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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Peter 4:16 - 4:16
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But if as a Christian (ei de hōs Christianos). Supply the verb paschei (condition of first class, “if one suffer as a Christian”). This word occurs only three times in the N.T. (Act 11:26; Act 26:28; 1Pe 4:16). It is word of Latin formation coined to distinguish followers of Christ from Jews and Gentiles (Act 11:26). Each instance bears that idea. It is not the usual term at first like mathētai (disciples), saints (hagioi), believers (pisteuontes), etc. The Jews used Nazōraioi (Nazarenes) as a nickname for Christians (Act 24:5). By a.d. 64 the name Christian was in common use in Rome (Tacitus, Ann. XV. 44). Owing to itacism it was sometimes spelled Chrēstianoi (i, ei and ē pronounced alike).
Let him not be ashamed (mē aischunesthō). Prohibition with mē and present passive imperative of aischunō. Peter had once been ashamed to suffer reproach or even a sneer for being a disciple of Christ (Mar 14:68). See the words of Jesus in Mar 8:38 and Paul’s in 2Ti 1:12. Peter is not ashamed now. In this name (en tōi onomati toutōi). Of Christian as in Mar 9:41, “because ye are Christ’s.”