1 Peter 2:25

Context

1 Peter is a letter addressed to Christians scattered throughout several provinces of Asia Minor. Beginning at 2:18, the author exhorts household servants who suffer unjust treatment from their masters. He presents Jesus Christ, who endured suffering without sin, as their example, and in doing so repeatedly draws on the "Suffering Servant" passage of Isaiah 53. The preceding verse, 1 Peter 2:24, states that Christ bore sins on the cross. Verse 25, the final sentence of the passage, sums up the result: "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." The phrase "ye were as sheep going astray" recalls Isaiah 53:4–6: "All we like sheep have gone astray."

Interpretation

• As a confession of conversion: Many commentators read the contrast between "ye were" and "are now" as describing the change in the readers' lives before and after they came to faith in Christ. They understand "returned" as a reference to conversion and repentance. The expression is also cited as evidence that many of the recipients were of Gentile background.
• As shepherd imagery: The verse is read as linking the Old Testament tradition that portrays God as the shepherd of Israel (Ezekiel 34; Isaiah 40) with Jesus' description of himself as the "good shepherd" (John 10). In chapter 5 the author calls Christ the "chief Shepherd" and exhorts the elders to feed the flock.
• The meaning of "Bishop": The Greek word episkopos, rendered "Bishop" in the King James Version, denotes one who cares for and watches over others, that is, a guardian. Other English Bibles translate it as "Overseer" or "Guardian." Some interpreters hold that "souls" refers not merely to a part of the person distinct from the body but to the whole person.

Debates and Issues

There is no major doctrinal dispute among denominations over this verse itself. However, because episkopos later became the title of a church office, the verse comes up in discussions of church polity.

• Episcopal tradition: Churches with an episcopal order, such as the Anglican Church of Korea with its bishops and the Korean Methodist Church with its bishops, sometimes cite this verse as grounds for holding that Christ is the ultimate overseer of every office.
• Presbyterianism: Presbyterians point to Titus 1 and other passages as evidence that in the New Testament "bishop" (overseer) and elder refer to the same office.

Both sides agree, however, in reading the "Bishop" of this verse as Christ rather than as a human officeholder.

Perspective: Korean Protestant practiceHow this idea is used in Korean churches, kept from the original Korean article.

In Korean Protestant churches, the Korean words for pastor (moksa) and for pastoral ministry (mokhoe) themselves derive from the image of a shepherd tending sheep. For this reason the verse is often quoted in Korean sermons on pastoral identity and at ordination services. Some Korean churches that follow the house church model call their small groups mokjang ("pastures") and their leaders mokja ("shepherds").

Related Passages

• Isaiah 53:6
• Ezekiel 34:11–16
• John 10:11–15
• Isaiah 40:11
• 1 Peter 5:2–4