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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Peter 3:21 - 3:21
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Which also (ho kai). Water just mentioned.
After a true likeness (antitupon). Water in baptism now as an anti-type of Noah’s deliverance by water. For baptisma see note on Mat 3:7. For antitupon see note on Heb 9:24 (only other N.T. example) where the word is used of the earthly tabernacle corresponding (antitupa) to the heavenly, which is the pattern (tupon Heb 8:5) for the earthly. So here baptism is presented as corresponding to (prefigured by) the deliverance of Noah’s family by water. It is only a vague parallel, but not over-fanciful.
Doth now save you (humas nun sōzei). Simplex verb (sōzō, not the compound diasōzō). The saving by baptism which Peter here mentions is only symbolic (a metaphor or picture as in Rom 6:2-6), not actual as Peter hastens to explain.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh (ou sarkos apothesis rupou). Apothesis is old word from apotithēmi (1Pe 2:1), in N.T. only here and 2Pe 1:14. Rupou (genitive of rupos) is old word (cf. ruparos, filthy, in Jam 2:2; Rev 22:11), here only in N.T. (cf. Isa 3:3; Isa 4:4). Baptism, Peter explains, does not wash away the filth of the flesh either in a literal sense, as a bath for the body, or in a metaphorical sense of the filth of the soul. No ceremonies really affect the conscience (Heb 9:13.). Peter here expressly denies baptismal remission of sin.
But the interrogation of a good conscience toward God (alla suneidēseōs agathēs eperōtēma eis theon). Old word from eperōtaō (to question as in Mar 9:32; Mat 16:1), here only in N.T. In ancient Greek it never means answer, but only inquiry. The inscriptions of the age of the Antonines use it of the Senate’s approval after inquiry. That may be the sense here, that is, avowal of consecration to God after inquiry, having repented and turned to God and now making this public proclamation of that fact by means of baptism (the symbol of the previous inward change of heart). Thus taken, it matters little whether eis theon (toward God) be taken with eperōtēma or suneidēseōs.
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (di' anastaseōs Iēsou Christou). For baptism is a symbolic picture of the resurrection of Christ as well as of our own spiritual renewal (Rom 6:2-6). See 1Pe 1:3 for regeneration made possible by the resurrection of Jesus.