1 Peter 3:7

συνοικεῖν here only in N.T. but is frequently used in the LXX. of marital intercourse and doubtless the sexual aspect of marriage is specially included here as in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4.

κατὰ γνῶσιν, cf. Romans 10:2 and 1 Thessalonians 4:5 where the duty of Christians with regard to gratifying the bodily appetites is contrasted with the conduct of heathen τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεὁν. One aspect of this γνῶσις is that “our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

σκεύει. In 1 Thessalonians 4:4 Christians are bidden to abstain from fornication and each is to know how κτᾶσθαι τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος (lit. acquire his own vessel) in sanctification and honour. In that passage some interpret σκεῦος to mean “body,” that a man ought to get the mastery over his own body, but others refer σκεῦος to the wife as being an instrument for the husband’s use. St Peter however probably regards the wife not as the σκεῦος of her husband but of God, cf. Acts 9:15 σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς; Romans 9:21-23 σκεύη ἐλέους; 2 Corinthians 4:7 ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσι.

The comparative ἀσθενεστέρῳ implies that the husband and wife are both σκεύη. ἀσθενὴς is generally used of bodily sickness or infirmity, or of lack of power or robustness. But St Peter does not use the word in any depreciatory sense, cf. 1 Corinthians 12:22. τὰ� in the body are all important (ἀναγκαῖα).

γυναικείῳ, an adj. “the female.”

ὡς καὶ συνκληρονόμοι. The καὶ emphasizes the fact that husbands share in something far better than the marital intercourse of an earthly home (συνοικοῦντες). Husbands and wives are also co-heirs of an eternal life, cf. Romans 8:17; Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 11:9.

B some curs. Vulg. Arm. read συνκληρονόμοις = live with your wives remembering that they are also co-heirs with you.

χάριτος ζωῆς. χάρις, ζωή, συνκληρονόμοι all refer to the privileges which St Peter has referred to in Chap. 1, ἀναγεννήσας … εἰς κληρονομίαν … τῆς εἰς ὑμᾶς χάριτος … τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν. The free favour which God bequeaths as their inheritance is life in the highest sense of the word (σωτηρία ψυχῶν).

ἐγκόπτεσθαι (KL etc. ἐκκόπτεσθαι = cut off). ἐγκόπτειν (cf. Acts 24:4; Romans 15:22; Galatians 5:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:18 and subst. 1 Corinthians 9:12) was originally a metaphor from military operations, “to break up a road by destroying bridges, etc.” Originally it governed a dative of the person, e.g. Polyb. xxiv. 1, 12. So here some texts read προσευχαῖς but the acc. is the regular construction in the N.T. For the passive, cf. Romans 15:22. ὑμῶν might refer to the husbands only, that their prayers will be frustrated if any wrongs done to their wives cry out against them (cf. James 5:4). More probably both husbands and wives are included in ὑμῶν.

In 1 Corinthians 7 St Paul says that married persons may abstain from conjugal intercourse for a time by mutual consent that they may give themselves unto prayer. Even the lawful gratification of bodily appetites may tend to deaden spiritual life. But besides this St Peter may mean that failure to recognize their divine co-heirship will hinder husband and wife in the exercise of that united prayer to which our Lord attached special efficacy, Matthew 18:19 (συμφωνήσουσιν = utter a united voice).