3:1 In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, 1 even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, 2
3:20 after they were disobedient long ago 3 when God patiently waited 4 in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark 5 a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.
1 tn Grk “that…they may be won over,” showing the purpose of “being subject” (vs. 1b). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
2 tn Grk “by the wives’ behavior.”
3 tn This reflects a Greek participle, literally “having been disobedient formerly,” that refers to the “spirits” in v. 19. Many translations take this as adjectival describing the spirits (“who had once been disobedient”; cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT, NRSV, TEV), but the grammatical construction strongly favors an adverbial interpretation describing the time of the preaching, as reflected above.
4 tn Grk “the patience of God waited.”
5 tn Grk “in which,” referring to the ark; the referent (the ark) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
6 tn Grk “to begin from the house.”
7 tn Or “the end.”