First Peter - Lorin

cause of the Gospel. 24 Peter will essentially repeat this beatitude later in 4:14. 25
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is
resting on you.
Here the beatitude form is more completely expressed with the causal clause (ὅτι...) defining the content of
the blessing. But the use of the first class conditional protasis with the indicative mood verb assumes that his
readers are being reviled for the name of Christ.
What Peter affirms to his readers is that unjust suffering for the sake of religious devotion to Christ has
positive benefits. We should not just see the negative pain and suffering at the human level. Something
deeper and good is taking place at the spiritual level when we endure such unjust suffering. The early church
understood this far better than most believers today.
The second answer to the question consists in a set of admonitions found in a single sentence contained
in vv. 14b-16; see above Block Diagram for visual effect. The thrust is threefold:
1) don’t fear their fear,
2) neither be intimidated,
3) but sanctify Christ in your heart.
These admonitions assume persecution, just like the beatitude does. The first two admonitions are taken from
Isaiah 8:12 where Peter follows the LXX Greek text very closely.
1 Peter 3:14b
τὸν δὲ φόβον αὐτῶν μὴ φοβηθῆτε μηδὲ ταραχθῆτε
Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated
Isaiah 8:12
Μήποτε εἴπητε σκληρόν· πᾶν γάρ, ὃ ἐὰν εἴπῃ ὁ λαὸς οὗτος,
σκληρόν ἐστιν·
τὸν δὲ φόβον αὐτοῦ οὐ μὴ φοβηθῆτε οὐδὲ μὴ ταραχθῆτε·
Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy,
and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread.
The most significant variation is between ‘their’ (1 Peter) and ‘his’ (Isa.). But this is due to a shift in context
between Isaiah’s reference the king of Assyria and Peter’s reference to the persecutors of believers. 26 This
background is important for understanding the admonition to not fear a fear. The essence of it then is to not
be afraid of the persecutors. Although they may possess the ability to inflict severe pain and suffering, believers
should not be afraid of them. Additionally the second admonition, μηδὲ ταραχθῆτε, repeats the idea of the
first with different words: don’t let them shake you up. Thus the double emphasis of the two admonitions from
Isaiah underscore the need of a bold stance in the face of persecution.
In the third admonition, Peter spells out the content of such a response to persecution by believers. The
24 “εἰ καὶ πάσχοιτε διὰ δικαιοσύνην, μακάριοι ‘No, even if you should have to suffer in the cause of justice, you are blessed.’=
These words probably represent a Petrine adaptation of a saying of Jesus very similar to the eighth beatitude in Matthew: μακάριοι οἱ
δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης (Matt 5:10; cf. also Pol. Phil. 2.3). πάσχειν, with twelve occurrences, belongs to the characteristic
vocabulary of 1 Peter, and the placement of μακάριοι is a characteristic feature of his style. Though μακάριος appears in the apodosis
of a conditional clause in John 13:17; Luke 6:5d; and Herm. Man. 8.9, none of these passages exhibits the distinctive beatitude form
found here. The closest parallel in thought and structure is 1 Pet 4:14, which similarly reflects Peter’s adaptations of a beatitude of
Jesus (see Comment).” [J. Ramsey Michaels, vol. 49, Word Biblical Commentary: 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas:
Word, Incorporated, 2002), 185-86.]
25εἰ ὀνειδίζεσθε ἐν ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ, μακάριοι, ὅτι τὸ τῆς δόξης καὶ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πνεῦμα ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς ἀναπαύεται.
[Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Matthew Black et al., The Greek New Testament, 4th ed. (Federal Republic of Germany: United
Bible Societies, 1993), 606.]
26 “The only significant change from the LXX of Isa 8:12 is Peter’s substitution of αὐτῶν for αὐτοῦ. The meaning of the Hebrew
text was ‘do not fear what they [i.e., the people] fear’ (lit. ‘do not fear the fear of them’). The effect of the singular αὐτοῦ of the LXX
had been to focus the fear on the king of Assyria as its object: ‘do not be afraid of him’ (lit., ‘do not fear the fear of him’). Formally,
Peter’s modification of the LXX represents a move back in the direction of the Hebrew, yet Peter’s context shows that he follows
the LXX in assuming the pronoun to be an objective genitive: ‘do not be afraid of them.’ The αὐτῶν of 1 Peter (like the αὐτοῦ of the
LXX) thus refers to the enemy, anticipating the implicit reference to accusers (καταλαλεῖσθε) and the explicit mention of despisers
(οἱ ἑπηρεάζοντες) in v 16. Selwyn notes correctly that ‘had St. Peter not been quoting, he could have written μὴ φοβηθῆτε αὐτούς’
(p. 192). If he had done so, the similarity of his thought to that of certain synoptic passages (e.g., Matt 10:26–33) might have been
more obvious. But as it is, his use of the cognate accusative (‘to fear a fear’) indicates that the Isaiah text is indeed his primary
point of departure.” [J. Ramsey Michaels, vol. 49, Word Biblical Commentary: 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word,
Incorporated, 2002), 186-87.]
Bible Study: Page 184