What Does 1 Peter 2:23 Mean?
Who, when he was insulted, hurled no insult back; when he suffered, he threatened not; but handed himself over to the one who judges by alignment.
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
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:THE KEY
His refusal to answer harm with harm rests on where he hands the case: to the one who judges rightly.
THE MEANING
You see a person under insult and suffering who does not turn injury into another weapon. He entrusts himself to the one who judges rightly, so the harm is not denied and justice is not confused with retaliation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that refusing retaliation means pretending the harm did not happen or giving up justice: the wrong remains real, and judgment is entrusted to the one who judges rightly.
THE ROOT
παρεδίδου
paredidou
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), in the compound παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi)
To give; with para, to hand over or deliver.
“handed himself over” in this verse is paredidou. The Greek verb means “handed over” or “delivered”; “himself” is understood from the context, while the recipient is explicit: the one judging justly. The verse places the refusal to return insult beside this handing over, and the same word family also includes giving back or repaying.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give or grant.
δίδωμι
This is the basic verb inside “committed”: the action is expressed as giving something over.
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver, or entrust.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used here and in Galatians 2:20, where Christ “gave himself” for the speaker.
antapodidōmi: Give back or repay.
ἀνταποδίδωμι
This branch makes the contrast in the verse vivid: insult and threat are not returned in kind; the case is handed over to the just judge.
THE PATTERN
When harm is not repaid in kind, the claim of justice is entrusted to a judge beyond the injured person’s retaliation.
Do not say, I will repay the evil; stretch yourself taut toward the LORD, and he will bring you out.But I say to you, do not stand against evil. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.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 THREAD
I have been crucified with the Anointed One, and I live, yet no longer I; the Anointed One lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live in the trust of the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.The Greek verb παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), “hand over” or “deliver,” appears in both verses. Here he hands himself over to the one judging justly; in Galatians he gives himself for another, revealing self-giving as the shared movement.
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