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Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Restoration
of Peter – Wikipedia
The following is the Article “Restoration of Peter” from
Wikipedia. It speaks of Peter’s reinstatement to his leadership role in the Church
following his three denials of Christ Jesus:
Restoration of Peter
Raphael, Christ's Charge to Peter, 1515.
The Restoration of Peter (also known as the
Re-commissioning of Peter)
[1]
is an
incident described in John 21 of the New Testament in which
Jesus appeared to his disciples
after his resurrection and spoke to Peter in particular.
Jesus restored Peter to fellowship after
Peter had previously denied him and told Peter to feed
Jesus' sheep.
According to the New Testament, Jesus rose from the dead
and appeared to his disciples. The
Gospel of John records a number of such appearances. This
episode is thus part of the fourth
resurrection appearance in John's gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:5 suggests that Jesus had already appeared
individually to Peter; A. B. Bruce
argues on this basis that the account in John 21 is not
really a "restoration" since Peter would
have been restored already: "Who can doubt that after
that meeting the disciple's mind was at
ease, and that thereafter he was at peace, both with
himself and with his Master?"[2] Bruce
concludes that the account is not "the restoration of
Peter to a forfeited position, but his recall
to a more solemn sense of high vocation."[3]
Background
Jesus' resurrection
Peter's denial
All four gospels record Peter's denial of Jesus, and all of
the synoptic gospels record how Peter
"wept bitterly" after the rooster crowed. John
omits this detail, but he is unique in describing
the restoration scene between Jesus and Peter. Jesus words
in Mark 16:7, however, are often
thought to carry the message of Peter's restoration:
"But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is
going ahead of you into Galilee...’" (NIV).[4]
William de Brailes, Christ
Appears at Lake Tiberias, c.
1250.
Paul Barnett notes that Jesus' approach to Peter in John 21
is "both forgiving and stern."[5]
In John 21, Peter goes fishing with six other disciples.
They do not catch any fish all night, but
in the morning Jesus meets them and tells them to throw
their net on the other side of the boat.
When they do, there is a miraculous catch of 153 fish.
Jesus and his disciples have breakfast on the shore. Jesus
prepares the breakfast of bread and
fish, including a charcoal fire. Peter also stood near a
charcoal fire when he denied Jesus. After
they finish eating, Jesus speaks particularly to Peter.
Earlier Peter had denied Jesus three times. Now, in
response to Jesus' questioning, Peter
affirms his love for Jesus three times. William Hendriksen
notes some other correspondences
between this episode and that of Peter's denial. For
example, it is at a charcoal (ἀνθρακιὰν)
fire
where Peter first denied Jesus (John 18:18) and now is
asked to confess his love for his master
Meeting by the sea
Jesus' threefold charge to Peter
Comparison with Peter's denial
(John 21:9).[6] Ben Witherington III suggests that
"John has the threefold restoration take place
in a setting similar to where the threefold denial did.
It's like revisiting the scene of the crime,
only this time getting it right."[7]
Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me more than
these?" The Greek text is ambiguous as to what the
"these" refers to, and D. A. Carson notes that
there are three possibilities:
1. Do you love me more than you love these disciples?
2. Do you love me more than you love this fishing gear?
3. Do you love me more than these other disciples do?
Carson himself chooses the third option.[8] Adrienne von
Speyr argues, "The Lord expects that
Peter should love him more than the others do, more than
John, who is nevertheless love
personified. And he should also have personal knowledge of
this more. This expectation
constitutes an immediate overtaxing of Peter, an overtaxing
that begins here and will reach no
end until the end of time. ... More than these also means:
more than these who have previously
known only personal love."[9]
The dialogue between Jesus and Peter contains two different
words for "love", which some, but
not all, commentators deem to be of exegetical
significance. The words are agapaô (the verb
form of the noun agape) and phileô (the verb form of the
noun philia). The dialogue proceeds
as follows:[10]
Jesus asked, "do you agapâis me?"
Peter replied, "I phileô you."
Jesus asked, "do you agapâis me?"
Peter replied, "I phileô you."
Jesus asked, "do you phileis me?"
Peter replied, "I phileô you."
"Do you love me more than these?"
Two words used for "love"
Peter Paul Rubens, Christ's
Charge to Peter, c. 1616
This is brought out in the 1984 (but not the 2011) edition
of the NIV, which renders agapao as
"truly love" and phileo as "love". Ben
Witherington III suggests that this indicates "Jesus'
gracious condescension to the level that Peter was prepared
to respond at this juncture."[11]
William Hendriksen argues that in his third question, Jesus
is calling into question even Peter's
"subjective attachment" and affection, and that
is why it says "Peter was grieved because he said
to him this third time..." (John 21:17).[12]
Other commentators, such as Carson, reject the idea of a
distinction between the meaning of the
two words.[13] According to Thomas J. Lane, "Since the
early centuries, it has been debated
whether there is significance to Peter responding with a
different love verb and for the third
question Jesus using the same love verb as Peter. While the
majority opinion has swayed to and
fro over the centuries, the common opinion now is that,
since these two love verbs are used
interchangeably in this Gospel, there is no special
significance to their use here in [John] 21:15-
17. Keener has done a study of their interchangeability in
John, showing that they are both used
even to describe the Father loving Jesus."[14]
In his The Lord, Romano Guardini says that Jesus' second
and third questions made Peter
nevermore answer him with his "old confidence",
made him more humble and realized that he
was being punished for "his triple treason".[15]
In response to Peter's three affirmations of love for him,
Jesus gives Peter three commands:
"Feed my lambs" / "Take care of my
sheep" / "Feed my sheep". Jesus is re-commissioning Peter
as an apostle and leader in the church. "Sheep"
is a common metaphor in the New Testament to
refer to the people of God. This is the origin of the word
"pastor", which means "shepherd".
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia argues that the title
"Vicar of Christ", given to the Pope, is
founded on these words of Jesus, "by which He
constituted the Prince of the Apostles guardian
of His entire flock in His own place, thus making him His
Vicar and fulfilling the promise made
in Matthew 16:18–19."[16] Protestant theologians such
as D. A. Carson argues that "neither
Peter appointed as shepherd
founding pre-eminence nor comparative authority is in
view" in this passage.[17] Writing from
an Orthodox perspective, Victor Potapov argues that the
word "feed" does not signify "the
supreme authority of pastorship," but simply "the
authority and responsibilities of pastorship
proper to all the apostles and their successors."[18]
Jesus then describes Peter's future to him, and says
"someone else will dress you and lead you
where you do not want to go" (John 21:18, NIV). The
narrator interprets this as referring to
Peter's martyrdom (John 21:19). According to a tradition
found in the apocryphal Acts of Peter,
Peter was crucified upside-down.
Another possibility is argued for by classicist Timothy
Barnes. He suggests that if the author of
John knew the rough details of Peter's death, these verses
actually imply that Peter was not
crucified, but rather burned alive. According to the
historian Tacitus, Nero ordered the
Christians he accused of being behind the Great Fire of
Rome to be burned alive as a sort of
poetic justice. Criminals were generally crucified naked
(despite later art often depicting Jesus
allowed a loincloth for modesty), a poor fit for being
"dressed" by another, while burning
someone alive may have involved placing an oil-soaked tunic
on them, suggesting that the verse
may have been a reference to just such a vestment.[19]
After having said all the above, Jesus said to Peter,
"Follow me" (John 21:19). Guardini argues,
"Here too an event from the past is recalled,
transfigured, and continued." At the moment Peter
became happy again since he realized that he has been
forgiven, and then he resumed
"something of his old garrulousness".[15]
1. Paul Barnett, John: The Shepherd King (Sydney South:
Aquila Press, 2005), p. 314.
2. Bruce, A. B. (1883). The Training of the Twelve. p. 504.
3. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 505.
4. William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (NICNT; Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971),
p. 589.
5. Paul Barnett, John, p. 321.
6. William Hendriksen (London: Banner of Truth, 1961), The
Gospel of John, p. 486.
7. Ben Witherington III, What Have They Done with Jesus?
Beyond Strange Theories and Bad
History – Why We Can Trust the Bible (New York: HarperOne,
2006), p. 73.
8. D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Leicester:
Apollos, 1991), pp. 675–676.
Jesus' prediction of Peter's death
"Follow me"
References
9. Adrienne von Speyr (1991). "The Primacy". The
Birth of the Church: Meditations on John
18-21. Translated by David Kipp. Ignatius Press. ISBN
9780898703689.
10. "Agapao & Phileo in Peter's Restoration"
(http://www.acts17-11.com/dialogs_agape_peter.ht
ml). Acts 17:11 Bible Studies. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
11. Ben Witherington III, What Have They Done with Jesus?,
p. 74.
12. William Hendriksen, John, p. 488.
13. D. A. Carson, John, p. 676-677.
14. Thomas J. Lane (2016). "The Primacy of Saint
Peter". The Catholic Priesthood: Biblical
Foundations. Emmaus Road Publishing. ISBN 9781945125096.
15. Romano Guardini (1954). The Lord (Gateway ed.). Regnery
Publishing, Inc. pp. 489–490.
ISBN 0895267144.
16. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Vicar of
Christ" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_
Encyclopedia_(1913)/Vicar_of_Christ). Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company.
17. D. A. Carson, John, 678.
18. Potapov, Victor. "Primacy and the "Infallibility"
of the Roman Pope" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20131202232937/http://www.stjohndc.org/Russian/orthhtrdx/OrthhtrdxE/e_P10.htm).
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Archived from the
original (http://www.stjohndc.org/Russia
n/orthhtrdx/OrthhtrdxE/e_P10.htm) on 2 December 2013.
Retrieved 26 November 2013.
19. Barnes, Timothy (2015). " 'Another Shall Gird
Thee': Probative Evidence for the Death of
Peter". In Bond, Helen; Hurtado, Larry (eds.). Peter
in Early Christianity. William B.
Eerdmans. pp. 76–95. ISBN 978-0-8028-7171-8.