Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 5:4 - 5:4

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 5:4 - 5:4


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

4. φανερωθέντος. The Chief Shepherd is always present among His under-shepherds, and at last His presence will be manifested. The verb is used of the First Coming of Christ in 1Pe 1:20 and 1Ti 3:16, but here it refers to the Second Advent as in Col 3:4; 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 3:2.

ἀρχιποίμενος. The word occurs nowhere else. It refers to Christ, who was described as ποιμήν in 1Pe 2:25. Our Lord described Himself as “the good Shepherd,” John 10, and in Mat 25:32 compared His work as Judge to “a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats.” In Heb 13:20 He is called “the great Shepherd of the Sheep.” Here St Peter uses the title “chief shepherd,” to remind the presbyters that in shepherding God’s flock they are working under and with the good Shepherd Himself.

κομιεῖσθε. Cf. note on 1Pe 1:9.

ἀμαράντινον is not quite the same as ἀμάραντον (= unfading, cf. 1Pe 1:4), but means made of amaranth, a supposed unfading flower. Adjectives in -ινος denote the material of which a thing is made, e.g. ξύλινος, λίθινος, ὀστράκινος.

τῆς δόξης is not simply a “genitive of quality,” but “of apposition” or “epexegetic.” The crown consists in sharing the glory; cf. στέφανον τῆς ζωῆς Jam 1:12; Rev 2:10. The phrase στέφανος δόξης occurs in Jer 13:18; cf. Psa 8:6 δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν.

στέφανος might possibly mean a festal garland, but more probably the victor’s crown, which is its regular meaning in the N.T. as contrasted with διάδημα, the royal crown. But στέφανος is used of the crown of thorns, which was certainly intended as an emblem of royalty, and in the Apocalypse also it may denote a royal crown, as it does sometimes in the LXX.