Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Peter 5:9 - 5:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Pe_5:9. ᾧ ἀντίστητε στερεοὶ τῇ πίστει ] cf. Jam_4:7; Eph_6:11 ff. τῇ πίστει does not belong to ἀντίστητε (Bengel), but to στερεοί ; not as the dat. instrum. (Beza, Hensler), but as the dative of nearer definition: “firm in the faith;” cf. Act_16:5; Col_2:7; cf. Winer, p. 202 [E. T. 270]. It is only a firm faith that can resist the devil.
εἰδότες τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων … ἐπιτελεῖσθαι ] Almost all interpreters assume that the construction here is that of the accus. c. inf. Hofmann nevertheless denies this, remarking that in the N. T. εἰδότες (in the sense of “knowing”) never takes the accus. c. inf., but always the particle ὅτι , and that when εἰδότες is followed by the accus. c. inf., it signifies “to understand how to do a thing.”[278] If this be correct, ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ must have an active meaning, ΤᾺ ΑὐΤᾺ ΤῶΝ ΠΑΘ . be the accusative after it, and the dative Τῇ … ἈΔΕΛΦΌΤΗΤΙ be dependent on ΤᾺ ΑὐΤΆ . Explaining ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ on the analogy of the phrase: ΤᾺ ΤΟῦ ΓΉΡΩς ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ (Xen. Mem. iv. 8. 8), and seeing in τὰ αὐτά the idea of measure expressed, Hofmann translates: “knowing how to pay for your Christianity the same tribute of affliction as your brethren in the world.” This explanation cannot be accepted without hesitation. For, on the one hand, from the fact that in other parts of the N. T. ΕἸΔΌΤΕς does not take the accus. c. inf., it cannot be concluded that here it does not do so either, the more especially that the construction of the accus. c. inf. occurs comparatively rarely in the N. T.; and, on the other hand, the phrase: ΤᾺ … ΤῶΝ ΠΑΘ . ἈΠΟΤΕΛ ., is not analogous with the expression: ΤᾺ ΤΟῦ ΓΉΡΩς ἘΠΙΤΕΛ ., since in the former there is no conception corresponding to ΤΟῦ ΓΉΡΩς . Hofmann inserts, indeed, as such, the idea of the Christian calling, but it is purely imported, and nowhere hinted at in the text. Accordingly, ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ —grammatically considered—can have a passive signification, not, indeed, equivalent to: “are completed” (Thuc. 7:2; Php_1:6, and other passages), for this idea would not be suitable here, but rather: “are being accomplished” (thus Herod. 1:51, in connection with τὰ ἐπιτασσόμενα ; 1:138: ἘΠΙΤΕΛΈΣΑΙ Ἃ ὙΠΈΣΧΕΤΟ ). This idea is, in truth, not very appropriate either; it seems to be more fitting to take the verb in a middle sense, as equivalent to: “are accomplishing themselves;” and to translate: “knowing (or better rather: considering) that the same sufferings are accomplishing themselves in the brethren.” This rendering is to be preferred to all others. The Vulg. translates ἘΠΙΤΕΛ . by fieri; Luther by “befall;” both are too inexact renderings of the sense.[279] In the explanation above given, τὰ αὐτά is used as a substantive, as frequently happens with the neuter of adjectives (Winer, p. 220[280] [E.T. 294]), and is put here to emphasize the sameness of the sufferings (thus de Wette, Wiesinger); τῇ … ἀδελφότητι is to be taken as the more remote object; on no condition can the dative be understood as equivalent to ὙΠΌ in passives. With the idea ἈΔΕΛΦΌΤΗΤΙ , cf. chap. 1Pe_2:17.
The addition, ἘΝ ΚΌΣΜῼ , alludes to the reason of the afflictions (Steiger). Wiesinger justly remarks: “in the world, the dominion of the Evil One, the Christian can and dare expect nothing else.” Possibly it may contain at the same time a reference to the ἈΔΕΛΦΌΤΗς , which the Lord has already taken to Himself ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΚΌΣΜΟΥ . The thought that the brethren have to bear the same afflictions, serves to give strength in resisting the devil, since the consciousness of bearing similar afflictions in common with all Christian brethren, encourages to patient endurance.
[278] Cf. the passages quoted by Hofmann: Mat_7:11; Luk_11:13; Luk_12:36; Jam_4:17; Php_4:12; 1Ti_3:5; 2Pe_2:9.
[279] The translation of Wichelhaus: “to be laid upon,” is entirely unjustifiable.
[280] Hofmann erroneously appeals to Hartung’s Gr. II. p. 238, in support of the interpretation: “the same measure of suffering.”