First Peter - Lorin

(4:16); entrusting oneself into God’s care (4:19) etc. These are the ways believers take a stand against the
Devil, in Peter’s teaching. 39
Important to being able to oppose the Devil is being στερεοὶ τῇ πίστει, “firm in faith.” 40 Being resolute in
one’s faith commitment to Christ plays a vital role in being able to take a stand against the Devil. The idea of
firmness is literally being ‘hard’ like a rock -- something that Peter may very well be playing off of out of his
own experience and name. His earlier use of Isa. 28:16 41 in 2:6 lies in the background; Isa. 50:7 very well may
also lay behind Peter’s thought here. 42 Whatever may lie behind Peter’s image of hardness here, his point is
clear and consistent with the rest of his words: only out of the resources provided by God can we successfully
stand up against the forces of supernatural evil. And our commitment to God through Christ is central to
accessing those divine resources.
The foundation of this admonition to oppose the Devil is stated as ἰδότες τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων τῇ ἐν
τῷ κόσμῳ ὑμῶν ἀδελφότητι ἐπιτελεῖσθαι, “because you know that your fellow brothers and sisters in the world are
undergoing the same sufferings.” The causal participle ἰδότες signals a reason for the call to oppose the Devil. 43
The content of that reason is specified by the Greek present tense passive voice infinitive ἐπιτελεῖσθαι, “to be
being completed.” 44 Such a grammar construction is not possible in English, but was quite normal in ancient
Greek and is found elsewhere in the pages of the New Testament as well. 45
39 “To ‘resist’ the devil is not the same as ‘resisting’ human adversaries. Jesus, in fact, explicitly forbids the latter according to
Matt 5:39a: ‘But I say to you not to resist the evil one’ (μὴ ἀντιστῆναι τῷ πονηρῷ). That ‘the evil one’ means a human being and
not the devil is shown by the concrete examples that immediately follow (5:39b–42). There is no evidence that Peter, who knows
portions of the Sermon on the Mount (cf., e.g., 2:19–20; 4:14), is reflecting on this passage in particular. Yet the tradition to which
he does appeal, a tradition visible also in James 4:7 and Eph 6:11–13, makes it clear that the principle of ‘nonresistance,’ whatever
its merits in human encounters, did not extend to the devil or to spiritual warfare. An explicit distinction is drawn in Eph 6:12: ‘For
our combat is not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.’ For Peter the distinction, although implicit, is no less real. Even though he perceives
‘disobedient spirits’ (3:19) behind those in Roman society who reject and denounce the Christian message, he consistently urges
‘respect’ and ‘deference’ toward the human critics and oppressors. Not so in relation to the devil himself.” [J. Ramsey Michaels, vol.
49, Word Biblical Commentary : 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 299-300.]
40 “The phrase στερεοὶ τῇ πίστει, ‘firm in faith,’ recalls ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει, ‘they were strengthened in faith,’ in Acts 16:5;
for τῇ πίστει, ‘in faith,’ as a dative of respect (BDF §197) in similar expressions, cf. Col 1:23; Ign. Eph. 10.2. ‘Faith’ refers here to
personal or communal commitment, just as in 1:5, 7, 9, 21, not to a body of doctrine or a formal system of belief (i.e. , ‘the faith,’
as, e.g., in Jude 3; cf. Selwyn, 238). The adjective στερεός, ‘hard,’ usually had negative connotations when applied to people (i.e.,
‘stubborn’; Selwyn, 238), but Peter may well be writing with the stone imagery of 2:4–8 still in mind, drawing from it the further
implication of steadfastness or rocklike resolution (cf. the emphasis on ὁ πιστεύων, ‘the one who believes,’ in 2:6–7). Selwyn (238)
cites Isa 50:7: ‘I have set my face as a hard rock [ὡς στερεὰν πέτραν] and I know that I will not be put to shame’ (οὐ μὴ αἰσχυνθῶ;
cf. οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ, ‘will not be put to shame’ in Isa 28:16, cited in 1 Peter 2:6). Although Isa 50:7 is not among the texts to which
Peter explicitly appeals (in contrast to Barn. 5.14; 6.3), it may well have contributed to early descriptions of ‘God’s firm foundation’
laid in Jesus Christ (2 Tim 2:19), or (as here) to calls for Christian ‘steadfastness’ (especially a call attributed to Πέτρος, the ‘rock’;
see Introduction).” [J. Ramsey Michaels, vol. 49, Word Biblical Commentary : 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word,
Incorporated, 2002), 300.
41Isa. 28:16, therefore thus says the Lord God, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation: “One who trusts will not panic.”
42Isa. 50:7-8, 7 The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know
that I shall not be put to shame; 8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my
adversaries? Let them confront me.
43 Achtemeier and Epp blow the interpretive challenges of this phrase out of proportion:
The interpretation of the second half of the verse faces several problems: (1) the construal and meaning of εἰδότες
(“knowing”), (2) the construal and meaning of τὰ αὐτὰ τῶν παθημάτων (“the same [kinds of] suffering”), (3) the construal
and meaning of ἐπιτελεῖσθαι (“be completed, paid,” “complete, pay for oneself”), (4) the construal of τῇ ἀδελφότητι (“the
brotherhood”), and (5) the meaning of κόσμῳ (“world”). [Paul J. Achtemeier and Eldon Jay Epp, 1 Peter : A Commentary on
First Peter, Hermeneia--a critical and historical commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1996), 342.]
In reality the meaning of the participle phrase is much easier to determine.
44The erroneous reading of εἰδότες... ἐπιτελεῖσθαι as ‘knowing how to complete the sufferings for themselves’ fails on numerous
grounds, grammatical, contextual, theological etc. This older reading has largely been abandoned by more recent commentators.
45 “εἰδότες, ‘knowing,’ followed by the accusative and an infinitive is equivalent to εἰδότες ὅτι with an indicative (cf. Note f*;
also 1:18), expressing indirect discourse: ‘knowing that the same kinds of suffering are accomplished’ (for the construction, cf. Luke
4:41b; 1 Clem 43.6; 62.3; BDF §397.1). It is a matter of knowing that something is true (BGD, 555.1).” [J. Ramsey Michaels, vol.
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