and a good profession of faith as having in view Christ's once-offered sacrifice, and His future coming to judgment (Pe1 3:15; Pe1 4:11); and exhibiting patience in adversity, as looking for future glorification with Christ, (1) in general as Christians, Pe1 4:12-19; (2) each in his own sphere, Pe1 5:1-11. \"The title \"Beloved\" marks the separation of the second part from the first, Pe1 2:11; and of the third part from the second, Pe1 4:12\" [BENGEL]. (III). The conclusion.\n\nTIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.--It was plainly before the open and systematic persecution of the later years of Nero had begun. That this Epistle was written after Paul's Epistles, even those written during his imprisonment at Rome, ending in A.D. 63, appears from the acquaintance which Peter in this Epistle shows he has with them. Compare Pe1 2:13 with Ti1 2:2-4; Pe1 2:18 with Eph 6:5; Pe1 1:2 with Eph 1:4-7; Pe1 1:3 with Eph 1:3; Pe1 1:14 with Rom 12:2; Pe1 2:6-10 with Rom 9:32-33; Pe1 2:13 with Rom 13:1-4; Pe1 2:16 with Gal 5:13; Pe1 2:18 with Eph 6:5; Pe1 3:1 with Eph 5:22; Pe1 3:9 with Rom 12:17; Pe1 4:9 with Phi 2:14; Rom 12:13 and Heb 13:2; Pe1 4:10 with Rom 12:6-8; Pe1 5:1 with Rom 8:18; Pe1 5:5 with Eph 5:21; Phi 2:3, Phi 2:5-8; Pe1 5:8 with Th1 5:6; Pe1 5:14 with Co1 16:20. Moreover, in Pe1 5:13, Mark is mentioned as with Peter in Babylon. This must have been after Col 4:10 (A.D. 61-63), when Mark was with Paul at Rome, but intending to go to Asia Minor. Again, in Ti2 4:11 (A.D. 67 or 68), Mark was in or near Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and Timothy is told to bring him to Rome. So that it is likely it was after this, namely, after Paul's martyrdom, that Mark joined Peter, and consequently that this Epistle was written. It is not likely that Peter would have entrenched on Paul's field of labor, the churches of Asia Minor, during Paul's lifetime. The death of the apostle of the uncircumcision, and the consequent need of someone to follow up his teachings, probably gave occasion to the testimony given by Peter to the same churches, collectively addressed, in behalf of the same truth. The relation in which the Pauline Gentile churches stood towards the apostles at Jerusalem favors this view. Even the Gentile Christians would naturally look to the spiritual fathers of the Church at Jerusalem, the center whence the Gospel had emanated to them, for counsel wherewith to meet the pretensions of Judaizing Christians and heretics; and Peter, always prominent among the apostles in Jerusalem, would even when elsewhere feel a deep interest in them, especially when they were by death bereft of Paul's guidance. BIRKS [HorÃ&brvbr EvangelicÃ&brvbr] suggests that false teachers may have appealed from Paul's doctrine to that of James and Peter. Peter then would naturally write to confirm the doctrines of grace and tacitly show there was no difference between his teaching and Paul's. BIRKS prefers dating the Epistle A.D. 58, after Paul's second visit to Galatia, when Silvanus was with him, and so could not have been with Peter (A.D. 54), and before his imprisonment at Rome, when Mark was with him, and so could not have been with Peter (A.D. 62); perhaps when Paul was detained at CÃ&brvbrsarea, and so debarred from personal intercourse with those churches. I prefer the view previously stated. This sets aside the tradition that Paul and Peter suffered martyrdom together at Rome. ORIGEN'S and EUSEBIUS' statement that Peter visited the churches of Asia in person seems very probable.\n\nThe PLACE OF WRITING was doubtless Babylon on the Euphrates (Pe1 5:13). It is most improbable that in the midst of writing matter-of-fact communications and salutations in a remarkably plain Epistle, the symbolical language of prophecy (namely, \"Babylon\" for Rome) should be used. JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 15.2.2; 3.1] states that there was a great multitude of Jews in the Chaldean Babylon; it is therefore likely that \"the apostle of the circumcision\" (Gal 2:7-8) would at some time or other visit them. Some have maintained that the Babylon meant was in Egypt because Mark preached in and around Alexandria after Peter's death, and therefore it is likely he did so along with that apostle in the same region previously. But no mention elsewhere in Scripture is made of this Egyptian Babylon, but only of the Chaldean one. And though towards the close of Caligula's reign a persecution drove the Jews thence to Seleucia, and a plague five years after still further thinned their numbers, yet this does not preclude their return and multiplication during the twenty years that elapsed between the plague and the writing of the Epistle. Moreover, the order in which the countries are enumerated, from northeast to south and west, is such as would be adopted by one writing from the Oriental Babylon on the Euphrates, not from Egypt or Rome. Indeed, COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, in the sixth century, understood the Babylon meant to be outside the Roman empire. Silvanus, Paul's companion, became subsequently Peter's, and was the carrier of this Epistle.\n\nSTYLE.--Fervor and practical truth, rather than logical reasoning, are the characteristics, of this Epistle, as they were of its energetic, warm-hearted writer. His familiarity with Paul's Epistles shown in the language accords with what we should expect from the fact of Paul's having \"communicated the Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles\" (as revealed specially to him) to Peter among others \"of reputation\" (Gal 2:2). Individualities occur, such as baptism, \"the answer of a good conscience toward God\" (Pe1 3:21); \"consciousness of God\" (Greek), Pe1 2:19, as a motive for enduring sufferings; \"living hope\" (Pe1 1:3); \"an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away\" (Pe1 1:4); \"kiss of charity\" (Pe1 5:14). Christ is viewed less in relation to His past sufferings than as at present exalted and hereafter to be manifested in all His majesty. Glory and hope are prominent features in this Epistle (Pe1 1:8), so much so that WEISS entitles him \"the apostle of hope.\" The realization of future bliss as near causes him to regard believers as but \"strangers\" and \"sojourners\" here. Chastened fervor, deep humility, and ardent love appear, just as we should expect from one who had been so graciously restored after his grievous fall. \"Being converted,\" he truly does \"strengthen his brethren.\" His fervor shows itself in often repeating the same thought in similar words.\n\nIn some passages he shows familiarity with the Epistle of James, the apostle of special weight with the Jewish legalizing party, whose inspiration he thus confirms (compare Pe1 1:6-7 with Jam 1:2-3; Pe1 1:24 with Jam 1:10; Pe1 2:1 with Jam 1:21; Pe1 4:8 with Jam 5:20, both quoting Pro 10:12; Pro 5:5 with Jam 4:6, both quoting Pro 3:34). In most of these cases Old Testament quotations are the common ground of both. \"Strong susceptibility to outward impressions, liveliness of feeling, dexterity in handling subjects, dispose natures like that of Peter to repeat afresh the thoughts of others\" [STEIGER].\n\nThe diction of this Epistle and of his speeches in Acts is very similar: an undesigned coincidence, and so a mark of genuineness (compare Pe1 2:7 with Act 4:11; Pe1 1:12 with Act 5:32; Pe1 2:24 with Act 5:30; Act 10:39; Pe1 5:1 with Act 2:32; Act 3:15; Pe1 1:10 with Act 3:18; Act 10:43; Pe1 1:21 with Act 3:15; Act 10:40; Pe1 4:5 with Act 10:42; Pe1 2:24 with Act 3:19, Act 3:26).\n\nThere is, too, a recurrence to the language of the Lord at the last interview after His resurrection, recorded in Joh 21:15-23. Compare \"the Shepherd . . . of . . . souls,\" Pe1 2:25; \"Feed the flock of God,\" \"the chief Shepherd,\" Pe1 5:2, Pe1 5:4, with Joh 21:15-17; \"Feed My lambs . . . sheep\"; also \"Whom . . . ye love,\" Pe1 1:8; Pe1 2:7, with Joh 21:15-17; \"lovest thou Me?\" and Pe2 1:14, with Joh 21:18-19. WIESINGER well says, \"He who in loving impatience cast himself into the sea to meet the Lord, is also the man who most earnestly testifies to the hope of His return; he who dated his own faith from the sufferings of his Master, is never weary in holding up the suffering form of the Lord before his readers to comfort and stimulate them; he before whom the death of a martyr is in assured expectation, is the man who, in the greatest variety of aspects, sets forth the duty, as well as the consolation, of suffering for Christ; as a rock of the Church he grounds his readers against the storm of present tribulation on the true Rock of ages.\" \n\n\n\nNext: 1 Peter Chapter 1\n\n","order":60,"numberOfChapters":5,"sha256":"d7037e855735a967e617907b75a342b80b3a52dbe6bc27a42d2b46c8013e4bca","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1PE/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1PE","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":5,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1PE/5.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1PE","chapter":5},"totalNumberOfVerses":99},"chapter":{"number":5,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Feed--Greek, \"Tend as a shepherd,\" by discipline and doctrine. Lead, feed, heed: by prayer, exhortation, government, and example. The dignity is marked by the term \"elder\"; the duties of the office, to tend or oversee, by \"bishop.\" Peter has in mind Christ's injunction to him, \"Feed (tend) My sheep . . . Feed (pasture) My lambs\" (Joh 21:16). He invites the elders to share with him the same duty (compare Act 20:28). The flock is Christ's. \n\nwhich is among you--While having a concern for all the Church, your special duty is to feed that portion of it \"which is among you.\" \n\noversight--Greek, \"bishopric,\" or duty of bishops, that is, overseer. \n\nnot by constraint--Necessity is laid upon them, but willingness prevents it being felt, both in undertaking and in fulfilling the duty [BENGEL]. \"He is a true presbyter and minister of the counsel of God who doeth and teacheth the things of the Lord, being not accounted righteous merely because he is a presbyter, but because righteous, chosen into the presbytery\" [CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA]. \n\nwillingly--One oldest manuscript, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic, add, \"as God would have it to be done\" (Rom 8:27). \n\nnot for filthy lucre-- (Isa 56:11; Tit 1:7). \n\nof a ready mind--promptly and heartily, without selfish motive of gain-seeking, as the Israelites gave their services willing-heartedly to the sanctuary.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["being lords--Greek, \"lording it\": implying pride and oppression. \"Not that we have dominion over your faith.\" \n\nGod's heritage--Greek, \"the inheritances,\" that is, the portions of the Church committed severally to your pastoral charge [BENGEL]. It is explained by \"the flock\" in the next clause. However, in Pe1 5:2, \"flock of God which is among you,\" answering to \"(God's) heritages\" (plural to express the sheep who are God's portion and inheritance, Deu 32:9) committed to you, favors English Version. The flock, as one whole, is God's heritage, or flock in the singular. Regarded in relation to its component sheep, divided among several pastors, it is in the plural \"heritages.\" Compare Act 1:17, Act 1:25, \"part\" (the same Greek). BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, wrote to Pope Eugene, \"Peter could not give thee what he had not: what he had he gave: the care over the Church, not dominion.\" \n\nbeing--Greek, \"becoming.\" \n\nensamples--the most effective recommendation of precept (Ti1 4:12). Tit 2:7, \"patterns.\" So Jesus. \"A monstrosity it is to see the highest rank joined with the meanest mind, the first seat with the lowest life, a grandiloquent tongue with a lazy life, much talking with no fruit\" [BERNARD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["And--\"And so\": as the result of \"being ensamples\" (Pe1 5:3). \n\nchief Shepherd--the title peculiarly Christ's own, not Peter's or the pope's. \n\nwhen . . . shall appear--Greek, \"be manifested\" (Col 3:4). Faith serves the Lord while still unseen. \n\ncrown--Greek, \"stephanos,\" a garland of victory, the prize in the Grecian games, woven of ivy, parsley, myrtle, olive, or oak. Our crown is distinguished from theirs in that it is \"incorruptible\" and \"fadeth not away,\" as the leaves of theirs soon did. \"The crown of life.\" Not a kingly \"crown\" (a different Greek word, diadema): the prerogative of the Lord Jesus (Rev 19:12). \n\nglory--Greek, \"the glory,\" namely, to be then revealed (Pe1 5:1; Pe1 4:13). \n\nthat fadeth not away--Greek, \"amaranthine\" (compare Pe1 1:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["ye younger--The deacons were originally the younger men, the presbyters older; but subsequently as presbyter expressed the office of Church ruler or teacher, so Greek \"neoteros\" means not (as literally) young men in age, but subordinate ministers and servants of the Church. So Christ uses the term \"younger.\" For He explains it by \"he that doth serve,\" literally, \"he that ministereth as a deacon\"; just as He explains \"the greatness\" by \"he that is chief,\" literally, \"he that ruleth,\" the very word applied to the bishops or presbyters. So \"the young men\" are undoubtedly the deacons of the Church of Jerusalem, of whom, as being all Hebrews, the Hellenistic Christians subsequently complained as neglecting their Grecian widows, whence arose the appointment of the seven others, Hellenistic deacons. So here, Peter, having exhorted the presbyters, or elders, not to lord it over those committed to them, adds, Likewise ye neoters or younger, that is, subordinate ministers and deacons, submit cheerfully to the command of the elders [MOSHEIM]. There is no Scripture sanction for \"younger\" meaning laymen in general (as ALFORD explains): its use in this sense is probably of later date. The \"all of you\" that follows, refers to the congregation generally; and it is likely that, like Paul, Peter should notice, previous to the general congregation, the subordinate ministers as well as the presbyters, writing as he did to the same region (Ephesus), and to confirm the teaching of the apostle of the Gentiles. \n\nYea--to sum up all my exhortations in one. \n\nbe subject--omitted in the oldest manuscripts and versions, but TISCHENDORF quotes the Vatican manuscript for it. Then translate, \"Gird (Pe1 1:13; Pe1 4:1) fast on humility (lowliness of mind) to one another.\" The verb is literally, \"tie on with a fast knot\" [WAHL]. Or, \"gird on humility as the slave dress (encomboma)\": as the Lord girded Himself with a towel to perform a servile office of humility and love, washing His disciples' feet, a scene in which Peter had played an important part, so that he would naturally have it before his mind. Compare similarly Pe1 5:2 with Joh 21:15-17. Clothing was the original badge of man's sin and shame. Pride caused the need of man's clothing, and pride still reigns in dress; the Christian therefore clothes himself in humility (Pe1 3:3-4). God provides him with the robe of Christ's righteousness, in order to receive which man must be stripped of pride. \n\nGod resisteth the proud--Quoted, as Jam 4:6, from Pro 3:34. Peter had James before his mind, and gives his Epistle inspired sanction. Compare Pe1 5:9 with Jam 4:7, literally, \"arrayeth Himself against.\" Other sins flee from God: pride alone opposeth itself to God; therefore, God also in turn opposes Himself to the proud [GERHARD in ALFORD]. Humility is the vessel of all graces [AUGUSTINE].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["under the mighty hand--afflicting you (Pe1 3:15): \"accept\" His chastisements, and turn to Him that smiteth you. He depresses the proud and exalts the humble. \n\nin due time--Wait humbly and patiently for His own fit time. One oldest manuscript and Vulgate read, \"In the season of visitation,\" namely, His visitation in mercy.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Casting--once for all: so the Greek aorist. \n\ncare--\"anxiety? The advantage flowing from humbling ourselves under God's hand (Pe1 5:6) is confident reliance on His goodness. Exemption from care goes along with humble submission to God. \n\ncareth for you--literally \"respecting you.\" Care is a burden which faith casts off the man on his God. Compare Psa 22:10; Psa 37:5; Psa 55:22, to which Peter alludes; Luk 12:22, Luk 12:37; Phi 4:6. \n\ncareth--not so strong a Greek word as the previous Greek \"anxiety.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Peter has in mind Christ's warning to himself to watch against Satan, from forgetting which he fell. \n\nBe sober . . . vigilant--\"Care,\" that is, anxiety, will intoxicate the soul; therefore be sober, that is, self-restrained. Yet, lest this freedom from care should lead any to false security, he adds, \"Be vigilant\" against \"your adversary.\" Let this be your \"care.\" God provides, therefore do not be anxious. The devil seeks, therefore watch [BENGEL]. \n\nbecause--omitted in the oldest manuscripts The broken and disjointed sentences are more fervid and forcible. LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI reads as English Version. \n\nadversary--literally, \"opponent in a court of justice\" (Zac 3:1). \"Satan\" means opponent. \"Devil,\" accuser or slanderer (Rev 12:10). \"The enemy\" (Mat 13:39). \"A murderer from the beginning\" (Joh 8:44). He counteracts the Gospel and its agents. \"The tempter.\" \n\nroaring lion--implying his violent and insatiable thirst for prey as a hungry lion. Through man's sin he got God's justice on his side against us; but Christ, our Advocate, by fulfilling all the demands of justice for us, has made our redemption altogether consistent with justice. \n\nwalketh about-- (Job 1:7; Job 2:2). So the children of the wicked one cannot rest. Evil spirits are in Pe2 2:4; Jde 1:6, said to be already in chains of darkness and in hell. This probably means that this is their doom finally: a doom already begun in part; though for a time they are permitted to roam in the world (of which Satan is prince), especially in the dark air that surrounds the earth. Hence perhaps arises the miasma of the air at times, as physical and moral evil are closely connected. \n\ndevour--entangle in worldly \"care\" (Pe1 5:7) and other snares, so as finally to destroy. Compare Rev 12:15-16.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["(Luk 4:13; Eph 6:11-17; Jam 4:7.) \n\nsteadfast--Compare established in the truth,\" Pe2 1:12. Satan's power exists only in respect to the unbelieving; the faithful he cannot hurt (Jo1 5:18). Faith gives strength to prayer, the great instrument against the foe (Jam 1:6, &c.). \n\nknowing, &c.--\"encouragement not to faint in afflictions\": your brethren suffer the same; nothing beyond the common lot of Christians befalls you (Co1 10:13). It is a sign of God's favor rather than displeasure, that Satan is allowed to harass you, as he did Job. Your fellow Christians have the same battle of faith and prayer against Satan. \n\nare--are being accomplished according to the appointment of God. \n\nin the world--lying in the wicked one, and therefore necessarily the scene of \"tribulation\" (Joh 16:33).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Comforting assurance that God will finally \"perfect\" His work of \"grace\" in them, after they have undergone the necessary previous suffering. \n\nBut--Only do you watch and resist the foe: God will perform the rest [BENGEL]. \n\nof all grace--(Compare Pe1 4:10). The God to whom as its source all grace is to be referred; who in grace completes what in grace He began. He from the first \"called (so the oldest manuscripts read for \"us\") unto (with a view to) glory.\" He will not let His purpose fall short of completion. If He does so in punishing, much more in grace. The three are fitly conjoined: the call, the glory to which we are called, and the way (suffering); the fourth is the ground of the calling, namely, the grace of God in Christ. \n\nby--Greek, \"in.\" Christ is He in virtue of whom, and in union with whom, believers are called to glory. The opposite is \"in the world\" (Pe1 5:9; Joh 16:33). \n\nafter that ye have suffered--Join to \"called you\": suffering, as a necessary preliminary to glory, was contemplated in God's calling. \n\na while--short and inconsiderable, as compared with the glory. \n\nperfect, &c.--The two oldest manuscripts, and Vulgate and Coptic versions, read, \"shall perfect (so that there shall be nothing defective in you), stablish, strengthen,\" and omit \"settle,\" literally, \"ground,\" or \"fix on a foundation.\" ALFORD reads it in spite of the oldest manuscripts The authority of the latter I prefer; moreover the climax seems to require rather a verb of completing the work of grace, than, as the Greek means, founding it. The Greek has, \"shall HIMSELF perfect you\": though you are called on to watch and resist the foe, God Himself must really do all in and through you. The same God who begins must Himself complete the work. The Greek for \"stablish\" (so as to be \"steadfast in the faith,\" Pe1 5:9) is the same as \"strengthen,\" Luk 22:32. Peter has in mind Christ's charge, \"When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.\" His exhortation accords with his name Peter, \"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.\" \"Stablish,\" so as not to waver. \"Strengthen\" with might in the inner man by His Spirit, against the foe.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["To him--emphatic. To Him and Him alone: not to ourselves. Compare \"Himself,\" see on Pe1 5:10. \n\nglory and--omitted in the oldest manuscripts and versions. \n\ndominion--Greek, \"the might\" shown in so \"perfecting,\" you, Pe1 5:10.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Silvanus--Silas, the companion of Paul and Timothy: a suitable messenger by whom to confirm, as Peter here does, Paul's doctrine of \"the true grace of God\" in the same churches (compare Pe2 3:16). We never meet with Silvanus as Paul's companion after Paul's last journey to Jerusalem. His connection with Peter was plainly subsequent to that journey. \n\nas I suppose--Join \"faithful unto you [STEIGER], as I suppose.\" Silvanus may have stood in a close relation to the churches in Asia, perhaps having taken the oversight of them after Paul's departure, and had afterwards gone to Peter, by whom he is now sent back to them with this Epistle. He did not know, by positive observation, Silvanus' faithfulness to them; he therefore says, \"faithful to you, as I suppose,\" from the accounts I hear; not expressing doubt. ALFORD joins \"I have written unto you,\" which the Greek order favors. The seeming uncertainty, thus, is not as to Silvanus' faithfulness, which strongly marked by the Greek article, but as to whether he or some other would prove to be the bearer of the letter, addressed as it was to five provinces, all of which Silvanus might not reach: \"By Silvanus, that faithful brother, as expect, I have Written to you\" [BIRKS]. \n\nbriefly--Greek, \"in few (words),\" as compared with the importance of the subject (Heb 13:22). \n\nexhorting--not so much formally teaching doctrines, which could not be done in so \"few words.\" \n\ntestifying--bearing my testimony in confirmation (so the Greek compound verb implies) of that truth which ye have already heard from Paul and Silas (Jo1 2:27). \n\nthat this--of which I have just written, and of which Paul before testified to you (whose testimony, now that he was no longer in those regions, was called in question probably by some; compare Pe2 3:15-16). Pe2 1:12, \"the present truth,\" namely, the grace formerly promised by the prophets, and now manifested to you. \"Grace\" is the keynote of Paul's doctrine which Peter now confirms (Eph 2:5, Eph 2:8). Their sufferings for the Gospel made them to need some attestation and confirmation of the truth, that they should not fall back from it. \n\nwherein ye stand--The oldest manuscripts read imperatively, \"Stand ye.\" Literally, \"into which (having been already admitted, Pe1 1:8, Pe1 1:21; Pe1 2:7-9) stand (therein).\" Peter seems to have in mind Paul's words (Rom 5:2; Co1 15:1). \"The grace wherein we stand must be true, and our standing in it true also\" [BENGEL]. Compare in \"He began his Epistle with grace (Pe1 1:2), he finishes it with grace, he has besprinkled the middle with grace, that in every part he might teach that the Church is not saved but by grace.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["The . . . at Babylon--ALFORD, BENGEL, and others translate, \"She that is elected together with you in Babylon,\" namely, Peter's wife, whom he led about with him in his missionary journeys. Compare Pe1 3:7, \"heirs together of the grace of life.\" But why she should be called \"elected together with you in Babylon,\" as if there had been no Christian woman in Babylon besides, is inexplicable on this view. In English Version the sense is clear: \"That portion of the whole dispersion (Pe1 1:1, Greek), or Church of Christianized Jews, with Gentile converts, which resides in Babylon.\" As Peter and John were closely associated, Peter addresses the Church in John's peculiar province, Asia, and closes with \"your co-elect sister Church at Babylon saluteth you\"; and John similarly addresses the \"elect lady,\" that is, the Church in Babylon, and closes with \"the children of thine elect sister (the Asiatic Church) greet thee\"; (compare Introduction to Second John). ERASMUS explains, \"Mark who is in the place of a son to me\": compare Act 12:12, implying Peter's connection with Mark; whence the mention of him in connection with the Church at Babylon, in which he labored under Peter before he went to Alexandria is not unnatural. PAPIAS reports from the presbyter John [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.39], that Mark was interpreter of Peter, recording in his Gospel the facts related to him by Peter. Silvanus or Silas had been substituted for John Mark, as Paul's companion, because of Mark's temporary unfaithfulness. But now Mark restored is associated with Silvanus, Paul's companion, in Peter's esteem, as Mark was already reinstated in Paul's esteem. That Mark had a spiritual connection with the Asiatic' churches which Peter addresses, and so naturally salutes them, appears from Ti2 4:11; Col 4:10. \n\nBabylon--The Chaldean Babylon on the Euphrates. See Introduction, ON THE PLACE OF WRITING this Epistle, in proof that Rome is not meant as Papists assert; compare LIGHTFOOT sermon. How unlikely that in a friendly salutation the enigmatical title of Rome given in prophecy (John, Rev 17:5), should be used! Babylon was the center from which the Asiatic dispersion whom Peter addresses was derived. PHILO [The Embassy to Gaius, 36] and JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 15.2.2; 23.12] inform us that Babylon contained a great many Jews in the apostolic age (whereas those at Rome were comparatively few, about eight thousand [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 17.11]); so it would naturally be visited by the apostle of the circumcision. It was the headquarters of those whom he had so successfully addressed on Pentecost, Act 2:9, Jewish \"Parthians . . . dwellers in Mesopotamia\" (the Parthians were then masters of Mesopotamian Babylon); these he ministered to in person. His other hearers, the Jewish \"dwellers in Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia,\" he now ministers to by letter. The earliest distinct authority for Peter's martyrdom at Rome is DIONYSIUS, bishop of Corinth, in the latter half of the second century. The desirableness of representing Peter and Paul, the two leading apostles, as together founding the Church of the metropolis, seems to have originated the tradition. CLEMENT OF ROME [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 4.5], often quoted for, is really against it. He mentions Paul and Peter together, but makes it as a distinguishing circumstance of Paul, that he preached both in the East and West, implying that Peter never was in the West. In Pe2 1:14, he says, \"I must shortly put off this tabernacle,\" implying his martyrdom was near, yet he makes no allusion to Rome, or any intention of his visiting it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["kiss of charity-- Rom 16:16, \"an holy kiss\": the token of love to God and the brethren. Love and holiness are inseparable. Compare the instance, Act 20:37. \n\nPeace--Peter's closing salutation; as Paul's is, \"Grace be with you,\" though he accompanies it with \"peace be to the brethren.\" \"Peace\" (flowing from salvation) was Christ's own salutation after the resurrection, and from Him Peter derives it. \n\nbe with you all that are in Christ Jesus--The oldest manuscripts omit \"Jesus.\" In Eph 6:24, addressed to the same region, the same limitation of the salutation occurs, whence, perhaps, Peter here adopts it. Contrast, \"Be with you all,\" Rom 16:24; Co1 16:23.\n\n\n\n\n\nNext: 2 Peter Introduction\n\n"]}],"introduction":"EXHORTATIONS TO ELDERS, JUNIORS, AND ALL IN GENERAL. PARTING PRAYER. CONCLUSION. (Pe1 5:1-14)\n\nelders--alike in office and age (Pe1 5:5). \n\nI . . . also an elder--To put one's self on a level with those whom we exhort, gives weight to one's exhortations (compare Jo2 1:1-2). Peter, in true humility for the Gospel's sake, does not put forward his apostleship here, wherein he presided over the elders. In the apostleship the apostles have no successors, for \"the signs of an apostle\" have not been transmitted. The presidents over the presbyters and deacons, by whatever name designated, angel, bishop, or moderator, &c., though of the same ORDER as the presbyters, yet have virtually succeeded to a superintendency of the Church analogous to that exercised by the apostles (this superintendency and priority existed from the earliest times after the apostles [TERTULLIAN]); just as the Jewish synagogue (the model which the Church followed) was governed by a council of presbyters, presided over by one of themselves, \"the chief ruler of the synagogue.\" (Compare VITRINGA [Synagogue and Temple, Part II, chs. 3 and 7]). \n\nwitness--an eye-witness of Christ's sufferings, and so qualified to exhort you to believing patience in suffering for well-doing after His example (Pe1 4:19; Pe1 2:20). This explains the \"therefore\" inserted in the oldest manuscripts, \"I therefore exhort,\" resuming exhortation from Pe1 4:19. His higher dignity as an apostle is herein delicately implied, as eye-witnessing was a necessary qualification for apostleship: compare Peter's own speeches, Act 1:21-22; Act 2:32; Act 10:39. \n\nalso--implying the righteous recompense corresponding to the sufferings. \n\npartaker of the glory--according to Christ's promise; an earnest of which was given in the transfiguration.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1PE/5.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1PE","chapter":5},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/2PE/1.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"2PE","chapter":1},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/1PE/4.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"1PE","chapter":4},"numberOfVerses":13}