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1Pe_4:6. This verse, which has been explained in very diverse ways,[240] is meant, as the ΓΆΡ following upon ΕἸς ΤΟῦΤΟ shows, to give the ground or the explanation of a statement going before. The question is: Which statement is it? The sound of the words serves to suggest that in ΝΕΚΡΟῖς we have a resumption of the ΝΕΚΡΟΎς immediately preceding, and that what is said in this verse is to be regarded as the ground of the thought that judgment will he pronounced, not only upon the living, but upon the dead also. This assumption seems to be corroborated by the καί before ΝΕΚΡΟῖς . The fact—to which Peter appeals—on which this thought is based is expressed in ΕὐΑΓΓΕΛΊΣΘΗ . But it is precisely this idea, that the gospel was preached to the dead,—to all the dead,—which has induced the interpreters to deviate from the explanation lying most naturally to hand. It is entirely unjustifiable, with Zezschwitz (thus Alethaeus already, and Starkius in Wolf), to connect the verse with 1Pe_4:1-2, regard 1Pe_4:3-5 as a digression, and understand under ΝΕΚΡΟῖς the Christians who are already dead when the day of judgment arrives, γάρ certainly must refer back to 1Pe_4:5; according to Schott, it applies to the whole homogeneous statement of 1Pe_4:5; according to Bengel, to Τῷ ἙΤΟΊΜΩς ἜΧΟΝΤΙ ; in their opinion, likewise, ΝΕΚΡΟῖς is to be understood of Christians already dead. This determination of the expression, however, is arbitrary, as no mention is made in 1Pe_4:5 of the Christians.[241] It lies more to hand to take the νεκροῖς as meaning the evil-speakers mentioned in 1Pe_4:5. On this interpretation, the apostle tells the Christians who were being evil spoken of not to forget that those calumniators who died before the judgment would not on that account escape punishment. Still, it is difficult to see why the apostle should give such special prominence to this,—more especially with the further remark, that the gospel was preached unto them, ἵνα … ζῶσι κ . τ . λ . Wiesinger justly remarks: “that the author should so expressly accept the assumption of their death, does not well agree with the ἑτοίμως ἔχειν , and not with the subsequent πάντων δὲ τὸ τέλος ἤγγικε .”
Hofmann, whilst correctly recognising that by νεκροῖς the apostle here does not denote Christians only, or unbelievers only, gives a closer definition of the term by applying it to those of the dead to whom, during their life time, the gospel had been preached. At the same time, however, he assumes that the thought here expressed “serves to confirm or explain the whole statement that the slanderers; without exception, whether living or dead, must render account to the Lord.” But, on the one hand, the apostle in no way alludes to the limitation of the idea here too supposed; and, on the other, it is incorrect to understand by ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς , 1Pe_4:5, the calumniators only. If all arbitrariness is to be avoided, then νεκροῖς must here be taken in the same wide sense as νεκρούς in 1Pe_4:5. Any limitation of the general idea is without justification,—indicated, as such is, neither by the want of the article before νεκροῖς ,[242] nor by the circumstance that the slanderers are the subject in 1Pe_4:5. Accordingly, it cannot be denied that the apostle gives expression to the thought that the gospel has been preached to all, who are dead, at the time when the last judgment arrives. With the view of chap. 1Pe_3:19-20, which is in harmony with the words, this thought need occasion no stumbling. In that passage, it is true, the ἘΚΉΡΥΞΕΝ applies only to the spirits of those who perished in the flood. But they alone are mentioned there not because the ΚΉΡΥΓΜΑ was addressed exclusively to them, but because the apostle recognised in the deluge the type of baptism.[243] Accordingly, though there be a close connection of thought internally between what is here said and chap. 1Pe_3:19-20, it is nevertheless erroneous, with Steiger, König, Güder, Wiesinger, Weiss, p. 228 f., to take εὐηγγελίσθη as applying only to those there named.
ΕὐΗΓΓΕΛΊΣΘΗ is put here impersonally: “the gospel was proclaimed:” neither ὁ Χριστός nor Ἡ ΔΙΔΑΧῊ ΤΟῦ ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ (Bengel, Grotius, Pott, etc.), nor anything similar, is to be supplied.
[240] Lorinus enumerates twelve different interpretations; nor does that complete the number. Many commentators are uncertain, and confess that they do not understand the true meaning of the verse; thus also Luther, who even thinks it possible that the text has been corrupted. Reiche, too, is inclined to regard the passage as a gloss added by a later hand.
[241] It is evidently still farther fetched to understand νεκροῖς as meaning the believers of the O. T., as is done by several of the earlier commentators—Bullinger, Aretius, etc.
[242] The phrases: ἐγείρειν , ἐγείρεσθαι , ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν (see Winer, p. 117 [E. T. 153]), go to prove that the expression νεκροί , when applied to all the dead, has not necessarily the article prefixed to it. Elsewhere, too, νεκροί has no article; cf. Luk_16:30; Act_10:42; Rom_14:9.
[243] Erroneous is the opinion of several commentators (Pott, Jachmann, König, Grimm in theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1835), that these only are named by way of example, because they were specially ungodly.
εἰς τοῦτο … ἵνα (comp. chap. 1Pe_3:9; Joh_18:37, and other passages) points to the design of the fact stated in εὐηγγελίσθη ; on this the chief accent of the sentence lies. The apostle bases the thought, that the Lord stands ready to judge the dead also, not alone on the circumstance that the gospel has been preached to them too, but that it has been preached for the purpose which he states in what follows. This purpose is expressed in the sentence consisting of two members: ἵνα κριθῶσιν μὲν κατὰ ἀνθρώπους σαρκι , ζῶσιν δὲ κατὰ Θεὸν πνεύματι . According to the grammatical structure, κριθῶσιν and ζῶσιν are co-ordinate with each other, and both are equally dependent on ἵνα . In sense ἵνα applies, however, only to ζῶσιν , inasmuch as the first member must be regarded as a parenthesis. The construction here is similar to that which is frequently to be found in classical writers in clauses connected by μὲν … δέ (see Matthiae, ausf. griech. Gr. 2d ed. p. 1262). This conjunction, as Hartung (Lehre v. d. Partikl., Part II. p. 406) remarks, discloses the contrast. The aorist κριθῶσιν shows the judgment to be one which, at the commencement of the last judgment, is by their very death executed upon those who are then dead, and this quite independently of whether the gospel was preached to them before or after death. It is accordingly erroneous to understand this judgment ( κριθῶσιν ) to mean the judgment of repentance (Gerhard), or that of the flood (de Wette); it is the judgment of death, as nearly all expositors have rightly acknowledged. Hofmann, with only an appearance of rightness, asserts that the expression of the apostle can be appropriately applied only to those who did not suffer this judgment of death till after the gospel had been preached to them. The apostle could express himself thus as regards those also with whom this was not the case, all the more readily that they were not set free from the condition of death immediately on hearing the gospel preached, nor then even, when they had received it in faith. Accordingly, the interpretation is: “in order that they, after the flesh, indeed, judged by death, may live according to the spirit” (Wiesinger). The antithesis σαρκὶ … πνεύματι is here in the same sense as in chap. 1Pe_3:18. Güder’s opinion, that σάρξ here denotes the sinful bias which the dead possess, is unwarranted; nowhere in Scripture is σάρξ attributed to the already departed.
κατὰ ἀνθρώπους means neither: “by men,” nor: “according to the judgment of men;” but: “according to the manner of men, as is peculiar to them.”
The second member: ζῶσι δὲ κατὰ Θεὸν πνεύματι , corresponds as to form entirely with the first clause, only that here the verb is present, because it mentions the future condition aimed at. ζῆν is antithetical to κριθῆναι , and denotes the eternal life which in the judgment is awarded to those who in faith have received the gospel. It is more nearly defined by κατὰ Θεόν , which (corresponding to the κατὰ ἀνθρώπους ) can only mean, “according to the manner of God, as corresponds with the character of God.”[244]
This final clause states the purpose which this ΕὐΑΓΓΕΛΊΖΕΣΘΑΙ should serve; whether, and in how far, the object is attained is not said.
[244] Hofmann interprets κατὰ Θεόν incorrectly by: “because of God,” to which he adds the more precise definition: “since it is God who gives this life, so that it is therefore constituted accordingly.”—Jachmann’s view is very singular; he holds that κατὰ Θεόν means “with reference to their divine part;” nor, he thinks, should this occasion surprise, for, as the sensuous nature of man is in biblical language personified by ὁ ἄνθρωπος , so too his invisible, divine nature might be personified by ὁ Θεός .