General Exhortation before God
General Exhortation before God
1 Peter 3:8–12
Treat Everyone Kindly (3:8–12)
3:8
Finally, to all of you: be like-minded, feeling for one another, familial in your love, tender-hearted, and humble in your thinking.
3:9
Don’t pay back wrong for wrong. Don’t answer an insult with another insult—instead, bless your mockers! Because God called you for this lifestyle, so that you would inherit blessing.
3:10
We know this because, “Whoever wants life and loves to see pleasant times needs to keep their tongue from wrong and their lips from speaking deceit.
3:11
“Let them turn from wrong and do good. Let them seek peace and pursue it!
3:12
“For the Lord watches over people who are just, and he heeds their requests. But he’s against those who do wrong!”
3:8
Peter concludes the entire section on relationships (2:13–3:7) with a series of related exhortations, starting with a list of adjectives describing virtues (3:8) and moving to antithetical exhortations (3:9). The adjectives appear more generic and the antitheses more concrete and illustrative. The adjectives begin with “like-minded” (homophrōn) and end with “humble-minded”1 (tapeinophrōn [cf. Prov. 29:23]); those who exalt themselves will not get along with others.
Greek texts often emphasize being of one mind or soul.2 True friendship involves unity of mind,3 which was also the ideal for families.4 A city should have “singleness of purpose” or of “mind,”5 and a favorite theme of oratory was the homonoia speech, exhorting hearers to concord, or harmony. Orators had long exhorted cities to pursue harmony and beware divisions,6 and everyone praised such harmony.7 Pursuing concord is a central ideal, for example, in many of Dio Chrysostom’s speeches to cities.8 The idea of becoming of “one mind” or “one spirit”9 was conventional in Greek literature on harmony.10 For example, Greeks joined together in one mind to battle a common foe.11 Becoming of one mind would cast out stasis, or discord.12
If Peter is still thinking of LXX Ps. 33 (ET 34), as in 1 Pet. 2:3 and revisited soon in 3:10–12, he might echo it here. Tapeinophrōn, which can mean “humble in mind,” might possibly echo Ps. 33:19 (ET 34:18), where God saves those broken in heart and “the humble in spirit” (LXX: tous tapeinous tō pneumati). On sibling love, see comment on 1 Pet. 1:22; on humility, see comment on 5:5.
Not repaying evil for evil (3:9) is consistent with Jesus’s teaching (Matt. 5:39 // Luke 6:29).13 Although others in antiquity also taught nonretaliation,14 shared wording presumably suggests a common basis for several early Christian references (Rom. 12:17; 1 Thess. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9; Did. 1:3; Polycarp, Phil. 2:2).15 Not reviling in response to reviling fits Jesus’s teaching and example (Luke 6:28), as does repaying it with a blessing instead (esp. 1 Cor. 4:12; also Rom. 12:14; James 3:9).
Peter in fact has already shown that this behavior follows the model of Jesus, who (using the verb cognate of the present noun) did not revile in response to reviling (1 Pet. 2:23). This model for relationships applies to all dealings with outsiders (2:13–17), including dealings with slaves’ holders (2:18–25) and unregenerate husbands (3:1–6). It applies all the more to fellow believers (2:17; 3:7–8). (On nonretaliation in its ancient Mediterranean context, see discussion at 2:23.) In support of his directive don’t pay back wrong for wrong, Peter also marshals the following psalm quotation, which three times warns against wrong (3:10–12).
If wrongdoing hinders prayers (3:7), doing right makes blessing available (the end of 3:9). Like the wives of 3:7, all believers are heirs, and thus will inherit a blessing;16 ancient Jews and Christians applied the language of “inheritance” to the eschatological promise (see comment on 1:4). The blessing may encompass all God’s eschatological promise given to the patriarchs (cf., e.g., Gen. 12:2–3; 22:17; 28:4; Isa. 44:3; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3).17 Peter tells them that God called you for this, language that recalls the role of God’s calling in them becoming believers (1 Pet. 1:15; 2:9) and especially here their future destiny of blessing in Christ (see 5:10). But the object of their calling here may be their lifestyle (hence my tentative translation). The precise expression “called for this” (eis touto eklēthēte) also appears in 2:21, where again the call includes Christ’s way of nonretaliation, and thus of depending ultimately only on God for vindication.
3:10–12
To avoid prayers being hindered (3:7) and to receive promised blessing (3:9), one must be righteous (3:10–12).18 In this context, Peter presumably applies life (3:10) in a manner that includes the promise of eschatological life (3:7; cf. 1:3, 23). (Such an application of more limited OT passages about life in this age was consistent with the approach of Peter’s contemporaries,19 who might reason to this conclusion by means of the traditional Jewish exegetical method of qal wahomer, “how much more.”)20 What I translated as pleasant times is literally “good days” (3:10), which can apply to days of feasting and celebration (Esther 9:19–22) but may simply refer to happy times (Ps. 84:10; 1 Macc. 10:55; Sir. 11:25; 14:14). Jesus himself exemplifies keeping his tongue from wrong and his lips from speaking deceit (1 Pet. 2:22, using Isa. 53:9);21 believers must do the same, avoiding deceit (1 Pet. 2:1) and insults (3:9).22
That one must turn from wrong and do good (poiēsatō agathon, 3:11) fits the regular refrain about doing good (agathopoieō) in 1 Peter’s exhortations (2:14–15, 20; 3:6, 17; 4:19). Other early Christian writers also spoke of pursuing peace (Rom. 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 12:14), possibly drawing on the language of the same psalm (consciously or unconsciously).23 This emphasis also appears in early Jewish sources, such as a saying attributed to the early Pharisaic sage Hillel.24
My attempt to offer an alternative, colloquial English translation unfortunately obscures here the vivid, anthropomorphic linkage of body parts in 1 Pet. 3:12 (Ps. 34:15–16 [LXX 33:16–17]): the Lord’s eyes and ears welcome the just, but his face opposes those who do evil.25 In 3:12, that God opposes those who do wrong (poiountas kaka, “doing evil things”) fits Peter’s regular warnings against wrongdoers and wrongdoing (2:12, 14; 3:17; 4:15). In other words, Peter has good reasons to quote as much of the psalm as he does. He does stop his psalm quotation short of its further elaboration of the wicked’s annihilation.
1. It can mean simply “humble,” but I want to retain the rhetorical symmetry between the Greek nomenclature for the first and last virtues.
2. E.g., Lysias, Or. 2.24, §192; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Rom. Ant. 6.10.1; 6.87.1. Cf. LXX 1 Chron. 12:39 (ET 12:38); 2 Chron. 30:12. For the motif’s relevance throughout 1 Peter, see Cothenet, “Fraternité.”
3. Dio Chrysostom, Or. 4.42.
4. Homophrosunē (Dio Chrysostom, Or. 38.15). For unity among family members, relevant to early Christian understanding of their unity, see deSilva, Honor, 169–73; cf., e.g., Fronto, Nep. am. 2.8.
5. Dio Chrysostom, Or. 39.3; see further, e.g., 39.8.
6. E.g., Demosthenes, Ep. 1.5; Rhet. Alex. 1, 1422b.33–36; Philostratus, Vit. Apoll. 4.8; Menander Rhetor, Treat. 2.3, 384.23–24; 2.4, 390.14–16; Herodian, Hist. 3.2.8. Concord-reliefs were also important symbols in cities (e.g., I.Eph. 1264). See also personified Concord (see, e.g., Purcell, “Concordia”). Cf. Israel in the wilderness in Mek. Bah. 1:108ff. (Lauterbach, 2:200).
7. E.g., Dio Chrysostom, Or. 38.6, 10; Fronto, M. Caes. 4.1; Lucian, Hermot. 22. It was standard in Stoic ethics (Erskine, Stoa, 59; in Zeno, Engberg-Pedersen, Paul and Stoics, 75; cf. Arius Didymus, Epit. 2.7.11b, p. 64.4–7; 2.7.11k, p. 84.26–27; 2.7.11m, p. 88.13–16; a similar idea in 2.7.5 L, p. 34.31–32).
8. Dio Chrysostom, Or. 34.17; 38.5–8; 40.26 (in marriage, see 38.15; in nature, see 40.35–36, 38); also “friendship,” e.g., in 38.11; 39.2; 40.26; “reconciliation” in 38.11, 47; 39.2; also linked with friendship in 40.36. Also allegedly Apollonius of Tyana (Philostratus, Vit. Apoll. 1.15; 6.38). Cf. Dio Chrysostom, Or. 48.14.
9. Such as homothumadon, in Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; Rom. 15:6; Philo, Confusion 58; Moses 1.72.
10. E.g., Dio Chrysostom, Or. 38.15; 39.3, 5, 8; see esp. Mitchell, Rhetoric of Reconciliation, 76–77, 79 (citing esp. Isocrates, Paneg. 138; Phil. 45; Archid. 9, 25, 34, 37, 93; Thucydides, Hist. 1.113.2; 1.122.2; 1.140.1; 2.55.2; 6.17.4; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Rom. Ant. 6.23.2; 49.3; Josephus, Ant. 7.60, 276). On “speaking the same thing,” see esp. Mitchell, Rhetoric of Reconciliation, 68–69. On “unity” in Paul, see esp. Mitchell, Rhetoric of Reconciliation; now also Damgaard, “Brugen.”
11. Lysias, Or. 2.24, §192.
12. Dio Chrysostom, Or. 39.8.
13. Broer (“Ius Talionis”) rightly sees the parallels but thinks that Matthew adapts Jesus’s teaching in an anti-Judaic direction. This, however, more likely reflects anti-Judaic abuse of Matthew; see Keener, Matthew, 175–82, 195–201.
14. E.g., Seneca Y., Dial. 3.6.5; 4.32.1; Musonius Rufus, 10, pp. 76.18–78.28; Maximus of Tyre, Or. 12; Diogenes Laertius, Lives 6.1.3; Sir. 28:1–4; 1QS 10.17–18; CD 9.3–6; Ps.-Phoc. 77; Jos. Asen. 23:9; 29:3; b. Ber. 17a; b. Šabb. 88b, bar.; Flusser, Judaism, 485, 506. But some limited this to their own community (cf. Sipra Qed. pq. 4.200.3.6; Stendahl, “Hate”) and valued vengeance (e.g., Jdt. 9:2; 1 Macc. 2:67; T. Levi 5:3).
15. Rom. 12:17 (mēdeni kakon anti kakou apodidontes) and 1 Thess. 5:15 (mē tis kakon anti kakou tini apodō) are very close to 1 Pet. 3:9: mē apodidontes kakon anti kakou. Polycarp probably echoes 1 Peter directly, in addition to other passages.
16. Cf. Sir. 44:22–23: “The blessing of all people and the covenant he made to rest on the head of Jacob; he acknowledged him with his blessings, and gave him his inheritance” (NRSV).
17. Language such as inherit blessing evokes the patriarchal narratives (Gen. 28:4; Sir. 44:23; Heb. 12:17).
18. Quoting from LXX Ps. 33:13–17a (ET 34:12–16a). 1 Clem. 22:1–7 also cites Ps. 34:11–17, 19, a slightly wider verse range than in 1 Peter.
19. See, e.g., CD 3.15–20; Pss. Sol. 14:2–3; Sipra ʾAḥ. M. par. 8.193.1.10 (though cf. pq. 13.194.2.16); Sipre Deut. 336.1.1; cf. m. Mak. 3:15; m. Peʾah 1:1; Rom. 1:17.
20. For which, see, e.g., m. ʾAbot 1:5; t. Ber. 4:16–17; 6:19; t. Peʾah 3:8; Mek. Pisha 1:38; 2:36–37; 7:48; Mek. Besh. 1:54; 2:73; 7:128; Mek. Bah. 5:90; 11:64, 109; Mek. Nez. 1:101; 2:17; 3:43, 69, 128; 10:47; Mek. Kaspa 2:26, 34–35; 5:51, 80, 103; Mek. Shab. 1:14; 2:41; Sipra V. D. Dened. par. 2.3.4.3; par. 3.5.3.2; par. 5.10.1.1; Sipra V. D. Dehob. pq. 12.53.1.3; Sipra Sav Mek. d. par. 9.90.1.3, 8; Sipra Behuq. par. 1.260.1.1; Sipre Num. 1.4.1; 1.6.3; 8.1.1; 15.1.1; 78.1.1; 103.1.1; 115.3.2; Sipre Deut. 48.7.1.
21. Interpreters often linked texts on the basis of common key words (see comment on 2:6), in this case, deceit. For a christological reading of the psalm quotation, see Christensen, “Solidarity.”
22. Wrong (kakos) in 3:9 also appears in 3:10, 11, 12.
23. Cf. the reversal in 2 Clem. 10:2. The language of “seeking” (zētein) peace also appears in LXX Jer. 36:7 (ET 29:7); Ezek. 7:25.
24. m. ʾAbot 1:12: “Be of the disciples of Aaron: loving peace, pursuing peace” (trans. Danby, Mishnah, 447); cf. ʾAbot R. Nat. 24, §49.
25. For linkage of different texts through body parts, cf. Rom. 3:13–18; for other illustrations by this means, cf. Maximus of Tyre, Or. 7.7; Pesiq. Rab. 9:2. The use of body parts to signify the whole is synecdoche (on which, see Rhet. Her. 4.33.44–45; Rowe, “Style,” 127; Caird, Language, 135–36; Anderson, Glossary, 112; Aune, Rhetoric, 453–54).