public commendation: open, formal recognition of genuine worth, whether given to a person, rendered by God, or offered up to God, and never mere flattery
In the world of the New Testament, this was not a soft word for a compliment. It named the public, formal recognition a Greek city gave its finest citizens: the honor voted by a council, the words carved onto a statue's base, the commendation a generous benefactor earned in front of everyone. It is praise for real worth, spoken out in the open, and never mere flattery.
What changes from verse to verse is who is praising whom. The same word points in strikingly different directions:
- praise handed down by rulers to citizens who do good
- God's own approving verdict on his faithful, now hidden and made public when Christ appears
- praise sent back up to God by the people he has rescued
- the good name a servant of the gospel has earned across the churches
Two older streams feed the word. One is the Greek city just described, where praise, honor (τιμή), and glory (δόξα) were the currency of public standing. The other is the worship of Israel: when the Greek Old Testament translated the Psalms, it sometimes reached for this word to carry the Hebrew term for praise (תהלה), the praise a worshipper owes God. Paul and Peter let both streams sound at once, which is why the same word can describe a governor's approval and the worship offered up to God.
There is one more twist. Unlike a boast (καύχημα), which is worth a person claims for himself, this praise is worth spoken over someone by another. So the commendation that finally matters, Paul says, is not the kind people award themselves or each other, but the verdict God alone hands down.
Nuances
Whether ἔπαινος in Romans 13:3 is the technical language of Greco-Roman civic honors granted to public benefactors, or general moral approval from the governing authority.
- minorityIt refers to the formal honors a city voted its benefactors (inscribed decrees, crowns, public proclamation), implying that some Roman Christians were wealthy enough to act as such benefactors.; Bruce W. Winter, Seek the Welfare of the City: Christians as Benefactors and Citizens (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994); Robert Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 786-795
- majorityIt is ordinary moral vocabulary for the approval that good conduct receives, not a technical reference to benefaction, since the same moral language runs through Romans 12 and 13.; C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1975), 2:664-666; Andrew W. Pitts and Bassam Ajluni, "Bruce Winter and the Language of Benefaction in Romans 13.3," in Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition (LNTS 533; London: T&T Clark, 2017), 75-100
Whether the ἔπαινος that governors give to those who do good in 1 Peter 2:14 is the formal civic honoring of Christian benefactors, or general commendation of good behavior.
- minorityIt is the public honoring of a generous Christian benefactor, whose good deeds would silence hostile rumors against the community.; Bruce W. Winter, "The Public Honouring of Christian Benefactors: Romans 13:3-4 and 1 Peter 2:14-15," JSNT 34 (1988): 87-103
- majorityIt is general commendation of good conduct; the community kept its social distance rather than seeking high-profile public honors.; John H. Elliott, 1 Peter (AB 37B; New York: Doubleday, 2000); Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996)
At Christ's revelation in 1 Peter 1:7, whether the praise, glory, and honor are conferred by God on the faithful, returned by believers to God, or intentionally left open.
- majorityGod confers praise, glory, and honor on the faithful, reversing the shame they endure under persecution.; Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996); John H. Elliott, 1 Peter (AB 37B; New York: Doubleday, 2000); Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990)
- minorityThe passive verb leaves the agent unspecified on purpose, so the praise both accrues to God as its source and comes to the faithful who bear the tested faith.; J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter (WBC 49; Waco: Word, 1988); Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter (BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005)