1 Peter 5:12

By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose The Greek order of the words leaves it open whether "to you" is to be construed with "faithful" as in the English version, or with "I have written," the former being, on the whole, preferable. If with the Received Text we admit the article before "faithful," we might translate the brother who is faithful to you, but in some of the better MSS. the article is wanting. In any case the way in which Silvanus is mentioned implies that he was already known to the readers of the Epistle. There is no ground for questioning his identity with the "Silas" of Acts 15:22; Acts 15:32; Acts 15:40, the "Silvanus" of 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:19, the second name having probably been taken, after the manner common among Jews (comp. the change from Saul to Paulus, Joshua to Jason, John surnamed Marcus, and other like instances), when he went as a missionary into Gentile countries. It is obvious that the circumstances of his life gave him special qualifications for maintaining or restoring unity of teaching and feeling between the Jewish and Gentile sections of the Church. Trained in the Church of Jerusalem and known as possessing prophetic gifts (Acts 15:32), he had been chosen, with Barsabas, to be the bearer of the encyclical letter from the Council of Apostles and Elders, and to enforce its purport orally. Throwing himself so heartily into the work of preaching to the Gentiles that he was chosen by St Paul as his companion on his second missionary journey, travelling with him and Timotheus through Galatia, Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth, he was conspicuously fitted to carry on the work which St Paul had begun. The scattered notices above referred to do not carry us further than his work at Corinth, and we are left to conjecture how he had filled up the interval that had elapsed since that date. What we now read suggests (1) that he had been working among the Churches of the provinces of Asia Minor named in chap. 1 Peter 1:1, and had gained their confidence; (2) that after St Paul's final departure from those regions he had turned to St Peter as still within reach, and had brought under his notice the sufferings of the Christians there; and (3) that he was sent back with the Epistie that was to guide and comfort them. It is a probable conjecture that St Peter may have received from him copies of the Epistles of St Paul to which he refers in 2 Peter 3:15-16. The Greek verb for "I have written," as being in the epistolary aorist, is rightly taken as referring to this Epistle, and not, as some commentators have thought, to a lost earlier one. The words "by Silvanus" may imply that he was either the amanuensis, or the bearer of the letter, or possibly, that he united the two characters.

as I suppose The Greek verb (the same as in 1 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 11:5) does not carry with it the slight touch of uncertainty which attaches to the common use of the English word.

briefly We may perhaps think of the Apostle as comparing the brevity of what he had written with the longer Epistles of St Paul, such as Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians.

testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand The words have a special significance as connected with the mission of Silvanus. The great Apostle of the Circumcision, writing to the Churches that had been mainly planted and taught by the Apostle of the Gentiles, bears his full testimony that the "grace" by which they "stand" is no counterfeit, but in very deed a reality. Now, as when he and John and James the brother of the Lord gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9), he recognises "the grace of God" that had been given to them and through them. The attestation thus given of unbroken harmony stands, it need hardly be said, in singular contrast with the position of antagonism to St Paul and his teaching ascribed to St Peter in the Clementine Homiliesand Recognitions, which represent the later workings of the Judaizing party. See notes on 2 Peter 3:15.