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1Pe_2:18. An exhortation to the slaves, extending from this verse to the end of the chapter.
οἱ οἰκέται ] οἰκέτης , properly speaking, “a domestic,” a milder expression for δοῦλος . It is improbable that Peter employed this term in order to include the freedmen who had remained in the master’s house (Steiger).
οἱ οἰκ . is vocative; nor is chap. 1Pe_1:3 (as Steiger thinks) opposed to this.
ὑποτασσόμενοι ] It is quite arbitrary to supply ἦτε (Oecumenius, etc.), or to assert that the participle is used here instead of the imperative. The participle rather shows that the exhortation is conceived of as dependent on a thought already expressed; not on 1Pe_2:17 (de Wette), but on 1Pe_2:13, which 1Pe_2:11-12 serve to introduce; ὑποτάγητε … κύριον , the institution of the household implied in the relation of servant to master, is comprehended in the general term πᾶσα ἀνθρωπ . κτίσις .
ἐν παντὶ φόβῳ ] φόβος (vid. 1Pe_1:17) is stronger than reverentia, it denotes the shrinking from transgressing the master’s will, based on the consciousness of subjection, cf. Eph_6:5.[147] Doubtless this shrinking is in the case of the Christian based on the fear of God, but the word ΦΌΒΟς does not directly mean such fear, as Weiss (p. 169) holds and seeks to prove, especially from the circumstance that Peter in chap. 1Pe_3:6; 1Pe_3:14 condemns the fear of man, forgetting, however, that this fear too may be of different kinds, cf. in loco.
παντί is intensive. Πᾶς ΦΌΒΟς is: every kind of fear; a fear wanting in nothing that goes to make up true fear.
τοῖς δεσπόταις ] cf. 1Ti_6:1, Tit_2:9, equals ΤΟῖς ΚΥΡΊΟΙς , Eph_6:5; Col_3:22.
Οὐ ΜΌΝΟΝ ΤΟῖς ἈΓΑΘΟῖς ΚΑῚ ἘΠΙΕΙΚΈΣΙΝ , ἈΛΛᾺ ΚΑῚ ΤΟῖς ΣΚΟΛΙΟῖς ] The moral conduct of the servant, which consists in ὙΠΟΤΆΣΣΕΣΘΑΙ towards the master, must remain unchanged, whatever the character of the latter may be; the chief emphasis, however, rests here on ἈΛΛᾺ ΚΑῚ ΤΟῖς ΣΚ .
ἈΓΑΘΟΊ here is equal to “kind;” for ἐπιεικής , cf. 1Ti_3:3; it does not mean “yielding” (Fronmüller), but, properly speaking, one who “acts with propriety,” then “gentle.”
σκολιός , literally, “crooked,” “bent,” the opposite of straight, denotes metaphorically the perverse disposition; Php_2:15, synonymous with διεστραμμένος ; in Pro_28:18, Ὁ ΣΚΟΛΙΑῖς ὉΔΟῖς ΠΟΡΕΥΌΜΕΝΟς forms the antithesis to Ὁ ΠΟΡΕΥΌΜΕΝΟς ΔΙΚΑΊΩς (cf. Luk_3:5). It has the same force in the classics (Athen. xv. p. 695; ΣΚΟΛΙᾺ ΦΡΟΝΕῖΝ , opp. to ΕὐΘΈΑ ΦΡΟΝΕῖΝ ). It denotes, therefore, such masters as conduct themselves, not in a right, but in a perverse manner towards their servants—are hard and unjust to them; Luther’s “capricious” is inexact.[148]
[147] Thus, too, in substance Schott: “Fear in general, as it is determined by the circumstances here mentioned.”
[148] That Peter made special reference to heathen masters lies in the nature of the circumstances, but is not to be concluded from the adject. σκολιός (as opposed to Schott).