1 Peter 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Peter gives instructions to wives and husbands about how to live with each other, then turns to the whole group: agree with one another, show sympathy, and answer insult with blessing. He quotes Psalm 34 about guarding the tongue and seeking peace, and tells them that if they suffer for doing right, they are blessed and should be ready to explain their hope with gentleness and respect. He points to Christ, who suffered once for sins, was put to death in the body and made alive in the Spirit, preached to the spirits in prison, and has gone into heaven, where angels and powers are under his authority.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Wives are to be in subjection to their own husbands.
   • This subjection is enjoined in the same manner as what preceded.
   • Some husbands do not obey the word.
   • Such husbands may be won without a word being spoken.
   • Such husbands may be won by the conduct of their wives.
2. 3:2
   • The husbands observe the wives' conduct.
   • The wives' conduct is pure.
   • The wives' conduct is marked by fear or reverence.
3. 3:3
   • The wives' adornment is not to be the outward kind.
   • Braiding the hair is named as outward adornment.
   • Wearing gold is named as outward adornment.
   • Putting on fine clothing is named as outward adornment.
4. 3:4
   • The wives' adornment is to be the hidden person of the heart.
   • That adornment consists in what is imperishable.
   • That adornment is a meek and quiet spirit.
   • A meek and quiet spirit is of great value in God's sight.
5. 3:5
   • In former times the holy women adorned themselves in this manner.
   • Those holy women hoped in God.
   • Those holy women were in subjection to their own husbands.
6. 3:6
   • Sarah obeyed Abraham.
   • Sarah called Abraham lord.
   • The women addressed have become Sarah's children.
   • They are her children as they do good.
   • They are her children as they fear no terror.
7. 3:7
   • Husbands likewise are to live with their wives according to knowledge.
   • The wife is a weaker vessel.
   • Husbands are to give honor to the wife.
   • Husband and wife are joint heirs of the grace of life.
   • The purpose is that the husbands' prayers not be hindered.
8. 3:8
   • All are to be of one mind.
   • All are to be sympathetic.
   • All are to love one another as brothers.
   • All are to be tenderhearted.
   • All are to be humble-minded.
9. 3:9
   • They are not to repay evil for evil.
   • They are not to repay reviling for reviling.
   • On the contrary, they are to bless.
   • They were called to this.
   • They were called so that they might inherit a blessing.
10. 3:10
    • Whoever wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil.
    • Whoever wants to love life and see good days must keep his lips from speaking deceit.
11. 3:11
    • He must turn away from evil.
    • He must do good.
    • He must seek peace.
    • He must pursue peace.
12. 3:12
    • The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
    • The ears of the Lord are open to the prayer of the righteous.
    • The face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
13. 3:13
    • The question is asked who will harm them.
    • The condition is that they become zealous for what is good.
14. 3:14
    • Even if they suffer for righteousness' sake, they are blessed.
    • They are not to fear the fear of their opponents.
    • They are not to be troubled.
15. 3:15
    • They are to sanctify the Lord God in their hearts.
    • They are to be always ready to give an answer.
    • The answer is to be given to everyone who asks them for a reason.
    • The reason asked for concerns the hope that is in them.
    • The answer is to be given with meekness.
    • The answer is to be given with fear.
16. 3:16
    • They are to have a good conscience.
    • They are spoken against as evildoers.
    • The purpose is that those who speak against them be put to shame.
    • Those people falsely accuse the believers' good conduct in Christ.
17. 3:17
    • It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
    • This is conditioned on the will of God being so.
18. 3:18
    • Christ suffered for sins once.
    • Christ was just.
    • Those he suffered for were unjust.
    • The purpose was that he might bring us to God.
    • Christ was put to death in the flesh.
    • Christ was made alive in the spirit.
19. 3:19
    • Christ went in that spirit.
    • Christ preached to the spirits in prison.
20. 3:20
    • Those spirits were formerly disobedient.
    • God's longsuffering waited in the days of Noah.
    • The ark was being prepared at that time.
    • A few were saved in the ark.
    • The number saved was eight souls.
    • They were saved through water.
21. 3:21
    • Baptism is the corresponding figure to that water.
    • Baptism now saves us.
    • Baptism is not the removal of filth from the flesh.
    • Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God.
    • Baptism saves through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22. 3:22
    • Jesus Christ has gone into heaven.
    • Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God.
    • Angels have been made subject to him.
    • Authorities have been made subject to him.
    • Powers have been made subject to him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"Conversation" in 1611 English meant a person's whole way of life and conduct, not talk. That is why the verse can say a husband may be won "without the word" and yet "by the conversation of the wives": it is behavior, not speech, that does the work. The word carries the same sense in verses 2 and 16. The Greek verb behind "be in subjection" was an ordinary word for taking one's assigned place within an ordered arrangement, such as a household or an army. Verses 1 to 7 follow a standard ancient form, sometimes called a household code, in which a writer addresses each class of household member in turn; Peter has already addressed household slaves in the previous chapter.

3:2

"Fear" here does not mean fright. The Greek word covers reverence and deep respect, the attitude a person shows toward someone or something held in awe. "Chaste" means pure or morally undefiled, not specifically sexually inexperienced.

3:3

The three items listed were the stock description of conspicuous wealth in ancient writers, Jewish and Greek and Roman alike. Elaborate hairstyles of the period were built up in braids over a frame and could be threaded with gold, so "plaiting the hair" and "wearing of gold" describe one display as much as two. "Apparel" here means costly clothing, not clothes in general.

3:4

"The hidden man of the heart" is a literal rendering of a Greek phrase meaning the hidden person inside, the inner self, set against the outward display of verse 3. "Of great price" means costly or expensive; the same Greek word describes the jar of expensive perfume poured over Jesus. The verse deliberately borrows the vocabulary of jewelry: "ornament" and "price" are words a merchant would use.

3:5

"the holy women... in the old time" means the women of Israel's scriptures, such as Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, who were the standard examples a Jewish teacher would reach for.

3:6

Sarah calls Abraham "my lord" in Genesis 18:12. In Hebrew and Greek alike this was an ordinary term of respect a wife might use for a husband, closer to "sir" than to a title of worship. "Afraid with any amazement" uses "amazement" in its older sense of terror or panic, not pleasant surprise. The Greek phrase means something like being frightened out of your wits.

3:7

"Vessel" translates a Greek word for a container, tool or implement, used figuratively of a person or a person's body. The comparative "weaker" implies that the husband is a vessel too; the text compares two vessels rather than contrasting a vessel with something else. The weakness in view is most naturally physical and social, the lesser strength and lesser standing a wife had in that society, and the point of the sentence is that this is a reason for honor rather than for contempt. "Honour" in this culture was a public commodity, the rank and worth others acknowledged in you, so giving honor meant treating someone publicly as valuable.

3:8

Two of these words have shifted. "Pitiful" meant full of pity, compassionate, not contemptible. "Courteous" here reflects the Greek manuscripts the KJV translators used, which read a word meaning friendly or kindly disposed; the earliest manuscripts read a different word meaning humble-minded, which is why modern translations say humble.

3:9

"Railing" means abusive speech, insults and verbal attacks. The word appears twice in the verse and is the same on both sides: returning insult for insult.

3:10

Verses 10 to 12 quote Psalm 34:12 to 16, following the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament rather than the Hebrew. "Guile" means deceit or cunning, speech designed to mislead.

3:11

Both verbs are archaic. "Eschew" means shun or turn away from. "Ensue" here means pursue or chase after, not follow as a consequence.

3:12

"The face of the Lord is against" is a Hebrew idiom. To set your face toward someone means to give them your attention; to set it against them means to oppose them.

3:13

"followers of that which is good" translates a Greek word meaning zealous or eager, from the same root as "zealot". It is more energetic than the English "followers" suggests.

3:14

"Happy" translates a Greek word usually rendered "blessed," which describes a fortunate or enviable condition rather than a cheerful feeling. "Be not afraid of their terror" quotes Isaiah 8:12, and the phrase is ambiguous in the Greek exactly as it is in the Hebrew: it can mean do not fear what they fear, or do not fear the fear they try to inflict on you. Translations split on it.

3:15

The quotation from Isaiah continues here: Isaiah 8:13 reads "sanctify the Lord of hosts himself." To sanctify something meant to set it apart as holy, to treat it as belonging in a category of its own. The KJV reads "the Lord God" because of the manuscripts available in 1611; the earliest Greek manuscripts read "Christ as Lord," which is why the rendering says Christ. "Give an answer" translates the Greek word apologia, the formal defense a defendant makes in court, and "a reason" translates logos, an account or explanation. The vocabulary is legal, though the setting need not be a courtroom. "Fear" again means reverence or respect, as in verse 2.

3:16

"Conversation" again means way of life and conduct, not talk. "Speak evil of" and "falsely accuse" both translate words for slander and public defamation, the kind of talk that damaged a person's standing in a small community.

3:18

"Once" means once and for all, one time with no repetition, not "at one time in the past." "The just for the unjust" uses legal language: the righteous one in place of, or on behalf of, the unrighteous. The Greek preposition covers both senses. "Quickened" is old English for made alive. The two phrases "in the flesh" and "by the Spirit" are parallel in Greek and have the same grammatical form, so the second can be read either as by the Spirit or as in the realm of the spirit; translators divide on it.

3:19

"By which" translates a Greek phrase that can mean in whom, in which, or on which occasion, and readers have understood this verse very differently depending on which they choose. "The spirits in prison" is equally open: the Greek says only that, without identifying them. In Jewish writings of this period, including the widely read book of Enoch, the phrase normally refers to imprisoned angelic beings, while verse 20 ties these spirits to the disobedient human generation of Noah's day. The text does not resolve which is meant, and the rendering leaves it where the Greek leaves it.

3:20

Several words are archaic. "Sometime" means formerly or once. "Longsuffering" is patience under provocation, holding back over a long stretch of time. "While the ark was a preparing" is an old English passive, meaning while the ark was being built. "Souls" simply means people, as in a head count. "Saved by water" renders a Greek preposition that can mean either through, in the sense of passing safely through it, or by means of. The eight are Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, from Genesis 7:13.

3:21

"The like figure whereunto" translates a single Greek word, antitypon, meaning the corresponding thing, the counterpart that matches an earlier pattern. The flood water is the pattern and baptism the counterpart. "The answer of a good conscience" turns on a Greek noun that was used for a formal question put to someone, for a request, and in legal contracts for the pledge given in reply to such a question. So the phrase can mean an appeal made to God from a good conscience, or a pledge given to God, or a request for a good conscience. The grammar allows all three and the sentence does not settle it. "The filth of the flesh" means dirt on the body, a plain reference to ordinary washing.

3:22

Sitting at the right hand of a ruler was the position of highest delegated authority, the place of the person who acts with the king's power. The wording echoes Psalm 110:1. "Angels and authorities and powers" is a list of ranks of unseen beings, the sort of catalog found in Jewish writings of the period for the powers thought to stand behind earthly rulers and events. The names of the ranks meant more to first readers than to us; the force of the list is its completeness.