1st Peter Chapter 5 verse 12 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly; rather, as in the Revised Version, by Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have written unto you briefly. The preposition "by" διά has the same sense as διὰ χειρός in Acts 15:23. Silvanus was the bearer of the Epistle; he may have been the amanuensis also. In all probability he is the Silas of the Acts of the Apostles, and the Silvanus whose name St. Paul associates with his own in the address of both Epistles to the Thessalonians; he is mentioned also in 2 Corinthians 1:19. As the companion of St. Paul, he must have been known to the Churches of Asia Minor. The word rendered in the Authorized Version "I suppose" λογίζομαι does not imply any doubt (comp. Romans 3:28; Romans 8:18; Hebrews 11:19). The Christians of Asia Minor knew Silvanus as a faithful brother; St. Peter adds his testimony. Some connect it with the clause, "I have written unto you briefly," as if St. Peter meant to say that he regarded his letter as a short one, the subjects being so important; but this does not seem natural. It is better to take the pronoun ὑμῖν, unto you, with the verb "I have written," than with the words, "a faithful brother," as in the Authorized Version. The verb ἔγραψα is the epistolary aorist, and may therefore be rendered "I write." Exhorting, and testifying. The general tone of this Epistle is hortatory: St. Peter comforts his readers in the sufferings which were coming on them, and exhorts them to patient endurance. The word rendered "testifying" ἐπιμαρτυρῶν occurs only here in the New Testament. Bengel and others take the preposition ἐπί in the sense of insuper, in "addition:" "Petrus insuper testatur;" he adds his testimony to that of Paul and others who have gone before; or, he not only exhorts, he also testifies - the testimony is in addition to the exhortation. But more probably the ἐπί is intensive, or expresses simply the direction of the testifying (comp. Acts 1:40, where the same words nearly; the Greek for "testified" is διεμαρτύρατο are used in describing St. Peter's exhortations). That this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand; rather, as in the Revised Version, that this is the true grace of God: stand ye fast therein. The reading εἰς η}ν στῆτε is supported by the oldest manuscripts. The construction involves a common ellipse, "Into which (having entered) stand fast." Some think that it was St. Peter's intention in these words to set the seal of his apostolic authority upon the truth of the teaching which the Christians of Asia Minor had received from St. Paul. It may be so. The whole Epistle corroborates the teaching of St. Paul, and shows St. Peter's exact agreement with it. But it seems probable that, if St. Peter had thought it necessary to give a formal sanction to St. Paul's preaching, he would have done so plainly, as he does at the end of the Second Epistle. Again, there are no traces in the Epistle of any doubts now existing in the minds of the Asiatic Christians, or of any opposition to St. Paul, such as there once had been in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia. And St. Peter does not say, "These are the true doctrines," but "This is the true grace of God." He seems rather to be giving the testimony o£ his knowledge and spiritual experience to the fact that the grace which they had received came indeed from God, that it was his true grace, that it was he who was working within them both to will and to do. They must stand fast in that grace, and by its help work out their own salvation.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12-14) CONCLUDING GREETING.--You will trust the bearer of this Letter, and abide steadfastly in the faith which he has taught you. The exiled Israel in this wicked capital feels for you. Love and peace be among you.(12) By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose.--There is not any reason for doubting that this is the same as the Silas of the Acts and the Silvanus of 2Corinthians 1:19; 1Thessalonians 1:1; 2Thessalonians 1:1. It is not a common name, and nothing would suggest the doubt, except the acceptance a priori of the Tbingen theory, that the feud between St. Peter and St. Paul was so deadly as to preclude the possibility of the first giving his patronage to a friend of the second. We have already seen repeatedly how false that theory is. That the bearer of this Letter was a personage of great consideration, may be seen from the fact that St. Peter speaks of him as well known throughout the whole Hebrew population of Asia Minor. In the original the testimony is still more marked than in our version, as it has the definite article, "the, or that, faithful brother unto you." Silas being of the circumcision himself (Acts 15:22), St. Peter can without any risk, writing to the Jews, call him "brother." And since there was probably some disaffection towards him among the Jewish Christians, for the way in which he had sided with St. Paul, St. Peter, the Apostle of the circumcision, adds it as his own personal conviction that Silas was no false brother to the Hebrew Christians, by saying, "as I reckon." The words "as I suppose" (or, rather, as I reckon) do not imply any uncertainty on St. Peter's part, nor even that St. Peter's knowledge of Silas was less intimate than that of the persons to whom he writes. It means, rather, the most complete confidence in Silas, which the writer is not at all ashamed to declare--"that faithful brother unto you, in my estimation, if my conviction is worth anything." This only shows that St. Peter had not altered his opinion either of Silas or of the relative positions of Jew and Gentile in the Church, since that great council in which he took so prominent a part, when Silas was selected, no doubt because of his uniting liberal views with steadfast allegiance to the Law, to bear the apostolic mandates to the Gentile metropolis of Antioch. The same qualifications which fitted him for that work, would now again serve him in good stead to bear to the Jews of Asia Minor St. Peter's countersignature to the doctrine of St. Paul. At the same time the expression, "that faithful brother unto you," indicates that St. Silas had been himself working in Asia Minor. Of his history nothing is recorded subsequent to his labours with St. Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:5; 2Corinthians 1:19); but putting together the fact that he is not included in the list of St. Paul's companions in Acts 20:4, with what is implied by this present passage, we might naturally infer that he was left at Ephesus, and devoted himself to the evangelisation of the Asiatic provinces. . . .