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1Pe_3:5-6. οὕτω γάρ ] ground for the exhortation: ὧν ἔστω , etc., by the example of the saintly women of the O. T. οὕτω refers back to what precedes.
ποτὲ καὶ αἱ ἅγιαι γυναῖκες ] ποτέ , i.e. in the time of the Old Covenant.
ἅγιαι : because they belonged to the chosen people of God (Schott), and their life was sanctified and consecrated to God in faith.
αἱ ἐλπίζουσαι εἰς [ ἐπὶ ] Θεόν ] cf. 1Ti_5:5. This nearer definition is subjoined not only because hope in God, i.e. in the fulfilment of His promises, was the characteristic mark of the piety of these holy women, rooted as it was in faith, but specially “to explain why it did not, and could not, occur to them ever to delight in empty show” (Hofmann).[172]
With ἐκόσμουν ἑαυτάς , cf. 1Ti_2:9.
ὙΠΟΤΑΣΣΌΜΕΝΑΙ ΤΟῖς ἈΝΔΡΆΣΙΝ is linked on to ἘΚΌΣΜΟΥΝ ἙΑΥΤΆς , showing wherein lay the proof that they had adorned themselves with the meek and quiet spirit. There is but one (de Wette) characteristic indeed here mentioned, but, according to the connection, it is the chief manifestation of that spirit. It is incorrect to resolve (as was formerly done in the commentary) the participle into: “from this fact, that.”—1Pe_3:6. ὡς Σάῤῥα ὑπήκουσε τῷ Ἀβραάμ ] A simple comparison of the contents of the two passages is a sufficient refutation of de Wette’s supposition that, in the words before us, there is a reference to Heb_11:11.
Ὡς : particula allegandi exemplum: Bengel. Sarah is mentioned, because, as the wife of Abraham and ancestress of the people of Israel, she had especial significance in the history of redemption.[173]
ὙΠΉΚΟΥΣΕ refers not merely to the single case which the apostle had particularly before his mind, but denotes the habitual behaviour of Sarah towards Abraham: the aor. is used here as in Gal_4:8 (de Wette, Wiesinger, Schott).
ΚΎΡΙΟΝ ΑὐΤῸΝ ΚΑΛΟῦΣΑ ] she showed herself submissive to the will of Abraham in this, that she called him ΚΎΡΙΟς . The allusion is here to Gen_18:12 (cf. also 1Sa_1:8, LXX.).
Ἧς ἘΓΕΝΉΘΗΤΕ ΤΈΚΝΑ ] Lorinus: non successione generis, sed imitatione fidei; Pott incorrectly explains the aorist by the future ( ἜΣΕΣΘΕ ); the translation, too, of the Vulg.: estis, is inexact; Luther is right “whose daughters ye are become.” As Paul calls the believing heathen, on account of their faith, children of Abraham, so Peter here styles the women who had become Christians, children of Sarah.
ἀγαθοποιοῦσαι ] does not belong to ὙΠΟΤΑΣΣΌΜΕΝΑΙ , as if Ὡς ΣΆῤῬΑ … ΤΈΚΝΑ were a parenthesis (Bengel, Ernesti, etc.), but to ἘΓΕΝΉΘΗΤΕ , not, however, as stating how they become (Weiss, p. 110 f.)[174] or “have become” children of Sarah (to the first interpretation the aorist ἐγενήθητε is opposed, to the latter the pres. partic.), but as showing the mark by which they proved themselves children of Sarah. It may be resolved into: “since,” or: “that is to say if,” etc. It is grammatically incorrect to see in ἀγαθοποιοῦσαι the result of ἧς ἐγενήθητε τέκνα , and to explain: “in this way have they become the children of Sarah, that they are now in accordance therewith ἀγαθοποιοῦσαι and μὴ φοβούμεναι ” (Schott). By ἀγαθοποιεῖν is to be understood here not specially benevolence (Oecum.);[175] the word denotes rather the whole moral activity of Christian life in its fullest extent, although here, as the connection shows, with particular reference to the marriage relation.
ΚΑῚ ΜῊ ΦΟΒΟΎΜΕΝΑΙ ΜΗΔΕΜΊΑΝ ΠΤΌΗΣΙΝ ] ΠΤΌΗΣΙς equals ΦΌΒΟς (Pollux v. 122: ΣΥΣΤΟΛῊ , ΘΌΡΥΒΟς , ΤΑΡΑΧΉ ), in the N. T. ἍΠ . ΛΕΓ . (Luk_21:9; Luk_24:37, the verb ΠΤΟΗΘΈΝΤΕς is connected with ἜΜΦΟΒΟΙ ΓΕΝΌΜΕΝΟΙ ); it denotes not the object causing fear, but the fear itself which is felt; and it can be looked on either objectively as a power threatening man, or laying hold of him (as Pro_3:25, LXX.: ΚΑῚ Οὐ ΦΟΒΗΘΉΣῌ ΠΤΌΗΣΙΝ ἘΠΕΛΘΟῦΣΑΝ ; 1Ma_3:25 : Ἡ ΠΤΌΗΣΙς ἘΠΙΠΊΠΤΕΙ ἘΠῚ ΤᾺ ἜΘΝΗ ; the synonymous terms ΦΌΒΟς , ΤΡΌΜΟς , are used also in a like manner), or taken in a sense purely subjective. Most commentators understand ΠΤΌΗΣΙς here in the first of these senses, only they do not take the conception strictly by itself, but identify it with that which causes fear; in the first edition of this commentary the second meaning is attributed to ΠΤΌΗΣΙς : ΦΟΒΕῖΣΘΑΙ ΠΤΌΗΣΙΝ equal to ΦΟΒΕῖΣΘΑΙ ΦΌΒΟΝ : “to experience fear” (Mar_4:41; Luk_2:9; cf. Winer, p. 210 f. [E. T. 280]); but this explanation is opposed by the fact “that in such a connection the substantive must be taken not in idea only, but in form also from the verb” (Brückner). The idea here is quite as universal as in ἈΓΑΘΟΠ .; and accordingly it must be conceived as the fear generally which the enmity of the unbelieving world occasions to believers; still, according to the connection, the apostle had doubtless in his mind more particularly the conduct of heathen men towards their Christian wives.
Luther’s translation is inexact: “if ye … are not so fearful.” The rendering of Stephanus is incorrect, s.v. πτόησις : jubentur mulieres officium facere etiam, cum nullus eas metus constringit i. e. sponte et ultro.
[172] According to Schott, this addition is meant to express that “the complete development of the Christian church, to which they belonged, was only as yet an object of hope;” but this introduces a reference which the words do not contain.
[173] Schott applies ὡς to that which directly precedes, in this sense: that “the conduct of the holy women was regulated only according to the standard of Sarah.” Hofmann thus: that Sarah “is mentioned as a shining example of the conduct of holy women.” Both are wrong, since neither is alluded to by ὡς .
[174] It must be held, with “Wiesinger, Brückner, and Schott, in opposition to Weiss and Fronmüller, that it is more natural to take these words as applying to Gentile-Christian rather than to Jewish-Christian readers. For inasmuch as the latter, before their conversion, were already τέκνα τῆς Σάῤῥας , some allusion must have been made to their not having been so in a right manner, and as they now had become. It does not follow from Joh_8:39 (as Weiss thinks) that an allusion of this kind was unnecessary.
[175] Μετὰ τοῦ εὐκόσμου καὶ πρέποντος Χριστιανοῖς κόσμου καὶ ἐλεήμονας αὐτὰς εἶναι παραινεῖ , μηδὲν ὑποβλεπόμενας τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνδρῶν αὐτῶν διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλογισμόν .