1 Peter 3:2
in 1 Peter 3when they see your pure and reverent demeanor.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.
KJV
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
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This verse in 1 Peter 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verseActions speak louder than words, and the husbands will be persuaded by what they see, not by what they hear from their wives.
This site's exposition
without the word be won
on 1 Peter 3:1-2
The address assumes a real and hard case, believing wives of unbelieving husbands in a world where a wife was expected to keep her husband's gods. The strategy is the letter's own suffering-and-glory logic brought home: if any obey not the word, they may without the word be won, kerdethesontai, gained, by the conversation of the wives, conduct preaching where speech has been refused. Chaste conversation coupled with fear is behavior with reverence, the life itself the argument.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Similarly, wives should be subject to their husbands, so that even those who do not obey the word may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Let your adornment not be external, …
The Medieval Church1 voice
The Apostle set forth moral teaching for all: for kings, rulers, masters, and slaves. For subjects he established as law that they should obey kings and rulers, in what they ought and as they ought, and thereby showed that the rulers themselves have a certain …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
While they behold your chaste conversation,.... Cheerful subjection, strong affection, and inviolable attachment to them, and strict regard to the honour of the marriage state, and to the preserving of the bed undefiled with lusts and adulteries: coupled with fear; with reverence of their husbands, giving them due honour, and showing all proper respect; or with the fear of God, which being before their eyes, and upon their hearts, engages them to such an agreeable conversation.
He exhorts Christians to unity, love, compassion, peace, and patience under sufferings; to oppose the slanders of their enemies, not by returning evil for evil, or railing for railing, but by blessing; by a ready account of their faith and hope, and by keeping a good conscience,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Chaste conversation - with fear - While they see that ye join modesty, chastity, and the purest manners, to the fear of God. Or perhaps fear, φοβος, is taken, as in Eph 5:33, for the reverence due to the husband.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
While they behold your chaste conversation - Your pure conduct. The word chaste here (ἁγνὴν hagnēn) refer’s to purity of conduct in all respects, and not merely to chastity properly so called. It includes that, but it also embraces much more. The conduct of the wife is to be in all respects pure; and this is to be the grand instrumentality in the conversion of her husband. A wife may be strictly chaste, and yet there may be many other things in her conduct and temper which would mar the beauty of her piety, and prevent any happy influence on the mind of her husband, Coupled with fear - The word fear, in this place, may refer either to the fear of God, or to a proper respect and reverence for their husbands, Eph 5:33. The trait of character which is referred to is that of proper respect and reverence in all the relations which she sustained, as opposed to a trifling and frivolous mind. Leighton suggests that the word fear here relates particularly to the other duty enjoined - that of chaste conversation - “fearing the least stain of chastity, or the very appearance of anything not suiting with it. It is a delicate, timorous grace, afraid of the least air, or shadow of anything that hath but a resemblance of wronging it, in carriage, or speech, or apparel.”
The words behind it
7 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἐποπτεύσαντες | epopteusantes | having witnessed | G2029 → | |
| τὴν | ten | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| φόβῳ | phobo | respect | G5401 → | 46 times |
| ἁγνὴν | hagnen | pure | G53 → | |
| ἀναστροφὴν | anastrophen | conduct | G391 → | 13 times |
| ὑμῶν· | humon | of you; | G4771 → | 2973 times |
ἐποπτεύσαντεςhaving witnessed
epopteusantesG2029 →
τὴνthe
tenG3588 →19766 times
ἐνin
enG1722 →2738 times
φόβῳrespect
phoboG5401 →46 times
ἁγνὴνpure
hagnenG53 →
ἀναστροφὴνconduct
anastrophenG391 →13 times
ὑμῶν·of you;
humonG4771 →2973 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 1:15But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do,
it leads to
- Matthew 5:48
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- 2 Corinthians 7:1
Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Hebrews 12:14
Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
- Matthew 5:48
Through
1 Peter 2:12Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 3:16
keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.
- Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- Titus 2:7–8
In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity,
- Philippians 2:15–16
so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world
- 1 Peter 3:16
Through
Philippians 1:27Nevertheless, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm…
it leads to
- Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received:
- Ephesians 4:1
Where this verse is studied
About 1 Peter
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Hilary of Arles, INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on 1 Peter and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Peter.