1 Peter 5:1

Leading and Living in God’s Flock

5:1 So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you:

1 Peter 5:10

5:10 And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ ¹  will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. ² 

1 Peter 5:2

5:2 Give a shepherd’s care to ³  God’s flock among you, exercising oversight ⁴  not merely as a duty ⁵  but willingly under God’s direction, ⁶  not for shameful profit but eagerly.

1 Peter 1:3

New Birth to Joy and Holiness

1:3 Blessed be ⁷  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

¹ tc ‡ A few important mss (א B 614 630 1505 pc) lack “Jesus” after “Christ,” while the majority include the name (Ì⁷² A P Ψ 33 1739 Ï latt). However, the inclusion is a natural and predictable expansion on the text. NA²⁷ includes ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity. .

² tn The pronoun “you” is not used explicitly but is clearly implied by the Greek.

³ tn Grk “shepherd,” “tend,” “pastor.”

⁴ tc A few important mss (א* B sa) lack ἐπισκοποῦντες (episkopounte", “exercising oversight”), but the participle enjoys otherwise good ms support (Ì⁷² א² A P Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat). A decision is difficult because normally the shorter reading is preferred, especially when found in excellent witnesses. However, in this instance the omission may be due to a hesitation among some scribes to associate oversight with elders, since the later church viewed overseer/bishop as a separate office from elder.

⁵ tn Or “not under compulsion/coercion.”

⁶ tn Grk “according to God.”

⁷ tn There is no verb in the Greek text; either the optative (“be”) or the indicative (“is”) can be supplied. The meaning of the term εὐλογητός (euloghtos) and the author’s intention at this point in the epistle must both come into play to determine which is the preferred nuance. εὐλογητός as an adjective can mean either that one is praised or that one is blessed, that is, in a place of favor and benefit. Two factors of the author’s style come into play. At this point the author is describing the reality of believers’ salvation and will soon explain believers’ necessary response; this is in emulation of Pauline style which generally follows the same logical order (although the author here discusses the reality in a much more compressed fashion). On the other hand, when imitating the Pauline greeting, which is normally verbless, the author inserts the optative (see v. 2 above). When considered as a whole, although a decision is difficult, the fact that the author in the immediate context has used the optative when imitating a Pauline stylized statement would argue for the optative here. The translation uses the term “blessed” in the sense “worthy of praise” as this is in keeping with the traditional translation of berakah psalms. Cf. also 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3.