Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin
14. Sive praesidibus, tanquam iis qui per ipsum mittuntur, in vindictam quidem maleficorum, laudem verò benè agentium.
15. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
15. Sic enim est voluntas Dei, ut benefaciendo obstruatis ignorantiam stultorum hominum:
16. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
16. Ut liberi, et non quasi praetextum habentes malitiae, libertatem; sed tanquam servi Dei.
13 Submit yourselves He now comes to particular exhortations: and as obedience with regard to magistrates is a part of honest or good conversation, he draws this inference as to their duty, ``Submit yourselves,'' or, Be ye subject; for by refusing the yoke of government, they would have given to the Gentiles no small occasion for reproaching them. And, indeed, the Jews were especially hated and counted infamous for this reason, because they were regarded on account of their perverseness as ungovernable. And as the commotions which they raised up in the provinces, were causes of great calamities, so that every one of a quiet and peaceable disposition dreaded them as the plague, --- this was the reason that induced Peter to speak so strongly on subjection. Besides, many thought the gospel was a proclamation of such liberty, that every one might deem himself as free from servitude. It seemed an unworthy thing that God's children should be servants, and that the heirs of the world should not have a free possession, no, not even of their own bodies. Then there was another trial, --- All the magistrates were Christ's adversaries; and they used their own authority, so that no representation of God, which secures the chief reverence, appeared in them. We now perceive the design of Peter: he exhorted the Jews, especially for these reasons, to shew respect to the civil power.
To every ordinance of man Some render the words, ``to every creature;'' and from a rendering so obscure and ambiguous, much labor has been taken to elicit some meaning. But I have no doubt but that Peter meant to point out the distinct manner in which God governs mankind: for the verb {κτίζειν} in Greek, from which {κτίσις} comes, means to form and to construct a building. Suitable, then, is the word ``ordination;'' by which Peter reminds us, that God the maker of the world has not left the human race in a state of confusion, that they might live after the manner of beasts, but as it were in a building regularly formed, and divided into several compartments. And it is called a human ordination, not because it has been invented by man, but because a mode of living, well arranged and duly ordered, is peculiar to men. 367
367The words literally are, "Submit ye to every human creation:" but, as Calvin says, the Greek verb means sometimes to form, to construct; and so does {{בראto create, in Hebrew. The noun may hence be rendered ``institution,'' what is formed. As in the second verse, so here, the Apostle, in a way almost peculiar to himself, and the reverse of what is commonly done in Scripture, uses an adjective for a noun, ``human'' for ``of man;'' and he does the same in 1 Peter ,3:7 ``the womanish weaker vessel,'' instead of ``the woman (or wife) the weaker vessel.'' We may then render the words, ``Submit ye to every institution of man.'' The reference is clearly to government. The ostensible agent in the formation of all governments is man; but God is the