1 Peter 1:6

1 Peter 1:6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. As the parallel in 1 Peter 4:4 shows, the wherein may be taken to summarize the ideas previously expressed, whether in the immediately preceding sentence, or in the preceding paragraph as a whole. Some (Gerhard and Leighton) carry its reference, therefore, as far back as 1 Peter 1:3, so that the connection becomes this, ‘in all which blessings into which God begat you, ye rejoice.' Others (Calvin and Grotius, followed by de Wette, Schott, Fronmüller, etc.) refer it more particularly to the idea of 1 Peter 1:4-5, ‘in which inheritance, hoped for and so secured, ye have the object of your joy.' In the present series of verses, however (although it is too much to say that this is his habit), Peter connects one section with another by carrying over the closing word or idea (compare 1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 Peter 1:10). It is more in harmony with this, there fore, to regard the wherein as referring to the immediate antecedent, viz. the ‘last time.' In this case it may have the strictly temporal sense (so Wiesinger, Hofmann, Huther, Alford, etc.), the idea then being, ‘in which last time, when it comes, you will have your time of rejoicing.' Or it may express the ground or object of joy, ‘ at which ye rejoice,' i.e ‘which last time is the object of your joy.' This last is to be preferred, as most consistent both with the tense of the verb and with the usage of the Hebrew term which the Greek verb here represents. This particular term for joy, aptly rendered ‘greatly rejoice,' is one which occurs very rarely outside the Septuagint, the N. T., and ecclesiastical literature. It is probably a Greek reproduction (see Buttmann's Greek Grammar by Thayer, p. 5) of a familiar Hebrew verb often used in the poetical and prophetical books (Psalms 2:11; Psalms 9:15; Job 3:22; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 65:18, etc.). Like the Hebrew original (which means to ‘leap for joy,' or ‘rejoice to exultation'), it denotes a strong, a lively joy, intenser than is expressed by the ordinary term, with which also it is often coupled. Peter has in view, therefore, the kind of joy which is affirmed of Christ Himself (Luke 10:21), which He too expressly enjoins on persecuted disciples (Matthew 5:12, where the stronger term is added to the weaker), and which breaks forth in the Magnificat (Luke 1:47).

though for a little now, if need be, grieved in manifold temptations. The ‘temptations' (a term wide enough to cover anything by which character is put to the proof) will refer here, whatever else may be included, to the threatenings and slanders which, as we gather from the Epistle itself (1Pe 2:12; 1 Peter 2:15; 1 Peter 3:14-17; 1 Peter 4:4; 1 Peter 4:12-19), these Christians had to endure from heathen neighbours. Their lot was cast in them. An adjective is attached to these temptations, which is used in the Classics, to describe the many-coloured leopard or peacock, the colour-changing Proteus, the richly-wrought robe or carpet, the changeful months, the intricate oracles. What a picture does this epithet ‘manifold,' which is applied by Peter also to the grace of God (1 Peter 4:1), by James again to temptation (1 Peter 1:2), and elsewhere to such things as the divers diseases healed by Christ (Matthew 4:24), present of the number, the diversity, and the changefulness of these trials! Yet the terror of the fact is at once relieved by a double qualification, first by the words (each of which has here a temporal force), which limit these temptations to the present, and exhibit them as enduring only for a little space; and then by the clause ‘if need be,' or ‘if it must be so.' This latter (which has the strict hypothetical sense, and not some kind of affirmative sense, with Bengel, etc.; nor yet the subjective sense supposed by Schott, as if=‘if indeed there was reason why you should feel grieved in temptation') means that temptations come only where there is a call for them, and suggests that they may not, therefore, burden even the present continually. The great difficulty in this verse is how to deal with the times indicated by the several terms, the ‘rejoice' being in form a present tense, the ‘grieved' a distinct past, and the word ‘now,' with which the latter is connected, again pointing to present time. Some solve this difficulty (Augustine, Burton, etc.) by taking the ‘rejoice' as an imperative. But Peter does not appear to begin exhortation till 1 Peter 1:13, and the peculiar tense of the ‘grieved' would thus be still unaccounted for. Others (Luther, Huther, Wiesinger, Alford, Hofmann, etc.) suppose that the present ‘rejoice' has here the future sense, expressing the certainty of the joy which they are yet to have; and the peculiar tense of the other verb (‘ye were grieved') is then explained as due to the writer speaking for the moment from the standpoint of the ‘last time,' and looking back upon the troubles of his own time as then in the past. This is supported by the Syriac and the Clementine Vulgate, and is adopted by Tyndale. But, while the present occurs often enough as a quasi-future, that is the case with particular verbs (such as ‘cometh') and in particular connections which naturally suggest the time, and which have no real parallel here. Others (Schott, e.g.) rightly retain the present sense in the ‘rejoice,' but regard the ‘grieved' as a sharp and definite past meant to exhibit the temptations of the believer's day as transitory, even momentary, in contrast with the deep permanence of his joy. This, however, is to ascribe a refinement of idea to the aorist which it does not express unaided. The explanation seems to be that the ‘grieved' has the proleptic force here, which both the perfect (1 Corinthians 13:1; Romans 4:14; Romans 14:23; 2 Peter 2:10) and the aorist (Joh 15:6; 1 Corinthians 7:28; Revelation 10:7) have in connection with conditional presents. In this case the natural sense of the several terms is preserved, and the meaning becomes simply this: ‘ye have a present joy, notwithstanding that, if such proves needful, you are made the subjects of some short-lived trouble now.' The certainties of the future make the present a time of joy too deep to be more than dashed by the pain of manifold temptations.