ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Peter 2.13

Book: 1 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

11. Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme;

  1. or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well. 15. For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: (1 Peter 2:11-15, ASV)
WEB

11. Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13. Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;

  1. or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 15. For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: (1 Peter 2:11-15, WEB)
KJV

11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. whereas: or, wherein

13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

  1. Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: (1 Peter 2:11-15, KJV)
YLT

11. Beloved, I call upon [you], as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul, 12. having your behaviour among the nations right, that in that which they speak against you as evil-doers, of the good works having beheld, they may glorify God in a day of inspection.

13. Be subject, then, to every human creation, because of the Lord, whether to a king, as the highest,

  1. whether to governors, as to those sent through him, for punishment, indeed, of evil-doers, and a praise of those doing good; 15. because, so is the will of God, doing good, to put to silence the ignorance of the foolish men; (1 Peter 2:11-15, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Peter the apostle, writing with the help of Silvanus (1 Pet 5:12).
  • Audience: Christians described as "those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Pet 1:1), five Roman provinces in northern and central Asia Minor. The audience is largely Gentile (1 Pet 1:18, a futile way of life inherited from their forefathers; 4:3-4).
  • Location: Written from "Babylon" (1 Pet 5:13), which the great majority of interpreters read as a cipher for Rome, as in Revelation 17:5.
  • Time period: c. AD 62-64 on the traditional authorship, before or at the very beginning of the Neronian persecution. The hostility the letter addresses is social and local, slander, exclusion, and abuse, rather than empire-wide legal prosecution.

Theological reading

"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority."

The qualifier does the work. Dia ton kyrion, for the Lord's sake. Peter does not ground submission in the state's authority being intrinsically deserving, nor in obedience being owed to Caesar as such. The reason given is the Lord, which is also the limit: an institution commanding what the Lord forbids has no claim on this ground, and Peter himself supplies the precedent at Acts 5:29, "we must obey God rather than men."

"Every human institution." Anthrōpinē ktisis, literally every human creation or creature. The phrase is unusual, and its effect is to place the emperor in the created order rather than above it. In a letter written under Nero to provinces where the imperial cult was active, calling the emperor a human creation is not a neutral description.

The wider block. Verses 13-17 form one unit: submit, live as free people yet as slaves of God, then four imperatives, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. The king receives timaō (honor) while God alone receives phobeomai (fear), and both stand at the same level as honoring all people. The grammar itself refuses the emperor a religious claim.

Comparison. Romans 13:1-7 argues from the state's God-given function; Peter argues from the believer's freedom and witness (verses 15-16). The two are compatible and differently weighted, and neither is a doctrine of unconditional obedience. See Just War Theory and Christians Cannot Judge Objection Defeater for adjacent civic questions.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.