1 Petrus 1:9

1:9 because you are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls.

1 Petrus 1:5

1:5 who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Petrus 1:10

1:10 Concerning this salvation, ¹  the prophets ²  who predicted the grace that would come to you ³  searched and investigated carefully.

1 Petrus 2:2

2:2 And ⁴  yearn ⁵  like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, ⁶  so that by it you may grow up to ⁷  salvation, ⁸ 

1 Petrus 3:21

3:21 And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you ⁹  – not the washing off of physical dirt ¹⁰  but the pledge ¹¹  of a good conscience to God – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

1 Petrus 3:20

3:20 after they were disobedient long ago ¹²  when God patiently waited ¹³  in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark ¹⁴  a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.

1 Petrus 1:20

1:20 He was foreknown ¹⁵  before the foundation of the world but ¹⁶  was manifested in these last times ¹⁷  for your sake.

1 Petrus 4:18

4:18 And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of ¹⁸  the ungodly and sinners? ¹⁹ 

1 Petrus 5:13-14

5:13 The church ²⁰  in Babylon, ²¹  chosen together with you, ²²  greets you, and so does Mark, my son. 5:14 Greet one another with a loving kiss. ²³  Peace to all of you who are in Christ. ²⁴ 

1 Petrus 1:18

1:18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold,

1 Petrus 1:22

1:22 You have purified ²⁵  your souls by obeying the truth ²⁶  in order to show sincere mutual love. ²⁷  So ²⁸  love one another earnestly from a pure heart. ²⁹ 

1 Petrus 2:12

2:12 and maintain good conduct ³⁰  among the non-Christians, ³¹  so that though ³²  they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears. ³³ 

1 Petrus 3:18

3:18 ³⁴ Because Christ also suffered ³⁵  once for sins,

the just for the unjust, ³⁶ 

to bring you to God,

by being put to death in the flesh

but ³⁷  by being made alive in the spirit. ³⁸ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn Grk “about which salvation.”

[1:10]  ² sn Prophets refers to the OT prophets.

[1:10]  ³ tn Grk “who prophesied about the grace that is to/for you.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Here “And” has been supplied in the translation to show clearly the connection between vv. 1 and 2.

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “getting rid of…yearn for.”

[2:2]  ⁶ tn The word for spiritual in Greek is λογικός (logikos), which is a play on words with the reference in 1:23-25 to the living and enduring word (λόγος, logos) of God, through which they were born anew. This is a subtle indication that the nourishment for their growth must be the word of God.

[2:2]  ⁷ tn Or “in, in regard to.” But the focus of “salvation” here, as in 1:5, 9, is the future deliverance of these who have been born anew and protected by God’s power.

[2:2]  ⁸ tc The Byzantine text lacks εἰς σωτηρίαν (ei" swthrian, “to salvation”), while the words are found in the earliest and best witnesses (Ì⁷² א A B C K P Ψ 33 81 630 1241 1505 1739 al latt sy co). Not only is the longer reading superior externally, but since the notion of growing up [in]to salvation would have seemed theologically objectionable, it is easy to see why some scribes would omit it.

[3:21]  ⁹ tn Grk “which also, [as] an antitype, now saves you, [that is] baptism.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:21]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the removal of the dirt of the flesh,” where flesh refers to the physical make-up of the body with no moral connotations.

[3:21]  ¹¹ tn Or “response”; “answer.”

[3:20]  ¹² tn This reflects a Greek participle, literally “having been disobedient formerly,” that refers to the “spirits” in v. 19. Many translations take this as adjectival describing the spirits (“who had once been disobedient”; cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT, NRSV, TEV), but the grammatical construction strongly favors an adverbial interpretation describing the time of the preaching, as reflected above.

[3:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “the patience of God waited.”

[3:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “in which,” referring to the ark; the referent (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:20]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “who was foreknown,” describing Christ in v. 19. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:20]  ¹⁶ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[1:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “at the last of the times.”

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

[4:18]  ¹⁹ 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.

[4:18]  sn A quotation from Prov 11:31 (LXX).

[5:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the one in Babylon,” which could refer to some individual woman (“she who is in Babylon”) since the Greek article (here “the one”) is feminine. But it is much more likely to be a veiled reference to a church (the Greek word “church” is also feminine in gender).

[5:13]  ²¹ sn Most scholars understand Babylon here to be a figurative reference to Rome. Although in the OT the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia was the seat of tremendous power (2 Kgs 24-25; Isa 39; Jer 25), by the time of the NT what was left was an insignificant town, and there is no tradition in Christian history that Peter ever visited there. On the other hand, Christian tradition connects Peter with the church in Rome, and many interpreters think other references to Babylon in the NT refer to Rome as well (Rev 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2, 10, 21). Thus it is likely Peter was referring to Rome here.

[5:13]  ²² tn Grk “chosen together,” implying the connection “with you” in context.

[5:14]  ²³ tn Grk “a kiss of love.”

[5:14]  ²⁴ tc Most mss (א P 1739^c Ï) have ἀμήν (amen, “amen”) at the end of 1 Peter. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the absence of such a conclusion to the epistle in such witnesses as A B Ψ 81 323 945 1241 1739* co seems inexplicable unless the word here is not authentic.

[1:22]  ²⁵ tn Grk “having purified,” as the preparation for the love described in the second half of the verse.

[1:22]  ²⁶ tc Most later mss (P Ï) have διὰ πνεύματος (dia pneumato", “through the spirit”) after ἀληθείας (ajlhqeia", “truth”), while the words are lacking in a broad spectrum of early and important witnesses (Ì⁷² א A B C Ψ 33 81 323 945 1241 1739 al vg sy co). On external grounds, the shorter reading cannot be easily explained if it were not original. The longer reading is clearly secondary, added to show more strongly God’s part in man’s obedience to the truth. But the addition ignores the force that the author gives to “purified” and ruins the balance between v. 22 and v. 23 (for in v. 23 the emphasis is on God’s part; here, on man’s part).

[1:22]  ²⁷ tn Grk “for sincere brotherly love.”

[1:22]  ²⁸ tn Verses 22-23 are a single sentence in the Greek text. To improve clarity (and because contemporary English tends to use shorter sentences) these verses have been divided into three sentences in the translation. In addition, “So” has been supplied at the beginning of the second English sentence (v. 22b) to indicate the relationship with the preceding statement.

[1:22]  ²⁹ tc A few mss (A B 1852 pc) lack καθαρᾶς (kaqaras, “pure”) and read simply καρδίας (kardias, “from the heart”), but there is excellent ms support (Ì⁷² א* C P Ψ 33 1739 Ï co) for the word. The omission may have been accidental. In the uncial script (kaqaras kardias) an accidental omission could have happened via homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. καθαρᾶς should be considered original.

[2:12]  ³⁰ tn Grk “keeping your conduct good.”

[2:12]  ³¹ tn Grk “the Gentiles,” used here of those who are not God’s people.

[2:12]  ³² tn Grk “in order that in what they malign you.”

[2:12]  ³³ tn Or “when he visits.” Grk “in the day of visitation,” denoting a time when God intervenes directly in human affairs, either for blessing (Luke 1:68, 78; 7:16; 19:44) or for judgment (Isa 10:3; Jer 6:15). This phrase may be a quotation from Isa 10:3, in which case judgment is in view here. But blessing seems to be the point, since part of the motive for good behavior is winning the non-Christian over to the faith (as in 3:1; also apparently in 3:15; cf. Matt 5:16).

[3:18]  ³⁴ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[3:18]  ³⁵ tc The variants here are legion (B. M. Metzger produces eight variants in a nice layout of the evidence [TCGNT 622]). Most of these variants involve pronouns, prepositions, or word order changes, but the major problem involves whether Christ “suffered” (ἔπαθεν, epaqen) or “died” (ἀπέθανεν, apeqanen). The witnesses that read ἀπέθανεν are Ì⁷² א A C^vid Ψ 0285 33 614 630 945 1241 1505 1739; the witnesses that read ἔπαθεν are B L P 81 Ï. Although the external evidence slightly favors ἀπέθανεν, such may be a secondary reading. Intrinsically, ἔπαθεν both fits the context better, especially the verbal link between v. 17 and v. 18 (note in particular the introductory causal ὅτι [{oti, “because”] and the emphatic καί [kai, “also”]), and fits the author’s style (1 Peter never uses ἀποθνῄσκω [apoqnhskw], but uses πάσχω [pascw] 11 other times, more than any other NT book). However, scribes would most likely realize this, and might conform the verb in v. 18 to the author’s typical usage. It may be argued, however, that scribes tended to alter the text in light of more common NT idioms, and did not have as much sensitivity to the literary features in the immediate context. In this instance, it may not be insignificant that the NT collocates ἀποθνῄσκω with ἁμαρτία (Jamartia, “sin”) seven other times, though only once (1 Cor 15:3) with a meaning similar to what would be demanded here, but collocates πάσχω with ἁμαρτία in only one other place, 1 Pet 4:1, where the meaning also detours from what is seen here. All in all, a decision is difficult, but ἔπαθεν is to be preferred slightly.

[3:18]  ³⁶ sn The reference to the just suffering for the unjust is an allusion to Isa 53:11-12.

[3:18]  ³⁷ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two phrases more than can be easily expressed in English.

[3:18]  ³⁸ sn Put to death in the flesh…made alive in the spirit. The contrast of flesh and spirit is not between two parts of Christ’s person (material versus immaterial) but between two broader modes of existence: the realm of unregenerate earthly life versus eternal heavenly life. The reference may not be to the Holy Spirit directly, but indirectly, since the Spirit permeates and characterizes the spiritual mode of existence. However, ExSyn 343 (n. 76) states “It is often objected that the Holy Spirit cannot be in view because the two datives of v 18 (σαρκί, πνεύματι [sarki, pneumati]) would then have a different syntactical force (sphere, means). But if 1 Pet 3:18 is a hymnic or liturgical fragment, this can be no objection because of ‘poetic license’: poetry is replete with examples of grammatical and lexical license, not the least of which is the use of the same morpho-syntactic categories, in parallel lines, with entirely different senses (note, e.g., the dat. expressions in 1 Tim 3:16).”