What Does 1 Peter 3:5 Mean?
For in this manner in the old time the set-apart women also, who set their hope on God, arranged themselves, placing themselves under their own husbands.
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
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:THE KEY
The women’s adornment is the visible order of a life whose hope rests in God.
THE MEANING
This verse describes a life shaped by hope in God, with that hope visible in a wife’s submission to her own husband. The relationship is named plainly, while God remains the ground of her hope.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A woman’s beauty does not come from visible ornament alone; the verse places her adornment in a life shaped by hope in God.
THE ROOT
ἐκόσμουν
ekosmoun
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
To arrange or put in order; by extension, to adorn.
“arranged themselves” in this verse is ekosmoun. The word translated “adorned” carries the sense of arranging as well as decorating. The same word family can name an arrangement, an ornament, or the ordered world, so the verse presents adornment as the visible shape of a life.
ALSO GROWS
kosmos: An arrangement or adornment; also the world as an ordered whole.
κόσμος
It shows how the same word family reaches from personal adornment to the larger order of the world.
kosmios: Well-ordered or fitting.
κόσμιος
This branch keeps the sense of adornment tied to the way a person’s life is arranged.
ἐλπίζουσαι
elpizousai
GROWS FROM
ἐλπ-
elp-
To hope, expect, or look toward what is anticipated; here, hope is directed toward God.
“trusted” in this verse is elpizousai. The Greek word here is from the hope-and-expectation family: the women’s inward orientation is toward God. That hope becomes visible in the life described by the rest of the verse.
ALSO GROWS
elpis: Hope or expectation.
ἐλπίς
It names the inward stance carried by the verb in this verse.
proelpizō: To hope in advance; the same word family appears in Ephesians 1:12.
προελπίζω
It shows hope as an orientation already held before its outcome is seen.
ὑποτασσόμεναι
hypotassomenai
GROWS FROM
τασσ-
tass-
To arrange, set in order, or appoint; the compound ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō) means to arrange under.
“placing themselves under” in this verse is hypotassomenai. The Greek verb joins “under” with “arrange,” giving the phrase a sense of relational ordering. Beside the word for adornment, it makes the relationship named here part of how the women’s lives are arranged.
ALSO GROWS
tassō: To place or arrange in order; to appoint.
τάσσω
It supplies the arranging sense within the compound verb used for submission.
taxis: An arrangement, order, or rank.
τάξις
This related word makes the root’s order-and-placement sense visible.
THE PATTERN
Hope placed in God becomes visible in the way a life is clothed and ordered.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those who stand in awe of him, upon those who wait for his faithful love.I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.So put on, as the chosen of God, set apart and beloved, the bowels of compassion, kindness, lowness of mind, gentleness, and slowness to heat.THE THREAD
Let your arrangement not be the outward braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of garments.The Greek uses the same κοσμ- word family for “adorning” here and “adorned” in verse 5. Verse 5 shows the life and relationship in which that adornment takes shape: hope in God expressed through an ordered way of living.
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