Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 3:9 - 3:9

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 3:9 - 3:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

9. μὴ ἀποδιδόντες κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ. So Rom 12:17 and 1Th 5:15. Doubtless St Peter is borrowing from St Paul, but the words may have been a kind of proverb and the converse ἀποδίδωσι κακὰ ἀντὶ ἀγαθῶν occurs in Pro 17:13.

λοιδορίαν … εὐλογοῦντες, cf. 1Co 4:12 λοιδορούμενοι εὐλογοῦμεν. The words are an unmistakable echo of the Sermon on the Mount “Bless those that curse you” Mat 5:44; Luk 6:28.

εἰς τοῦτο … ἵνα. εἰς τοῦτο regularly points forward to the ἵνα which follows it and not backwards to the words which precede it, see Joh 18:37; Act 9:21; Act 26:16 (infinitive instead of ἵνα); Rom 9:17 (εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ὅπως), Rom 14:9; 2Co 2:9; Eph 6:22; Col 4:8; 1Ti 4:10 (ὅτι); 1Pe 4:6, and the same is true of διὰ τοῦτο followed by ἵνα or ὅπως. So here St Peter does not mean that Christians were called to be cursed nor to meet cursing with blessing, though both would be true. The object, he says, for which you were called is to inherit blessing, therefore it is your duty to bless others, cf. Mat 6:15.

The inheritance of blessing is only partially ours in this life, cf. Mat 25:34 “Come ye blessed of my Father inherit (κληρονομήσατε) the kingdom.”