Passage

1 Peter 5.2

Book: 1 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

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:

2. 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;

neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock. 4. And when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:1-4, ASV)

WEB

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.

2. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;

neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. 4. When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away. (1 Peter 5:1-4, WEB)

KJV

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:

2. 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}

Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. ^{being lords over: or, overruling} 4. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:1-4, KJV)

YLT

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,

2. feed the flock of God that [is] among you, overseeing not constrainedly, but willingly, neither for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind,

neither as exercising lordship over the heritages, but patterns becoming of the flock, 4. and at the manifestation of the chief Shepherd, ye shall receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Peter, writing through Silvanus (5:12)
Audience: scattered believers across five Roman provinces of Asia Minor, described as sojourners and exiles and facing social hostility rather than state persecution
Location: written from "Babylon" (5:13), most likely a designation for Rome
Time period: c. AD 62 to 64, before the Neronian persecution

Theological reading

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.

Peter's charge to elders, and it is built from three contrasts.

Poimanate, tend or shepherd, is the same verb Jesus addresses to Peter at John 21:16. Whether or not the echo is deliberate, the man told to feed the sheep is now telling others to do it, and verse 1 has him call himself a fellow-elder rather than pull rank.

The flock of God which is among you. The possessive is the point. The flock belongs to God, and the elders are among it rather than above it, which sets up the warning of verse 3 against lording it over the charge allotted to you.

Three contrasts. Not by constraint but willingly, addressing motive. Not for shameful gain but eagerly, addressing money, and the plainness of the phrase indicates the problem was real. Not domineering but as examples, addressing power.

The pattern is Christological. Verse 4 promises that when the chief Shepherd is manifested the elders shall receive a crown, which makes their office explicitly derivative and temporary. Peter has already applied Shepherd to Christ at 2:25.

The passage is a primary text for elder qualification alongside 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and its distinctive contribution is that it addresses motive rather than only conduct or competence. See Pastor.

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.

No Strong's-tagged lexicon entry is curated for the key terms of this verse; the lexicon covers roughly 100 contested terms, not every word. See Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

G1577 - ekklesia

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.