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Joh_21:20-21. From ἀκολουθοῦντα —which here, as belonging to the narrative, is, as a matter of course, not to be taken in the significant sense of the ἀκολούθει belonging to the language of Jesus, Joh_21:19—it results that Jesus, during the preceding conversation with Peter (not now first, in accordance with ἀκολούθει μοι , Joh_21:19, as Luthardt assumes; for this ἀκολ . μοι is to be left purely in its higher sense), has gone away with him a little distance from the disciples. Peter, engaged in walking with Jesus, turns round ( ἐπιστραφείς , comp. Mat_9:22) and sees that John is following them.
ὃν ἠγπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς ] Not to be connected with ἀκολουθ . (“he knew that Jesus loved his company,” Ewald, loc. cit.), but comp. Joh_13:23.
ὃς καὶ ἀνέπεσεν , κ . τ . λ .] Retrospect of the special circumstance, Joh_13:25; hence, however, not: who also lay at table, etc. (Hengstenberg and others), but: who also laid himself down (with the head) at the well-known Supper ( ἐν τῷ δείπνῳ ) on the breast of Jesus. Ὃς … παραδ . σε is not to be placed within a parenthesis, since with Joh_21:21 a new sentence begins. The subjoining of this observation is not intended to state the reason for John, as the confidant of Jesus, following Him (Bengel, Luthardt, Lange, Godet); but to prepare the way for the following question of petty jealousy, in which the point of the further narrative lies, while it indicates the consideration which determines Peter to put this question, whether possibly a destiny of suffering might not in like manner be contemplated for the disciple so pre-eminently beloved and distinguished by Jesus, this ἐπιστήθιος of the Lord. According to Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euth. Zigabenus (similarly Olshausen), the intention is to make the reader sensible of how far bolder than at the Last Supper Peter has now become after his restoration. But the subsequent question neither presupposes any special boldness (comp. on Joh_21:22), nor, considering the peculiar situation of the Last Supper, was a want of boldness the reason why Peter did not himself put the question, Joh_13:25. The καί after ὅς expresses the relation corresponding to ὃν ἠγάπα ; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 152.
οὖτος δὲ τί ] sc. ἔσται . See Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 338 [E. T. p. 394]. Nonnus: καὶ τί τελέσσει οὗτος ἐμὸς συνάεθλος ; but what will become of this man if the result is to be such for me? Will the issue be otherwise with him? οὐκ ἀκολουθήσει σοι ; οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡμῖν ὁδὸν τοῦ θανάτου βαδιεῖται ; Euth. Zigabenus. The rendering: but what shall this man? Shall he then now be with us (Paulus and several others), a part of the false explanation of ἀκολούθει μοι , Joh_21:19. On the neut. τί , comp. Act_12:18; Xen. Hell. ii. 3. 17 : ἔσοιτο ἡ πολιτεία ; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Rep. p. 332 E.