do you love me?… I love you. An extraordinary variation in the Greek vocabulary appears in the three repetitive verses, 15, 16, and 17. Respectively, there are two different verbs for “to love,” for “to know,” and for “to feed or tend,” and two or three different nouns for sheep. With the partial exception of Origen, the great Greek commentators of old, like Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria, and the scholars of the Reformation period, like Erasmus and Grotius, saw no real difference of meaning in this variation of vocabulary; but British scholars of the last century, like Trench, Westcott, and Plummer, found therein subtle shades of meaning. We shall discuss their thesis, but we note that most modern scholars have reverted to the older idea that the variations are a meaningless stylistic peculiarity (see Moule, IBNTG, p. 198; E. D. Freed, “Variations in the Language and Thought of John,” ZNW 55 [1964], especially 192–93). Why the variation is not consistently introduced elsewhere remains a puzzle; for instance, in ch. 10 John uses the same word for sheep fifteen times, and in 13:34 and 14:21 John uses the same verb “to love” (agapan) three and four times respectively.
For the verb “to love” in the questions and answers of 21:15–17, the variations are these:
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Christ’s prayer for unity reminds us how important it is for us to seek peace and harmony with those around us. It is so easy to fall into self-righteousness and to use what we think the truth is as a weapon of hatred believing that we have become the defenders of justice. The truth is ultimately that the Father loves the Son and that they are one. This truth is ours to believe so that the unity of Father and Son becomes part of our own life and that their unity becomes the root and cause of our union with others. Justice, truth, righteousness, are expected of us within the context and as a consequence of Love, otherwise they become destructive.
Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Chrysostom:
This is success for a teacher, to educate his disciples by his own accomplishments.… Notice, if you please, the character of the teaching here. He lays down love and bravery. “I kept back nothing,” he says, thereby showing both generosity and resoluteness. “Of what was profitable.” Well said! For there were things that they did not need to learn. For just as it is envy not to say some things, so it is folly to say everything. For this reason he adds, “of what was profitable,” that is, “I not only spoke but also taught.” He means he was not doing this merely for form’s sake.