For God wants you is literally “For thus is the will of God.” The Greek construction is ambiguous, with “thus” referring either back to verse 13 or forward to the rest of verse 15. Taking the former sense, the writer is saying that it is God’s will for them to submit to government authorities. “By doing right” (Revised Standard Version) in verse 15 would then be a further description of their submission. Some scholars take this position and at least one translation makes this explicit (for example, New American Bible “Such obedience is the will of God. You must silence the ignorant talk of foolish men by your good behavior”).

Taking the latter sense, “the will of God” may refer either to the act of silencing the ignorant talk of foolish men (Good News Translation, Knox, Moffatt, Phillips, New English Bible, Revised Standard Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) or to their “doing right” (Jerusalem Bible “God wants you to be good citizens, so as to silence what fools are saying in their ignorance”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “God wants you to do good to quiet the ignorant and stupid”).

To silence is literally “to muzzle,” but it is used figuratively here to describe the act of making people quiet (compare Mark 4.39; Matt 22.34). Ignorant talk is literally “ignorance,” but since it is used here with to silence, it clearly refers not to the state of ignorance, but to uninformed or ill-informed talk (compare Phillips “ill-informed criticisms”; Barclay “ignorant accusations”; Moffatt “ignorant charges”; Knox “ignorant chatter”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “stupid gossip”). The Greek word for “ignorance” suggests not simply lack of information, but a lack of desire to get correct information, and an unwillingness to accept the truth.

Foolish people translates a Greek term which is often used in the Old Testament, particularly Psalms and Proverbs, to describe those who oppose God and are enemies of whatever is right and true. These foolish people are the heathen referred to in verse 12, and not the government officials in verses 13-14.

The expression God wants you to silence the ignorant talk of foolish people seems to be relatively simple in its semantic structure, but in reality it is rather complex. In many languages it is impossible to “silence talk.” Furthermore, it may be impossible to speak of ignorant talk, for it is only people who are ignorant and not talk. If “to silence” is to be translated as a causative, for example, “to cause to be silent,” then this must be related to foolish people, but in reality what is desired is not that people will be caused to stop talking, but that the good things which the believers do will provide no basis whatsoever for such ignorant talk. Verse 15 may be recast as “for God wants you to cause those foolish people to stop talking against you in their ignorant way, and you are to do this by the good deeds which you perform.”

For the good things you do, see comments on verse 12. Although two different Greek words are used, the same meaning is clearly intended.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .