Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Peter 5:1

οὖν, therefore since your suffering is according to God's will and calls only for the normal self-devotion, which Christ required of His disciples go on with the duties of the station of life in which you are called. πρεσβυτέρους, not merely older men as contrasted with younger (1 Peter 5:5), but elders, such as had been appointed by Paul and Barnabas in the Churches of Southern Asia (Acts 14:23). The collective τῶν κλήρων (1 Peter 5:3) and the exhortation, shepherd the flock (1 Peter 5:2) prove that they are the official heads of the communities addressed. Similarly St. Paul bade the elders of the Church (Acts 20:17) at Ephesus take heed to themselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit appointed you overseers. The use of the term in direct address here carries with it a suggestion of the natural meaning of the word and perhaps also of the early technical sense, one of the first generation of Christians Both Jews and Gentiles were familiar with the title which was naturally conferred upon those who were qualified in point of years; the youthful Timothy was a marked exception to the general rule (1 Timothy 4:12). ἐν ὑμῖν. Peter does not address them as mere officials, your elders, but prefers a vaguer form of expression, elders who are among you; cf. τὸ ἐν ὑμῖν ποίμνιον, which also evades any impairing of the principle, ye are Christ's. ὁ συμπρεσβύτερος … κοινωνός. This self-designation justifies Peter's right to exhort them. He is elder like them, in all senses of the word. If their sufferings occupy their mind, he was witness of the sufferings of Christ; of his own, if any, he does not speak. He has invited them to dwell rather on the thought of the future glory and this he is confident of sharing. μάρτυς … παθημάτων. Such experience was the essential qualification of an Apostle in the strict sense; only those who were companions of the Twelve in all the time from John's baptism to the Assumption or at least witnesses of the Resurrection (Acts 1:22) were eligible; as Jesus said, the Paraclete shall testify and do you testify because ye are with Me from the beginning (John 15:27). That he speaks of the sufferings and not of the resurrection which made the sufferer Messiah, is due partly to the circumstances of his readers, partly to his own experience. For him these sufferings had once overshadowed the glory; he could sympathise with those oppressed by persecution and reproach, who understood now, as little as he then, that it was all part of the sufferings of the Messiah. He had witnessed but at the last test refused to share them. ὁ … κοινωνός. Peter will share the future glory which Christ already enjoys for it was said to him, Thou shall follow afterward (John 13:36). St. Paul has the same idea in a gnomic form, εἴπερ συνπάσχομεν ἵνα καὶ συνδοξασθῶμεν (Romans 8:17; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:10) which presupposes familiarity with the teaching of the risen Jesus that the Christ must suffer and so enter into His glory, Luke 24:46; cf. Luke 1:5; Luke 1:13; Luke 4:13.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Peter 5:1

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