The content of this benefit which the readers have received through the coming of Christ is here made explicit: Through him you believe in God. The relationship of believers to God is always through Christ, that is, through what God has done in Christ, his life, his death, and exaltation.

In this type of context the phrase Through him indicates a type of causative agent. Accordingly, Through him you believe in God may be rendered as “he caused you to believe in God.” It is also possible to understand Through him in a somewhat broader sense, namely, “because of what you know about Christ, you believe in God.”

You believe in God is literally “you are faithful to God,” and some take it with this literal meaning (compare Knox “you have learned to be faithful to God”). However, others take “faithful” here to mean “believe” or “trust.” Taken in this latter sense, the expression may be rendered as “you now have faith in God” (for example, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible “you are believers in God”), or “you have come to trust in God” (New English Bible).

Belief in God in the sense of “trust in” or “confidence in” is often expressed figuratively, for example, “to lean one’s weight on” or “to put one’s hand in” or “to give oneself to.”

In the New Testament, it is usual for God to be described in relation to what he has done in Jesus Christ. Here, he is described as the one who raised him from death and gave him glory. The resurrection of Christ is spoken of in many places of the New Testament as God’s mighty act (Acts 2.32; 3.15; Rom 4.24, 25; etc.). Here, Christ’s resurrection and exaltation are put together as one single action of God. Glory is a New Testament word with many meanings, depending on its context. Here, it may be understood to include all that God has done to exalt Christ. Most translators retain the literal rendering (but compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “heavenly glory”). It is, however, possible and even advisable to translate glory meaningfully (for example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “gave him honor”; Phillips “gave him unimaginable splendor”). With glory taken as greatness or exaltation, then a possible translation of he gave him glory is “he made him great” or “he exalted him” or “raised him up above all others” or “caused him to have great honor.”

The last part of the verse should be related to the immediately preceding clause in terms of reason-result or cause-effect. It is because God has raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him that the believers can now fix their faith and hope in God. A very important question is the relation between faith and hope. Faith is of course trust in God, and hope here seems to be the assurance and confidence that whatever God has planned and promised he will do. It is possible from the Greek construction to take hope as the predicate of faith and come out with the translation “your faith is also hope in God” (compare Moffatt “your faith means hope in God”; also Revised Standard Version margin). Most scholars and translations, however, take faith and hope as two related aspects of the Christian experience, both of which are directed to God.

The Good News Translation‘s clause and so your faith and hope are fixed on God is in the Greek text literally “and so your faith and hope is toward God” or “… to God.” Accordingly, one may render this final clause of verse 21 as “and so your confidence is in God, and your hope is in what God has promised.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .