Saints Translation

By Vincent Melli

1 Peter — Greek text and reception

MinisterGentle witness

1 Peter 3 — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: 1 Peter [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 3

Household conduct, blessing, and suffering

Wives and husbands

Verse 3:1

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Likewise, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The command is directed to wives in relation to their own husbands. The contrast between disobeying the word and being won without a word remains. Reception [R17]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:1-4 below.

Verse 3:2

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

when they observe your pure conduct in fear.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Both purity of conduct and fear are explicit. The object of fear is not repeated in this verse. Reception [R17]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:1-4 below.

Verse 3:3

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Let your adornment not be the outward kind—braiding hair, putting on gold ornaments, or dressing in garments—

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The three outward activities are preserved. The sentence continues into the positive contrast in verse four. Reception [R17]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:1-4 below.

Verse 3:4

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

but the hidden person of the heart, in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious before God.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: “Beauty” makes the adornment construction readable; the source speaks of the imperishable quality of the gentle and quiet spirit. Reception [R17]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:1-4 below.

Verse 3:5

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For this is how the holy women of former times, who hoped in God, also adorned themselves, submitting themselves to their own husbands,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Hope is expressly in God; the relation to their own husbands is retained. Reception [R18]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:5-6 below.

Verse 3:6

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children if you do good and do not fear any terror.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Sarah's “lord” is a human title. The final participles describe the daughters' doing good and refusal to be terrified; the conditional English makes that connection explicit. Reception [R18]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:5-6 below.

Verse 3:7

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives with understanding, as with a weaker vessel, the female, showing them honor as also fellow heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The difficult “weaker vessel” expression is preserved, together with the explicit equal participation as fellow heirs. “Your wives” clarifies the implied household relation; the verse does not identify a lesser share in salvation. Reception [R19]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:7 below.

Blessing, peace, and an answer for hope

Verse 3:8

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, and humble-minded,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: All five qualities remain. G's final term is humble-minded, not a term meaning merely courteous. Reception [R20]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:8-9 below.

Verse 3:9

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

not repaying evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but, on the contrary, blessing, because you were called for this, so that you might inherit a blessing.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Both prohibitions and the positive blessing remain, linked to calling and inheritance. Reception [R20]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:8-9 below. Polycarp, Philippians 2 [P]: quotes non-retaliation among exhortations to virtue.

Verse 3:10

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For “The one who wishes to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The citation's desires, tongue, lips, and two kinds of speech remain. Reception [R21]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:10-15 below.

Verse 3:11

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

He must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Turning away, doing good, seeking, and pursuing are distinct commands. Reception [R21]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:10-15 below.

Verse 3:12

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their petition, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The divine bodily images and the contrast in the Lord's relation to the righteous and evildoers remain. Reception [R21]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:10-15 below.

Verse 3:13

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And who will harm you if you become zealous for what is good?

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: G describes zeal for the good. The question leads into the concession about suffering in the next verse. Reception [R21]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:10-15 below.

Verse 3:14

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear their fear, and do not be troubled,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: “Their fear” preserves the source's compact expression: the fear they inspire or what they themselves fear. The blessing is specifically connected to suffering for righteousness. Reception [R21]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:10-15 below.

Verse 3:15

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for an account of the hope within you,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: G has “Christ” with “Lord”; this wording is retained. The defense is addressed to everyone who asks about the hope. Reception [R22]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:15-16 below.

Verse 3:16

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

yet with gentleness and fear, keeping a good conscience, so that, in the matter in which you are slandered, those who abuse your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Gentleness and fear qualify the defense. Good conscience and good conduct in Christ remain separately expressed. Reception [R22]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:15-16 below.

Verse 3:17

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For it is better, if the will of God should will it, to suffer while doing good than while doing evil.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The conditional divine-will clause and the comparison between kinds of conduct remain. Reception [R23]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:17-18 below.

Christ, the spirits, and baptism

Verse 3:18

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, being put to death in flesh but made alive in spirit,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: G has “suffered” and “bring you.” The balanced flesh/spirit wording is retained without deciding by capitalization whether pneuma specifically denotes the Holy Spirit. Reception [R23]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:17-18 below. Augustine, Letter 164.18–20 [A164]: understands quickening in relation to Christ’s bodily resurrection, rejecting death by sin in Christ’s soul; later doctrinal exposition.

Verse 3:19

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

in which He also went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: “In which” refers back to spirit without specifying a mechanism or location beyond prison. Reception [R24]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:19-22 below. Augustine, Letter 164.1–2,15–18 [A164]: first states the interpretive difficulty, then proposes Christ’s spiritual preaching to Noah’s living contemporaries. This proposal does not make the Greek identify the prisoners.

Verse 3:20

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

who were once disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were brought safely through water.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: The temporal relation to Noah, the number eight, and the water as the medium of passage remain. “Souls” preserves the personal designation. Reception [R24]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:19-22 below. Augustine, Letter 164.15–16 [A164]: develops an ark/Church typology and compares Noah’s unbelieving contemporaries with later unbelief; a unit interpretation of 3:19–21.

Verse 3:21

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Corresponding to this, baptism now saves you—not a removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: Antitypon establishes correspondence with the preceding water event. Eperōtēma is rendered “appeal”; “pledge” or “answer” are alternatives, and the good conscience can be understood as the appeal's object or its source. The express saving claim and resurrection clause remain. Reception [R24]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:19-22 below. Augustine, Letter 164.15–16 [A164]: compares salvation through baptism with deliverance in the ark. This is typological exposition, not a lexical decision between appeal and pledge.

Verse 3:22

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, with angels and authorities and powers subjected to Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text [G]: All three named orders remain, along with the going into heaven and position at God's right hand. Reception [R24]: see Calvin’s unit exposition of 3:19-22 below. Polycarp, Philippians 2 [P]: explicitly reuses Christ’s exaltation and universal subjection.