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Joh_21:19. A comment, quite of Johannean stamp, on the remarkable saying. Comp. Joh_18:32, also Joh_12:33.
ποίῳ θανάτῳ ] i.e. by what manner of death, namely, by the death of martyrdom, for which Peter, bound round with fetters, was conveyed to the place of execution. John, who wrote long after the death of Peter, presupposes the details as well known, as also Clem. Cor. I. 5. Peter was crucified, as tradition, from the time of Tertullian, Scorp. 15,[288] de praeser. 35, and Origen in Eusebius, credibly relates; the reader had therefore to take this special element of the ποιότης of the execution from history, as the fulfilment of the less definite word of prophecy, in addition to, but not to derive it from, the words of Christ themselves.
δοξάσει τ . θεόν ] For such a death tended to the glorifying of God, in whose service he suffered for the revelation of His counsel and for the victory of His work (comp. Joh_17:4; Joh_17:6); hence δοξάζειν τ . θεόν became “magnificus martyrii titulus,” Grotius. See Suicer, Thes. I. p. 949. Comp. also Php_1:20; 1Pe_4:16; Act_5:41.
ἀκολούθει μοι ] On the announcement of the martyrdom which is destined for Peter in his old age, there now follows, after a pause, the summons thereto, and that in the significant form: follow me! Comp. Joh_13:36; Mat_10:38; Mat_16:24. This, then, refers, according to the context, to the following of Christ in the like death that He had died, i.e. in the death of martyrdom, which Peter is to undergo. Luther: “give thyself willingly to death.” Too special is the interpretation which refers it to the death of the cross, since this was not expressly characterized in Joh_21:18 (against Euth. Zigabenus and many others). Quite in opposition to the context, however (see also Joh_21:22), others, after Chrysostom and Theophylact, have referred it to the appointment to be oecumenical bishop. The reference to the guidance of the church is by no means to be connected with that to the death of martyrdom (Ewald, Jahrb. III. p. 171), since ἀκολ . is the opposite of μένειν , Joh_21:22. Others, again, have divested the words of all significance: Jesus had something particular to speak of with Peter, and hence summoned him to go with Him. In this way Kuinoel, Paulus, and even Tholuck and Schleiermacher, whilst Grotius, Bengel, Luthardt, Lange, Hengstenberg, Brückner, Baeumlein, Godet attempt to melt away the proper and symbolical meaning.
[288] “Tunc Petrus ab altero cingitur, cum cruci adstringitur.”