From: Steve Godfrey (sgodfrey@irk.ru)
Date: Fri Jan 05 2001 - 22:26:52 EST
My thanks to Carl Conrad for responding to my previous posting on John
21:15 and ff., and for pointing me toward previous postings regarding John
21, AGAPAO, and PHILEO. He asked insightfully, "What about the other
synonyms?" After browsing through some of the previous postings, and then
reflecting further on the text, I would like to offer the following in
reply:
Many argue that if there is to be a distinction made between AGAPAO and
PHILEO that one must also hold out for a distinction between the other
pairs of synomymns: OIDA/GINOSKO, VOSKO/POIMANO, ARNIOV/ PROBATON. There
is a distinction between these terms that brings the emotional
significance of this entire exchange into full relief.
Jesus puts his first question to Peter in the simplest possible terms.
Feeding lambs is not difficult. One need only be able to hold a bottle of
milk while cradling the little beast. And yet, to this simple
requirement, Peter hedges in reply, by using a synonym for 'love' that by
implication falls short of the full love Jesus has in mind. The reason
Peter hedges is that he is ashamed of the way that he denied Christ
previously. He considers himself damaged goods, never again to be as
useful to his master as he was before his great fall.
Jesus understands, and therefore graciously raises the stakes of what he
has in mind in the second round. He repeats the question unchanged,
insisting on his own term: Peter, do you AGAPAO me? Again Peter hedges
with PHILEO, stubbornly refusing to take Jesus on the Jesus' own terms.
So the third time, to show Peter just how much he is loved, and just how
valuable he remains to the kingdom of God, Jesus switches to Peter's term
of preference. "Okay, Peter, do you PHILEO me?" Peter was hurt both
because his second response wasn't considered sufficient, and because
Jesus had now lowered the standard, and was seeming to question Peter's
integrity even at this reduced level of love. So Peter answers, "Lord you
know all things, you know innately (GINOSKO) that I love you." Peter here
appends a synonym to OIDA for passionate emotional emphasis. Jesus then
grants affirmation and grace in how he phrases his third charge. He
switches back from "shepherd" to "feed", while keeping "sheep" instead of
"lambs". It is to say, "Peter, what I am asking you to do you can do,
because you do love me, and because sheperding my sheep involves little
more than feeding them. In the most poetic language possible, the author
(John) has Jesus saying to Peter, "My dear son, I believe in you." And
in so doing, Jesus has affirmed Peter the same number of times that Peter
had denied Christ. The grace of Christ is sufficient to cover even our
most egregious sins.
Those who doubt must be able to justify their view by reading the passage
out loud in Greek. The biblical text is not a lab rat to be cut up and
analyzed word by word. It is literature, and literature can only be
understood when viewed in totality. One does not understand Van Gogh by
comparing one brush stroke to another, but rather by taking in the
glorious combinations of subtle stroking and shading in composition. In
John 21, we are given a portrait of the restoring grace of Christ.
Conclusion
A distinction between PHILEO and AGAPAO is intended. However, the
distinction is not grounded in the innate meanings of the words, which are
indeed very close synonyms. The distinction is in how Peter was
responding to Jesus, with a term other than the one Jesus used in his
question. Whatever term Peter might have used in the actual Aramaic is
not germane: the point is that John, the author, has something important
to say in Greek. John wants to say that while we may shirk from the
perfect love of Jesus, the Lamb of God is nevertheless gracious enough to
come to us and to restore us beginning at the level of love of which we
are currently capable.
Steve Godfrey
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