OET interlinear 1 PET 3:18

3:18a

As in 2:21–24, Peter refers to Christ’s sufferings in order to encourage the Christians to bear their suffering patiently.

For: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as For introduces a reason why it may be God’s will for Christians to suffer for doing right. The reason is that Christ himself did this. In some languages it may be possible to translate this conjunction as:

You see

Christ also: The Greek word that the BSB translates as also compares how Christians should suffer to how Christ died. Christ died innocently, as a righteous man, and that is the way Christians should suffer. However, Christians cannot die for sins to bring people to God. Make sure that your translation does not imply this. To avoid this, you may want to:

• Use a phrase that does not imply that the two situations are exactly the same. For example:

  Christ himself

• Supply an introductory phrase suggesting a general comparison such as:

  Think of what happened to Christ

suffered: There is a textual issue here:

1. Some Greek texts have died. For example:

   died (GNT) (RSV, NJB, NASB, CEV, NIV, GNT)

2. Some Greek texts have suffered. For example:

   suffered (NRSV) (BSB, KJV, GW, ESV, NCV, NET, NIV11, NLT, NRSV, REB)

It is recommended that you follow option (1). This has the strongest support from the ancient Greek manuscripts. The meaning of the two verbs, of course, is very similar. Christ’s suffering led to or resulted in his death.

for sins: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as for sins means here means “because of people’s sins” or “on account of other people’s sins.” Jesus himself had not sinned. Peter and his readers had all sinned, so in some languages it may natural to supply the pronoun “your^(plur)” or “our”:

for your^(plur) sins

for our^(incl) sinsSome ancient Greek manuscripts do read “for your sins” or “for our sins.” This latter reading is followed by the REB, GW, NLT, and CEV.

once for all: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as once for all here means that Christ suffered only one time, and it was sufficient. (It does not mean “once for the sake of all people.”) Here is another way to translate this phrase:

once for all time (NLT)

3:18b

the righteous for the unrighteous: There is some implied information here. The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as the righteous for the unrighteous is a shortened way of saying “Christ, who is righteous, died for the sake of other people, who are unrighteous.”

righteous: The Greek word that the BSB translates as righteous here means “good” or “innocent.” Christ had done nothing for which he deserved to die. See how you translated righteous in 3:12.

for: The Greek word that the BSB translates as for here means “on behalf of” or “for the sake of.” For example:

on behalf of (GNT)

the unrighteous: The Greek word that the BSB translates as the unrighteous describes all people as sinful and guilty in God’s sight. Some other ways to translate unrighteous include:

guilty people (GW)

Sinners (NLT)

Peter’s readers were included among the unrighteous. It may therefore be natural to say here:

you who are unrighteous

you who are guilty

Before deciding which pronoun to supply, read the following note on the textual difficulty in 3:18c. The pronoun you use in 3:18b should agree with that in 3:18c.

3:18c

to bring you to God: There is a textual issue here:

1. Some Greek texts have you. For example:

   so that he could bring you to God (GW) (BSB, NIV, NRSV, NET, CEV, NCV, GW)

2. Some Greek texts have us. For example:

   that he might bring us to God (RSV) (NJB, KJV, NASB, NLT, RSV)

It is recommended that you follow option (1), which is favored by commentators. Make sure that your choice agrees with any pronoun you have supplied in 3:18b.

to bring…to God: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as to bring…to God means to lead someone into God’s presence, to reconcile someone with God. Some other ways this phrase has been translated are:

to bring you safely home to God (NLT)

in order to lead you to God (GNT)

3:18d–e

Most of the modern versions start a new sentence here. These verse parts give the way/means by which Christ brought us to God.

3:18d

He was put to death in the body: The Greek word that the BSB translates as body is literally “flesh.” In this context this word probably refers to the world of physical, material things. People killed Jesus’ physical body made of flesh when they hung him on the cross. Here is another way to translate this:

He was put to death physically (GNT)

The phrase He was put to death is passive. In some languages it may be necessary to use an active verb:

People killed Christ’s fleshly/ physical body

3:18e

made alive in the Spirit: The Greek word that the BSB translates as by the Spirit can be literally translates as “in/by spirit/Spirit.” There are three ways of understanding this word:

1. It refers to the spiritual realm, the sphere of spiritual life. For example:

   he was made alive spiritually (GNT) (GNT; probably RSV, NASB, REB, NJB, which all refer to “the spirit”)

2. It refers to the Holy Spirit. For example:

   he was raised to life in the Spirit (NLT) (BSB, NIV, KJV, NLT, which all capitalize Spirit)

3. It refers to Christ’s own human spirit. For example:

   his spirit was made alive (CEV) (GW, CEV, which say “his spirit”)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Peter was probably referring to the sphere of spiritual things, the realm where the Spirit of God works unseen. This is in contrast to the physical world of flesh and material things mentioned in 3:18d.For a further discussion of this, see Kelly page 151; Michaels page 204; Selwyn pages 196–197.