The pastor: shepherds of God's flock under the Chief Shepherd

First Peter is addressed to Christians living as foreigners, scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, five regions of what is now Turkey (1:1). The author names himself Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and sends the letter 'through Silvanus' (5:12), probably the Silas of Acts who served as Peter's secretary or letter-bearer. Most traditional readers hold that Peter wrote it from Rome, which he calls 'Babylon' (5:13), shortly before his death under Nero in the mid-60s AD. Many critical scholars regard it as written in his name by a later disciple in the 80s or 90s, pointing to its polished Greek and to its use of Paul's ideas. The class follows the traditional view, with the dispute noted. 'Babylon' is taken by most as a code name for Rome, as in Revelation, while a few think of a literal Babylon.

The readers are Christians who have become social outsiders and face slander and pressure (1:6; 4:12-19). The letter tells them how to live as God's people in a hostile world: holiness, good conduct before the nations, submission to authorities, and endurance with a view to glory. Chapter 5 is the closing section. It turns first to the leaders of the congregations (5:1-4), then to the younger men and to everyone (5:5-9), and then closes with a benediction, greetings and a peace (5:10-14).

The chapter sits in the middle of a long biblical habit of calling leaders shepherds. Ancient Near Eastern kings were called shepherds of their peoples, and the Old Testament uses the image of David, of Israel's rulers and of God himself. Peter's first readers, Jewish and Gentile Christians alike, would have heard in the word the whole of that background.

First Peter is a letter, and a pastoral one: it argues by exhortation, grounded each time in what God has done in Christ. Chapter 5 begins with a command (5:2) but its first word is a claim about the speaker (5:1) and its reason is a promise (5:4). That order is the interpretive key. Peter does not simply tell elders to work harder. He puts himself beside them, points them to the Chief Shepherd, and grounds the command in what they will receive from him.

The word 'pastor' needs care. In English it is a title for a local church's leader, but in the Greek New Testament the noun poimen (shepherd) is used of a church leader only once, in Ephesians 4:11. Everywhere else the noun refers to literal shepherds or to Christ. What the New Testament does use for church leaders is the verb poimaino, 'to shepherd,' and the related noun 'flock.' This class therefore asks what shepherding is, and who is told to do it, before it asks about the modern title.

The passage is also in dialogue with older Scripture. The chapter's shepherd language comes from Ezekiel 34 (God condemns the shepherds who feed themselves and promises to shepherd his sheep himself and to set one shepherd over them), from Psalm 23 and from Jesus' words in John 10 and 21. Reading 5:1-4 without them leaves out half the meaning.

Verse 1

'As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you.' Peter uses the word presbyteros (elder) for those he addresses and sympresbyteros (fellow elder) for himself. An apostle is not claiming a higher title here. He is writing as one who shares their work, and he supports his appeal by two credentials: he witnessed the sufferings of Christ, and he hopes to share the coming glory. The pattern of suffering then glory is the letter's theme.

Verse 2

'Be shepherds of God's flock that is among you.' The verb is poimanate, an aorist command: do the work of a shepherd. A shepherd leads, feeds, protects and tends the weak. The flock is 'of God' (not the elders'), and it is 'among you,' that is, the local congregation. The next word is episkopountes, 'watching over' or 'exercising oversight,' the verb from which episkopos, overseer or bishop, comes. A few early manuscripts omit it, and translations vary in how firmly they print it. If it is original, Peter has used elder, shepherd and overseer within one sentence for the same people.

Three contrasting pairs follow. They are to shepherd 'not out of compulsion, but because it is God's will' (not under pressure, but willingly, as God would have it); 'not out of greed, but out of eagerness' (aischrokerdos, shameful gain, against prothymos, readiness); and 'not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples.' The word for lording (katakyrieuo) is the one Jesus uses of Gentile rulers in Mark 10:42, and Jesus tells his disciples that it is not to be so among them. The word 'greed' implies that elders could receive support, and elsewhere Paul says they may (1 Timothy 5:17-18), but the support must not become the motive.

Verse 3 has a small point of Greek. 'Those entrusted to you' translates tōn klērōn, literally 'the allotments' or 'the portions.' It refers to the members of the flock as the charge God has assigned each leader. The same word klēros gave later Christian vocabulary the term 'clergy' (see the tradition note).

Verse 4

'And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.' Archipoimen, 'chief shepherd,' occurs only here in the New Testament. The elders are under-shepherds. Their reward is given when Christ appears, and the crown (stephanos) is the garland of a victor, here one that does not fade, in contrast to the wreaths of ancient games.

Verses 5–7

'Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders.' The younger men (neoteroi) may be the younger members of the congregation or a younger age-group; either way the call is for deference. Then everyone is told to 'clothe yourselves with humility toward one another,' with a quotation from Proverbs 3:34: 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' The word 'humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand' leads to 'Cast all your anxiety on Him,' which echoes Psalm 55:22. Peter's picture of leadership is not self-assertion, since the whole church is told to be humble.

Verses 8–11

'Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion.' The adversary is a prosecutor (antidikos) and a predator. The flock is attacked from outside, and a shepherd's duty is to stand firm with them. The comfort is that believers everywhere share the suffering (5:9), and that God himself 'will restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.' Peter closes with a doxology (5:11).

Verses 12–14

Silvanus carried the letter; 'the church in Babylon' and 'my son Mark' send greetings. The mention of Mark ties Peter with the Gospel tradition. The letter ends with a kiss of love and a wish of peace.

Four doctrines are packed into this short passage.

• First, the flock belongs to God: it is 'God's flock' (5:2), and Paul makes the same point when he tells the Ephesian elders to care for 'the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood' (Acts 20:28). Leaders are stewards, not owners.
• Second, leadership is shared and plural: Peter addresses 'the elders' and Paul speaks of the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:17), appointed in each church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5).
• Third, the three names are used interchangeably: Acts 20 calls the same men elders (verse 17) and overseers (verse 28) and tells them to shepherd; Titus 1:5, 7 does the same with elders and overseer; and Peter speaks of elders who shepherd and oversee.
• Fourth, leadership is service: 'not lording it over' repeats Jesus' own teaching in Mark 10:42-45.

The New Testament does not state how elders were appointed beyond a few cases: the apostles and their delegates appointed them (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), and Paul says the Holy Spirit made the Ephesian elders overseers (Acts 20:28). The qualifications are in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, including being 'able to teach.' In these passages the noun 'pastor' is not a title, and no single bishop stands over the elders; where the three words occur together they describe one group.

The canon also shows how the image develops. In the Old Testament, God is Israel's shepherd (Psalm 23; Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 40:11) and the kings and priests are shepherds who often fail (Jeremiah 23:1-4; Ezekiel 34:1-10). The New Testament applies the image to the apostles (John 21:15-17), to elders (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2) and, once, to a gift named 'pastors' (Ephesians 4:11). The chain always runs back to Christ.

The chapter's Christ title is 'Chief Shepherd' (5:4). In Ezekiel 34 God condemns the shepherds who feed themselves and not the flock, then promises, 'I myself will search for My sheep' (34:11), and adds that he will set over them 'one shepherd, My servant David' (34:23). That promise is fulfilled in Jesus, who says, 'I am the good shepherd' and lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11-18). Matthew applies the shepherd language of 2 Samuel 5:2 and Micah 5:2 to the birth of Jesus (Matthew 2:6). Hebrews 13:20 calls him the great Shepherd of the sheep, and Revelation 7:17 says the Lamb will be their shepherd. In Mark 14:27 Jesus applies Zechariah 13:7, the striking of the shepherd and the scattering of the sheep, to his own arrest.

Peter has already described Christ as the one whose wounds heal, echoing Isaiah 53: his readers 'were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls' (1 Peter 2:25). That verse uses the two words poimen and episkopos for Christ, so the titles later applied to leaders are first his. Psalm 23 may be heard here as an echo.

Peter's own history gives the passage added weight. He denied Christ, and at the lakeside the risen Jesus restored him with the commission 'Shepherd My sheep' (John 21:15-17). Peter now passes the same charge to the elders and says he is a witness of Christ's sufferings (5:1), the same sufferings that led to glory (1:11).