John 21:16

Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.”

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

ASV

He saith to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Tend my sheep.

YLT

He saith to him again, a second time, `Simon, son of Jonas, dost thou love me?' he saith to him, `Yes, Lord; thou hast known that I dearly love thee;' he saith to him, `Tend my sheep.'

DBT

He says to him again a second time, Simon, [son] of Jonas, lovest thou me? He says to him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I am attached to thee. He says to him, Shepherd my sheep.

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Commentary voices

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Voices6

On this verse

If the faith of the apostle Peter is shaken by his Lord's passion, it is so that with bitter weeping he may hear the soothing words "Feed my sheep."

Jerome· LETTER 38.1, 420patristic

Related commentary

Feed my sheep - The word here rendered “feed,” as has been remarked, is different from the word in the previous verse. It has the sense of governing, caring for, guiding, protecting - the kind of faithful vigilance which a shepherd uses to guide his flock, and to make provision against their wants and dangers. It may be implied here that the care needed for the young in the church is to instruct them, and for those in advanced years both to instruct and govern them.

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

These verses describe a remarkable conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter. To the careful Bible reader, who remembers the Apostle's thrice-repeated denial of Christ, the passage cannot fail to be a deeply interesting portion of Scripture. Well would it be for the Church, if all "after-meal" conversations among Christians were as useful and edifying as this. We should notice first, in these verses, Christ's question to Peter —"Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Three times we find the same inquiry made.

J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition), 1869Reformed Evangelical / Low-Church Anglican / Calvinist / 19th-c. Protestant Reformation heir

It sort of bothered me that Jesus seemed to rub it in by asking Peter three times if he loved Him. Then I researched the word meanings for love in each of these verses.

Annette Capps· Forgive Your Failures (Monthly Teaching, Capps Ministries blog)Word of Faith / Pentecostal-Charismatic / Capps Publishing / Hagin-stream / Independent

He saith to him . . . the second time . . . lovest thou me, &c.--In this repetition of the question, though the wound was meant to be reopened, the words "more than these" are not repeated; for Christ is a tender as well as skilful Physician, and Peter's silence on that point was confession enough of his sin and folly.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

It is a terror to a hypocrite to think that Christ knows all things; for the divine omniscience will be a witness against him. But it is a comfort to a sincere Christian that he has that to appeal to: My witness is in heaven, my record is on high. Christ knows us better than we know ourselves.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan

Voices on this verse

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Rabbinic commentary

How the Hebraic tradition has read this verse: and Marcus Brown’s own reading of it.

Cross-references

18 linked verses

The verses this one reaches12

Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
1 Peter 5:2
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;
1 Peter 2:25
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
John 10:11–16
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Psalms 100:3
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
John 21:15
When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”
Psalms 95:7
For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice,
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Matthew 2:6
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.’”
John 18:25
Simon Peter was still standing and warming himself. So they asked him, “Aren’t you also one of His disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
Matthew 25:32
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
John 18:17
At this, the servant girl watching the door said to Peter, “Aren’t you also one of this man’s disciples?” “I am not,” he answered.

6 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Featured studyThe Seven Signs — John's Book of SignsThis study walks through this verse.

The Word Made Flesh — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)

John: The Gospel of sevens and signs. Seven signs, seven 'I AM' sayings, a prologue and an epilogue: written 'that ye might believe' (20:31).

Canon: New Testament
Author: John the Apostle (2nd-century patristic attribution + internal claims)
Date: c. AD 85–95

More cross-references6 further linked verses, grouped by book▾ open

Every other verse the study tradition links to this one, in the Bible’s own order. The first links in each book carry a line of their text; every reference opens its full verse page.

Zechariah1

Zechariah 13:7Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,against the man who is My Companion,declares the LORD…

Matthew1

Matthew 26:72And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man!”

Luke1

Luke 15:3Then Jesus told them this parable:

John1

John 10:26But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe.

Hebrews1

Hebrews 13:20Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant…

Revelation1

Revelation 7:17For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He…

Cross-references are drawn from classic Bible study tools and open, shareable Bible data.

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
1 Peter 2:25
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
leads to
- Isaiah 53:6
  We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
- Ezekiel 34:6
  My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’
- Luke 15:4–6
  “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds…
- Acts 20:28
  Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
- John 10:11–16
  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Through
Psalms 100:3
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
leads to
- Psalms 95:6–7
  O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
- Psalms 46:10
  “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
Through
Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
leads to
- 1 Peter 5:2–3
  Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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