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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Peter 3:18 - 3:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Because Christ also died (hoti kai Christos apethanen). So the best MSS.; later ones epathen (suffered). The example of Christ should stir us to patient endurance.
For sins (peri hamartiōn). “Concerning sins” (not his, but ours, 1Pe 1:18). Peri (around, concerning) with hamartias in the regular phrase for the sin offering (Lev 5:7; Lev 6:30), though huper hamartias does occur (Eze 43:25). So in the N.T. we find both peri hamartiōn (Heb 5:3) and huper hamartiōn (Heb 5:1).
Once (hapax). Once for all (Heb 9:28), not once upon a time (pote).
The righteous for the unrighteous (dikaios huper adikōn). Literally, “just for unjust” (no articles). See 1Pe 2:19 for the sinlessness of Christ as the one perfect offering for sin. This is what gives Christ’s blood value. He has no sin himself. Some men today fail to perceive this point.
That he might bring us to God (hina hēmās prosagagēi tōi theōi). Purpose clause with hina, with second aorist active subjunctive of prosagō and the dative case tōi theōi. The MSS. vary between hēmās (us) and humās (you). The verb prosagō means to lead or bring to (Mat 18:24), to approach God (cf. prosagōgēn in Eph 2:18), to present us to God on the basis of his atoning death for us, which has opened the way (Rom 3:25; Heb 10:19.)
Being put to death in the flesh (thanatōtheis men sarki). First aorist passive participle of thanatoō, old verb (from thanatos death), to put to death. Sarki is locative case of sarx.
But quickened in the spirit (zōopoiētheis de pneumati). First aorist passive participle of zōopoieō rare (Aristotle) verb (from zōopoios making alive), to make alive. The participles are not antecedent to apethanen, but simultaneous with it. There is no such construction as the participle of subsequent action. The spirit of Christ did not die when his flesh did, but “was endued with new and greater powers of life” (Thayer). See 1Co 15:22 for the use of the verb for the resurrection of the body. But the use of the word pneumati (locative case) in contrast with sarki starts Peter’s mind off in a long comparison by way of illustration that runs from 1Pe 3:19-22. The following verses have caused more controversy than anything in the Epistle.