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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Peter 4:3 - 4:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Past (parelēluthōs). Perfect active participle of the compound verb parerchomai, old verb, to go by (beside) as in Mat 14:15 with hōra (hour).
May suffice (arketos). No copula in the Greek, probably estin (is) rather than dunatai (can). Late and rare verbal adjective from arkeō, to suffice, in the papyri several times, in N.T. only here and Mat 6:34; Mat 10:25, apparently referring to Christ’s words in Mat 6:34 (possibly an axiom or proverb).
To have wrought (kateirgasthai). Perfect middle infinitive of katergazomai, common compound (kata, ergon work) as in 1Co 5:3.
The desire (to boulēma). Correct text, not thelēma. Either means the thing desired, willed. Jews sometimes fell in with the ways of Gentiles (Rom 2:21-24; Rom 3:9-18; Eph 2:1-3) as today some Christians copy the ways of the world.
And to have walked (peporeumenous). Perfect middle participle of poreuomai in the accusative plural of general reference with the infinitive kateirgasthai. Literally, “having walked or gone.”
In lasciviousness (en aselgeiais). All these sins are in the locative case with en. “In unbridled lustful excesses” (2Pe 2:7; 2Co 12:21).
Lusts (epithumiais). Cf. 1Pe 2:11; 1Pe 4:2.
Winebibbings (oinophlugiais). Old compound (oinos, wine, phluō, to bubble up), for drunkenness, here only in N.T. (also in Deu 21:20).
Revellings (komois). Old word (from keimai, to lie down), rioting drinking parties, in N.T. here and Gal 5:21; Rom 13:13.
Carousings (potois). Old word for drinking carousal (from pinō, to drink), here only in the N.T. In the light of these words it seems strange to find modern Christians justifying their “personal liberty” to drink and carouse, to say nothing of the prohibition law. The Greeks actually carried lust and drunkenness into their religious observances (Aphrodite, for instance).
Abominable idolatries (athemitois eidōlolatriais). To the Christian all “idolatry,” (eidōlon, latreia), worship of idols, is “abominable,” not allowed (alpha privative and themitos, themistos the old form, verbal of themizō, to make lawful), but particularly those associated with drinking and licentiousness. The only other N.T. example of athemitos is by Peter also (Act 10:28) and about the Mosaic law. That may be the idea here, for Jews often fell into idolatrous practices (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 274).