1 Peter 3:7

1Pe 3:7. Likewise, ye husbands — See on Eph 5:25; Col 3:19; dwell with them — Conduct yourselves toward them, according to knowledge — Wisely and discreetly; suitably to that knowledge of your duty which you have obtained by the gospel: or, knowing they are weak, and therefore to be used with tenderness: yet do not despise them for this, but give them honour — Both in heart and in your behaviour toward them, as those who are called to be joint-heirs of that eternal life which ye and they hope to receive by the free grace of God. “In Scripture, honour is sometimes used for maintenance, because to supply any one with the necessaries and conveniences of life was considered, in ancient times, as doing him honour. Accordingly the Greeks, in reward of eminent services done to the community, decreed maintenance at the public expense to those who had performed these services. By assigning as the reason why honour should be given to the wife, that she is weaker than the husband, in body or person, (as the word σκευος, vessel, here seems to mean,) the apostle hath intimated, not only that he ought to afford her a competent share of the necessaries and conveniences of life, but as much relief from bodily labour as his circumstances will allow: all which is most reasonable, considering the many bodily troubles women are subject to, in the breeding, bearing, and nursing of children.” That your prayers be not hindered — On the one part or the other. All sin hinders prayer, particularly anger. Any thing at which we are angry is never more apt to come into our minds than when we are at prayer. And those who do not forgive, will find no forgiveness from God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

1Pe_3:7. Knowledge.—With thought and care; trying wisely to meet all circumstances, Giving honour.—In the spirit of Christian meekness and gentleness, which always puts others before self. Weaker vessel.—This is physically true, and it puts woman upon every good man’s consideration. Even the rights of the husband are qualified by Christian gentleness toward the frail and often suffering wife. Heirs together.—The new life and new hope putting a new tenderness into your marital relations. Not hindered.—Cut off, as they would be by one of them praying against the other.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Pe_3:7

The Christian Husband.—The husband is the head of the wife, but not in such sense that she is to be under his feet, to be treated as his servant, or to be deemed his inferior. She is of his bone and of his flesh, and St. Paul therefore said, “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them” (Eph_5:25; Col_3:19). And here St. Peter is equally express: “Likewise,” or in like manner, “ye husbands, dwelling with the feminine according to knowledge, as with the weaker vessel, giving honour to those who are also fellow-inheritors of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” Such is the true rendering of the apostle’s words. What, then, is required of the husband?

I. Consideration.—He is to dwell with his wife according to knowledge, as with the weaker vessel. Both are vessels—clay in the hands of the Potter, Who has formed them for Himself, giving to each the frame best suited for the end He has in view (Jer_18:6; Isa_29:16, etc.); but the wife is physically the weaker vessel, and the husband, knowing this, is to treat her in every respect with kind consideration. She is subject to many trials as a mother, to many cares as the mistress of the household, to many diseases peculiar to her sex. Shall all this be forgotten? And shall the often suffering and sorrowful wife have no sympathy, or very little, from him to whom she has a right to look up? God forbid. It is a mistake to suppose that by “the weaker vessel” here it is meant that the wife is always mentally the inferior of the husband. In many qualities of the mind she often far excels him, and there have been, and still are, women whose acquirements in all branches of science and art equalled those of the most eminent men. The society of many a wife is better, in an intellectual point of view, than her husband will meet with away from home; and as for spiritual conversation and Christian fellowship, hers is often not to be surpassed.

II. Honour.—Your wives, says the apostle, are fellow-heirs with you of the grace of life. It is here assumed that both are believers, and, if so, both are partakers of the gift of life flowing from the grace of God. Eternal life begins on earth and is consummated in heaven, so that two things are here implied: that the husband and the wife are one in Christ now, and that hereafter their union will continue in a brighter and a happier sphere. Shall they, then, be afraid to converse with one another on the things of God? Shall they have any secrets in reference either to their outer or their inner life? The union that subsists between them is so close and sacred that, as far as possible, their very thoughts should blend; and if any differences of opinion exist, either with regard to their family affairs or in respect to religious views, they should try to remove them as soon as possible, or should bear with one another in reference to them with all charity and love. Specially should they honour one another; and the husband who has a Christian wife should never for one moment fail to see in her one who, equally with himself, bears the signature and stamp of heaven.

III. The apostle adds a special reason for all this.—“That your prayers be not hindered.” He assumes that the husband and the wife do pray; that they pray not merely for one another, but with one another; not merely at the domestic altar, but together, when no one else is near. It is said of Philip Henry that he and his wife constantly prayed together morning and evening, and from his own experience of the benefit of the practice he recommended it to all his Christian friends. That your prayers be not hindered, love one another with a pure heart, fervently, with that love which is essential to the happiness of married life (from Thornley Smith). The three points in relation to the Christian husband which this passage suggests are:

1. His authority, implied in his superiority of physical strength, and in that rule, in the ordering of life-relations, which is implied in “dwelling with them according to knowledge.”

2. His considerateness. Putting her interest before his own. Giving her all honour.

3. His religious helpfulness. The activity and energy, which are manly characteristics, finding expression in the shaping of the religious customs of the home.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

1Pe_3:7. Honour to the Weaker Vessel.—Read, “as with a weaker vessel, with what is female.” This explains the saying, “according to knowledge.” The thing which the husband is specially to understand, and take into account, is that he is dealing with a thing less strong than himself. The whole of chivalry is in these words, and St. Peter, next after Christ, may be considered the founder of it. Weakness itself, by being weakness, has a claim upon the strong man’s deference and self-submission. The weakness here ascribed to the female sex is primarily that of the body, though it may, perhaps, indicate frailty in other respects as well. If the word “vessel” is to be here a description of a “wife,” as some contend on 1Th_4:4, in a sense in which it does not equally describe a husband, it is difficult to see with what the vessel is compared and pronounced weaker. “Dwell with the female as with a more delicate vessel or instrument”—than what? If we answer, “than yourselves,” it becomes clear that the husbands are, by implication, less delicate vessels. And this is the case. In 1Th_4:4 the word “vessel” (whether as receptacle or as instrument) is a description of the body, or rather of the self as manifested in the body. The word in itself may be used to describe anything made to be serviceable—machinery, tackle and gear, pots and pans, and, in fact, any kind of apparatus or implement; and here it might be very fairly rendered, “as with a weaker thing or object.” That which is translated “the wife” is really a neuter adjective, and it is a question whether we are to supply with it the noun “vessel”—“with the female as with a vessel which is weaker”—or whether it is to stand absolutely, “the female,” as we say “the good,” “the evil,” i.e. “that which is female.” The latter seems, on the whole, simpler and more forcible, as calling closer attention to the fact of weakness being inherent in the sex.—A. J. Mason, M.A.

The Husband’s Sphere in the Home.—The true home is the brightest spot since the Garden of Eden; but it does not make itself, or come by chance. In building a glad and happy household, each one has a part to perform, and God’s choicest blessing comes only when all the members stand in their place and do their duty. The happy home grows out of a union of hearts and hands toward one cherished end. One person alone may do much, but no one can do all that is required. The best is only when there is sympathetic and harmonious blending together, like the different parts of music. When either part fails, there is discord and loss. Complete concert of action between husband and wife is a necessity in any well-ordered home. Perfect confidence and affection must exist between them. To draw apart, tears. To make the home the happiest and most helpful place in the world, each must give the best to it. Not to society, not to business, not to outside intimates, but to the family circle, must the choicest gleanings be brought from all the fields of life, as the bee brings to his hive, and not elsewhere, honey from all the sweetest flowers. The husband has an important sphere. The more he gives to the home, the more it will give to him. The more he is to it, the more it will be to him and to the world. His dividend will be in proportion to his investment. Some complain that their home joys are meagre. Let them remember how mean and beggarly are their contributions. They cannot reap where they do not sow. If they will, they can make the home a source of perennial comfort to themselves, and the means of blessing to many. It should be a bright beacon in this world’s night. The word “husband” means a house-band; a band of strength around the home, upholding, protecting, and keeping it together. The home was the first institution God made. The germs of the State and the Church are in it. The husband, as the head of the home, stands at the beginning of all the worthiest elements of Society. In the household he plants the seeds of religion for the Church, and of authority for the State. The family is the spring-head of the nation, the source of its purest spiritual and civil life. It is plain what manner of man the husband ought to be. The husband in the model home must love his wife. St. Paul says, “Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” These are strong words—Bible words. The Bible is the marriage ring. Marriage begins in love. It must continue and end there. The husband must see that the early, tender affection never fails; that the gentle tone of life’s morning does not grow harsh. He must love the wife down through old age, and on through fading youthful beauty, to the sunset years, with a love that makes wrinkles beautiful, and infirmities seem precious. Tell her how much you love her still. Tell it more and more, as the years go on. Never allow the white roses of affection to fade on your lips, and your mouth to grow dumb. A cold silence is a mildew. Some wives would be surprised to hear expressions of endearment from their husbands now. All that ceased long, long ago. Let the husband show his love by his presence, not leaving her, and deserting the home the long evening through, when he can help it. Let the husband cherish his wife, and appreciate what she does, causing her to feel that he sees and esteems her service. Let little attentions never cease, nor delicate thoughtfulness for her welfare. Let the husband shelter his wife under his strong arm, and smooth her path. Let him protect her and stand by her in her cares and trials, and know that she will never look to him in vain. Let him provide for her reasonable wants, that she come not into embarrassment, and feel that he demeans her. Ill temper and hasty words on his part—these are not for the happy home. Some seem to be more considerate of their horse and dog than of their wives, but many a husband is a mule. The true husband will be mindful of his wife’s good, and not indifferent to her, for in his smile she lives, and in his frown is chill. A husband’s love is the sunshine of the wife. It brings out her beauty of soul, as a spring morning opens the flowers, and sustains her in her deeper needs. Selfishness and disregard to the interests and happiness of the wife, planting one’s own self in the centre, and absorbing every good thing in one’s own greed, the wife drudging and denying herself for her husband, as the slave for his lord—running to serve his every whim;—this is not found on heathen ground alone. There are home heathens. Genuine love casts out selfishness, and ennobles the heart. It makes it generous and self-denying for all others’ sakes. Husbands, love your wives. These are some of the benefits that flow out of domestic love, and in proportion as this love ceases these benefits fail. What if love has ceased already? Do these things and it will come back, as the seeds begin to open when the spring sun shines again. Let the husband honour his wife. Peter says, “Ye husbands, give honour unto the wife, as being joint heirs of the grace of life.” Honour her by caring for her needs. In the hard places of life, stand by her side, and give her true sympathy. When children are ill, and burdens press, let her feel that she has a stronghold in you, and give her your comfort. Because she is your wife, you owe her what, without you, she can never have. Bland and polite as treacle some are to guests and outsiders, while in their homes they are domineering and exacting, finding fault with the wife, and criticising her before the children, blaming her for the mishaps, with seldom a kind word. “Oh, it is only my wife!” This is the gilt edge of married life, in a guilty age. Do you say you have no time for all these trifles? In the perfect home there are no trifles. “It is trifles that make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” Honour her by sharing your joys with her, as she shares all your cares, taking on herself in the family the heaviest part. Allow her to be with you when she can, to go with you when she may, and to enter into your life. Do not add to her crosses by leaving her to doubt you. Do not lay up food for sad reflection when death comes, and plant thorns in your pillow against that hour. The time to love, honour, and help her, is when these things are needed. When death has entered, and plucked the lilies from her cheek, it will be too late then to lighten her lot, or speak her praises. Honour her by taking her into counsel with you. She will be wise with a true woman’s wisdom. Insight and intuition are her gift, and she will give her husband her best thought, and be happy that it is sought. In all the affairs of life, a true woman’s judgment has its uses. Many a man has failed for want of it. The counsel at his elbow would have saved him had he sought it. Thus honouring her, she will be made strong. Then, if he takes her into counsel, and honours her in his successes, when failures and reverses come, and trouble and misfortune sweep over them, as they do sometimes over the best and most prosperous, she will, in turn, grandly stand by him and become his polar star, enduring every hardship for his sake with sweet and abiding cheerfulness and courage, never breathing a murmur of complaint. Be worthy of her, and you will find she will be worthy of you. Your lives will develop together. Let the husband be faithful and true to his wife. The evils that I have been speaking of are the little foxes that spoil the vines. But intemperance and infidelity are what Dr. Abbott calls the wolves that destroy the home. The Lord Bishop of Durham founded the White Cross League. It asserts that the time will come when fatherhood will take its place beside motherhood, its Divine counterpart, as equal sharers in the cares which have so ennobled women as to make some of them akin to angels. The pledge of this order declares: “I will maintain the law of purity as equally binding on men and women. I will endeavour to spread these principles among my companions, and try to help my younger brothers. I will use every means to fulfil the sacred command, ‘Keep thyself pure.’ ” If the wife be led into sin, she is denounced and cast off as a thing unclean, with little effort for her reform; yet through all the husband’s excesses and untruth to her, and drunkenness and dishonour, she clings to him, pleading and toiling to draw him back into the true path. How the husband owes it to such a being to keep his marriage vows in all fidelity and truth! I have spoken of the little foxes and the wolves of the home. The vampire of wedded life is where an alien comes in between husband and wife, under sanction and authority of the husband, and frets, almost to breaking, the marriage tie, and sucks out the pure joys of connubial life. Every husband should be a Christian in heart and life, and unite with the wife in faith and prayer and the service of God. He should join with her in the training of the children for usefulness here and for heaven hereafter. The husband should not let the wife pray alone. The whole household needs it. He should not allow her to go alone to church. He requires it as much as she. He should be with her at the communion table. Above all, he should not leave to her the Christian education of the children. Alone in this, the wife is a bird with one wing. It is a great wrong to the wife, to put all these trying and difficult duties on her, when God lays them equally on him. Some of the most important ones can only be done by him. Others require their united Christian effort, the closest conference of Christian hearts. A married couple can never be truly one, in the greatest and profoundest interests of life, until both are Christians. The most sacred and blessed side of the soul, that bordering on eternity, they cannot walk together in, until they together know the Lord. How many times does a mother’s heart ache for the aid a Christian father could give to her, when perplexed in the household, when things are at cross purposes, and the load seems heavier than she can bear! How barren, after all, is wedded joy, to live together on earth, and for earth only, without the bright hope of dwelling together in eternity, meeting there, never more to part! That home cannot be happiest which looks for no reunion in heaven. The happiest home is always the Christian home, where husband and wife are one at the family altar, as one in interests and affection.—C. L. Goodell, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:7 In the same way: Like slaves and wives (2:18–3:6), husbands also have a particular responsibility within the household. • She may be weaker than you are: Peter was probably thinking of the woman’s physical strength and perhaps her social status. Since women are typically physically weaker than men and were often less able to assert themselves in that society, the husband had the duty of protecting and caring for his wife. • your equal partner in God’s gift of new life: The husband’s headship is balanced and informed by the equal status that men and women have before God (see also Gal 3:26-29). • The prayers of a husband are hindered if he does not give exceptional honor to his wife (cp. Jas 4:3).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Pe 3:7. Ὁμοίως, in like manner) The likeness does not refer to special duties, some of which belong to the wife, and others to the husband; but to the foundation of love: thus, in like manner, ch. 1Pe 5:5.—γυῶσιν, knowledge) The master shows gentleness, ch. 1Pe 2:18; the husband γυῶσιν. Γνῶσις, which has regard to the weaker vessel, implies moderation, and produces γνώμην [judgment, kindly judiciousness, friendly advice]; respecting which word, see 1Co 7:25, note. Therefore it excludes all violence, by which the weaker are struck with terror [1Pe 3:6], especially that caused by anger. Adam furnished a remarkable example of the dominion exercised by a husband tempered with moderation, who himself gave name to his wife, and gave her the power of naming her children.—ὡς, as) It is twice used here: in the former place it refers to γνώσιν, moderation; in the other, to τιμὴν, honour. The weakness of the vessel requires moderation; the inheritance enjoins honour (which implies more).—ἀσθενεστέρῳ, to the weaker) The comparative: even the man has weakness.—σκεύει, vessel) This denotes the sex and entire disposition and temperament of woman.—τῷ γυναικείῳ) Τὸ γυναικεῖον, absolutely: that is, women.—ἀπονέμοντες τιμὴν, giving honour) This is said in accordance with the command, that women should be in subjection. Comp. ch. 1Pe 2:17.—τιμὴν, honour) viz. that of a just opinion respecting them, of kindness, and of a chaste conversation. Comp. in honour, 1Th 4:4.—συγκληρονόμοι) Others read συγκληρονόμοις:[25] but the apostle is prescribing to husbands their duties towards their wives of whatever character, even towards those who do not believe the word. Comp. 1Pe 3:1. See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage.—συγκληρονόμοι, joint-heirs) Heirs together with other believers. The reason why the husband ought to show moderation towards the wife, is derived from the weakness of the wife; the reason why the husband ought to give honour to the wife, is derived from the fact, that God also gives honour to the man, as to an heir. The hope of eternal glory makes men noble-minded and mild. There is a similar argument shortly afterwards in 1Pe 3:9, Bless, inasmuch as ye are called to inherit a blessing. The nominative case, joint-heirs, elegantly corresponds with the word dwelling together with them. Husbands are said to be joint-heirs, not with their wives, but with all the faithful. Comp. συνεκλεκτὴ, elected together with you, ch. 1Pe 5:13.—ἐγκόπτεσθαι) Some few read ἐγκόπτεσθαι.[26] The Hebrew phrases in Schœttgenius agree with both the Greek words: and indeed עקר with the word ἐκκόπτεσθαι, where barrenness is treated of, through which children fail, who otherwise arise in succession to their parents through prayer: עכב and עכר with the word ἐγκόπτεσθαι, where sins which are a hindrance to prayers are treated of. This therefore is the better reading. For the apostle wishes that the prayers of husbands should not even be hindered or interrupted. But they are interrupted by intemperance and wrath, 1Co 7:5; and there is no time in which the recollection of injuries occurs to one more, than when engaged in prayer:[27] and to those who do not forgive, our heavenly Father does not forgive, although they pray.—προσευχάς, prayers) by which you gain that inheritance, and seek the salvation of your wives. Comp. note on 1Ti 2:8.

[25] Tisch. and Elzev. Rec. Text read συγκληρονόμοις, with Vulg. and Syr. and inferior MSS. The reading of B is doubtful. But the weightiest authorities, AC later Syr. and Stephens’ Rec. Text have συγκληρονόμοι: and so rightly Lachm.—E.

[26] AB read ἐγκόπτεσθαι: so Lachm.: and so Vulg. Memph. “impediantur.” None of the oldest authorities, except both Syr. Versions, support ἐκκόπτεσθαι, which is the reading of Rec. Text and Tisch.—E.

[27] It not seldom happens that, at the time when a quarrel has broken out among friends, neighbours, colleagues, and the learned, so as to take possession of the mind day and night, prayer ceases altogether.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe_3:7. οἱ ἄνδρες ὁμοίως] ὁμοίως, with the participle following, refers back, as in 1Pe_3:1, to ὑποτάγητε πάσῃ ἄνθρ. κτίσει, with which the exhortation begins (Hofmann); though there is no ὑποτασσόμενοι (cf. 1Pe_2:18, 1Pe_3:1), there lies something corresponding to it in the fact that the wife on her part possesses a τιμή to be acknowledged by the husband. Pott erroneously renders ὁμοίως by vicissim, on the other hand; nor is it, as de Wette thinks probable, to be expanded: in like manner, ye men also, hear my exhortation.

συνοικοῦντες] συνοικεῖν (ἅπ. λεγ.) is not a euphemismus de tori conjugalis consuetudine (Hieronym. contra Jovian, lib. l. c. 4; Augustin. in Psalms 146., etc.); the reference is rather to life together at home.

κατὰ γνῶσιν] As γνῶσις is here anarthrous, it is wrong to understand γνῶσις as referring directly to Christian recognition of the relation of wife to husband (Brückner, Schott); κατὰ γνῶσιν is rather an adverbial expression, in which γνῶσις is to be understood generally, as Wiesinger correctly remarks: according to recognition, i.e. so that home life must be regulated by knowledge and understanding (so also Hofmann). Similar adverbial expressions, formed by a conjunction of κατά with an anarthrous subst., occur frequently both in classical and N. T. Greek. It is evident from the context that κατὰ γνῶσιν has here special reference to the marriage relation; but from this it does not follow that the interpretation: in a judicious, discerning manner, or Luthers: with reason, is incorrect (in opposition to Brückner and Schott). De Wette is completely mistaken in rendering γνῶσις by: that knowledge of men and self, in fact, that inward discernment, which is the condition of all moderation, as is Bengel also directly by: moderatio.[176]

ὡς ἀσθενεστέρῳ σκεύει τῷ γυναικείῳ] is erroneously connected by Luther and others with ἀπονέμοντες; it belongs, however, to συνοικοῦντες, which requires a nearer definition.

The word σκεῦος is used to designate the wife in 1Th_4:4 (see Lünemann in loc.) with reference to the husband; the same meaning, though with various applications, is here attributed to it by many interpreters. Beza: est femina vas i. e. comes et adjutrix viro ad fideliter coram Deo transigendam vitam adjuncta; Bengel: denotat hoc sexum et totum ingenium temperamentumque foemineum. But this view is incorrect, for τῷ γυναικείῳ, sc. σκεύει, is subjoined by way of explanation, and the comparative ἀσθ. shows that the husband also is thought of as σκεῦος. σκεῦος must be taken here in its specific meaning of a utensil (or instrument) serving a particular purpose, and is accordingly to be understood as specially applicable to man, in so far as the latter is used by God for the accomplishment of His will (cf. Act_9:15). It is inaccurate, nor can it be justified by Rom_9:21 ff., to take the word in the general sense of creation (so Wiesinger, and formerly in this commentary). Hofmann understands σκεῦος here as referring both to the husband and the wife, inasmuch as in a life united in marriage, one part is destined to be and to accomplish something for the other; but the reference to this mutual relation is purely arbitrary.[177]

ἈΣΘΕΝΕΣΤΈΡῼ] Bengel: Comparativus, etiam vir habet infirmitatem; in like manner Steiger: the less weak is called upon to assist the more weak (thus also Fronmüller). This view is, however, incorrect; it is the husband rather as the stronger ΣΚΕῦΟςthere is no reference made here to his weaknesswho is here contrasted with the wife as the weaker (de Wette, Wiesinger, Schott, Hofmann). And, because he is such a ΣΚΕῦΟς, it is demanded of him that he live with his wife ΚΑΤᾺ ΓΝῶΣΙΝ; Ὡς here also states the reason: because the wife is a ΣΚ. ἈΣΘΕΝΕΝΈΣΤΕΡΟΝ, it is accordingly incumbent on the man to behave towards her ΚΑΤᾺ ΓΝῶΣΙΝ. Schott erroneously sees in ΚΑΤᾺ ΓΝῶΣΙΝ the determining reason why the man should treat her as a ΣΚ. ἈΣΘ.; but this can the less be maintained, that Κ. ΓΝ. cannot signify: because he recognises her as such, but states the manner of the ΣΥΝΟΙΚΕῖΝ.

ἈΣΘΕΝΕΣΤΈΡῼ ΣΚΕΎΕΙ stands in apposition to Τῷ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΊῼ, sc. σκεύει, and is put first by way of emphasis.

ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕῖΟς, ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ., Lev_18:22; Deu_22:5, LXX.; Est_2:11; Est_2:17.

ἈΠΟΝΈΜΟΝΤΕς ΤΙΜΉΝ] in that ye show honour (respect) to them; ἀπονέμειν in the N. T. ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ.

The participle is not co-ordinate with the foregoing (ΣΥΝΟΙΚΟῦΝΤΕς), but subordinate to it, since it brings prominently forward one of the chief ways in which the preceding exhortation may be carried into effect. The thought here must not be arbitrarily limited to any special relation (e.g. to that of maintenance or of continence, etc.). The husband should, in every relation, show the respect due to his wife.

ὡς καὶ συγκληρονόμοις[-οι] χάριτος ζωῆς] serves as ground of the exhortation; if the reading be: ΣΥΓΚΛΗΡΟΝΌΜΟΙς, the reference is to the wives; if ΣΥΓΚΛΗΡΟΝΌΜΟΙ, to the husbands (in opposition to Pott, who somewhat singularly interprets as equal to ΕἸΣΙ ΓᾺΡ ΣΥΓΚΛΗΡΟΝΌΜΟΙ, sc. αἱγυναῖκες). The dative is more in harmony with the structure of the sentence and the thought, and therefore is to be preferred to the nom. supported by the authorities; although the nom. may be defended on the ground that husbands, as ΣΥΓΚΛ. of their wives, should in turn regard the latter as their ΣΥΓΚΛ. But since this last is really the point of importance, it can hardly be assumed that the apostle would only have hinted at itwithout openly giving expression to it.[178]

ΚΑῚ ΣΥΓΚΛΗΡΟΝΌΜΟΙς] de Wette-Brückner explain: as (those who) also (like yourselves) (are) fellow-heirs (one with another). The reference here attributed to συνsimply on account of ΚΑΊis inappropriate, since it is a thought entirely foreign to the context, that the wives are heirs with each other. If the reading συγκληρονόμοις be adopted, ΣΥΝ applies to the husbands, equivalent to with you; καί may stand with reference to the foregoing ἈΣΘΕΝΕΣΤΈΡῼ, adding a second particular to it (Schott); or it may also serve simply to intensify ΣΥΝ, since, strictly speaking, it is redundant.[179] If, however, συγκληρονόμοι be read, καί is to be taken in the latter way, and is not to be explained thus: by ἀπονέμοντες something further is enjoined, which goes beyond the … κατὰ γνῶσιν (Hofmann); for συνοικοῦντες κατὰ γνῶσιν stands imperatively, whilst συγκληρονόμοι does not say what the husbands should be, but what they are. With the idea κληρονόμοι, cf. chap. 1Pe_1:4; the expression συγκληρ., Rom_8:17; Eph_3:6; Heb_11:9.

χάριτος ζωῆς] ζωῆς states in what the χάρις, of which they are and will be κληρονόμοι, consists. It is erroneous to resolve the expression into χάρις ζῶσα (Erasmus) or χάρις ζωοποιοῦσα (Grotius). Hofmann, assuming συγκληρονόμοι ποικίλης χάριτος ζωῆς to be the true reading, gives an interpretation different from the above: as such who, with their wives, share a life of manifold grace, i.e. of those divine favours which are experienced in common in every marriage by believers and unbelievers. In this way, however, justice is done to neither of the ideas, nor is it pointed out what the favours in married life referred to are.[180]

εἰς τὸ μὴ ἐγκόπτεσθαι, (Rec. ἐκκόπτεσθαι) τὰς προσευχὰς ὑμῶν] ἐγκόπτειν, strictly, incidere, then intercidere, from which arises the further meaning impedire (Hes. ἐμποδίζειν, διακωλύειν); ἐκκόπτειν, pr. excidere, whence stirpitus delere; cf. Job_19:10, LXX.: ἐξέκοψε δὲ ὥσπερ δένδρον τὴν ἐλπίδα μου; the idea of the latter word is stronger than that of the former, but the thought in both readings remains substantially the same, since both expressions denote the ceasing of prayer. Wiesinger incorrectly understands the meaning of the term ἐγκόπτ. to be: prayer in the meantime there still is, but the way is closed to it. In like manner de Wette, following Bretschneider: ne viam praecludatis precibus vestris, remarks: Prayer is by sin hindered from mounting up to the throne of God; and such is in substance Hofmanns view.[181] This idea would, however, have been more definitely expressed. The apostle does not say that the power and the hearing of prayer are hindered, but that the prayer itself is (this also in opposition to Reiche). In harmony with the connection of this last clause, by τὰς προσευχὰς ὑμῶν is to be understood either the joint prayer of married persons (Weiss, p. 352),[182] or the prayers which those here addressed offer up, as the husbands of their wives (or, further, as heads of households). Depreciation of the wife, in spite of union with respect to the ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΊΑ, necessarily excludes prayer from married life.[183] Schott: Where the husband does not recognise that the union of natural life in marriage is also union in the state of grace, there can naturally be no expression of the spiritual and Christian fellowship of marriage, no prayer in common.

[176] Oecumenius understands this exhortation in connection with ver. 6 as having a special application to the household: οἱ ἄνδρες … συνοικῦντες· τουτέστιν: αἴσθησιν λαμβάνοντες τῆς τοῦ θήλεος κουφότητος καὶ τοῦ εὐπαραφόρου ἐν πᾶσι, καὶ εἰς μικροψυχίαν εὐολίσθου, μακρόθυμοι γίνεσθε πρὸς αὐτὰς, μὴ λόγον ἀπαιτοῦντες πικρῶς τῶν κατὰ τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτῶν εἰς ταμιείαν παρακατεθέτων.

[177] Schott arbitrarily asserts that the creature is here termed σκεῦος, as a vessel which is destined to receive into itself, as its real contents, the realization of the divine will. Even though a vessel containing something can be termed a σκεῦος, it does not follow that σκεῦος must be understood as meaning this and nothing else.

[178] In the 2d edition of this Commentary it was said: Why should not the apostle base his exhortation to the men to honour their wives, by reminding them (the men) that they are called to inherit the χάρις ζωῆς along with their wives? Reiche says: scilicet quia absurdum(!) esset, sic argumentari; Brückner maintains that meaning to be altogether inappropriate and foreign to the purpose of the address. These assertions, however, can by no means be accepted, since the consciousness of being a fellow-heir of salvation with any one may very well lead to a recognition of the τιμή which he possesses. Nor is there anything improbable in the circumstance itself, that the apostle, whilst basing the exhortation: συνοικεῖν κατὰ γνῶσιν, on the position of the women, should ground the ἀπονέμειν τιμήν on the position of the men.Schott passes too lightly over the whole question.

[179] On the redundance of καί in comparisons, see Winer, p. 390 [E. T. 548]; but this use of it cannot be appealed to, since ὡς here is not a comparative particle. Wiesinger thinks that συν perhaps contains the reference to a community to which man and wife equally belong; but what this was, would have been indicated by the context, as Eph_3:6; such, however, is not the case here. To the expression strictly Reiche adds a?, without ever thinking that, since the same idea is expressed by καί and συν, one of the two must be redundant, and that strictly is only meant to show that καί is in so far not purely redundant, that it serves to strengthen the idea expressed by συν.

[180] There is no warrant for the opinion that the apostles exhortation must apply also to such husbands as have unbelieving wives, since a case so special might well have been passed over. If the apostle had wished to make reference to this, he would in some way have alluded to it; cf. ver. 1 ff.

[181] In this interpretation the reference to the coming of prayer to God is a simple importation. Hofmann adds to the interpretation, that the sighs of the wife bar the road to the husbands prayers, by accusing him to God before his prayer, thus rendered worthless, reaches Him. But this is a thought altogether foreign to the context.

[182] Although in ver. 7 it is the husbands who are addressed, still, as the verse treats of their behaviour towards their wives, ὑμῶν can well apply to both.

[183] Hieronymus, Oecumenius, etc., apply the words according to 1Co_7:3, ad honorem impertiendum uxoribus a viris, qui sit abstinentia a congressu, ut orationi vacare possint (Lorinus), which is connected with the false interpretation of συνοικοῦντες; Nicol. de Lyra says more correctly: cum vir et uxor non sunt bene Concordes, minus possunt orationi vacare. The Scholion in Matthaei, p. 199, is inadequate: ὁ γὰρ περὶ τὴν οἰκίαν θόρυβος τῶν κατὰ Θεὸν ἔργων ἐμπόδιον.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 3:7 . Duty of husbands to their wives . Application of principle πάντας τιμήσατε . κατὰ γνῶσιν , for the woman is the weaker vessel the pot which the stronger the cauldron may easily smash ( Sir 13:2 ). ὡς , κ . τ . λ . point with comma after γνῶσιν and τιμήν . σκεύει . The comparison of Creator and creature to potter and clay is found first in Isa 29:16 , but is latent in the description of the creation ( יצר ) of Adam from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7 f.). In the prophets it is developed and applied variously (Isa 45:9 f., Isa 64:8 ; Jer 18:6 ). In Sap. 15:7, there is an elaborate description of the maker of clay images, in which σκεῦος replaces πλάσμα and vessels which serve clean uses are distinguished from the contrary sort . Thence St. Paul adopts the figure and employs it to illustrate the absolute sovereignty of the Creator, as Isaiah had done (see Rom 9:21 ), distinguishing vessels intended for honour from those intended for dishonour . Lastly 2Ti 2:20 exemplifies the particular application of the figure, on which Peter’s use of σκεῦος rests ἐν μεγάλῃ δὲ οἰκίᾳ (1Pe 2:5 ; 1Pe 4:17 ) … κ . τ . λ . The comparative ἀσθενεστέρῳ proves that both husband and wife are vessels and assists to exclude the notion that St. Paul could mean to call a wife the vessel of her husband in 1Th 4:4 . ὡς … ζωῆς , inasmuch as they are also heirs with you of the grace (1Pe 1:10 ; 1Pe 1:13 ) of life (1Pe 2:24 ): the heavenly inheritance is not distributed according to earthly custom, which gave the wife no rights of her own. εἰς … ὑμῶν . If the prayers are those of all (1Pe 3:8 ) compare 1Co 7 . ( τὴν ὀφειλὴν ἀποδιδότω … ἵνα σχολάσητε τῇ προσευχῇ ). Peter teaches that married life need not if the wife be properly honoured hinder religious duties, as St. Paul feared (1Co 7:32 ff.). If ὑμῶν = you husbands (as v.l. συγκληρονόμοι requires) cf. Jas 5:4 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He teacheth husbands also their duties, to wit, that the more understanding and wisdom they have, the more wisely and circumspectly they behave themselves.

Do all the duties of wedlock.

The more wisdom the husband hath, the more circumspectly he must behave himself in bearing those commodities, which through the woman’s weakness ofttimes cause trouble both to the husband and the wife.

The second argument, because the wife notwithstanding that she is weaker by nature than the man, is an excellent instrument of the man made to far most excellent uses: whereupon it followeth that she is not therefore to be neglected because she is weak, but on the contrary part she ought to be so much the more cared for.

Having an honest care of her.

The woman is called a vessel after the manner of the Hebrews, because the husband useth her as his fellow and helper to live faithfully before God.

The third argument: for that they are equal in that which is the chiefest (that is to say, in the benefit of eternal life) which otherwise are unequal as touching the governance and conversation at home, and therefore they are not to be despised although they be weak.

Of that gracious and free benefit whereby we have everlasting life given us.

The fourth argument: All brawlings and chidings must be eschewed, because they hinder prayers and the whole service of God whereunto both the husband and wife are equally called.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

dwell--Greek, "dwelling": connected with the verb, Pe1 2:17, "Honor all."

knowledge--Christian knowledge: appreciating the due relation of the sexes in the design of God, and acting with tenderness and forbearance accordingly: wisely: with wise consideration.

them . . . giving honour to the wife--translate and punctuate the Greek rather, "dwelling according to knowledge with the female (Greek adjective, qualifying 'vessel'; not as English Version, a noun) as with the weaker vessel (see on Th1 4:4. Both husband and wife are vessels in God's hand, and of God's making, to fulfil His gracious purposes. Both weak, the woman the weaker. The sense of his own weakness, and that she, like himself, is God's vessel and fabric, ought to lead him to act with tender and wise consideration towards her who is the weaker fabric), giving (literally, 'assigning,' 'apportioning') honor as being also (besides being man and wife) heirs together," &c.; or, as the Vatican manuscript reads, as to those who are also (besides being your wives) fellow heirs." (The reason why the man should give honor to the woman is, because God gives honor to both as fellow heirs; compare the same argument, Pe1 3:9). He does not take into account the case of an unbelieving wife, as she might yet believe.

grace of life--God's gracious gift of life (Pe1 1:4, Pe1 1:13).

that your prayers be not hindered--by dissensions, which prevent united prayer, on which depends the blessing.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. Dwell with them according to knowledge] Give your wives, by no species of unkind carriage, any excuse for delinquency. How can a man expect his wife to be faithful to him, if he be unfaithful to her? and vice versa.

Giving honour unto the wife] Using your superior strength and experience in her behalf, and thus honouring her by becoming her protector and support. But the word τιμη honour, signifies maintenance as well as respect;-maintain, provide for the wife.

As-the weaker vessel] Being mare delicately, and consequently more slenderly, constructed. Roughness and strength go hand in hand; so likewise do beauty and frailty. The female has what the man wants-beauty and delicacy. The male has what the female wants-courage and strength. The one is as good in its place as the other: and by these things God has made an equality between the man and the woman, so that there is properly very little superiority on either side. 1Th 4:4.

Being heirs together] Both the man and woman being equally called to eternal glory: and as prayer is one great means of obtaining a meetness for it, it is necessary that they should live together in such a manner as to prevent all family contentions, that they may not be prevented, by disputes or misunderstandings, from uniting daily in this most important duty-family and social prayer.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them. From husbands he requires prudence; for dominion over their wives is not given them, except on this condition, that they exercise authority prudently. Then let husbands remember that they need prudence to do rightly their duty. And doubtless many foolish things must be endured by them, many unpleasant things must be borne with; and they must at the same time beware lest their indulgence should foster folly. Hence the admonition of Peter is not in vain, that the husbands ought to cohabit with them as with a weaker vessel. Part of the prudence which he mentions, is, that the husbands honor their wives. For nothing destroys the friendship of life more than contempt; nor can we really love any but those whom we esteem; for love must be connected with respect.

Moreover, he employs a twofold argument, in order to persuade husbands to treat their wives honourably and kindly. The first is derived from the weakness of the sex; the other, from the honor with which God favors them. These things seem indeed to be in a manner contrary, — that honor ought to be given to wives, because they are weak, and because they excel; but these things well agree together where love exists. It is evident, that God is despised in his gifts, except we honor those on whom he has conferred any excellency. But when we consider that we are members of the same body, we learn to bear with one another, and mutually to cover our infirmities. This is what Paul means when he says that greater honor is given to the weaker members, (1 Corinthians 12:23;) even because we are more careful in protecting them from shame. Then Peter does not without reason command that women should be cared for, and that they should be honored with a kind treatment, because they are weak. And then as we more easily forgive children, when they offend through inexperience of age; so the weakness of the female sex ought to make us not to be too rigid and severe towards our wives.

The word vessel, as it is well known, means in Scripture any sort of instrument.

Being heirs together (or co-heirs) of the grace of life Some copies have “of manifold grace;” others, instead of “life,” have the word “living.” Some read “co-heirs” in the dative case, which makes no difference in the sense. A conjunction is put by others between manifold grace and life; which reading is the most suitable. For since the Lord is pleased to bestow in common on husbands and wives the same graces, he invites them to seek an equality in them; and we know that those graces are manifold in which wives are partakers with their husbands. For some belong to the present life, and some to God’s spiritual kingdom. He afterwards adds, that they are co-heirs also of life, which is the chief thing. And though some are strangers to the hope of salvation, yet as it is offered by the Lord to them no less than to their husbands, it is a sufficient honor to the sex.

That your prayers be not hindered For God cannot be rightly called upon, unless our minds be calm and peaceable. Among strifes and contentions there is no place for prayer. Peter indeed addresses the husband and the wife, when he bids them to be at peace one with another, so that they might with one mind pray to God. But we may hence gather a general doctrine — that no one ought to come to God except he is united to his brethren. Then as this reason ought to restrain all domestic quarrels and strifes, in order that each one of the family may pray to God; so in common life it ought to be as it were a bridle to check all contentions. For we are more than insane, if we knowingly and wilfully close up the way to God’s presence by prayer, since this is the only asylum of our salvation.

Some give this explanation, that an intercourse with the wife ought to be sparing and temperate, lest too much indulgence in this respect should prevent attention to prayer, according to that saying of Paul,

“Defraud not one another, unless by consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” (1 Corinthians 7:5.)

But the doctrine of Peter extends wider: and then Paul does not mean that prayers are interrupted by mutual cohabitation. Therefore the explanation which I have given ought to be retained.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(7) Likewise, ye husbands.—The subjection is not to be all one-sided, though the husband’s subjection to the wife will be of a different kind from the wife’s to him. We are hardly to take this as a separate paragraph from the foregoing, but rather as a corollary added to it, to correct a false impression that might otherwise have been conveyed.

Dwell.—Rather, dwelling. The participle is attached to the previous sentences, just as in 1Pe_2:16; 1Pe_2:18; 1Pe_3:1; but St. Peter does not like to say to the husbands “submitting yourselves” (though it is implied in the “likewise”), and conveys the deference which the husbands are to pay under other terms: such as “according to knowledge,” “giving honour.”

With them.—The whole order of the sentences needs re-arrangement as follows: Ye husbands, likewise, dwelling according to knowledge, as with a weaker vessel, with what is female, apportioning honour as to joint heirs also of a grace of life. In order to understand this very hard passage, we must remember what is St. Peter’s object all throughout these instructions, viz., to commend Christianity to jealous watchers without. Here, therefore, we may well suppose that he is thinking chiefly of the case of believing husbands (Jewish) married to unbelieving wives (Jewish also), thus presenting the counter-picture to that of 1Pe_3:1. And the first thing is that they are to “dwell with” these wives, not to divorce them, nor to cease from conjugal cohabitation with them; such harshness would lend very little attractiveness to the Christian religion among the Jewish homes to which the divorced wife would turn. (See 1Co_7:12 et seq.—a passage which must almost have been in St. Peter’s mind.)

According to knowledge.—This phrase, which is like an adverb, such as “scientifically, intelligently,” means that the husband is to study to enter into the whole bearings of the case, to take everything into account. Husband and wife will not get on together smoothly at haphazard, without pains taken to understand the situation. (See 1Th_4:4; “you should know.”)

Unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel.—Or rather, as we now take it, as with a weaker vessel, with what is female. This explains the saying “according to knowledge.” The thing which the husband is specially to understand and take into account is that he is dealing with a thing less strong than himself. The whole of chivalry is in these words, and St. Peter (next after Christ) may be considered the founder of it. Weakness itself, by being weakness, has a claim upon the strong man’s deference and self-submission. The weakness here ascribed to the female sex is primarily that of the body, as we shall see when we consider the word “vessel,” though it may, perhaps, indicate frailty in other respects as well. If the word “vessel” is to be here a description of a “wife,” as some contend on 1Th_4:4, in a sense in which it does not equally describe a husband, it is difficult to see with what the vessel is compared and pronounced weaker. “Dwell with the female as with a more delicate vessel or instrument” than what? If we answer “than yourselves,” it becomes clear that the husbands are, by implication, less delicate vessels. And this is the case. In the Note on 1Th_4:4, it has been shown that the word “vessel” (whether as receptacle or as instrument) is a description of the body, or rather of the self as manifested in the body. The word in itself may be used to describe anything made to be serviceable—machinery, tackle and gear, pots and pans, and, in fact, any kind of apparatus or implement—and here it might be very fairly rendered, “as with a weaker thing or object.” That which is translated “the wife” is really a neuter adjective, and it is a question whether we are to supply with it the noun “vessel”—“with the female [vessel] as with a vessel which is weaker”—or whether it is to stand absolutely, “the female,” as we say “the good,” “the evil”—i.e., “that which is female.” The latter seems, on the whole, simpler and more forcible, as calling closer attention to the fact of weakness being inherent in the sex.

Giving honour.—The word for “giving” implies rendering a portion which is due. And what is here called “honour” is not to be understood only of the wife’s maintenance (as some say), though such is probably the interpretation of the word in 1Ti_5:17, and comp. Exo_21:10; nor is the wife only to be honoured by being consulted in affairs of moment and put in charge of the household. The “honour” to be accorded to wives “as to joint heirs of a grace of life” is the same kind of “honour” as St. Paul, in 1Th_4:4, says must be accorded to oneself. Indeed, from the juxtaposition of three significant words there, we can hardly escape the conclusion that St. Peter was remembering that passage of St. Paul, “that every one of you should know how to obtain possession of the vessel of himself in sanctification and honour.” It is that chaste respect for the wife which is meant in the Prayer Book by the phrase, “With my body I thee worship.” It means that the husband must not dare to take any liberties with his wife. Would the Christian husband be likely to approve his religion to the unbelieving wife if she found that he took a coarse view of the conjugal tie?

And as being heirs together of the grace of life.—There is here a very intricate question of readings, on which it depends whether the “heirs” are to be nominative or dative, the husbands or the wives. The present annotator prefers, on the whole, to follow Tischendorf, and read the dative, “paying respect as to persons who are also joint heirs (i.e., with you) of a grace of life.” Happily, it comes to much the same thing, the only difference being that in the one case deference is paid to the wife on the ground of her possessing a joint dignity with the husband, and in the other case on the ground that the husband does not possess his dignity except conjointly with the wife. That dignity which they conjointly “inherit”—i.e., possess as a gift from God—is called “the grace (or perhaps, a grace) of life.” This is generally interpreted to mean, “the gracious gift of everlasting life.” Undoubtedly, “life” is often used absolutely in the New Testament to mean eternal life—e.g., Mat_18:8; and it gives a very intelligible sense, that the husband should reverence the wife as being equally with himself an everlasting soul. But this neither gives sufficient force to the conjoint nature of the possession, nor does it take into account the possibility of such a case as, in fact, we suppose to be here intended, viz., of a believing husband and unbelieving wife. Although, in a sense, “the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband” (1Co_7:14), yet not in such a sense as for them to be called conjoint possessors of eternal life. It seems best, therefore, to suppose that the “grace (or dower) of life” which husband and wife hold, not only in common, but conjointly, is life in the natural sense. This “grace,” this mysterious and divine gift—not apart from one another, but conjointly—they are privileged by the Creator’s primeval benediction (Gen_1:28) to transmit. They have the power (no Archangel has the like) to bring human beings into existence. And in consideration that such is the dignity and the intention of marriage, a man may well be called upon to revere his partner in the great prerogative.

That your prayers be not hindered—i.e., the husbands’ prayers, not necessarily their prayers with their wives. It is easy to feel how the consciousness of having treated a wife with less awe than is indicated by the foregoing words would clog the man’s prayers, whether for himself or for his wife’s conversion—the latter being, probably, what St. Peter chiefly meant. Very likely he had in view what St. Paul writes in 1Co_7:5.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. dwell with them according to knowledge] It is significant that while the Apostle dwells emphatically on the case of Christian women who have unbelieving husbands, his exhortations to men seem to take for granted that their wives were of one mind with them. In the then existing state of society this was, of course, natural enough. The wife might be converted without the husband, but hardly the husband without the wife. The word for “dwell together” (not found elsewhere) is clearly intended to cover all the relations of married life. In those relations men were to act “according to knowledge,” i.e. with a clear perception of all that marriage involved, and of the right relation in which each of the two parties to the contract stood to the other. The wife was not to be treated as a slave or a concubine, nor again as the ruler and mistress of the house, but as a helpmeet in the daily work of life, a sharer in its higher hopes and duties, the mother of children to be brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel] The word for “giving,” not found elsewhere in the New Testament, implies an equitable apportionment, that for “wife” is strictly an adjective agreeing with “vessel,” and would therefore be rightly rendered by female. In the term “vessel,” which finds a parallel in 1Th_4:4, we have the thought that all, men and women alike, are “instruments” which God has made for His service (comp. 2Ti_2:20-21). The husband is bound to think of himself in that light. He must recognise himself as the stronger vessel of the two, and therefore, because noblesse oblige, he must render due honour to the weaker, seeking to strengthen and purify and elevate it.

as being heirs together of the grace of life] The MSS. present various readings, some making the word “heirs” refer to the husbands and some to the wives. As, in either case, stress is laid on their being joint heirs, there is practically no difference. The “life” in which both are thus called to be sharers is, of course, none other than the eternal life which consists in knowing God. (Joh_17:3.)

that your prayers be not hindered] Some MSS. give a stronger form of the verb, “that your prayers be not cut off (or, stopped).” The more natural interpretation is that which refers the pronoun to both the husband and the wife. Where there was no reciprocated respect, each recognising the high vocation of the other, there could be no union of heart and soul in prayer. Where the husband thought of the wife only as ministering to his comfort or his pleasures, as one whom he might, as both Jewish and Roman law permitted, repudiate at will, there could be no recognition of the fact that she shared his highest hopes. The words clearly include, though they do not dwell on them, the special hindrances to prayer referred to in 1Co_7:3-5.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them,.... "With your wives", as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions read; which not only included dwelling together in the same house, and bedding together in the same bed, but the whole of conjugal conversation, and all the offices and duties incumbent on men in a married state:

according to knowledge; of themselves, and their wives, and the duties belonging to the conjugal state, and the laws of God and man respecting it; and according to their knowledge of the Gospel, and the Christian dispensation, which no ways breaks in upon, but strengthens and encourages to the observance of things belonging to natural religion, and civil life; and according to that superior knowledge of things, which, generally speaking, men have to women; as also wisely, prudently, becoming their characters as men and Christians:

particularly giving honour to the wife; by speaking well of her, and respectfully to her, and by deeds as well as words; not only by clothing her in a decent and becoming manner, suitable to her station; but by providing everything honest and comely for her, food and raiment, a suitable maintenance, all the necessaries, conveniences, and delights of life, that are laudable and proper; in which sense the word honour is used in Ti1 5:3 and this was agreeably to the doctrine of the Jews (q), who say,

"let a man always take care , "of the glory of his wife"; for there is no blessing found in a man's house, but for the sake of his wife, as it is said, Gen 12:16 "and he entreated Abraham well for her sake": and Rabba used to say to the citizens, , "honour your wives", that ye may be rich.

And indeed this is what they promised in their marriage contract, which runs thus (r):

"be thou unto me for a wife, according to the law of Moses and Israel, and I, by the word of heaven, or God, will worship, "and honour", and nourish, and take care of thee, according to the custom of the Jews, who worship, and "honour", and nourish, and take care of their wives.

As unto the weaker vessel; so in Th1 4:4 the wife is called a vessel; see Gill on Th1 4:4, and here "the weaker"; being so for the most part, both as to strength of body, and endowments of mind; and therefore to be used gently and tenderly, and not be treated with neglect and contempt, or with inhumanity and severity; but as, in every state and condition, the strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak; so a man should bear with, and accommodate himself to the infirmities of his wife, and hide them as much as he can, and not expose them, nor despise her on account of them. It is a saying of the Jews (s),

"if thy wife be short of stature, bow thyself, and whisper to her.

The meaning of the proverb is, that he ought to suit himself to her capacity and weakness:

and as being heirs together of the grace of life; not of a natural life, and the good things of it; though husbands and wives partake of the same kind of life, and have a right unto, and share in the same necessaries of life; so Adam and Eve were partakers of the same life, and sharers of the same benefits; and which is a reason indeed why they ought to live lovingly together: but something more is intended; not the external gifts of the Spirit, which, unless in some few instances, are bestowed on men, and not on women; nor the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, which are the means of grace and life; though men and women, called by grace, have an equal right to them, and enjoy them; see Gal 3:28 but grace here, and glory hereafter, are here meant. Some copies, as the Alexandrian, and others, read, "heirs together of the manifold grace of life"; God's own people, without any difference as to sex, as men and women, equally share in grace, as it signifies the love and favour of God; which is the same to all the objects, as to the date of it, which is from everlasting, one not being loved before another; and as to the quality of it, which is free, sovereign, special, discriminating and unchangeable, one being loved not with one sort of love, another with another; and as to the quantity of it, it not admitting of more or less; and as to the duration, which is for ever: and so they are heirs of it, as it denotes the blessings of grace; being equally heirs of, and sharers in electing, redeeming, justifying, pardoning, and adopting grace: and as it may intend the internal graces of the Spirit, as faith, hope, and love; which as to their principles are the same in all the saints, though different as to the degree of the exercise of them: and which may be called "the grace of life"; or "living grace", as some copies and the Complutensian edition read, and so the Arabic version, because by it men and women, who were dead in trespasses and sins, are quickened; and in distinction to counterfeit grace, which differs as much from true grace, as the picture of a man from a living man; and because it lives for ever, and never dies, and gives a meetness for eternal life, which it springs up to, issues in, and is inseparably connected with. Moreover, by it may be meant eternal life and salvation, of which the saints, without any difference as to sex, are heirs of: so some copies read, "heirs of manifold grace, and life"; by the former, meaning grace here, and by the latter, glory hereafter; which is a life of vision of God, and uninterrupted communion with him; of perfection and pleasure, and which will last for ever; and may be called

the grace of life, because it is the free gift of God's grace: and agreeably the Syriac version renders it, "the gift of eternal life"; and the Ethiopic version, glorious life: and this is represented as an inheritance, being what belongs only to the children; and which they have not by their own works, as an acquisition of theirs, but by the free grace of their heavenly Father, and as his gift and bequest unto them. Now all the saints, of whatever state, condition, or sex, are equally heirs of this inheritance; for there is but one inheritance, one kingdom, one crown of glory, which all shall enjoy; and whatever disparity there may be, particularly between husband and wife, in their natural relation, there is none in the things of grace, and with regard to the kingdom of glory; and which is an argument why husbands should dwell peaceably and comfortably with their wives, and give all due honour to them, since they are upon a par in spiritual things, there being neither male nor female in Christ Jesus, and because they are now joint heirs of, and shall equally share in eternal life and happiness,

That your prayers be not hindered: as they would be were they not to dwell together; or should not the husband give honour to his wife, and take care of her as he ought to do: hence would arise strifes and quarrels, when they could not cordially, and to edification, join together in prayer; nor would such prayers, put up in wrath, be acceptable unto God, who requires that men should lift up holy hands everywhere, whether in public, or in private, in God's house, or in their own houses, without wrath and doubting. From hence we may observe, that family prayer is a duty incumbent on professors of religion, and great care should be taken that it be not neglected and hindered,

(q) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 59. 1. & Sepher Musar apud Drusium in loc. (r) Apud. Buxtorf. Chald. Gram. p. 389. (s) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 59. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Ver. 7. Likewise ye] Officium ascendit, amor descendit.

According to knowledge] Where should wisdom be but in the head? This must be showed Uxoris vitium aut tollendo, aut tolerando, said Varro, either by curing or at least covering his wife’s weaknesses.

As unto the weaker vessel] Glasses are to be tenderly handled; a small knock soon breaks them. So here. Vipera virus ob venerationem nuptiarum evomit, saith Basil, The viper, for the honour of coupling with his mate, casts up his poison; et tu duritiem animi, tu feritatem, tu crudelitatem ob unionis reverentiam non deponis? and wilt not thou for the honour of marriage cast away thy harshness, roughness, cruelty to a consort?

As being heirs] Souls have no sexes, Gal 3:28.

That your prayers be not hindered] Isaac prayed in the presence of his wife. This course of praying together, apart from others, being taken up by married couples, will much increase and spiritualize their affection one to another. But jarring will make them leave praying, or praying leave jarring.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Likewise, ye husbands - On the general duty of husbands, see the notes at Eph 5:25 ff.

Dwell with them - That is, “Let your manner of living with them be that which is immediately specified.”

According to knowledge - In accordance with an intelligent view of the nature of the relation; or, as becomes those who have been instructed in the duties of this relation according to the gospel. The meaning evidently is, that they should seek to obtain just views of what Christianity enjoins in regard to this relation, and that they should allow those intelligent views to control them in all their contact with their wives.

Giving honor unto the wife - It was an important advance made in society when the Christian religion gave such a direction as this, for everywhere among the pagan, and under all false systems of religion, woman has been regarded as worthy of little honor or respect. She has been considered as a slave, or as a mere instrument to gratify the passions of man. It is one of the elementary doctrines of Christianity, however, that woman is to be treated with respect; and one of the first and most marked effects of religion on society is to elevate the wife to a condition in which she will be worthy of esteem. The particular reasons for the honor which husbands are directed to show to their wives, here specified, are two: she is to be treated with special kindness as being more feeble than man, and as having a claim therefore to delicate attention; and she is to be honored as the equal heir of the grace of life. Doddridge, Clarke, and some others, suppose that the word honor here refers to maintenance or support; and that the command is, that the husband is to provide for his wife so that she may not want. But it seems to me that the word is to be understood here in its more usual signification, and that it inculcates a higher duty than that of merely providing for the temporal needs of the wife, and strikes at a deeper evil than a mere neglect of meeting her temporal necessities. The reasons assigned for doing this seem to imply it.

As unto the weaker vessel - It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare the body to a vessel, (Compare the notes at 1Th 4:4), and thence the comparison is extended to the whole person. This is done either because the body is frail and feeble, like an earthen vessel easily broken; or because it is that in which the soul is lodged; or because, in accordance with a frequent use of the word, (see below,) the body is the instrument by which the soul accomplishes its purposes, or is the helper of the soul. Compare Act 9:15; Rom 9:22-23; 2Co 4:7. In the later Hebrew usage it was common to apply the term vessel (Hebrew כלי keliy, Greek σκεύος skeuos) to a wife, as is done here. See Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. p. 827. Expressions similar to this, in regard to the comparative feebleness of woman, occur frequently in the classic writers. See Wetstein in loc. The reasons why the term vessel was given to a wife, are not very apparent.

A not unfrequent sense of the word used here (σκεύος skeuos) in the Greek classics was that of an instrument; a helper; one who was employed by another to accomplish anything, or to aid him (Passow), and it seems probable that this was the reason why the term was given to the wife. Compare Gen 2:18. The reason here assigned for the honor that was to be shown to the wife is, that she is “the weaker vessel.” By this it is not necessarily meant that she is of feebler capacity, or inferior mental endowments, but that she is more tender and delicate; more subject to infirmities and weaknesses; less capable of enduring fatigue and toil; less adapted to the rough and stormy scenes of life. As such, she should be regarded and treated with special kindness and attention. This is a reason, the force of which all can see and appreciate. So we feel toward a sister; so we feel toward a beloved child, if he is of feeble frame and delicate constitution; and so every man should feel in relation to his wife. She may have mental endowments equal to his own; she may have moral qualities in every way superior to his; but the God of nature has made her with a more delicate frame, a more fragile structure, and with a body subject to many infirmities to which the more hardy frame of man is a stranger.

And as being heirs together of the grace of life - The grace that is connected with eternal life; that is, as fellow-Christians. They were equal heirs of the everlasting inheritance, called in the Scripture “life;” and the same “grace” connected with that inheritance had been conferred on both. This passage contains a very important truth in regard to the female sex. Under every other system of religion but the Christian system, woman has been regarded as in every way inferior to man. Christianity teaches that, in respect to her higher interests, the interests of religion, she is every way his equal. She is entitled to all the hopes and promises which religion imparts. She is redeemed as he is. She is addressed in the same language of tender invitation. She has the same privileges and comforts which religion imparts here, and she will be elevated to the same rank and privileges in heaven. This single truth would raise the female sex everywhere from degradation, and check at once half the social evils of the race. Make her the equal of man in the hope of heaven, and at once she rises to her appropriate place. Home is made what it should be, a place of intelligence and pure friendship; and a world of suffering and sadness smiles under the benefactions of Christian woman.

That your prayers be not hindered - It is fairly implied here:

(1) That it was supposed there would be united or family prayer. The apostle is speaking of “dwelling with the wife,” and of the right manner of treating her; and it is plainly supposed that united prayer would be one thing that would characterise their living together. He does not direct that there should be prayer. He seems to take it for granted that there would be; and it may be remarked, that where there is true religion in right exercise, there is prayer as a matter of course. The head of a family does not ask whether he must establish family worship; he does it as one of the spontaneous fruits of religion - as a thing concerning which no formal command is necessary. Prayer in the family, as everywhere else, is a privilege; and the true question to be asked on the subject is not whether a man must, but whether he may pray.

(2) It is implied that there might be such a way of living as effectually to hinder prayer; that is, to prevent its being offered aright, and to prevent any answer. This might occur in many ways. If the husband treated the wife unkindly; if he did not show her proper respect and affection; if there were bickerings, and jealousies, and contentions between them, there could be no hope that acceptable prayer would be offered. A spirit of strife; irritability and unevenness of temper; harsh looks and unkind words; a disposition easily to take offence, and an unwillingness to forgive, all these prevent a “return of prayers.” Acceptable prayer never can be offered in the tempest of passion, and there can be no doubt that such prayer is often “hindered” by the inequalities of temper, and the bickerings and strifes that exist in families. Yet how desirable is it that husband and wife should so live together that their prayers may not be hindered! How desirable for their own peace and happiness in that relation; how desirable for the welfare of children! In view of the exposition in this verse we may remark:

(a) that Christianity has done much to elevate the female sex. It has taught that woman is an heir of the grace of life as well as man; that, while she is inferior in physical vigor, she is his equal in the most important respect; that she is a fellow-traveler with him to a higher world; and that in every way she is entitled to all the blessings which redemption confers, as much as he is. This single truth has done more than all other things combined to elevate the female sex, and is all that is needful to raise her from her degradation all over the world.

(b) They, therefore, who desire the elevation of the female sex, who see woman ignorant and degraded in the dark parts of the earth, should be the friends of all well-directed efforts to send the gospel to pagan lands. Every husband who has a pure and intelligent wife, and every father who has an accomplished daughter, and every brother who has a virtuous sister, should seek to spread the gospel abroad. To that gospel only he owes it that he has such a wife, daughter, sister; and that gospel, which has given to him such an intelligent female friend, would elevate woman everywhere to the same condition. The obligation which he owes to religion in this respect can be discharged in no better way than by aiding in diffusing that gospel which would make the wife, the daughter, the sister, everywhere what she is in his own dwelling.

(c) Especially is this the duty of the Christian female. She owes her elevation in society to Christianity, and what Christianity has made her, it would make the sunken and debased of her own sex all over the earth; and how can she better show her gratitude than by aiding in any and every way in making that same gospel known in the dark parts of the world?

(d) Christianity makes a happy home. Let the principles reign in any family which are here enjoined by the apostle, and that family will be one of intelligence, contentment, and peace. There is a simple and easy way of being happy in the family relation. It is to allow the spirit of Christ and his gospel to reign there. That done, though there be poverty, and disappointment, and sickness, and cares, and losses, yet there will be peace within, for there will be mutual love, and the cheerful hope of a brighter world. Where that is missing, no outward splendor, no costly furniture or viands, no gilded equipage, no long train of servants, no wine, or music, or dances, can secure happiness in a dwelling. With all these things there may be the most corroding passions; in the mansion where these things are, pale disease, disappointment, and death may come, and there shall be nothing to console and support.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Husbands, &c. His advice to husbands: 1. To carry themselves towards their wives with knowledge, prudence, and discretion; 2. Not in any imperious manner, but treating their wives with respect and honour, though a wife be the weaker vessel both in body and mind; 3. Considering themselves and their wives to be joint heirs with them of God’s graces and favours, both in this world and the next; 4. That their prayers and duty to God be not hindered, neither by too great a fondness and compliance, nor by disagreements and dissensions. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Dwell with them; perform all matrimonial duties to them; by a synecdoche, all the duties of that relation are contained under this one of cohabitation.

According to knowledge; either, according to that knowledge of the Divine will, which by the gospel ye have obtained; or, prudently and wisely, and as becomes those that understand their duty.

Giving honour unto the wife; not despising them because of their weakness, or using them as slaves, but respecting them, caring for them, {as Mat 15:6; 1Ti 5:3} using them gently, covering their infirmities.

As unto the weaker vessel; weaker than the husbands, and that both in body and mind, as women usually are. In Scripture any instrument is called a vessel, and the wife is here called so, as being not only an ornament, but a help to the husband and family, Gen 2:18. This he adds as a reason why the husband should give honour to the wife, viz. her being the weaker vessel; weak vessels must be gently handled; the infirmities of children bespeak their pardon when they offend; and those members of the body which we think less honourable, on them we bestow more abundant honour, 1Co 12:23. It is a part of that prudence according to which men should dwell with their wives, to have the more regard to them because of their infirmities, (in bearing with them and hiding them), lest they should be discouraged, if they find their weakness makes them contemptible.

And as being heirs together: another reason why husbands should give honour to their wives, viz. because though by nature they are weak and unequal to their husbands, yet they are equal to them in respect of their being called to the same grace and glory, there being neither male nor female in Christ, Gal 3:28.

Of the grace of life; i.e. eternal life, which is the gift of grace; or, is to be given out of grace.

That your prayers be not hindered; either, that ye be not diverted and hindered from praying; or, that the efficacy of your prayers be not hindered, viz. by those contentions and differences which are like to arise, if you do not dwell with your own wives according to knowledge, and give them the honour that belongs to them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Ye husbands—A correspondent command is now laid upon the husband, requiring for the wife considerate and Christian treatment as his spiritual equal, although physically weaker than he.

Dwell with—The word means, primarily, a living together in the same house, and here in the marriage relation.

According to knowledge—Wisely, reasonably, and not arbitrarily, as lording it over them.

Giving honour—Reverent regard and respectful treatment.

Weaker vessel—More delicate and fragile in structure, and therefore demanding the greater consideration. The bottom idea in the word vessel is, a work; it then comes to include the human body as a piece of God’s workmanship. Man is a weak vessel, and easily damaged; woman is a weaker one. Her mental or moral strength is not referred to.

Heirs together—An additional and higher reason for honour to the wife. We prefer the pointing of Tischendorf and Alford, which gives the rendering: Dwell according to knowledge with the wife as with the weaker vessel, giving honour as to those who are (not only your wives, but) also fellow heirs (with you) of the grace of life. Thus reading, the apostle enjoins (1.) Considerateness for the wife, because of her comparative physical weakness; and, (2.) Honour for her because she is an heir with her husband to the gift of life.

Not hindered—Only on the ground thus laid down can there be union in the prayers of husband and wife. Disagreements, disrespect, and the ill feelings thence resulting, are destructive to united prayer, and, indeed, to all prayer.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Likewise, ye husbands. As wives are exhorted to be in subjection to their own husbands, so husbands also must do their duty to their wives. The construction (participial as in ver. 1) seems, like ver. 1, to look back to 1Pe_2:13. The relation, indeed, is no longer directly one of subjection, and marriage is an ordinance of God; but Christian husbands must submit themselves to the duties arising out of the marriage tie; and marriage involves a civil contract, though to us Christians it is a holy estate instituted of God, and a parable of the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. St. Peter, we observe, does not consider the case of a Christian husband with an unbelieving wife; probably that would be very uncommon. Dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel; literally, living together with the feminine as with the weaker vessel. This connection seems best suited to the balance of the sentence, and also to the sense. The apostle bids the husband, first, to give due consideration to his partner on the ground of her comparative weakness; and, secondly, to give her due honor as being an heir, like himself, of the grace of life. The disparity of the sexes was the cause of the degradation of woman among the heathen; Christianity makes it the ground of tender consideration. Christian love should abound in knowledge; (Php_1:9) it should throw its softening light upon all the relations of life. Man and woman are alike vessels vessels made by God for his service (comp. Isa_64:8; Jer_18:6, etc.; also; 1Th_4:4, 1Th_4:5) the woman is the weaker, and must, for that very reason, be treated with gentleness. For "according to knowledge," comp. 2Pe_1:5. Christians must be thoughtful; they must consider what becomes them in all the relations of life; not act carelessly and at random. And as being heirs together of the grace of life; rather, rendering honor as to those who are also fellow-heirs, or, according to another well-supported reading, rendering honor (to them) as being also fellow-heirs (with them). The sense is not materially affected: husband and wife are joint-heirs of the grace of life, that is, of God"s gracious gift of everlasting life. That your prayers be not hindered; or, according to another reading, be not cut off. If husband and wife live together without mutual reverence and affection, there can be no sympathy in united prayer; the promise made by Christ in Mat_18:19 cannot be realized. Nor can either pray acceptably if they live atvariance; jealousies and bickerings are opposed to the spirit of prayer; they hinder the free flow of prayer, and mar its earnestness and devotion.

The twofold claim of womanhood.

In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; the man and the woman, as possessors alike of our common humanity, participate alike in the privileges of Christianity, and come alike under the law of Christian principle and motive. And if this is so in the Church, it is the case in ordinary social life, that, whilst the man and the woman have their several and distinct places to fill and services to render, in their relations to each other duty is reciprocal. The New Testament is altogether opposed to the too common notion that the rights are all on the side of the man, and the duties all on the side of the woman. St. Peter is no more stringent in laying down the obligations of wives, than in prescribing the treatment due to them from their husbands. Himself a married man, as the Marriage Service in our Prayer-book reminds us, he writes explicitly and wisely to husbands as to the spirit and tone which should be apparent in their domestic life. The grounds upon which he here bases his injunctions are very different from each other, and yet thoroughly harmonious.

I THE CLAIM OF WOMAN TO JUST AND CONSIDERATE TREATMENT IS BASED UPON HER PHYSICAL WEAKNESS. The fact is unquestionable that woman is less robust in constitution, less powerful muscularly, and of more delicate nervous organization, than man. Now, this fact is often made a reason for overbearing demeanor, contemptuous language, unjust dealing, and even brutal abuse, on the part of the man towards the woman. This is so, not only in savage communities, but not infrequently even among civilized nations. Irresponsible power and selfishness concur in leading to feminine degradation. But the apostle brings forward the fact that woman is the weaker vessel as a reason why husbands should live with their wives in a reasonable and kindly manner, and should render to them all due respect.

1. Human sympathy requires that this should be so. There is a natural principle within leading us to cherish kindness towards the weak and defenseless; and this principle is to be encouraged as against selfishness and brutal indifference and injustice.

2. In addition to this natural feeling, there is a cultivated habit of chivalry which tends to the exaltation of woman in human society. Not simply of the young and beautiful, the highborn and accomplished, but of all who are stamped with the seal of true, gentle, and virtuous womanhood. It is in this sense only that we can speak approvingly of sentiments of chivalry.

II THE CLAIM OF WOMAN TO JUST AND CONSIDERATE TREATMENT IS BASED UPON HER SPIRITUAL EQUALITY. Granted that there is on the average physical inferiority in the one point of strength, it must be maintained that, in a higher plane, inferiority vanishes. Husbands are reminded that their wives, being Christians like themselves, are joint-heirs with them of the grace of life. If, then, the former motive was addressed to compassion, this appeals to reverence. God himself acknowledges "the weaker sex" as appointed unto immortal blessedness through his Son, our Redeemer. How justly, then, are men required to give all honor to those who are fellow-inheritors with themselves of a domain and a dominion so unspeakably glorious!

1. The woman is by the Father of the spirits of all flesh regarded with the same interest as the man. Womanhood is God"s own creation, and the feminine characteristics and graces are revelations of God"s own thoughts and purposes. Humanity without the feminine element would be incomplete, one-sided, and lacking in the harmony of "perfect music set to noble words.

2. The woman is equally with the man redeemed by the Friend and Savior of mankind. Our Lord"s ministry upon earth was a ministry to both sexes. He counted holy women among his friends; he comforted sorrowful women in their distress; he saved sinful women from their debasement. And his death was for all mankind; his mediation brings near to God all who were afar off woman as well as man.

3. The woman is appointed with the man to share the happiness and the service of heaven. The grace which bestows eternal life is extended to the wife as well as to the husband. As there is a place for woman in God"s gracious heart, so is there a place for her in God"s glorious and blessed home. Such are the high considerations which hallow and dignify the Christian home! J.R.T.

The Christian husband called to enjoy spiritual blessings with the Christian wife.

A happier case is supposed than the preceding. The husband is "won;" they are "heirs together of the grace of life;" and there opens before them the possibility of blessing they have never known. But even this bus a touch of sadness in it. If it be painful for the one member in this relationship having a piety in which the other has no share, it is only one degree less so when they share it equally, but live as though they did not. Sharing in all else, but units and solitary in things eternal. Two fellow-travelers walking to Emmaus, each talking with Jesus as they go, but neither with the other that is the case supposed here. ("According to knowledge;" equivalent to knowledge of what is possible and due to two hearts bound together, first by natural relationship, and then by common love to God.)

I THE BLESSEDNESS OF MUTUAL PIETY IN HUSBAND AND WIFE. They are both "heirs of the grace of life;" but the fear is that they do not dwell with one another as "heirs together." Two persons may make the same journey, and never speak. How different that from two who go in every respect together, having common interest in all that happens! The one is far less blessed than the other. Peter here urges the greater blessedness. Think how much it involves.

1. It produces the closest possible union. For that there must be no secrets, nothing reserved. Thus we can get nearer to God than to any other; we can never lose ourselves but in the heavenly Father. But those we love best on earth may come closer to us in this respect than they sometimes do; and some Christian husbands and wives may thus be more to each other than they are, sharing not only temporal, but spiritual affairs. In this way there may be a union unutterably more intense, precious, and fruitful, than before.

2. It provides much powerful support. Our deepest spiritual experiences cannot be told; many others should not be. In some things God would have us for himself. But there is much also of the spiritual life whose utterance to a fellow-creature is a distinct need of the soul; as our Lord himself, in taking the favored three apart with him at some of the crises of his history the Transfiguration, for instance, and Gethsemane seemed to expressthe need of human sympathy, although in its highest degree he had the Divine. God, moreover, has given us our fellows to be a helpmeet to us, as well as himself, and we are only complete with both. It would lighten the spiritual burden and brighten the spiritual journey for husband and wife to commune together of the way they go.

3. It gives the most blessed of all anticipations. "Till death us do part" is only true of those whose union is not in the Lord. Absence for the day"s work, or across broad seas, does not part husband and wife; they are still one, still one another"s. To more does death rend in twain Christian spirits; the oneness remains, and there will be a meeting again soon; and that meeting will be heaven. If supreme love to God, which is required of us on earth, be consistent with profound and tender love to a fellow-creature, which is also required, they will be mutually consistent in the higher world. Yea, then God will be more to us, being shared with the other at our side, and the benediction of his presence will impart an added rapture because it is given to us both. Of those who are gone before it is said, "They without us are not yet made perfect." "Soi.e. "together we shall ever be with the Lord." That is our prospect. Then let us by a mutual piety anticipate heaven now.

II THIS BLESSEDNESS DEMANDS MUTUAL PRAYER FOR ITS ENJOYMENT. In "that your prayers be not hindered," is not the apostle thinking of mutual prayer? If mutual prayer be wanting, is not the blessedness of mutual piety also wanting as the result? Tertullian wrote, "What a union is that which exists between two believers, who have in common the same hope, the same desire, the same service! Like brother and sister, united both in spirit and in flesh, they kneel together, they pray and fast together, they teach and support each other with gentleness, they share one another"s trials, and conceal nothing from each other, and they rival each other in singing with their heart to God. Christ is pleased to see and hear these things. He sends down his peace upon them. Where two are thus met he is with them, and where he is the evil one cannot come." That is, perhaps, Peter"s thought here.

1. Mutual prayer is the first and most natural form of spiritual intercourse. If we cannot break through our reserve so far as to pray together, it is unlikely that we have any communion on spiritual topics. It would seem the first instinct of a Christian man to ask her he loves best to kneel with him at the throne of grace. Probably this prayer is the door to spiritual intercourse, the removal of the barriers of timidity through which we must pass to the enjoyment of a mutual piety.

2. The utterance before God of a common experience tends to conscious spiritual oneness. We never know how much we are one with other saints till we join with them in prayer; then we find ourselves sorrowing, rejoicing, hoping, loving, fearing, trusting alike, and are thereby drawn closer together still. That principle operates even more certainly in the mutual prayer of husband and wife.

3. The fact of mutual prayer tends to mutual spiritual fidelity. Would not mutual prayer go far to be a remedy for the difficulty which it is to be of spiritual use to those nearest to us? The parent who prays with his household, the husband with his wife, will find it specially hard to sin against or with them. As the spirit of prayer prevails, the spirit of unkindness, indifference, evil example, etc., will lessen. "That your prayers be not hindered" is thus the warning to those who would be "heirs together of the grace of life.

III THIS PRAYER REQUIRES THE FULFILLMENT OF MUTUAL DUTIES FOR ITS SUCCESS. If prayer helps duty, so duty helps prayer. Is not the fact that some Christians in the same home seldom pray together, due to the fact of an inconsistent life the life of a kind which makes the proposal to pray impossible? That seems to be the idea here: "Ye husbands, dwell with them, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers," etc.

1. The consideration of what we owe to one another will prevent the neglect of mutual prayer. "Honor" is due to the wife on the physical ground she is "weaker," which brings corresponding duties to the stronger; and on the spiritual ground she is partaker of the same immortal nature, with its great conflicts and high responsibilities, equally an heir of Divine grace, which brings corresponding duties to the fellow-heir. The consideration of that should lead to united prayer.

2. The fulfillment of what we owe will afford the right spirit for prayer. As long as the wife is defrauded of what she has a right to, mutual prayer, if not impossible, will be robbed of its sweetness and power. Unkindness and bitterness kilt prayer. Mutual prayer can only flourish in the atmosphere of mutual love. C.N.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Dwell with the woman according to knowledge - Knowing they are weak, and therefore to be used with all tenderness. Yet do not despise them for this, but give them honour - Both in heart, in word, and in action; as those who are called to be joint-heirs of that eternal life which ye and they hope to receive by the free grace of God. That your prayers be not hindered - On the one part or the other. All sin hinders prayer; particularly anger. Anything at which we are angry is never more apt to come into our mind than when we are at prayer; and those who do not forgive will find no forgiveness from God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

grace

Grace (imparted). 1Pe 4:10; Rom 6:1; 2Pe 3:18.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Next our apostle proceeds to direct and exhort husbands to the practice of their respective duties; the general and comprehensive duty of the husband here mentioned is cohabitation, under which all matrimonial duties are contained: Dwell with your wives according to knowledge; that is, as becomes wise and understanding men, that will understand their duty, and, as the rule of Christianity directs, giving just honour and due respect unto them, and exercising great tenderness towards them.

Next observe, The reason subjoined to enforce this duty upon husbands: 1. Because wives are the weaker vessels, subject to infirmities, and more liable to contempt; therefore their husbands should contribute their wisdom and authority to support their honour, and preserve them from being despised either by children or servants.

2. Because wives are not only co-partners with their husbands in their temporal good things, but also co-heirs of saving grace with them, heirs together of the grace of life.

3. Because otherwise their prayers, one with, and one for, another, would be obstructed and disturbed; That your prayers be not hindered.

Note here, That all sinful walking in general, but discord and discontent between husband and wife in particular, doth exceedingly hinder prayer: it oftentimes hinders from the very act of prayer, that the duty is laid aside; it flats and deads our spirits, and straitens our hearts in prayer, and it hinders the effect, fruit, and success, of our prayers; it makes persons in that condition, that they have no heart to come before God, nor care to lift up their faces to him.

From the whole learn, That it ought to be the mutual care of married couples so to order all their carriage towards each other, that in their houses they hinder not any holy duties; to hinder the practice of religion is repugnant to the great ends of this relation; some hinder by their wickedness, others by their discontent and frowardness; take we care that neither the husband’s nor wife’s heart be deadened, nor their heart damped to holy duties, by either of their sinful or froward behaviour; that family will be little in praying that is much in squabbling and contending one with another.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. “Likewise ye husbands, dwelling with the wife as the weaker vessel, in harmony with knowledge extending unto them honor as truly your fellow heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers be not hindered.” While the wife is the husband’s physical inferior, we see here that she is his fellow heir in the grace of life, clearly involving the conclusion of her spiritual equality with her husband as to the rights and privileges in the kingdom of God.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. Ye husbands. Duties of Christian husbands are now briefly stated. They are to dwell with their wives. The fact that their wives are unconverted is no ground for separation, but if the wife is converted, still stronger is the bond. According to knowledge. A knowledge that shows judgment, moderation and gentleness as toward one weaker than himself. Joint heirs. Hence “one in Christ Jesus.” The home life is to be regulated according to knowledge. That your prayers be not hindered. Mutual prayer is not possible unless there is mutual love and forbearance. Nor can the husband's prayers be acceptable unless he treats his wife aright.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Peter begins to speak specifically to men who are husbands.

In the same way

This refers back to how Sarah and other godly women obeyed their husbands in 1 Peter 3:5-6.

wives according to understanding, as with a weaker container, a woman

Peter speaks of women as if they were containers, as men are sometimes also spoken of. The abstract noun "understanding" can also be translated as a verb. AT: "wives, understanding that the woman is the weaker partner" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)

give them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life

You can translate this using verbal phrases. AT: "honor them because they will also receive by grace the eternal life that God gives" (See: Abstract Nouns)

heirs of the grace of life

Eternal life is often spoken of as if it were something that people inherit. (See: Metaphor)

Do this

Here "this" refers to the ways husbands should treat their wives. AT: "Live with your wives in this way" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

so that your prayers will not be hindered

To "hinder" is to prevent something from happening. This can be stated in active form. AT: "so that nothing will hinder your prayers" or "so that nothing will keep you from praying as you should" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

life

understand

honor

gift

pray

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 1Co 7:3-5; 1Th 4:3-4.

κατὰ γνῶσιν, cf. Rom 10:2 and 1Th 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 1Th 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. Act 9:15 σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς; Rom 9:21-23 σκεύη ἐλέους; 2Co 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. 1Co 12:22. τὰ ἀσθενέστερα μέλη 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. Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6; Heb 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. Act 24:4; Rom 15:22; Gal 5:7; 1Th 2:18 and subst. 1Co 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. Rom 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. Jas 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, Mat 18:19 (συμφωνήσουσιν = utter a united voice).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7.] Duty of husbands to their wives. Ye husbands in like manner (ὁμοίως, not as Est., Grot., Steiger, al., ‘vicissim,’ but referring back to the πάντας τιμήσατε ch. 2:17: cf. τιμήν below. This has not been seen, owing to inattention to the aor. there: even Huther, who interprets ὁμοίως rightly, that there is a certain τιμή due to the wife, as to the husband and the master before, does not connect the idea with the general precept under which all these are ranged) dwelling (συνοικεῖν is referred by the older expositors (e. g. Jerome contra Jov. i. 7, vol. ii. p. 248, in Psa 146, vol. iv. pt. ii. al.) to the ‘tori conjugalis consuetudo:’ but for this there seems no reason, as the word is often used of the whole conjugal life: so Kypke here, “connubio juncti vivant: ad totum respicit vitæ consortium, in auo justo copulati matrimonio vitam transigunt. Est hæc frequentior vocis notio, quæ apud Græcos antiquiores, ni fallor, sola occurrit. Demosth. in Neæram, p. 534, scopum τοῦ συνοικεῖν esse dicit, ut liberi gignantur legitiml et ingenui, et ab hoc distinguit τὸ ἑταίρας καὶ παλλακὰς ἒχειν”) according to knowledge (in an intelligent and reasonable manner, well aware of the ἀσθένεια spoken of below: see reff.) with the feminine as with the weaker vessel (γυναικείῳ is an adj. not a subst. as Wahl: see reff. For σκεῦος, instrument, applied to the wife, see ref. 1 Thess. Here the man is a σκεῦος also; both being God’s instruments in His beneficent work of the multiplication of mankind. The higher use of the word as a vessel of grace, or of wrath, does not preclude the lower one which is most obvious here, where the married relation is the subject of consideration. On ἀσθενεστέρῳ, Bengel says, “comparativus: etiam vir habet infirmitatem:” and so Steiger: but this is plainly not so: the word ‘weaker’ being used as comparing with something which is stronger, viz. the man. Some, as Luth., Calv., Beza, Est., Grot., Hamm., E. V., join these words, ὡς ἀσθενεστ. κ.τ.λ., with ἀπονέμοντες τιμήν. But this mars the parallelism and the sense. For the Apostle prescribes two things: 1. consideration for the wife, as of the weaker sex: 2. honour for the wife, as a fellow-heir of the grace of life. Œc. carries on the same idea, of not exacting too rigid accounts, as on ver. 6: τουτέστιν, αἴσθησιν λαμβάνοντες τῆς τοῦ θήλεος κουφότητος καί τοῦ εὐπαραφόρου ἐν πᾶσι, καὶ εἰς μικροψυχίαν εὐολίσθου, μακρόθυμοι γίνεσθε πρὸς αὐτάς, μὴ λόγον ἀπαιτοῦντες πικρῶς τῶν κατὰ τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτῶν εἰς ταμιείαν παρακατατιθέντων. But for this there does not seem any reason), giving (ἀπονέμειν, to apportion, see reff.) honour as to those who are also (besides being your wives) fellow-inheritors (with you) of the grace of life (i. e. God’s gracious gift of life eternal: ch. 1:4, 13 suffice to clear the meaning, the former explaining κληρον., the latter, χάρις. So that χάρις ζωῆς must not be weakened into χάρις ζῶσα with Erasm., nor into χάρις ζωοποιοῦσα with Grot. The reading συγκληρονόμοι, which it is now proved that has not [Tischdf. however, though he assigns the ς to B1 (appy), does not think it quite free from doubt], seems to have arisen from the mistaken joining of ὡς ἀσθ. κ.τ.λ. with ἀπονέμοντες τιμήν: see var. readd.): in order that your prayers be not hindered (ἐγκόπτειν, ἐμποδίζειν, διακωλύειν, Hesych. The hindrance meant seems to be, that which would be occasioned by the man not giving his wife proper honour as a fellow-heir of the grace of life; in which case the peculiar promise of advantage in social united prayer would be lost: cf. Mat 18:19. According to this view, the united prayers of man and wife are meant. And so most of the Commentators. Cf. Schol.-Matth., ὁ γὰρ περὶ τὴν οἰκίαν θόρυβος τῶν κατὰ θεὸν ἔργων ἐμπόδιον: and Lyra, “Cum vir et uxor non sunt bene concordes, minus possunt orationi vacare, et eorum orationes sunt minus exaudibiles.” De Wette understands it of losing the confidence requisite for (mutual?) prayer; Wiesinger, of the prayers of the husband alone. If ἐκκόπτεσθαι be read, it must be “be not cut off,” see Rom 11:22, Rom 11:24; 2Co 11:12).

8,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to knowledge. With an intelligent recognition of the nature of the marriage relation.

The woman [τω γυναικειω] . Not a noun, however, as would appear from the ordinary rendering, but an adjective, agreeing with skeuei, vessel, as does also ajsqenesterw, weaker. Both are attributes of vessel; the female vessel as weaker. So Rev., in margin.

Vessel [σκευει] . Compare 1Th 4:4. The primary idea of vessel, which is formed from the Latin vasellum, the diminutive of vas, a vase, is that of the receptacle which covers and contains; the case or protecting cover. Hence it is allied, etymologically, with vest, vestment, and wear. It is used in the New Testament

(1) in the sense of a cup or dish (Luk 8:16; Joh 19:29; 2Ti 2:20; Rev 2:27; Rev 18:12).

(2) Of the man, as containing the divine energy, or as a subject of divine mercy or wrath, and hence becoming a divine instrument. Thus Paul is a chosen vessel to bear God 's name (Act 9:15). Vessels of wrath (Rom 9:22); of mercy (Rom 9:23). So of the woman, as God 's instrument, along with man, for his service in the family and in society.

(3) Collectively, in the plural, of all the implements of any particular economy, as a house, or a ship. Mt 12:29, goods; Act 27:17, the tackling or gear of a ship.

Giving [απονεμοντες] . Only here in New Testament. The word means, literally, to portion out, and is appropriate to the husband as controlling what is to be meted out to the wife.

Hindered [εγκοπτεσθαι] . So A. V. and Rev., and the best texts, and the majority of commentators. The word means, literally, to knock in; make an incision into; and hence, generally, to hinder or thwart (Gal 5:7; 1Th 2:18). Some, however, read ejkkoptesqai, to cut off or destroy.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.