Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Peter 5:1-14, Elders, the roaring lion, and greetings from Babylon
As a fellow elder Peter urges the elders to shepherd God's flock willingly, not for gain, until the Chief Shepherd gives them an unfading crown. All must be humble, for their adversary the devil prowls like a roaring lion. Peter writes through Silvanus and sends greetings from she who is in Babylon and from his son Mark.
1 Peter 5:1-14, in every translation this tool compares.
Peter, writing as a fellow elder, tells the church's leaders to care for God's flock willingly and by example, without greed or domineering, and promises them a lasting reward when Christ returns. Younger members should respect the elders, and everyone should practice humility and hand their worries to God. They are to stay alert, because the devil hunts like a lion, and stand firm, knowing believers everywhere suffer the same way. The letter closes with word of Silvanus's help and greetings from Babylon and from Mark.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/shepherd-and-sheep\/","n":"Shepherd and sheep","s":"Scripture pictured Israel without a leader as sheep without a shepherd, and promised that God himself would come to shepherd them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/babylon-the-code-name\/","n":"Babylon as a name for Rome","s":"Babylon burned Jerusalem's first temple and carried Judah into exile. By the first century Jews were calling Rome by its name, and Christians did the same for the city that ruled and scattered them.","r":""}
Elders, older men skilled in judging cases, ruled most Israelite towns and held a respected place in the synagogues, and the churches took the office over (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Wright's commentary notes that outside a narrow strand of Jewish tradition no one had counted humility a virtue. Devil means slanderer, and Jewish tradition had Satan accuse God's people day and night (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Under Nero, Keener writes, some Christians were fed to real lions. Whether Silvanus wrote the letter down or carried it is debated: Keener, the cultural backgrounds notes and Carson, Moo and Morris take him as the scribe, the last noting that Peter says I wrote, not I sent, while the ESV and CSB Study Bibles, Wright and Bird, and Wright's commentary think him the carrier. She who is in Babylon is widely read as the church in Rome (Keener; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles; Wright and Bird); the city on the Euphrates is unlikely, say Carson, Moo and Morris, since "the Jews were chased out of that city well before this time", and "Rome is usually accepted, and rightly so." Wright's commentary is less sure that Babylon is code for Rome.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introductions to 1 Peter 5:1-5 and 5:6-11, and on 1 Peter 5:1, 5:2, 5:3, 5:4, 5:5, 5:8-11, 5:12, 5:13 and 5:14
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Peter 5:1, 5:2, 5:4, 5:8, 5:9, 5:12, 5:13 and 5:14
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on 1 Peter 5:12 and 5:13
- CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Peter 5:12-14
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 32, Origins of 1 Peter, and The Argument of 1 Peter, sections 4 and 5
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 19, Peter, Author, Provenance, and note 4
- N. T. Wright, Early Christian Letters for Everyone, comment on 1 Peter 5:1-7 and 5:8-14
