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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 2:17 - 2:17
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17. τιμήσατε … ἀγαπᾶτε … φοβεῖσθε … τιμᾶτε. Here we have an aorist imperative followed by three present imperatives. The usual distinction between aorist and present imperatives is that the present is used in general precepts and the aorist in individual cases, the aorist denoting “point” action and the present “linear,” see J. H. Moulton’s Grammar, p. 129. Sometimes, however, the aorist imperative is used in general precepts to inculcate a new duty not previously recognized. So in Rom 6:13, μηδὲ παριστάνετε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν ὅπλα ἀδικίας τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀλλὰ παραστήσατε ἑαυτοὺς τῷ θεῷ, the present imperative may mean, do not continue your old practice of presenting your members as instruments of unrighteousness for sin to use, but begin a new practice and present yourselves to God. But another explanation is, do not time after time present … but present yourselves once and for all to God, the aorist denoting something which is to be done to the end as a complete whole. So here some would explain that to “honour all men” is a new duty never realized until now, whereas honour to the king is an old duty which is not to be abandoned, although he can no longer be worshipped as a God. The objection to this view, however, is that love for the brotherhood, for which the present imperative is used, would also be a new duty not possible until they were admitted into God’s family. Possibly the aorist πάντας τιμήσατε states the Christian’s duty as a whole to be fulfilled to the end and the three present imperatives expand it by three general precepts.
But St Peter has a marked preference for aorist imperatives which he uses 22 times (against 9 presents) as being more forcible, but in expanding his injunction he borrows a passage from the O.T. in which the present imperative φοβοῦ occurred and therefore he assimilates the other two imperatives to it.
τὸν θεὸν φοβεῖσθε, τὸν βασιλέα τιμᾶτε. The words are borrowed from Pro 24:21, “My son, fear God and the king,” but instead of coupling God and the king together with the same verb φοβεῖσθε St Peter treats “honour the king” as a subordinate form of the reverence due to God, just as “honour to all men” is a subordinate form of that love which can only reach its highest form in the reciprocal love of Christians as brothers.