HOLY BIBLE: 1 Peter 4 (original) (raw)

1 Χριστοῦ οὖν παθόντος σαρκὶ καὶ ὑμεῖς τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν ὁπλίσασθε, ὅτι ὁ παθὼν σαρκὶ πέπαυται ἁμαρτίας, 2 εἰς τὸ μηκέτι ἀνθρώπων ἐπιθυμίαις ἀλλὰ θελήματι θεοῦ τὸν ἐπίλοιπον ἐν σαρκὶ βιῶσαι χρόνον. 3 ἀρκετὸς γὰρ ὁ παρεληλυθὼς χρόνος τὸ βούλημα τῶν ἐθνῶν κατειργάσθαι, πεπορευμένους ἐν ἀσελγείαις, ἐπιθυμίαις, οἰνοφλυγίαις, κώμοις, πότοις, καὶ ἀθεμίτοις εἰδωλολατρίαις. 4 ἐν ᾧ ξενίζονται μὴ συντρεχόντων ὑμῶν εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν τῆς ἀσωτίας ἀνάχυσιν, βλασφημοῦντες: 5 οἳ ἀποδώσουσιν λόγον τῷ ἑτοίμως ἔχοντι κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς. 6 εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη ἵνα κριθῶσι μὲν κατὰ ἀνθρώπους σαρκὶ ζῶσι δὲ κατὰ θεὸν πνεύματι.

1 Christ’s mortal nature, then, has been crucified, and you must arm yourselves with the same intention; he whose mortal nature has been crucified is quit, now, of sin.[1] 2 The rest of your mortal life must be ordered by God’s will, not by human appetites. 3 Time enough has been spent already in doing what the heathen would have you do, following a course of incontinence, passion, drunkenness, revelling, carousal, and shameful idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not rush headlong into the same welter of debauch, and call you ill names accordingly; 5 they will have to answer for it before him who is all in readiness to pass sentence on the living and the dead. 6 That is why dead men, too, had the gospel message brought to them; though their mortal natures had paid the penalty in men’s eyes, in the sight of God their spirits were to live on.[2]

1 Christo igitur passo in carne, et vos eadem cogitatione armamini: quia qui passus est in carne, desiit a peccatis: 2 ut jam non desideriis hominum, sed voluntati Dei, quod reliquum est in carne vivat temporis. 3 Sufficit enim præteritum tempus ad voluntatem gentium consummandam his qui ambulaverunt in luxuriis, desideriis, vinolentiis, comessationibus, potationibus, et illicitis idolorum cultibus. 4 In quo admirantur non concurrentibus vobis in eamdem luxuriæ confusionem, blasphemantes. 5 Qui reddent rationem ei qui paratus est judicare vivos et mortuos. 6 Propter hoc enim et mortuis evangelizatum est: ut judicentur quidem secundum homines in carne, vivant autem secundum Deum in spiritu.

12 ἀγαπητοί, μὴ ξενίζεσθε τῇ ἐν ὑμῖν πυρώσει πρὸς πειρασμὸν ὑμῖν γινομένῃ ὡς ξένου ὑμῖν συμβαίνοντος, 13 ἀλλὰ καθὸ κοινωνεῖτε τοῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ παθήμασιν χαίρετε, ἵνα καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ χαρῆτε ἀγαλλιώμενοι. 14 εἰ ὀνειδίζεσθε ἐν ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ, μακάριοι, ὅτι τὸ τῆς δόξης καὶ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πνεῦμα ἐφ' ὑμᾶς ἀναπαύεται. 15 μὴ γάρ τις ὑμῶν πασχέτω ὡς φονεὺς ἢ κλέπτης ἢ κακοποιὸς ἢ ὡς ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος: 16 εἰ δὲ ὡς Χριστιανός, μὴ αἰσχυνέσθω, δοξαζέτω δὲ τὸν θεὸν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ. 17 ὅτι [ὁ] καιρὸς τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τὸ κρίμα ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ θεοῦ: εἰ δὲ πρῶτον ἀφ' ἡμῶν, τί τὸ τέλος τῶν ἀπειθούντων τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ εὐαγγελίῳ; 18 καὶ εἰ ὁ δίκαιος μόλις σῴζεται, ὁ ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἁμαρτωλὸς ποῦ φανεῖται; 19 ὥστε καὶ οἱ πάσχοντες κατὰ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ πιστῷ κτίστῃ παρατιθέσθωσαν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν ἐν ἀγαθοποιΐᾳ.

12 Do not be surprised, beloved, that this fiery ordeal should have befallen you, to test your quality; there is nothing strange in what is happening to you. 13 Rather rejoice, when you share in some measure the sufferings of Christ; so joy will be yours, and triumph, when his glory is revealed. 14 Your lot will be a blessed one, if you are reproached for the name of Christ; it means that the virtue of God’s honour and glory and power, it means that his own Spirit, is resting upon you.[6] 15 Let it not be said that any of you underwent punishment for murder, or theft, or slander, or infringing other men’s rights;[7] 16 but, if a man is punished for being a Christian, he has no need to be ashamed of it; let him bear that name, and give glory to God. 17 The time is ripe for judgement to begin, and to begin with God’s own household; and if our turn comes first, what will be its issue for those who refuse credence to God’s message? 18 If the just man wins salvation only with difficulty, what will be the plight of the godless, of the sinner? 19 Why then, let those who suffer in fulfilment of God’s will commend their souls, all innocent, into his hands; he created them, and he will not fail them.

12 Carissimi, nolite peregrinari in fervore, qui ad tentationem vobis fit, quasi novi aliquid vobis contingat: 13 sed communicantes Christi passionibus gaudete, ut et in revelatione gloriæ ejus gaudeatis exsultantes. 14 Si exprobramini in nomine Christi, beati eritis: quoniam quod est honoris, gloriæ, et virtutis Dei, et qui est ejus Spiritus, super vos requiescit. 15 Nemo autem vestrum patiatur ut homicida, aut fur, aut maledicus, aut alienorum appetitor. 16 Si autem ut christianus, non erubescat: glorificet autem Deum in isto nomine: 17 quoniam tempus est ut incipiat judicium a domo Dei. Si autem primum a nobis, quis finis eorum, qui non credunt Dei Evangelio? 18 et si justus vix salvabitur, impius et peccator ubi parebunt? 19 Itaque et hi, qui patiuntur secundum voluntatem Dei, fideli Creatori commendent animas suas in benefactis.

[1] ‘Christ’s mortal nature has been crucified … he whose mortal nature has been crucified’; literally, ‘Christ has suffered as far as the flesh is concerned … he who has suffered as far as the flesh is concerned’. It is difficult to see in what sense ‘he who has suffered is quit of sin’, unless suffering here means death. Probably the Apostle refers to baptism as mystical association with Christ’s death; cf. the very similar passage in Rom. 6.3-7. It is possible, however, that physical death is alluded to in both parts of the sentence.

[2] ‘Though their mortal natures had paid the penalty in men’s eyes, in the sight of God their spirits were to live on’; literally, ‘that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit’. This much-disputed passage probably refers us back to 3.19 and 20 above; there were souls who, through incredulity, incurred the outward penalty of temporal death at the time of the Deluge, and nevertheless, through contrition, were reserved for spiritual life, which was brought to them by Christ after his Passion. This illustrated why God ‘judges the dead’ (verse 5); physical death is only a temporary penalty, and their eternal destiny had still to be settled.

[3] Prov. 10.12; cf. Jas. 5.20; the sense may be that charity ‘hides away, obliterates in its effects’, the sin of another; but more probably the doctrine here is that of Lk. 7.47.

[4] ‘Make one another free of what is yours’; literally, ‘be hospitable to one another’, but it seems necessary to take the words in this more general sense, in order to connect them with the two verses which follow.

[5] Cf. p. 239, note 10.

[6] The text here is uncertain; some manuscripts omit the words ‘honour’ and ‘power’; some add, after the word ‘Spirit’, the words ‘blasphemed by others, but honoured by you’.

[7] For ‘slander’, the Greek has ‘wrong-doing’. The word which follows means, literally, ‘one who looks after business which is not his own’; it is possible that political agitators are referred to.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd