1 Peter 2:12

τὴν� … καλήν. καλήν is the predicate. Your intercourse with the heathen round you must be such as commands their respect. In 1 Peter 3:16 the enemies of the Christians are described as reviling their ἀναστροφὴν�. ἀγαθός denotes that which is intrinsically good in itself and its results, whether it is recognized as such or not, while καλός is that which commends itself as good.

ἐν ᾧ sometimes means “while” as in Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; Luke 19:13; John 5:7. But here it means in the very matter in which, cf. 1 Peter 3:16, ἐν ᾧ καταλαλεῖσθε; 1 Peter 4:4, ἐν ᾧ ξενίζονται = wherein.

κακοποιῶν. In Mark 3:4; Luke 6:9 the verb κακοποιεῖν seems to retain its original meaning of “doing an injury,” but in the LXX. it has a wider meaning “evil-doing.” So also in 1 Peter 3:17 it = ποιοῦντας κακά of 1 Peter 3:12. The adjective κακοποιός is used three (or four) times in 1 Pet. (1 Peter 2:14 (1 Peter 3:16, v.l.), 1 Peter 4:15) and seems to have been a favourite term of abuse directed against Christians. Possibly it represents the Latin maleficus by which it is translated in 1 Peter 4:15 by some of the Latin Fathers. Suetonius (Nero 16) speaks of Christians as men of a novel and pestilent (maleficae) superstition, while Tacitus, Ann. xv. 14, describes them as being hated per flagitia, and in the immediate context he includes Christianity among the atrocia aut pudenda which poured into Rome. Gwatkin (Ch. Hist. i. 76) therefore considers that foul charges of immorality, such as were prevalent in the 2nd cent., were brought against Christians even before the Neronian persecution. But κακοποιός is a vague and comprehensive term. It was used of our Lord, John 18:30, v.l., while the two thieves are called κακοῦργοι, Luke 23:32, a term which St Paul applies to his own treatment, 2 Timothy 2:9.

ἐποπτεύοντες. The T.R. reads ἐποπτεύσαντες which might possibly denote coincident action with that of the main verb, but more naturally antecedent action = glorify God having beheld. But the best reading is the present participle which suggests that the “beholding” is coincident with the glorifying. It is therefore doubtful whether τὰ καλὰ ἔργα should be understood as the object of ἐποπτεύοντες as A.V. and R.V.

ἐκ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων ἐποπτεύοντες does not merely mean ἐποπ.… τὰ καλὰ ἔργα. ἐκ denotes the result, the recollection or impression carried away, and ἐποπτεύειν may have a more special meaning than mere “beholding.” It is not used in the LXX. but by Sym. Psalms 10:14; Psalms 33:13 of God as watching over human conduct, and it is so used in Attic poetry; in late Greek prose the verb is used in a general sense of watching or beholding. There was however a technical use of ἐπόπτης to denote one who was initiated in the mysteries and Plato uses the verb in that sense, so Clem. Al. Strom. iv. 152, etc., uses the phrase ἐποπτεύω τὸν θεόν.

In 2 Peter 1:16 the spectators of Christ’s glory in the Transfiguration are described as ἐπόπται, possibly with a trace of this technical meaning.

So here the meaning may be that by the recollection of your good works their eyes may at last be opened and so they will glorify God. ἐποπτεύειν is used again, however, in 1 Peter 3:2 of husbands being converted by beholding the chaste conduct of their wives, but even there the idea of “seeing behind the scenes,” or being “initiated into the secret of” would be quite appropriate.

ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς. The following explanations have been given of the phrase (1) the day when Christians are brought to trial, (2) the day when their enemies are themselves judged, (3) the day when God’s mercy “visits” or comes home to them.

In the O.T. God is sometimes described as “visiting” people in mercy, e.g. to deliver them from Egypt or from Babylon, and so our Lord weeping over Jerusalem lamented her misuse of “the time of her visitation” evidently referring to lost opportunities of blessing, cf. Luke 1:78, “The dayspring from on high shall visit (ἐπισκέψεται) us.” But elsewhere God is described as “visiting” sinners with judgment, so ἡμέρα ἐπισκοπῆς in Isaiah 10:3. But frequently God’s judgments are themselves a means of bringing His mercy home to men. So here St Peter seems to anticipate some judgment of God which will open the eyes of heathen opponents and lead them to give glory to God through the memory of His servants’ lives. The whole passage manifestly alludes to our Lord’s words, Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”