1 Peter 5

1 Peter 5:1

The bishops of your several churches (see note [b] Acts xi.) I exhort, who am myself employed here at Rome to govern the church, one that attended Christ at his crucifixion, and was also at his transfiguration present at that discourse concerning the glory that should be consequent to his death, (see 2 Pet. i. 16,) the remarkable destruction of his crucifiers, and deliverance of his faithful disciples: (see note on 2 Thess. i. 6.)

1 Peter 5:2

Take care of your several churches, and govern them, not as secular rulers, by force, but as pastors do their sheep, by calling and going before them, (psalm lxxx. 1,) that so they may follow of their own accord; nor out of consideration of the gain which may be made by receiving the contributions of the church put into your hands, as secular rulers again

¹⁶ hardly escape, μόλις σώζεται.

¹⁷ commit their souls, or, lives, παρατηθόψωσαν τὰς

ψυχάς. 1 a fellow-elder, συμπεριφθόψερος. 2 is ready to be, μελλούσης.

1 Peter 5:3

Not making those advantages of them that are under you which the procurators or secular governors do of their provinces, but contenting yourselves with the portion belonging to you, and walking christianly and exemplarily before them.

[a] as being lords] Κατακυριεύειν is κατακρατείς, saith Phavorinus, to have and exercise dominion. What this is will appear by that place of the Gospel, Matt. xx. 25, where it is explained by the practice of the heathen rulers, kings or emperors, over them, who do ἐξουσιάζειν, and κατακυριεύειν, (both to the same sense,) act as κυρίοι, lords, masters of their people; and that not only by dominion over their persons, but over their estates too, so far as to maintain all their state out of the people’s purses, by way of tribute and taxes. This is the meaning of

[b] heritage] Κλῆροι may here be the several provinces over which each of the governors (mentioned together in the plural, ver. 1.) are placed. So Acts i. 25, κλῆρος διακονίας καὶ ἀποστολῆς, the lot of ministry and apostleship, is that charge or portion assigned by lot to Matthias, whither he was to go and officiate and preach the gospel: from which division then made among the Twelve at their setting out on their travels to plant the gospel, they and all others ordained by God to be apostles or bishops, had afterward their provinces to govern, ποιμαίνειν and ἐπισκοπεῖν, to rule as pastors and bishops, ver. 2, when they were converted to Christianity: as among the Romans, the province which such a proconsul was to administer or govern, was his lot or κλῆρος, according to which κληρουχία, in Phavorinus, is rendered δεσποτεία, lordship. In relation to these provinces among the Romans, over which procurators, or prætors, or proconsuls were set, or to which they were advanced, as to a magistracy or preferment, and raised great wealth there from their provinces, (as Cicero tells us of Verres and the prætor of Sicily,) it is, that here the apostle commands the bishops not to bear rule as they do over their provinces, (that is, by force, and with griping and squeezing wealth out of them, that is, κατακυριεύειν τῶν κλῆρων, and ἀναγκαστῶς, and αἰσχροκερδῶς, see note [a],) but to rule

h Stob. p. 486.

1 Peter 5:4

And when Christ, which is your ruler and governor, as you are rulers of other men, shall come to judgment, you shall assuredly receive from him a crown, which is not made of such fading materials as those in the Olympic games, but one that fadeth not, a crown of glory, (see note on 1 Cor. ix. 25,) a reward of your good (that is, eminently good) work or office, 1 Tim. iii. 1: (see note [a].)

1 Peter 5:5

And in like manner all inferiors must live obediently under their bishops, and so must all of you be subject to those that are set over you, (see note [h] James v,) putting on humility as your badge; or, and so must all of you put on humility as your badge; for God, saith Solomon, setteth himself against the haughty and disobedient, but is very favourable to the meek and obedient.

[c] clothed] What ἐγκόμβωμα signifies, is particularly set down by Julius Pollux, Ὄνομαστ. l. 4. c. 18, in these words, Τῇ τῶν δούλων ἐξωμίδι ἱματίδιόν τι πρόσκειται λευκόν, ὃ ἐγκόμβωμα λέγεται ἢ ἐπίβλημα, “Upon the servant’s coat is added a little white garment called by this name;” by which it appears to be a habit peculiar to servants; and by what Hesychius and Phavorinus say, (Ἐγκομβωθείς, δεθείς, it signifies being bound, and again, Ἐγκόμβωμα, δεσμός, a band,) it appears to be some kind of girdle or belt; and agreeably Hesychius and Phavorinus explain κόσσυμβος by ἐγκόμβωμα καὶ περίξωμα λιγύπτιον, an Egyptian girdle. This, as it is a belt or girdle, is an emblem of obedience, and much more so as that girdle was proper to servants; and so it is here used by the apostle to denote humility to those that are placed over them, as their badge by which they may be known to be servants of Christ. That it is no barbarous word, see Photius Epist. 156, who cites out of Epicharmus ἐγκεκόμβωται, and ἐγκομβώσασθαι out of Apollodorus, τὴν ἐπωμίαν πτύξασα διπλὴν ἄνωθεν ἐνεκομβωσάμην, “I girt it upon me:” which agrees with the notion of a belt, which we have given of it.

1 Peter 5:6

Submit yourselves therefore in all obedience to all those that are placed over you by God, that he may in that great season of retributions, both here in the time of visitation, (see note on ch. ii. 9,) and hereafter in the day of doom, exalt and reward your humility.

1 Peter 5:7

And whatsoever difficulties ye have to wrestle with, be not anxiously solicitous about them, but refer all to God’s guidance, either to avert or enable you to support, for he hath a particular care of you, and will not let any thing befall you, which is not really best for you.

1 Peter 5:8

Observe carefully all the rules of sobriety and vigilance, or diligence; for the devil, that upon all occasions indicteth and accuseth you before God, is always watching advantages to get you into his power and reach, and useth all means to that end, as a lion doth roaring, to fright and amaze, and so catch his prey;

1 Peter 5:9

Whose temptations can bring you no hurt but by your yielding to them; and therefore it concerns you to resist him with all constancy and fidelity, making use of the shield of faith, Ephes. vi. 26, to repel all his assaults, that being the tried instrument of overcoming the devil as well as the world, 1 John v. 4; and for your encouragement to constancy, you cannot but know that you are not the only sufferers in the world, but that the Christians at Rome, ver. 13, and in other places, suffer in the very same manner that you do.

1 Peter 5:10

But the same God of all mercy and consolation, who, by revealing Christianity to you, hath advanced you to a capacity and (if you be not wanting to yourselves) to the possession of his eternal glory through the sufferings of Christ, by his special providence restore you to a peaceable, quiet condition of serving him after these your dispersions are over, (see note

1 Peter 5:11

And his holy name be for ever blessed and magnified by us all. Amen.

1 Peter 5:12

I have written this short epistle to you by Silvanus, I take it, a worthy and faithful person, persuading you thus to persevere, and assuring you that this which I now preach to you is that faith which was at first received and believed by you, wherein ye have continued so long.

1 Peter 5:13

The church which is at Babylon (that is, Rome, parallel to Babylon in many things), which is your partner in the faith, saluteth you, and Marcus, one of my first converts or children in the faith.

[d] elected together] Ἐκλέγειν, to choose, and ἐκκαλεῖν, to call or cull out, are in effect all one, and agreeably ἐκλεκτῇ, chosen, and ἐκκλησία, church, are so too, noting the society and assembly of Christians, as they are separate from the world, and in that respect said to be called, or picked, or culled out of it. Thus I suppose the word is used in Ignatius’s Epistle to the Trallians, or by the interpolator, if that be not the original reading, where, speaking of bishops, he saith, Χωρὶς τούτων ἐκκλησία ἐκλεκτῇ οὐκ ἔστιν, Ecclesia non est catus evocatus, aut peculiaris, that is, in effect, the church is not a church of such as it ought: and so it must be understood by those words which follow in Videlius’s copy; and if they were not written by Ignatius, seem to be a scholion to explain them, and as such, to be added to them, οὐ συναθροίσμα ἁγίων, οὐ συναγωγὴ ὁσίων, “not a collection of saints, not an assembly of pious men.” And then συνεκλεκτῇ will signify that church which was planted together with them, their sister church; see note [a] on 2 John. That St. Peter was now at Rome when he wrote this Epistle, in the second year of Claudius, is collected by Baronius; and accordingly Βαβυλὼν here will be resolved to signify Rome, (see Euseb. l. 2. c. 14, and Jerom. de Scriptor. Eccl. in Marco,) so called, either διὰ τὸ περιφανὲς, because of the great splendour of that city, saith Œcumenius, or else because of the great confusion of idolatry which St. Peter found there, (see note [a] on Rev. xviii.) And so the church in Babylon, the Christians in that heathen city of Rome.

1 Peter 5:14

Let that kiss, the token of charity, be from me begun to you all (see note [c] Rom. xvi.): I salute and wish all prosperity to all the Christians among you. So be it.

1 Peter 5:17

[h] For the time—] The ὅτι here will most conveniently be joined with the δοξαζεῖαι, ver. 16, as the matter of the Christian’s joy, and occasion of his glorifying God, that this is the season of judgments beginning at the house of God. For there being two parts of God’s κρίμα, or judgment, the one tolerable, the other intolerable; the one for advantage of the sufferer, the other for the greatest disadvantage; the one here called ἄρξασθαι κρίμα, the beginning, or τὸ πρώτον, first part, of the judgment, the other τὸ τέλος, the end, or tail of it; the one assigned to pious men, the οἶκος Θεοῦ, house of God, the other to the impious, obdurate, ἀπειθοῦντες, disobedient, (see note [g] ch. iii.) it must needs be looked on as an happy condition, and that which is matter of joy and not of sorrow to any, that they have their part in the former of these, and not in the latter of them. What the τὸ τέλος, the end, here is, may perhaps be questioned, whether any vengeance in this life, or that greater in another life. But the answer is easy: it belongs primarily to the vengeance that here should light upon the obdurate Jews, their utter excision now approaching, styled τὸ τέλος πάντων, the end of all things, ver. 7; in comparison with which the persecutions that now fell on the persevering Christians from their hands were very light and supportable; but this not to exclude, but to be the entrance on that sad arrear, the dregs of that bitter cup in another world. What is here added of the δίκαιος μόλις σώζεται, the righteous scarcely escaping, is taken from Prov. xi. 31, where that which is in the Hebrew הן צדיק בארץ ישלם, and is from thence rightly rendered by our English, behold, the righteous shall be recompensed on the earth, is by the Septuagint (by mistake, as it is probable, of בארץ for some other word) rendered δίκαιος μόλις σώζεται, the righteous hardly (that is, not without some difficulties and persecutions) escapes; where, as the recompence on earth, which the righteous meets with, is the punishments and afflictions which befall him in this life, so the σώζεται, saved, must be the temporal preservations here, or immunity from afflictions; and μόλις σώζεται, hardly saved, his bearing some sharp pungent part of them, but those not comparable with that other part of God’s cup of trembling, which expects the ungodly both here in a remarkable destruction, and in another world.

1 Peter 5:18

And if the righteous have a compensation or portion of misery in this life, Prov. xi. 31, and, though he escape, yet do it through many afflictions, then how fearful is the expectation of ungodly, sinful men?

1 Peter 5:19

By all this it appears to be most reasonable, that they that suffer in Christ’s cause bear it patiently and quietly, never doing or attempting any unlawful thing to cast the cross off from their own shoulders, but committing their lives and every thing to God, who having created all, and so being able to preserve them as easily, if he please, and being most certain to perform all his promises to every faithful servant of his, will certainly preserve them, if it be best for them, and if he do not, will make their sufferings a passage to and enhancement of their glory.

CHAP. V.

THE elders which are among you I exhort, who am ¹ also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that ² shall be revealed: