Chapter 1

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the First Epistle of Peter — Chapter One

¹ Argument of the First Epistle of the holy Apostle Peter. Peter himself writes this didactic Epistle to the Jews who were of the Dispersion and had become Christians. For since they had come to faith from among the Jews, he strengthens them. And first he expounds and demonstrates that faith in Christ was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, and that through them was made known the redemption that comes through His blood; and that to them and to the Gentiles all things were preached, into which the angels desire to look. Then, having counseled them[1] to conduct themselves worthily of Him who called them, he urges them also to honor kings. He commands harmony between wives and husbands; and after a few exhortations concerning manners, he indicates that this proclamation of salvation and resurrection was made by the Lord even in Hades, so that those who had died beforehand might indeed rise and be judged in the body, yet by the grace of the resurrection abide. And he teaches that the end of all things has now drawn near, and that all are bound to be ready, as those who will render an account to the Judge; and thus he brings the Epistle to its completion.

² Chapters of the same Epistle.
1. On the regeneration that is in Christ; and on endurance of trials; and on the saving faith proclaimed beforehand by the prophets.
2. On hope and love, and on the secure manner of life that is owed in consequence of our adoption as sons.
3. On living in Christ worthily of our adoption, unto the benefit also of those outside, for the glory of God.
4. On submission to rulers, and on brotherly love, and on godliness. In which: 1. On the submission of servants, and on patient endurance of evil for Christ’s sake. 2. On the obedience of wives, and on concord with their husbands, and on salvation in the Spirit after the pattern of Sarah. 3. On the conduct of husbands toward their wife. 4. On forbearing gentleness toward all, of which the type is God’s loving-kindness in the days of Noah; and toward us, the compassion shown through the baptism of Christ.
5. On the putting away of base deeds, and the taking up of the fruits in the Spirit according to the diversity of the gifts of grace.
6. That by communion with Christ one must master the natural passions, and by hope in Him bear the injuries inflicted by others.
7. Exhortations to the presbyters concerning the oversight of the flock.
8. On the humility common to all toward each, unto victory over the devil; in which there is a prayer for the perfecting of the believers.

³ CHAPTER ONE. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. He said strangers because of the Dispersion; or also because all who live according to God are called strangers upon the earth, as David too says, We are sojourners and strangers, as were all our fathers.[2] Now the word does not signify the same as “proselyte” (for that signifies one who has come from elsewhere), but something more and of humbler degree. For just as the by-work is of less account than the work, so too is the “sojourning stranger” in comparison with the “resident.” And the prefatory address set before us must be heard with a transposition, reading thus: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”; and the rest let be placed between these clauses, for it makes plain those to whom the Epistle is addressed. He used the phrase “according to the foreknowledge of God” to make clear that he falls short of the prophets in nothing, save in time only—for they too were sent. And that the prophets also were sent, Isaiah says, He hath sent me to preach good tidings unto the poor.[3] But even if he falls short in time, he does not fall short in the foreknowledge of God; rather, in this respect he declares himself equal to Jeremiah, who before he was formed in the womb was known and sanctified and appointed a prophet unto the nations.[4] And since the prophets, among other things, also proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ (for it was for this that they were sent), he adds the purpose of his own apostleship, and says that “in sanctification” of “the Spirit” I was sent, “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”—making this plain, that the manner of my apostleship is this: to set apart. For this he indicates through the word “sanctification,” as also in the saying, Ye shall be unto me a peculiar people, sanctified;[5] for it stands for “set apart from the other nations.” The manner, then, of his apostleship is to set apart, through spiritual gifts of grace, nations obedient to the Cross and sprinkled by the Passion of Christ—not with the ashes of a heifer, when need should require, to cleanse away the defilement that came from fellowship with the Gentiles, but with the blood that flows from the Passion of Jesus Christ. And at the same time he sounds beforehand, through the mention of blood, the martyrdom of those who believe in Him for Christ’s sake. For he who in obedience follows in the footsteps of his teacher will assuredly not himself shrink from pouring out his own blood for the sake of Him who poured out His own for the whole world.

⁴ Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. “Grace,” because we are saved freely and having brought nothing of our own; “peace,” because we had given offense to the Master and had been ranked among His enemies.

⁵ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. He blesses God, rendering Him this thanksgiving in return for the good things He gives. And what are the things given? A hope—not such as was the dwelling in the land of Canaan through Moses, which was mortal, but a living one. And whence does it have its life? From “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” For in that resurrection in which He rose,[6] He will deem worthy of the same also those who draw near to Him through faith in Him. A living hope, then, is the thing given—an inheritance incorruptible, laid up not on earth, as for the fathers, but in the heavens, whence also it has obtained its perpetuity; which is greater than the inheritance on earth. And in addition to these there is the preservation and guarding of the believers. For this too the Lord prayed, when He said, Keep them, holy Father.[7] But also “in power.” And what is this power? The things that reach unto the revelation of the Lord. For if the guarding were not mighty, it would not be prolonged unto that time. Since, then, the things given are so many and of such a kind, it is nothing strange that gladness should follow upon those who receive them.

⁶ Reserved in the heavens for us, who are guarded by the power of God through faith, unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If the inheritance is “in the heavens,” then the thousand-year restoration upon earth is a fable.

⁷ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials; that the proof of your faith, much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found. The sequence is thus: Being now in heaviness, “if need be”—that is, if indeed this also must be (for not all the saints are afflicted)—“in the last time” ye shall greatly rejoice; for the word “ye rejoice” is taken in place of the future, or else according to the present, as has been noted below. And since the promise of the Teacher introduces into the world not joy but heaviness, declaring that “ye shall have tribulation,” he adds to the gladness the word “little”; and since this is grievous, he adds the word “now,” speaking in agreement with his own Master. For He too says, In the world ye shall have tribulation, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.[8] Either, then, the word “now” was added on account of the gladness, since the gladness that is to succeed it is not for a little while but for a long and boundless time; or else the word “little” is to be reckoned with the heaviness that follows, so that it would read thus: “If now it must needs be that ye be a little while in heaviness through the manifold trials.” But since the tumult of the trials caused disquiet, on this account he subjoined the cause of the trials: that through them “your proof” becomes more manifest and “more precious than gold, since gold too, when tried by fire, is the more eagerly sought by men.” And he adds the words “if need be,” teaching that neither is every believer tried through afflictions, nor every sinner. Yet neither of the two is called to account[9] forever; but the righteous who are afflicted suffer unto the increase of their crowns, while the sinners suffer that they may pay the penalty for their sins. Yet not all the righteous are afflicted, lest, supposing the evil state to be praiseworthy, thou shouldst come to hate virtue. Nor are all sinners afflicted, lest the resurrection be disbelieved, as though all received here what is their own.

⁸ Unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. The reason for the righteous who suffer evil here he makes plain through these words: at once consoling them, in that they become more illustrious through their afflictions, and at the same time making them more earnest by adding the words “at the revelation of Jesus Christ”; since that season, by the display of their labors, will furnish great renown to those who have striven through to the end. And he adds yet another thing alluring them to the endurance of afflictions. What is this? The words “whom having not seen, ye now love.” For if, “not having seen” Him with the eyes of the flesh, ye “love” Him from hearing alone, he says, consider what manner of love ye will display when ye behold Him, and that revealed in glory. For if His Passion has so drawn you to itself, what then will the manifestation of Him in unsurpassable splendor work in you, when He will also bestow upon you the prize, the salvation of your souls? Therefore, as those who are about to appear before Him and to be deemed worthy of such glory, if ye now display an endurance counterbalancing it, ye shall have the whole of the goal set before you.

⁹ Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Since he had made mention of the salvation of the soul, and this was obscure and strange to the hearing, he brought forward the prophets as having both sought and searched concerning it. For indeed they did seek, as Daniel concerning the things to come, who for this very reason was called “a man of desires” by the angel who gave him oracles;[10] and that they sought, he adds: “unto what or what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signify.” “Unto what” time, namely the time at the consummation; “what manner of” time, namely that in which, when the Jews through their several captivities had inclined toward perfect godliness, they became well-disposed to receive the mystery according to Christ. And observe that, having said the Spirit of Christ, he confesses the divinity of Christ. And this Spirit signified the sufferings of Christ: through Isaiah saying, As a sheep He was led to the slaughter;[11] and through Jeremiah, Come, and let us cast wood upon His bread;[12] and the resurrection, through Hosea, who said, On the third day we shall rise up in His presence, and we shall press on to know the Lord; as the morning dawn ready prepared shall we find Him.[13] And it was revealed to them, he says, not for their own sakes, but for ours.[14] And by these words he accomplishes two things: he both shows the forethought of the prophets, and shows that those now called unto the faith according to Christ were foreknown to God even before the foundation of the world. By the forethought of the prophets, then, he leads them not to dispose themselves disobediently toward the things prophesied to them by the prophets; for not even prudent sons hold in contempt the labors of their fathers. For if those men, who were destined to gain nothing thereby, sought and found—nay, and having found, deposited it in books,[15] as though handing down an inheritance to us—then we, he says, would not be righteous were we disposed contemptuously toward these things. For this very reason, then, do not, by accounting these things as trifling,[16] render void our Gospel—we who preach these glad tidings to you. By the forethought of the prophets, then, he urges these things; but by their having been foreknown by God he instills fear, lest they show themselves unworthy of the foreknowledge of God, and of the calling that comes from Him, but rather that they press one another forward to become worthy of the gift of God.

¹⁰ Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings appointed for Christ, and the glories that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister these things. Even if both others and the prophets wrought in the Holy Spirit—the latter prophecy, the former the Gospel—there is no difference in these respects between them and the prophets. Ye must therefore, he says, bring in the same earnestness which they who hearkened to the prophets brought in, lest ye be subjected to the punishment of those who disobeyed the prophets. And it must be noted that through these words Peter reveals the mystery of the Trinity: by saying “the Spirit of Christ,” the Son and the Spirit; and the Father, by saying “from heaven.” And the phrase “from heaven” do not take in a local sense, but according to the preeminence of God who has the precedence.

¹¹ Which things are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. The exhortation proceeds by way of cause from the things that have been held in honor. For having said that the prophets ministered to us the things of our salvation—and these were so marvelous as to become objects of longing even to the angels (and that these things were objects of longing to them, he showed from the fact that out of exceeding joy at the Nativity of Christ they sang in melody, Glory to God in the highest)[17]—having said these things, he subjoins the cause in this manner, and says: Since, then, these our things are objects of longing to all, not only to men but also to angels, neither do ye dispose yourselves carelessly toward them, but, straining yourselves and bearing yourselves like men (for this he indicates by the words “gird up your loins”), which is also enjoined upon Job by God;[18] and what loins he means, he made clear, that he speaks of those “of the mind”—being thus, then, prepared and sober, hope perfectly upon the joy that is being brought to you. And this is that joy of which a little earlier he speaks, the joy at the second coming of the Lord.

¹² Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope perfectly for the grace that is being brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He who hath called you is Holy, so be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of conduct. Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.[19] By “fashioning” he means conformity to present circumstances—which some of the foolish say, that one conducts oneself according to circumstances.[20] This, then, he commands them to abandon as vain, whether in knowledge or “in ignorance” they were entangled in it before this;[21] “but” now, he says, being “fashioned” to Him who called you, who is Holy, “be ye yourselves also holy.”[22]

¹³ And if ye call upon the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear; knowing that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even of Christ.[23] Scripture knows a twofold fear: the one preparatory, the other perfecting. The preparatory, which is also elementary, is that which calls a man, through fear of the things he has done, toward sobriety; the perfecting is that whereby, because one has been perfected in love toward Him to whose friendship he hastens, he fears lest he fall short of any of those things which are owed to those who love greatly.[24] An example of the first, which is also elementary, is what is said in the Psalms: Let all the earth fear the Lord,[25] that is, those who have no care[26] for a heavenly mind, but only for earthly vanity. For what would they suffer, when He ariseth to crush the earth?[27] But of the second, the perfecting fear I mean, this too may be found in David, where he says: Fear the Lord, all ye His saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him;[28] and again, The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever and ever.[29] According to this perfecting fear, then, Peter too now exhorts those subject to him to dispose themselves, declaring: Since through the unspeakable compassion of God your Maker ye have been taken up into His sons, let this fear be your constant companion, inasmuch as ye have become His who made you out of love, and not out of works. And having made his exhortation from many grounds (first through the angels who are disposed with longing toward these things, then from Scripture, then from necessity—for since they call upon God as Father, it is necessary for one who desires the adoption of sons to do things worthy of the Father; and fourthly, that they received countless good things through the price laid down on their behalf, which is the blood of Christ, given as a ransom for the sins of men)—he therefore commands them, throughout all the time of their life, to keep the perfecting fear as a fellow-dweller. For there is ever a fear in men who have been perfected, lest they fall short in any of the things that belong to the perfect. And observe that, though it has been said by Christ, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son,[30] how it is that now Peter says the Father judges. To which we shall reply that Christ also said this: For the Son can do nothing of Himself, except He see something the Father doing.[31] And this sets forth the inborn unity of the Holy Trinity, and that there is there all identity and a peaceful, unfactious concord. He said without distinction that the Father judges, since whatever may be predicated of any one of the three Persons is reckoned common to all. Moreover, since the Lord calls the apostles “children,” and said to the paralytic, Child, thy sins are forgiven thee,[32] it is in no way out of keeping that He too should be called Father of those begotten, whom He begot by the imparting of holiness.

¹⁴ Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who through Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory. To the death of Christ he joined also the resurrection; for he is wary of the inclination of the newly converted to fall away into unbelief, because of the reproach attaching to the sufferings of Christ. But that the mystery according to Christ is not a recent thing either (and this too troubles the foolish), but is from above, “before the foundation of the world,” treasured up for the season suitable to it—it was manifested both to the prophets who inquired concerning these things, as he said a little below; and now too he says that what was “before the foundation of the world” known was, namely, now manifested, that is, accomplished. And on whose account was it accomplished? “For you.” “For you,” he says, He raised “Him from the dead.” And why “for you”? That, he says, having purified yourselves in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit, ye may have your faith and hope in God. And why “having purified”? Because, having believed in Him who through the resurrection from the dead has been prepared beforehand for you unto incorruptible life, ye yourselves also are debtors, according to Him who called you unto incorruption, to walk in newness of life.[33] And if Paul too in this way says that the Father raised up the Lord from the dead, be not troubled.[34] For he speaks these things now in a more elementary use of teaching. Since—hear Christ saying that He Himself raised Himself, in the words: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;[35] and again Christ Himself: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.[36] More by way of dispensation, then, do they at times ascribe to the Father the raising up of the Son, that they may show the energy of Father and Son to be one. “So that your faith and hope might be in God.”

¹⁵ Having purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of God endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Having said, “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,” he sets alongside it, by way of disparagement, the readily-corrupted nature of human glory, thereby enticing the hearer to cleave to the things he has set before him—since the one sort have what is stable and abiding, while the other have their very substance overtaken by corruption. “Grass” here and “flower of grass” are brought forward to faith as that which is even feebler than the existence of grass, to which David also likens our life.[37] And having thus made our glory of small account, he takes the matter up again and teaches more clearly what it is that begot them again “by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,” and says: “And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.” That it “abides for ever” he affirms, even as the Lord also says: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.[38] And one must know that the phrase “unto unfeigned love of the brethren” ought to be construed thus: Love one another fervently with a pure heart, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. For the outcomes of things are wont to follow upon those who labor for their sake. Since, then, upon the fervent love of one another out of a pure heart there follows unfeigned brotherly love, it is well to set first “out of a pure heart,” and to make follow “unto love of the brethren.” It must, however, be noted that the preposition “unto” must here be taken in the sense of “through,” so that it would read: Through love of the brethren.