Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 4:5

1 Peter 4:5. Who shall give account; the same phrase as in Hebrews 13:17; Acts 19:40, and found on Christ's own lips, e.g. Matthew 12:36; Luke 16:2.

to him that is ready to judge. The formula ‘ready to' (which is used again only in Acts 21:13; 2 Corinthians 12:14), along with the tense in which the ‘to judge' is cast, points to the last judgment as certain and near, and to the Judge as prepared to judge once for all. This Judge, too, as we may infer from the general conclusion to which chap. 1 Peter 3:17-22 led up, is Christ, the Christ who is reviled when Christians are reviled, the Christ who, in the time of His own suffering, committed His case to Him that judgeth righteously.

the quick and the dead, or simply, quick and dead. Here, as in a good many passages of Scripture (e.g. Leviticus 13:10; Numbers 16:30; Psalms 55:15; Psalms 124:3; Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 4:12), the adjective ‘quick' has its ancient sense of ‘living,' which is now for the most part lost. Compare Shakespeare's

‘I had rather be set quick i' the earth.'

Merry Wives, iii. 4, 90,

and the still current ‘cut to the quick,' ‘quickset,' ‘quicksilver,' etc. The universality and impartiality of the judgment are thus expressed. For the phrase ‘quick and dead' is not to be limited either to the heathen slanderers, or (with Schott) to the Christians who are to get their rights, whether alive or dead, at Christ's coming. It is for the comfort of suffering believers to know that there is a judgment in waiting for their revilers, and that this judgment is in the hands of Him who will impartially give their rights to all, whether alive or dead, whether heathen or Christian.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 4:5

Old Testament

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