The English translation of 1 Peter 3: 1 – 7 is the foundation of patriarchy, but the Hebrew text has a completely different message.
In 1 Peter 3:1 and 5 the Hebrew word נשי translated ‘wives’ means ‘debt’ or ‘waste’, and the Hebrew בעל translated ‘husbands’ mean ‘owner, lord’, and in 1 Peter 3:7 the Hebrew אשה translated ‘wives’ means ‘woman’, and the Hebrew אנש translated ‘husband’ means ‘sick’, exposing a completely different meaning than the English translations would have us believe.
In the article Woman Rulers in Isaiah 3:12, we looked at the Hebrew word נשי classified as Strong’s H802 over 200 times and translated ‘women’, when it means ‘a debt’ (Strong’s H5386 1 occurrence), from נשה (Strong’s H5383 13 occurrences) that means ‘to lend, become a creditor’. Also, the Hebrew נשך (Strong’s H5392 10 occurrences) means ‘interest, usury’, from נשך (Strong’s H5391 16 occurrences) that means ‘usury, oppress with interest’.
What’s more, the ‘woman’ אשה in 1 Peter 3:7 is the same ‘woman’ who gave birth to the male child in Revelation 12: 1 – 5, who was prophesied to bear the seed in Genesis 3:15, which was the nation of Israel.
Sadly, the mistranslation of these verses results in women falling victim to men who put themselves in place of God, and men falling victim to false teachings that support patriarchy.
Since the English translation is from the Greek text, retranslating the Hebrew text requires a great deal of effort. It is necessary to list the Greek words (see the Text Analysis for 1 Peter 3:7 on Biblehub.com), manually match the Hebrew words (found at the bottom of the page), and find the meaning of the Hebrew words with Strong’s numbers.
The Analysis of the Text and Translation of 1 Peter 3:7 in the table below reveals the following meaning; “Righteous station כן you אתם the sick of them האנשים take captive שבו binding them together עמהן with understanding בתבונה that כי vessel כלי to weaken רפה the woman האשה . . .” Peter was warning that the woman would be deceived, just as she was in Genesis 3: 1 – 6!
Let’s take a closer look at key words mistranslated in 1 Peter 3:7, which reveals tactics the translators use to change the meaning of text.
‘Likewise’ or ‘Office/Station’ כן
The Hebrew כן, according to Strong’s Concordance means ‘thus, as follows’ in Aramaic (Strong’s H3652 with 8 occurrences). In Hebrew, it is often translated ‘so, therefore’ (Strong’s H3651 with 767 occurrences), but can mean ‘right, veritable, honest’ according to Brown-Driver-Briggs, the same as Strong’s H3653 (16 occurrences) that means ‘base, pedestal, office’.
‘So’ indicates “in a manner or way indicated”, and is often used as a substitute for a preceding clause. It adds nothing to the information presented, and can be used of the righteous or sinners. But if the underlying meaning of כן is ‘right’ or ‘righteous office/station’, then it is only used of the righteous.
We see evidence that כן means ‘righteous office’ as God completed each day’s task in Gen 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30, it says “and it was right”, which is more meaningful than “it was so”.
In Gen 2:24 כן is not translated, and the preceding word עזב that means ‘forsake’ is translated ‘shall leave’, to coverup the fact that Adam did ‘forsake’ עזב Yahweh’s ‘righteous station’ כן.
This is a common tactic used to change the meaning of text – putting a meaningless word, or no word at all, in place of the real word, which is very difficult to spot.
In the New Testament, כן is classified as homios (G3668 31 occurrences) and translated ‘likewise’, as is the Hebrew גם (Strong’s H1571) that does mean ‘also, moreover, even’, and the Hebrew כמה (Strong’s H3644) that means ‘like, as, when’.
In Matt 22:26, 26:35, 27:41, Mark 15:31, Luke 5:10, 33, 6:31, 10:32, 37, Romans 1:27, and James 2:25, where both כן and גם or כמה are found, כן is classified as G2532 and translated ‘also’. The Hebrew כן is also classified as G3483 (34 occurrences) that means ‘yes, certainly, even so’. In Rev 1:7, גם is classified as G2532 and translated ‘even’, and כן is classified as G3483 and translated ‘even so’.
The words in Romans 1:27 “And righteous station וכן also גם the males of them הזכרים forsake עזב union את . . .”, are very similar to Gen 2:24 where עזב is translated ‘shall leave’, and כן and את are not translated, to hide the true meaning of the text.
In 1 Peter 3:7, כן is translated ‘likewise’, but looking at the sentence, we see ‘righteous station’ is who the “sick of them take captive with understanding that weaken vessel woman . . .”
‘Husbands’ or ‘Sick of Them’ אנשים
The Hebrew אנש classified as G435 and translated ‘husbands’ in 1 Peter 3:7, means ‘be weak, sick’ (Strong’s H605 9 occurrences). Although they claim the meaning of אנש in Aramaic changed to ‘man, mankind’ (Strong’s H606 25 occurrences), it is largely used of Kings and the members of their earthly kingdom in the Ezra and Daniel, who are corrupted by power and wealth. Strong’s H605 is said to be from a primitive root, but H606 is said to correspond to אנוש (Strong’s H582 222 occurrences), that Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says is from H605 that means “a mortal (and thus differing from the more dignified adam)”.
In A Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament on p. 125, Dr. J Fuerst indicates אנש predominantly means ‘to be sick, ill’ often in the sense of ‘morally bad’, and he disagrees with the connection drawn with איש, that in the אנוש form “denotes mortal, decaying man”, particularly “low minded, corrupt man”, as איש is also used on p. 120.
Hebrew words have been classified based on what the translators wanted them to mean, not what they really mean, which results in the corruption of the Greek and English translations.
Strong’s classification of the Hebrew words anash אנש, enosh אנוש, and ish איש, is a jumbled mess, perhaps intentionally to prevent us from understanding the true meaning of these words. Only 33 of the 222 occurrences of H582 are in the form אנוש, with 155 in the form אנש, and 34 in the form איש. Ish איש is sometimes classified as H376 (2006 occurrences), but many are in the form אנש. It is no small feat to straighten this mess out.
The problem is compounded in the New Testament, where various Hebrew words are classified as Strong’s G435 (216 occurrences) that means ‘male, husband, betrothed’. Of the 216 occurrences, 103 are in the form ish איש that means ‘mighty one’, as adam was in Gen 2:24, 3:16, 76 are in the form אנש that means ‘sick’, 29 are in the form baal בעל, and 4 in the form adam אדם. Ish איש is also classified as Strong’s G5100 and translated ‘any, anyone, one, some, anything, some, etc’, which is also found in the form אנש in Matt 9:3.
‘Dwell’ or ‘Take Captive’ שב
The Hebrew שב classified as G4924 (1 occurrence) that means ‘to dwell together’ and translated ‘dwell’ in 1 Peter 3:7, when it means ‘take captive’ (Strong’s H7617). The Hebrew שב is found in Isaiah 61:1 “to proclaim לקרא to the captives שב liberty דרור . . .”, and in quoting this verse in Luke 4:18 – 19, שב is classified as G164 and translated ‘captives’. Strangely, שב is not indicated to be an equivalent Hebrew word for G4924, but it is for G164! It appears they have deliberately misclassified this occurrence of שב to hide the true meaning in 1 Peter 3:7.
‘Wives’ or ‘Woman’ אשה
The Hebrew ishshah אשה with the he-suffix means ‘woman’ (ignoring the fact that the origin of the English words ‘man’ and ‘wo-man’ are unknown and possibly pagan). In this case, there is no taw suffix to indicate possession, so it doesn’t mean ‘wife’. Classified as G1134 (1 occurrence) that means ‘female’ in 1 Peter 4:7, but normally classified as G1135 (217 occurrences) that means ‘woman’.
Why was this one and only occurrence of ishshah אשה classified as G1134? To prevent us from seeing that it is the same Hebrew word found in Revelation 12 – the woman clothed with the stars v1, the women who was about to give birth v4, the woman who fled into the wilderness v6, the woman Satan persecuted v13, the woman given two wings to fly from the presence of the serpent v14, the woman the serpent spewed water to overtake v15, the woman helped by the earth v16, and the woman Satan was enraged with, and went to make war with the rest of her children in v17!
‘According to’ or ‘Bind Together’ עמה
In 1 Peter 3:7, the Hebrew עמה (Strong’s H5980 32 occurrences) is classified as Strong’s G2596 (480 occurrences) that means ‘down, against, according to’. But עמה is a form of עם that (Strong’s H5971 1868 occurrences) that means means ‘people, tribes’, those ‘united, connected, related’, and similarly means ‘to unite, to bind together, to join’, and is more accurately categorized as Strong’s G2992 (142 occurrences) that means ‘people’.
Although עמה (Strong’s H5980 32 occurrences) is indicated to mean ‘close by, side by side with, parallel to, agreeing with, corresponding to’, from עם H5973 (1043 occurrences) that means ‘with’, according to Dr. J. Fuerst in A Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament p. 1064 עמה means prop. ‘society, union, neighborship, companionship, nearness, side’, as a particle of comparison ‘like as, similarly to’ prop. ‘in common with’. Fuerst states on p. 343, the he ה suffix indicates “direction towards a thing”.
In Gen 3:6 עמה is classified as Strong’s H5973 עם (1043 occurrences) and translated ‘with her’, which covers up the fact that Adam and the Woman were forming a ‘union’. This is a common method of disguising mistranslated words, having multiple classifications for the same word in different forms.
‘Weaker’ or ‘weak/to weaken’ רפה
There are 3 different Hebrew words classified as the Greek asthenḗs (Strong’s G772 25 occurrences) that means ‘weak, infirm, feeble’:
- חול (Strong’s H2342 60 occurrences) that means ‘to whirl, dance, writhe’, fig. ‘to be in severe pain, or anguish’, translated ‘sick’, in Matt 25:43, 44, Luke 9:2, 10:9, Acts 4:9, 5:15, 16(7 of 25).
- חלש (Strongs H2522) that means ‘to be weak, prostrate’, in Romans 5:6, 1 Cor 1:25, 27, 4:10, 8:7, 9, 10, 9:22, 11:30, 2 Cor 10:10, 1 Thes 5:14 (13 of 25).
- רפה (Strong’s H7503 46 occurrences) that means ‘sink, relax’, fig. ‘lose heart, energy’, in Matt 26:41, Mark 14:38, 1 Peter 3:7, 1 Cor 12:22 and Gal 4:9 (5 of 25).
In the Hebrew Bible רפה is translated ‘weak, weakened, be weak’ in 2 Chr 15:7, 28:20, Ezra 4:4, Neh 6:9, Job 12:21, Jer 38:4, similarly ‘feeble, faint’ in 2 Sam 4:1, Jer 6:24, 49:24, 50:43, ‘slack’ in Josh 10:6, 18:3, Prov 18:9, 24:10, and ‘fail’ in Deut 4:31, 31:6, 8, Josh 1:5, Isa 13:7.
In the context of Matt 26:41 and Mark 14:38, Yahshua warned his disciples to “watch שקדו and pray תפל to him לו lest פן you will come תבאו to hand of ידי testing נסיון here הן the spirit רוח they היא inclined to חפצה, but the flesh בשר itself הוא weak רפה.”
In 1 Cor 12:22 Paul said “That כי to turn/change/pervert להפך strong of אברי the body/corpse הגוף that seem הנראים weak רפים they הם for us לנו to your adversary לצרך in much ביותר.”
In 1 Peter 3:7 רפה is translated ‘weaker’ in comparison to husbands, but it’s meaning doesn’t include a comparative element, nor does the context support it.
