1 Peter 3:8-22
1599 Geneva Bible
8 [a]Finally, be ye all of one mind: one suffer with another: love as brethren: be pitiful, be courteous.
9 (A)[b]Not rendering evil for evil, neither rebuke for rebuke: but contrariwise bless, [c]knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should be heirs of blessing.
10 (B)[d]For if any man long after life, and to [e]see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
11 (C)Let him eschew evil and do good: let him seek peace and follow after it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: and the [f]face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
13 [g]And who is it that will harm you, if ye follow that which is good?
14 (D)Notwithstanding blessed are ye, if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake. [h]Yea, (E)fear not their [i]fear, neither be troubled.
15 But [j]sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, [k]and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and reverence.
16 Having a good conscience, that when they speak evil of you as of evil doers, they may be ashamed which slander your good conversation in Christ.
17 [l]For it is better (if the will of God be so) that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18 (F)[m]For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, [n]the just for the unjust, [o]that he might bring us to God, [p]and was put to death concerning the [q]flesh, but was quickened by the spirit.
19 [r]By [s]the which he also went, and preached unto the [t]spirits that are in prison.
20 Which were in time passed disobedient, when [u]once the long suffering of God abode in the days of (G)Noah, while the Ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight [v]souls were saved in the water.
21 [w]Whereof the baptism that now is, answering that figure, (which is not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but a confident demanding with a good conscience maketh to [x]God) saveth us also [y]by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22 Which is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, to whom the Angels, and Powers, and might are subject.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Peter 3:8 He returneth to common exhortations and commendeth concord and whatsoever things pertain to the maintenance of peace and mutual love.
- 1 Peter 3:9 We must not only not recompense injury for injury, but we must also recompense them with benefits.
- 1 Peter 3:9 An argument taken of comparison: Seeing that we ourselves are called of God whom we offend so often, to so great a benefit (so far is he from revenging the injuries which we do unto him) shall we rather make ourselves unworthy of so great bountifulness, than forgive one another’s faults? And from this verse to the end of the chapter, there is a digression or going from the matter he is in hand with, to exhort us valiantly to bear afflictions.
- 1 Peter 3:10 A secret objection: But this our patience shall be nothing else but a fleshing and hardening of the wicked in their wickedness, to make them to set upon us more boldly, and to destroy us. (Nay saith the Apostle by the words of David) to live without doing hurt, and to follow after peace when it fleeth away, is the way to the happy and quiet peace. And if so be any man be afflicted for doing justly, the Lord maketh all things, and will in his time deliver the godly, which cry unto him, and will destroy the wicked.
- 1 Peter 3:10 Lead a blessed and happy life.
- 1 Peter 3:12 This word (Face) after the manner of the Hebrews, is taken for (anger.)
- 1 Peter 3:13 The second argument: when the wicked are provoked, they are more wayward: therefore they must rather be overcome with good turns: And if they cannot be gotten by that means also, yet notwithstanding we shall be blessed, if we suffer for righteousness’ sake.
- 1 Peter 3:14 A most certain counsel in afflictions, be they never so terrible, to be of a constant mind, and to stand fast. But how shall we attain unto it? If we sanctify God in our minds and hearts, that is to say, if we rest upon him, as one that is Almighty, that loveth mankind, that is good and true indeed.
- 1 Peter 3:14 Be not dismayed as they are.
- 1 Peter 3:15 Give him all praise and glory, and hang only on him.
- 1 Peter 3:15 He will have us when we are afflicted for righteousness’ sake, to be careful not for redeeming of our life, either with denying, or renouncing the truth, or with like violence, or any such means: but rather to give an account of our faith boldly, and yet with a meek spirit, and full to godly reverence, that the enemies may not have anything justly to object, but may rather be ashamed of themselves.
- 1 Peter 3:17 A reason which standeth upon two general rules of Christianity, which notwithstanding all men allow not of. The one is, if we must needs suffer afflictions, it is better to suffer wrongfully than rightfully: the other is this, because we are so afflicted, not by hap, but by the will of our God.
- 1 Peter 3:18 A proof of either of the rules, by the example of Christ himself our chief pattern who was afflicted, not for his own sins (which were none) but for ours, and that according to his Father’s decree.
- 1 Peter 3:18 An argument taken of comparison: Christ the just suffered for us that are unjust, and shall it grieve us who are unjust to suffer for the just’s cause?
- 1 Peter 3:18 Another argument being partly taken of things coupled together, to wit, because Christ bringeth us to his Father that same way that he went himself, and partly from the cause efficient: to wit, because Christ is not only set before us for an example to follow, but also he holdeth us up by his virtue in all the difficulties of this life, until he bring us to his Father.
- 1 Peter 3:18 Another argument taken of the happy end of these afflictions, wherein also Christ goeth before us both in example and virtues, as one who suffered most grievous torments even unto death, although but in one part only of him, to wit, in the flesh or man’s nature, but yet became conqueror by virtue of his divinity.
- 1 Peter 3:18 As touching his manhood, for his body was dead, and his soul felt the sorrows of death.
- 1 Peter 3:19 A secret objection: Christ indeed might do this, but what is that to us? yet (saith the Apostle) for Christ hath showed forth this virtue in all ages both to the preservation of the godly, were they never so few and miserable, and to revenge the rebellion of his enemies, as it appeareth by the history of the flood: for Christ is he which in those days (when God through his patience appointed a time of repentance to the world) was present not in corporal presence, but by his divine virtue, preaching repentance even by the mouth of Noah himself who then prepared the Ark, to those disobedient spirits which are now in prison waiting for the full recompence of their rebellion, and saved those few (that is, eight only persons) in the water.
- 1 Peter 3:19 By the virtue of which Spirit, that is to say of the divinity: therefore this word, Spirit, cannot in this place be taken for the soul, unless we say, that Christ was raised up again, and quickened by the virute of his soul.
- 1 Peter 3:19 He calleth them Spirits, in respect of his time, not in respect of the time that they were in the flesh.
- 1 Peter 3:20 This word (once) showeth that there was a furthermost day appointed, and if that were once past, there should be no more.
- 1 Peter 3:20 Men.
- 1 Peter 3:21 A proportional applying of the former example to the times which followed the coming of Christ: for that preservation of Noah in the waters was a figure of our Baptism, not as though that material water of Baptism saveth us, as those waters which bare up the Ark saved Noah, but because Christ with his inward virtue, which the outward Baptism shadoweth, preserveth us being washed, so that we may call upon God with a good conscience.
- 1 Peter 3:21 The conscience being sanctified may freely call upon God.
- 1 Peter 3:21 That selfsame virtue, whereby Christ rose again, and now being carried into heaven, hath received all power, doth at this day defend and preserve us.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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