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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Peter 2:12 - 2:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Conversation
Rev., behavior. See on 1Pe 1:15.
Whereas (ἐν ᾧ)
Rev., correctly, wherein; in the matter in which.
They speak against (καταλαλοὔσιν)
Compare evil-speakings, 1Pe 2:1, and Act 28:22.
Which they shall behold (ἐποπτεύοντες)
Rev., beholding. Used by Peter only, here and 1Pe 3:2. The kindred noun ἐπόπτης, an eye-witness, occurs only at 2Pe 1:16. It is a technical word, meaning one who was admitted to the highest degree of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries. Here it conveys the idea of personal witness; behold with their own eyes.
Evil-doers (κακοποιῶν)
The word occurs four times in Peter, and nowhere else in the New Testament except Joh 18:30, where it is applied by the priests to Christ himself.
Visitation (ἐπισκοπῆς)
The radical idea of the word is that of observing or inspecting. Hence ἐπίσκοπος, an overseer or bishop. Visiting grows naturally out of this, as visitare from visere, to look at attentively. See Introduction, on Peter's emphasis upon sight; and compare behold, in this verse. The “day of visitation” is the day of looking upon: “When God shall look upon these wanderers, as a pastor over his flock, and shall become the overlooker or bishop of their souls” (1Pe 2:25, Lumby).