and precept of oar Lord extends to all the Bishops of Borne, as St. Peter's successors, and that in speaking to St. Peter, our Lord spoke to them. Will they complete the parallel, and say that the Bishops of Borne specially need prayer, hecause they deny Christ? Let them not take a part and leave the rest/'
[When thou art converted.] This expression is somewhat remarkahle, and has occasioned difference of' opinion among commentators. For one thing, the word translated " art con- verted," would he rendered more literally " hast converted/' For another thing, to speak of an apostle like Peter heing "con- verted," seems a strs^nge saying to some. The following expla- nations of the expi-ession have been given.
1. Some think that the word rendered " converted" was not intended to bear so strong a meaning. They regard it as a Hebrew foi-m of speech, and a kind of expletive word. They compare it to such phrases as this in the New Testament, "Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven/' (Acts vii. 42 ) They would then render it as Bengel does, like an adverb, " do thou in thy turn strengthen thy brethren."
2. Some think, with Sir Norten Enatchbull, that the word translated " art converted," should have been rendered in an active sense, and that it means, " When thou hast converted thy brethren, strengthen them."
3. Some think that the convereion here spoken of, means simply " recovery from a fall," and that it does not necessarily mean that first conversion to Ood which takes place when an unconverted person becomes a Christian. This is by far the most satisfactory interpretation of the expression. For the Greek word being rendered, " art converted," though an active verb, there is authority in Acts iii. 19.
Burkitt remarks, "This conversion was, not from a state of sin : Peter was so converted before : but it was from an act of sin into which he should lapse and relapse."
[Strengthen thy brethren.] There seems a tacit reference here to the dispute about pre-eminence, which had just taken place among the apostles. " Instead of wasting time in wrangling about primacy, give thyself to the better work of raising up. confirming, and doing good to thy brethren. Warn the unruly. Comfort the feeble minded. Teach all the beauty of humility. Show them by thine own sad experience the danger of pride and high thoughts/'
Most commentators think that the general tone of the Epistles of St. Peter shows special marks of the effect of this command. They are pre-eminently hortatory, direct, and instructive to be- lievers.
Alford calls attention to the fact that the Greek word for