John 21:16 BSB — MannaFest

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 (2) ▾

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.

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.

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Commentary

3 voices

Jerome

LETTER 38.1 (420)

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."

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

Augustine of Hippo

Tractates on John 123 (430)

We have it also demonstrated here that love and liking are one and the same thing; for the Lord also in the last question said not Diligis me? but, Amas me? Let us, then, love not ourselves, but Him; and in feeding His sheep, let us be seeking the things which are His, not the things which are our own. For in some inexplicable way, I know not what, every one that loveth himself, and not God, loveth not himself; and whoever loveth God, and not himself, he it is that loveth himself. For he that cannot live by himself will certainly die by loving himself; he therefore loveth not himself who loves himself to his own loss of life. But when He is loved by whom life is preserved, a man by not loving himself only loveth the more, when it is for this reason that he loveth not himself [namely] that he may love Him by whom he lives.

[2026-09-05 restored to shown: kept for the phileo word page exemplar (W71 s2): Augustine, Tractates on John 123, reads the third question at John 21:17 as proof that the two love words name one love; the relevance call is the agent's under the canon standard and the founder reviews by hand]

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

23 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
λέγει	legei	He says	G3004 →
αὐτῷ	autō	to him	G846 →
πάλιν	palin	again	G3825 →
δεύτερον·	deuteron	a second time;	G1208 →
Σίμων	Simōn	Simon	G4613 →
Ἰωάννου,	Iōannou	[son] of John,	G2491 →
ἀγαπᾷς	agapas	love you	G25 →
με;	me	Me?	G3165 →
λέγει	legei	He says	G3004 →
αὐτῷ·	autō	to Him;	G846 →
ναὶ	nai	Yes	G3483 →
κύριε,	kurie	Lord,	G2962 →
σὺ	su	You yourself	G4771 →
οἶδας	oidas	know
ὅτι	hoti	that	G3754 →
φιλῶ	philō	I dearly love	G5368 →
σε.	se	You.	G4771 →
λέγει	legei	He says	G3004 →
αὐτῷ·	autō	to him;	G846 →
ποίμαινε	poimaine	do shepherd	G4165 →
τὰ	ta	the	G3588 →
πρόβατά	probata	sheep	G4263 →
μου.	mou	of Mine.	G3165 →

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

The walk

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;