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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Peter 3:18 - 3:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The just for the unjust
But the Greek without the article is more graphic: just for unjust.
In the flesh
The Greek omits the article. Read in flesh, the material form assumed in his incarnation.
In the spirit
Also without the article, in spirit; not as A. V., by the Spirit, meaning the Holy Ghost, but referring to his spiritual, incorporeal life. The words connect themselves with the death-cry on the cross: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Huther observes, “Flesh is that side of the man's being by which he belongs to earth, is therefore a creature of earth, and accordingly perishable like everything earthy. Spirit, on the other hand, is that side of his being according to which he belongs to a supernal sphere of being, and is therefore not merely a creature of earth, and is destined to an immortal existence.”
Thus we must be careful and not understand spirit here of the Spirit of God, as distinguished from the flesh of Christ, but of the spiritual nature of Christ; “the higher spiritual nature which belonged to the integrity of his humanity” (Cook).