Log In
Or create an account ->
Imperial Library
Home
About
News
Upload
Forum
Help
Login/SignUp
Index
Tyndale New Testament Commentaries
1 Peter
CONTENTS
General preface
Author’s preface
Abbreviations
Books and journals
Ancient extra-biblical literature
General abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
1. Author
a. Evidence within the letter
b. Evidence outside the letter
c. The role of Silvanus (5:12)
d. Objections to Petrine authorship
1. The Greek is too good for Peter to have written
a. Was Peter illiterate or in need of a translator?
b. Could Peter have known Greek well?
2. The letter reflects a time after Peter died
3. 1 Peter is too Pauline to have been written by Peter
4. 1 Peter shows no evidence of familiarity with the earthly life of Jesus
2. Place of writing
3. Date
4. Destination and readers
5. Purpose
6. Nature and possible sources of I Peter
a. A baptismal sermon?
b. Possible sources of Peter’s teaching
7. Prominent themes in 1 Peter
ANALYSIS
1. SALUTATION: PETER THE APOSTLE TO SOJOURNERS IN GOD’S ETERNAL CARE (1:1–2)
2. GENERAL DOCTRINE: THE GREATNESS OF YOUR SALVATION (1:3–2:10)
3. SPECIFIC ETHICAL TEACHINGS: HOW TO BE HOLY IN THE MIDST OF UNBELIEVERS (2:11–5:11)
4. CLOSING GREETINGS (5:12–14)
COMMENTARY
1. SALUTATION: PETER THE APOSTLE TO SOJOURNERS IN GOD’S ETERNAL CARE (1:1–2)
2. GENERAL DOCTRINE: THE GREATNESS OF YOUR SALVATION (1:3–2:10)
a. You grow as Christians through joyful faith (1:3–12)
1. Joy in future heavenly reward (1:3–5)
Additional note: New Covenant rewards (1:4)
2. Joy in spite of suffering (1:6–7)
3. Inexpressible joy in knowing Christ himself (1:8–9)
4. Prophets and angels amazed at the glory of your salvation (1:10–12)
Additional note: ‘Time and circumstances’ or ‘person or time’? (1:11)
b. Application: you must be holy in all your conduct (1:13–25)
1. Desire the beauty of being like a holy God (1:13–16)
2. Fear the displeasure of a Father who is an impartial Judge (1:17–21)
3. Love one another, now and for ever (1:22–25)
c. How to advance in holiness (2:1–10)
1. Be nourished by the Lord through the word (2:1–3)
2. Abide in Christ—together—as the new temple of God (2:4–6)
Additional note: The dwelling place of God (2:5)
a. Unbelievers reject Christ and stumble (2:7–8)
Additional note: Election and reprobation in Scripture (2:8)
b. But you are joined with Christ to be blessed as the true people of God (2:9–10)
3. SPECIFIC ETHICAL TEACHINGS: HOW TO BE HOLY IN THE MIDST OF UNBELIEVERS (2:11–5:11)
a. General principles (2:11–12)
1. Abstain from following sinful passions (2:11)
2. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles (2:12)
b. Living as citizens: be subject to government authorities, for the Lord’s sake (2:13–17)
c. Living as servants: be subject to your masters (2:18–25)
1. Even to evil ones (2:18–20)
2. For Christ suffered for you, trusting God (2:21–25)
Additional note: Did Christ ‘carry our sins up to the cross’? (2:24)
d. Living as married persons (3:1–7)
1. Wives: Be subject to your husbands (3:1–6)
2. Husbands: Live considerately with your wives (3:7)
e. Living as Christians generally (3:8–4:19)
1. Be humble and united in spirit (3:8)
2. Return blessing when evil is done to you (3:9–12)
3. How to act when you suffer for righteousness (3:13–4:19)
a. Know that you are blessed (3:13–14a)
b. Trust Christ (3:14b–15a)
c. Use this opportunity to witness while doing right (3:15b–17)
(i) For Christ suffered in order to bring you to God (3:18)
(ii) Another example: Noah witnessed when persecuted (3:19–20)
(iii) God will save you (as he did Noah and Christ) (3:21–22)
d. Decide that you are willing to sufer for righteousness (4:1–6)
(i) For a Christian who has suffered for doing right has made a clear break with sin (4:1–2)
(ii) Give no more time to sin (4:3)
(iii) There is a judgment coming for Gentiles who abuse you (4:4–5)
(iv) For the gospel was preached to Christians who have died to save them from eternal judgment (4:6)
e. This final judgment is near, so act this way within the church … (4:7–11)
(i) Pray more and love each other more (4:7–9)
(ii) Glorify God in using your gifts (4:10–11)
f. Do not be surprised at your trials, but rejoice (4:12–16)
(i) For God’s judgment is beginning from God’s own house (4:17–18)
(ii) Therefore do right and trust God continually (4:19)
f. Living as church members and officers (5:1–7)
1. Elders: Shepherd God’s flock rightly (5:1–4)
2. Younger people (and all others): Be subject to the elders (5:5a)
3. All of you: Be humble toward each other (5:5b)
a. Humble yourselves before God (5:6)
b. Gain humility by casting your cares on God (5:7)
g. Living as Christians in spiritual conflict (5:8–11)
1. Beware of the devil (5:8)
2. Resist the devil with firm faith (5:9)
3. God will restore you after you have suffered (5:10–11)
4. CLOSING GREETINGS (5:12–14)
a. I am sending this by faithful Silvanus (5:12a)
b. Stand in the grace I have described (5:12b)
c. Greetings from the church in Rome and from Mark (5:13)
d. Greet one another (5:14a)
e. Peace to all who are in Christ (5:14b)
APPENDIX
CHRIST PREACHING THROUGH NOAH: 1 PETER 3:19–20 IN THE LIGHT OF DOMINANT THEMES IN JEWISH LITERATURE
I. WHO ARE THE ‘SPIRITS IN PRISON’?
a. The meaning of ‘spirit’ (pneuma)
1. General meaning: angels or human spirits?
2. Does pneuma, ‘spirit’, have a special meaning when used ‘absolutely’?
3. ‘Spirits’ in 1 Enoch
4. Are the spirits ‘in prison’ now, or when Christ preached to them?
5. Conclusion regarding the phrase ‘spirits in prison’
b. Evidence from four other defining phrases
1. Evidence for angelic disobedience
a. The sons of God in Genesis 6:2, 4
b. Other references to angelic disobedience
2. Evidence for human disobedience
a. Who disobeyed ‘during the building of the ark’?
(i) Old Testament evidence
(ii) New Testament evidence
(iii) Extra-biblical evidence
b. For whom was the patience of God waiting?
c. Noah as a preacher to his generation
3. Conclusion from a survey of background material
c. Additional note: can we assume that Peter’s readers knew 1 Enoch?
II. WHAT DID CHRIST PROCLAIM?
III. WHEN DID CHRIST PREACH?
a. The connection between verse 18 and verse 19
b. Between his death and resurrection—or after his resurrection
c. At the time of Noah
1. Could Peter have thought this?
2. Relationship to the larger context (especially 1 Peter 3:13–22)
a. Christ preaching through Noah
b. Contextual difficulties with Dalton’s view
3. The translation ‘when they formerly disobeyed’
4. Remaining objections
a. The verb poreutheis (‘went’)
b. The sequence death-resurrection-ascension
c. Why did Peter not say that Christ preached ‘through Noah’?
IV. CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
1. SALUTATION: PETER THE APOSTLE TO SOJOURNERS IN GOD’S ETERNAL CARE (1:1–2)
2. GENERAL DOCTRINE: THE GREATNESS OF YOUR SALVATION (1:3–2:10)
3. SPECIFIC ETHICAL TEACHINGS: HOW TO BE HOLY IN THE MIDST OF UNBELIEVERS (2:11–5:11)
APPENDIX
← Prev
Back
Next →
← Prev
Back
Next →