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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 5:3 - 5:3
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3. κατακυριεύοντες. The word is used in the LXX. in Jer 3:14 of God as being master or husband of His people, but elsewhere of subduing a city, taking possession of a country, or of sin getting the mastery over a person. In the N.T. it is used in Act 19:16 of the demoniac at Ephesus “mastering” the exorcists, and also by our Lord after the ambitious request of James and John, Mat 20:25; Mar 10:42. He instructs His disciples that true greatness among His followers is not to seek for mastery over others as Gentile rulers do, but to be minister or servant of all. This saying of our Lord probably suggested St Peter’s advice to the Elders in this passage, cf. Mat 23:8-12.
τῶν κλήρων. In later times κλῆρος and its Latin form clerus came to be used in the sense of “Clergy” (κλήρικοι), but there is no evidence of this use earlier than Tertullian, and this technical use of the word was not derived from the Jewish priesthood, but was a gradual development. κλῆρος = (1) the lot by which an office was assigned; (2) the office thus assigned by lot (cf. Act 1:17; Act 1:26), and so (3) the body of persons holding the office (Oecumenius, ad loc., Suidas). Elsewhere in the N.T. it is used of “casting lots,” or of a “lot” or “inheritance.” Here it must mean the flocks allotted to the care of the Elders. In Deu 9:29 (see Bigg) κλῆρος is used of the people of Israel as being the portion specially belonging to Jehovah—and that verse also contains the words τῇ χειρί σου τῇ κραταιᾷ—which St Peter uses in 1Pe 5:6. Possibly, therefore, he regards the various communities of Christians as parts of God’s estate entrusted to His stewards or shepherds. But in this case we should have expected the singular, and it is simpler to understand κλήρων as meaning the charges allotted to the presbyters, although there is no parallel for this. The Elders seem always to have acted as a body, and there is no evidence of a single Elder having the charge of anything corresponding to a special “parish.” The plural here therefore denotes the flocks in all the different towns, each of which was assigned to the joint care of the Elders of that town.
τύποι is here used in its ordinary sense of “pattern” or “model.” The Elders must lead by example and not drive their flock by masterful methods. Cf. 1Ti 4:12; Tit 2:7; and in Php 3:17, 2Th 3:9 St Paul points his readers to his own “example.”