1 Peter 5:5

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder The question meets us, whether the words refer to age only, or to office as connected with age. In either case we have, of course, a perfectly adequate meaning. In favour of the latter view we have the facts (1) that in Luke 22:26, "he that is younger" in the first clause corresponds to "he that serveth" or "ministereth" in the second; (2) that in Acts 5:6 the term is obviously used of those who were discharging duties like those of the later deacons, sub-deacons or acolytes; (3) that it is hardly likely that the same writer would have used the word "elder" in two different senses in such close juxtaposition. On the whole, therefore, there seems sufficient reason for adopting this view. St Paul's use of the term, however, in the precepts of 1 Timothy 5:1; Titus 2:6 is, perhaps, in favour of the other.

Yea, all of you be subject one to another The words which answer to "be subject" are wanting in some of the best MSS. and have the character of an insertion made to complete the sense. If we omit the participle, the words "all of you, one to another" may be taken either with the clause that precedes or with that which follows.

be clothed with humility The Greek verb (ἐγκομβώσασθε) for "clothe yourselves" has a somewhat interesting history. The noun from which it is derived (κόμβος) signifies a "knot." Hence the verb means "to tie on with a knot," and from the verb another noun is formed (ἐγκομβῶμα), denoting a garment so tied on. This, according to its quality, might be the outer "over-all" cloak of slaves, or the costly mantle of princes. The word may have well been chosen for the sake of some of the associations which this its history suggests. Men were to clothe themselves with lowliness of mind, to fasten it tight round them like a garment, so that it might never fall away (comp. the same thought as applied to hatred in Psalms 109:17-18), and this was to be worn, as it were, over all other virtues, half-concealing, half-sheltering them. It might present, from one point of view, the aspect of servitude. It was, in reality, a raiment more glorious than that of kings (Acts 12:21), or those who live in kings" houses (Matthew 11:8). In the case of slaves, probably in all cases, the garment so named was white. (Poll. Onomast. 4:119.) This also probably was not without a suggestive significance. In Colossians 3:12 we have, though not the word, a thought very closely parallel.

for God resisteth the proud We have here another passage quoted from the Old Testament (Proverbs 3:34, from the LXX. version with "God" substituted for "the Lord") without the formula of quotation. It is interesting (1) as taking its place in the list of passages from the Book of Proverbs, which St Peter quotes both in the First and Second Epistles; and (2) as being quoted also by St James (James 4:6). The parallelism which we have already traced between the two writers (see notes on chap. 1 Peter 1:6-7; 1 Peter 1:24) makes it probable that St Peter may have derived his quotation from his brother Apostle of the circumcision. In James 4:6 the promise is cited with more special reference to the grace which gives men strength for the combat against evil, here in its wider and more general aspect.