1 Peter 2:13

Submission to Authorities

2:13 Be subject to every human institution ¹  for the Lord’s sake, whether to a king as supreme

1 Peter 4:16

4:16 But if you suffer as a Christian, ²  do not be ashamed, but glorify ³  God that you bear such a name. ⁴ 

1 Peter 4:18

4:18 And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of ⁵  the ungodly and sinners? ⁶ 

1 Peter 5:8

5:8 Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, ⁷  is on the prowl looking for someone ⁸  to devour.

[2:13]  ¹ tn Or “every human being”; Grk “every human creation,” denoting either everything created for mankind (NRSV mg: “every institution ordained for human beings”) or every creature who is human. The meaning of the verb “be subject” and the following context supports the rendering adopted in the text.

[4:16]  ² tn The verb is implied by the context but not expressed; Grk “but if as a Christian.”

[4:16]  ³ tn These are third-person imperatives in Greek (“if [one of you suffers] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed…let him glorify”), but have been translated as second-person verbs since this is smoother English idiom.

[4:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “in this name.”

[4:18]  ³ tn Grk “where will he appear.”

[4:18]  ⁴ tn The personal references in v. 18 are generic singulars, but they have been changed to the plural in English to maintain consistency with the plurals of v. 17.

[5:8]  ⁴ sn This phrase may be an allusion to Ps 22:13.

[5:8]  ⁵ tc A few mss (B Ψ 0206^vid pc) lack the pronoun τινα (tina), while others have it. Those that have it either put the acute accent over the penult, making this an interrogative pronoun (“whom”; L P 322 323 614 630 945 1243 1739 2298 al), or leave off any accent, making this an indefinite pronoun (“someone”; Ï), or are too early to employ accents but nevertheless have the pronoun τινα (Ì⁷² א A). Generally speaking, the shorter and harder reading is to be preferred. In this instance, the omission of the pronoun would obviously be accommodated for by scribes, since both ζητέω (zhtew, “look, seek”) and καταπίνω (katapinw, “devour”) are transitive verbs. However, if the omission were original, one might expect the position of the pronoun to float in the mss – both before and after the infinitive καταπιεῖν (katapiein, “to devour”). Further, other terms might be expected as well, such as ἕνα ἐξ ὑμῶν ({ena ex Jumwn, “one of you”) or τινα ἐξ ὑμῶν (tina ex Jumwn, “a certain one/someone of you”). The uniformity of both the word and its location suggests that the shorter reading (found in but a few Greek mss) in this instance was a scribal mistake. As to whether the pronoun is interrogative or indefinite, since accents were not a part of the earliest mss, such Greek witnesses are of no help to us in this kind of problem. There would be little difference in meaning between the two in this context.