Robertson Word Pictures - John 21:15 - 21:15

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Robertson Word Pictures - John 21:15 - 21:15


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Lovest thou me more than these? (agapāis me pleon toutōn). Ablative case of comparison toutōn (disciples) after pleon. Peter had even boasted that he would stand by Christ though all men forsook him (Mar 14:29). We do not know what passed between Jesus and Peter when Jesus first appeared to him (Luk 24:34). But here Christ probes the inmost recesses of Peter’s heart to secure the humility necessary for service.

I love thee (philō su). Peter makes no claim here to superior love and passes by the “more than these” and does not even use Christ’s word agapaō for high and devoted love, but the humbler word phileō for love as a friend. He insists that Christ knows this in spite of his conduct.

Feed my lambs (Boske ta arnia mou). For the old word boskō (to feed as a herdsman) see Mat 8:33. Present active imperative here. Arnia is a diminutive of arnos (lamb).