What Does 1 Peter 2:14 Mean?
Or to governors, as to those sent by him for the setting right of doers of badness, and for the praise of doers of good.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.THE KEY
The governor’s office is a commission with a double charge: answer wrongdoing through justice and make good action visible through praise.
THE MEANING
Authority enters this verse as a delegated charge: governors are sent under a ruler to answer wrongdoing and commend people who do good. Its task has two sides, punishing harm and making good action publicly visible, so power is described by the work it is assigned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power justifies itself: authority has a received commission, and its purpose is defined by how it responds to evil and good.
THE ROOT
ἐκδίκησιν
ekdikēsin
GROWS FROM
δίκη
dikē
Justice, right; the just answer to a claim.
“setting right” in this verse is ekdikēsin. The Greek word translated “punishment” belongs to a family that carries the sense of justice carried out or a wrong answered. Punishment is one expression of a wider public work: setting harmful action against what is right.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Justice, right, or a legal claim.
δίκη
This is the root that places punishment within the language of justice.
ekdikeō: To do justice, vindicate, or avenge.
ἐκδικέω
This related verb shows the family’s movement from a claim of right to an answer that enforces it.
ekdikēsis: Justice carried out; punishment or vengeance.
ἐκδίκησις
This noun names the public answer to wrongdoing in the verse.
ἀγαθοποιῶν
agathopoiōn
GROWS FROM
ἀγαθός + ποιέω (agathos + poieō)
Good joined to doing or making: to do good.
“doers of good” in this verse is agathopoiōn. The people singled out for praise are named by an action: the word joins “good” to “doing.” Good here is visible in practice, so praise answers enacted good rather than a private label.
ALSO GROWS
agathos: Good.
ἀγαθός
This supplies the quality that the person’s action expresses.
poieō: To do or make.
ποιέω
This supplies the action: the verse speaks of people who do good.
agathopoios: A person who does good.
ἀγαθοποιός
This related compound names the person through the same good-doing that the verse recognizes.
ἔπαινον
epainon
GROWS FROM
αἶνος
ainos
Praise or commendation.
Praise here is public recognition, paired with the answer to wrongdoing. Together, the words show authority responding in two directions: correcting harm and acknowledging good.
ALSO GROWS
aineō: To praise or commend.
αἰνέω
This related verb turns praise into an act of recognition.
epainos: Praise or commendation.
ἔπαινος
This noun names the recognition given to those who do good.
THE PATTERN
Justice makes the distinction between good and evil visible by answering each with its fitting response.
If there be a striving between men, and they come to judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall align the aligned, and condemn the restless.He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.For the ones who lead are no terror to good work, but to evil. Do you want, then, not to tremble before the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise out of it.THE THREAD
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.The noun ἐκδίκησις (ekdikēsis, justice or vengeance) appears in both verses, translated “punishment” here and “Vengeance” in Romans. The shared word links the governor’s assigned public judgment to the question of vengeance, which Romans names as belonging to God.
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