Passage

1 Peter 5.1

Book: 1 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. The elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3. neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly; 3. neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:1-3, WEB)

KJV

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

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; ^{which: or, as much as in you is} 3. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. ^{being lords over: or, overruling} (1 Peter 5:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Elders who [are] among you, I exhort, who [am] a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of the Christ, and of the glory about to be revealed a partaker,

feed the flock of God that [is] among you, overseeing not constrainedly, but willingly, neither for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, 3. neither as exercising lordship over the heritages, but patterns becoming of the flock, (1 Peter 5:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Peter the apostle, writing with the help of Silvanus (1 Pet 5:12).
Audience: Christians described as "those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Pet 1:1), five Roman provinces in northern and central Asia Minor. The audience is largely Gentile (1 Pet 1:18, a futile way of life inherited from their forefathers; 4:3-4).
Location: Written from "Babylon" (1 Pet 5:13), which the great majority of interpreters read as a cipher for Rome, as in Revelation 17:5.
Time period: c. AD 62-64 on the traditional authorship, before or at the very beginning of the Neronian persecution. The hostility the letter addresses is social and local, slander, exclusion, and abuse, rather than empire-wide legal prosecution.

Theological reading

"Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed."

"Fellow elder." Sympresbyteros, a word that occurs nowhere else in Greek literature before this. Peter is an apostle and could have written as one; instead he places himself alongside the men he is instructing. The choice is not decorative, since the instruction that follows is precisely about not lording it over the flock (verse 3).

"Witness of the sufferings of Christ." Martys, the ordinary word for a courtroom witness, which only later acquires the sense of martyr. Peter claims eyewitness standing, and the claim is a modest one relative to what he could have said: he does not call himself the chief of the apostles or the rock, he says he saw it.

Three participants in one sentence. He is a fellow elder (present ministry), a witness of the sufferings (past), and a partaker of the glory to be revealed (future). The tripartite self-description mirrors the shape of the whole letter, which keeps suffering and glory in the same frame (1 Peter 1:11; 4:13; 5:10).

On church order. The passage treats elders (presbyteroi) as the recognized leadership of these congregations and describes their work with the shepherd verb (poimainō, verse 2) and with an overseeing participle (episkopountes). The three terms elder, shepherd, and overseer are used of the same people here and at Acts 20:17 with 20:28, which is a standard datum in discussions of New Testament polity.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G1391 - doxa, doxa, Strong's G1391
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547

Quoted in

Concepts:

People:

John the Apostle

Passages:

1 Peter 1.8

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.