The first part of this verse is very similar to Matthew 5.10; the presence of so many allusions to sayings of Christ in the Gospels may indicate for some that Peter himself is writing these out of this own memory of what Jesus had taught while he was alive. It is more likely, however, that this shows the presence of catechetical material which included many of the sayings of Jesus. To the early Christians, these sayings had very great authority and were used as normative guidelines for ethical decisions.
Happy translates a Greek word which is used also in the Beatitudes (Matt 5.3-11); for further discussion of the word, see 3.14. The word for insulted is also found in Matthew 5.11; it is used only here in this letter, although some words with similar meanings have been used previously (for example, 2.23; 4.4). The word itself is a general terms for any oppressive action, primarily verbal (Moffatt “denounced”), although physical assault is not excluded.
If the Greek term rendered in the Good News Translation as Happy is translated as “fortunate,” for example, “you are fortunate if you are insulted because you are Christ’s followers,” there is usually no special difficulty involved. However, a strictly literal translation of “you are happy” may be quite misleading because it states an emotional situation which should be the experience of the followers of Christ rather than necessarily being their actual condition. Therefore, in some languages it may be necessary to say “you should be happy if you are insulted because you are Christ’s followers.”
The passive expression if you are insulted may be transformed into an active one, for example, “if people insult you.”
The causal clause because you are Christ’s followers may be restructured as direct discourse, since this is implied in the introductory verb insulted, for example, “if they insult you by saying, You are Christ’s followers.”
You are Christ’s followers is literally “in the name of Christ,” which is a New Testament idiom meaning “because of Christ” or “on account of Jesus Christ”; “for the cause of Christ” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); “for the sake of Christ” (Moffatt); “because you belong to Christ” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
This means is literally “because,” giving the reason why the Christians are happy. To be insulted for the sake of Christ means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting on you. This literally is “the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Most commentaries and translations agree that “the Spirit of glory” and “the Spirit of God” are one and the same, with the first genitive construction expressing an attributive relationship (that is, “the Spirit which is glorious”) and the second an objective relationship (that is, “the Spirit of God” or “the Spirit from God”). All in all, the whole complicated statement may be expressed simply as “God’s glorious Spirit.” “Glory” in this sense may be taken either as great or powerful (that is, “God’s powerful Spirit”), or as an expression of the function of the Spirit as making known the very presence of God (that is, “the Spirit who reveals the presence of God”). A literal translation (compare Revised Standard Version) would be misleading, since it would give the impression that there are two Spirits and not one.
It may be extremely difficult to translate literally this means, because a verb involving the significance of terms may frequently not be employed in relationship to events. Therefore, this means that must be translated in some languages as “if this happens you may be sure that…” or “… this will cause you to know that….”
It is possible to interpret “glory” here to refer to the Christian, (that is, “the Spirit gives glory”), with glory being interpreted to refer to either the Christian’s state of blessedness and of his power to overcome all his difficulties, or his ability to glorify or praise God. While this is an attractive alternative, none of the modern translations consulted for this Handbook reflect this view.
The glorious Spirit may be rendered as “the wonderful Spirit” or “the Spirit who is wonderful” or “the Spirit that is great.”
In some languages the apposition between the glorious Spirit and the Spirit of God must be clearly marked rather than merely juxtaposed, that is to say, placed side by side. For example, one may need to translate the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God as “the glorious Spirit, that is, the Spirit that comes from God” or “the glorious Spirit, he is the Spirit from God.”
Is resting on you denotes the continuing and constant presence of the Spirit in and among the believers. It is part of Jewish eschatological belief that in the last days the Spirit of God will be given to God’s people (compare Joel 2.28-32); here it is affirmed that the Spirit is already among the believers, thus reaffirming the belief that the Christians are living in the last days. Furthermore, the Spirit of God is usually promised to Christians facing persecution (Mark 13.11; John 14.26; 16.17-21).
Is resting on you can be understood literally as “is burdensome to you.” A more satisfactory equivalent may be “remains with you” or “dwells with you” or even “lives within you.”
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 .