Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 5:4

1 Peter 5:4. And when the Chief Shepherd is manifested. The title ‘Chief Shepherd' is nowhere else given to Christ. It is appropriate here, where the duties and rewards of those are dealt with who are called to act the Shepherd's part of tending Christ's flock for Him on earth. In chap. 1 Peter 2:25 He is called simply ‘the Shepherd;' in Hebrews 12:20 He is ‘that great Shepherd;' in John 10:11, etc., He names Himself ‘the good Shepherd.' The word ‘manifested' is the same as in chap. 1 Peter 1:20, as also in John 1:31; Colossians 3:4; 1Jn 2:28; 1 John 3:2, etc. ye shall receive; on this see on chap. 1 Peter 1:9. the amaranthine crown of glory. In this passage, as also in Revelation 2:10, the A. V. overlooks the article, and gives ‘a crown.' Peter speaks of ‘the crown' the one well known to Christian hope. He calls it ‘the crown of glory,' meaning by that not merely that it is a glorious one, but that it consists of glory. Glory itself, and nothing less than that, will crown the heads of the elders as their reward for the meek discharge of their vocation. Isaiah speaks of ‘a crown of beauty ' (Isaiah 52:3); Paul of ‘a crown of righteousness ' (2 Timothy 4:8); James (1 Peter 1:12) and John (Revelation 2:10) of ‘the crown of life.' It is doubtful whether the figure is drawn here from the wreath with which the victors in the Greek games were crowned, from the diadem set on the heads of kings, or from the wreath which the Jews themselves made use of on festal occasions. It is less likely in the case of Peter than in that of Paul, that the imagery should be taken from the heathen spectacles. For these were abhorrent to the Palestinian Jews. The word chosen for ‘crown,' though different from the ordinary term for a diadem, appears to have that sense occasionally (e.g. Revelation 4:10), and it is possible, therefore, that here, as also perhaps in Revelation 2:10, the idea is that of kingship. But it is most probable on the whole that Peter's term is borrowed from familiar Jewish practice, and that the figure of the ‘crown' points more generally to the honour and joy into which Christ's faithful stewards shall enter when He returns. The ‘crown' is further described by an adjective which differs but slightly from the one already applied to the ‘inheritance' in chap. 1 Peter 1:4. It may be translated, therefore, simply unwithering. It seems, however, rather to be formed immediately from the noun which denotes the flower known as the ‘amaranth.' We should translate it, therefore, amaranthine, the figure being that of a wreath constructed of immortelles, which change neither in contour nor in colour. So Milton speaks of the ‘blissful bowers of amarantine shade' whence ‘the sons of light hasten' (P. L. Book 11). Compare also the description in the third book of Paradise Lost:

‘And to the ground

With solemn adoration down they cast

Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold;

Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom.'

And Cowper's,

‘The only amaranthine flower on earth

Is virtue; th' only lasting treasure, truth.'

Task, B iii.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Peter 5:4

Old Testament

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