What Does 1 Peter 3:6 Mean?
As Sarah heard and responded to Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you are as long as you do good, and do not fear any terror.
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
Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.THE KEY
Peter names Sarah’s children beside her deference to Abraham: their likeness is doing good without terror.
THE MEANING
Sarah’s obedience and her call of Abraham as lord stand alongside another mark of her children: they do good and do not fear any terror. The verse keeps its unequal authority structure in view while naming goodness without fear as part of Sarah’s family likeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that terror proves faithful submission: Sarah’s children are described as doing good without fearing any terror.
THE ROOT
πτόησιν
ptōēsin
GROWS FROM
πτοέω
ptoeō
To terrify, startle, or throw into alarm.
This word carries the sense of terror or sudden alarm, giving the KJV’s “amazement” the weight of panic. The verse describes Sarah’s children as doing good without fearing any such terror.
ALSO GROWS
ptoeō: To terrify or throw into alarm.
πτοέω
This verb is the word family behind the verse’s noun for terror.
ptōēsis: Terror or sudden alarm.
πτόησις
The Septuagint uses this same noun in Proverbs 3:25 for “sudden fear,” echoing Peter’s phrase.
ὑπήκουεν
hypēkouen
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω
akouō
To hear or listen; joined with ὑπό (hypo, “under”), the compound carries the sense of heeding or listening under authority.
“heard and responded to” in this verse is hypēkouen. The word for obedience carries the shade of hearing and heeding under authority. That does not erase the hierarchy the verse names: Sarah calls Abraham lord.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: To hear or listen.
ἀκούω
This is the hearing word inside the compound translated “obeyed.”
hypakoē: Obedience or heeding.
ὑπακοή
This related noun shows the same family linking obedience with attentive response.
τέκνα
tekna
GROWS FROM
τίκτω
tiktō
To bear or give birth.
The Greek noun means “children” or “offspring,” while the KJV renders it “daughters.” The verse presents Sarah’s children as a family likeness marked by doing good and not fearing terror.
ALSO GROWS
teknon: A child or offspring.
τέκνον
This is the singular form of the word Peter uses for Sarah’s children.
tiktō: To bear or give birth.
τίκτω
The word family connects the children named here with birth and kinship.
THE PATTERN
The text places doing good beside freedom from terror, so threat does not define the faithful life.
Do not fear sudden dread, nor the crashing of the wicked when it comes.He does not fear evil report; his heart is set firm, leaning his weight on the LORD.There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws out fear, for fear has torment. The one who fears has not been made complete in love.THE THREAD
Do not fear sudden dread, nor the crashing of the wicked when it comes.The Greek noun πτόησις (ptōēsis, “terror” or “sudden alarm”) is the same word in 1 Peter 3:6 and in the Septuagint of Proverbs 3:25. There it describes sudden fear; Peter places that same terror beside doing good, making the connection lexical as well as thematic.
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