1 Peter 5:1

πρεσβυτέρους οὖν. The οὖν definitely connects the advice to Elders with the preceding section. In 1 Peter 4:17 St Peter probably referred to Ezekiel 9:6, where the judgment ordered to “begin at the sanctuary” was first executed upon τῶν�. The “refining” (cf. πύρωσις 1 Peter 4:12) of the Sons of Levi as the preliminary to judgment upon sinners in Malachi 3:1-5 might further suggest the special responsibility of “elders” as οἰκόνομοι (cf. 1 Peter 4:10) in the new “house of God.”

The word πρεσβύτερος originally suggested the reverence due to seniority in age, and still retained much of its original meaning when it became a title for a definite office in the Church. The office of presbyter was not divorced from the qualifications and associations of age. Thus the πρεσβύτεροι are still put in contrast to νεώτεροι or νέοι by Polycarp, ad Phil. v, Clem, ad Cor. i, and in Church Ordinances c. 18 presbyters are required to be men of mature age. So here St Peter probably uses the word partly in the sense of “seniors,” although he is primarily employing it in its official sense of “Elders,” i.e. Church officers. The title was doubtless borrowed from the Jewish synagogue, though the duties of Christian Elders were not wholly identical with those of Jewish Elders. We first hear of Elders at Jerusalem, Acts 11:30, receiving the offerings brought from Antioch by Paul and Barnabas. In Acts 15:6; Acts 15:22-23 the Elders are coupled with the Apostles in the Conference, in choosing delegates and in writing an official letter to other churches. In Acts 21:18 the Elders, together with James the Lord’s brother, receive St Paul and his companions at his last visit to Jerusalem and advise him how to conciliate Jewish prejudices. In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appoint Elders in every city on their first missionary journey, and in Acts 20:28 St Paul, having summoned the Elders of Ephesus to meet him at Miletus, reminds them that they are overseers (ἐπίσκοποι) to shepherd (ποιμαίνειν) the Church of God. So here the T.R. inserts ἐπισκοποῦντες after ποιμάνατε. Elders are also mentioned in James 5:14, where they are to pray for the sick and anoint them with oil. But in St paul’s epistles the title πρεσβύτεροι is not found except in the Pastoral Epistles, written at the close of his life, where ἐπίσκοποι and πρεσβύτεροι almost certainly refer to the same officers, though ἐπίσκοπος may denote one special aspect of their duties. Possibly the title πρεσβύτερος did not for some time come into very common use in the Gentile Churches to which St Paul wrote, but there is little doubt that there were such officers in all churches from the first, and they are probably intended by the ἑπίσκοποι to whom a salutation is sent n Philippians 1:1 (σὺν ἐπισκόποις καὶ διακόνοις) and by the “pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11. The special duties of the Elders seem to have been government and teaching. The absence of the article in this verse may denote such as are Elders.

ὁ συνπρεσβύτερος. Possibly St Peter here avoids calling himself ἀπόστολος, though he used that title of himself in the opening salutation, because he desires to set an example of humility to the Elders. His injunction not to “lord it over” others would lose much of its force if he himself asserted his own apostolic authority. He therefore deliberately couples himself with those to whom he appeals. Dr Hort, however (The Christian Ecclesia, p. 222), says “St Peter seems to join with this (the official sense “Elder”) the original or etymological sense (i.e. senior in age) when he calls himself a fellowelder, apparently as one who could bear personal testimony to the sufferings of Christ.” The title Elder is used of himself by St John in his second and third epistles. In Papias and Irenaeus it seems to be used of those who belonged to the older generation who were immediate companions of the Apostles.

μάρτυς means one who bears witness, and does not in itself mean an eyewitness or spectator, the word for which is αὐτόπτης (cf. Luke 1:2), but from the stress laid upon personal companionship with Jesus as a necessary qualification to be a μάρτυς in Acts 1:22, etc., there is little doubt that St Peter here means that he is testifying what he has himself seen (cf. John 19:35; Acts 22:15).

St Peter, while coupling himself with the Elders, reminds them that his language about suffering and glory is the testimony of one who actually witnessed Christ’s sufferings and who is assured of his personal share in the glory which is to follow. Harnack (Chronologie, p. 452) explains μάρτυς to mean a witness to Christ’s sufferings by means f the sufferings which he had himself endured for the Name of Christ.

κοινωνός = partner with Christ, not with you. For the latter meaning we should have συγκοινωνός (cf. Matthew 19:28).

τῆς μελλούσης�. Cf. Romans 8:18.