Case study: John 21:15-17
When
they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon
son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes
Lord", he said, "you know that I love you". Jesus said,
"Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John,
do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know
that I love you." Jesus said "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do
you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the
third time, "Do you love me?" He said "Lord, you know
all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed
my sheep."
Two
different words are used for 'love' in this passage. Jesus
uses one and Peter another. Looking it up in Strong's Concordance
we see that Jesus uses word 25 and Peter uses word 5368.
The lexicon at the back of the concordance gives the words
and their meanings:
25.
agapao, ag-ap-ah'-o; to love (in a social
or moral sense):-(be-) love (-ed.). Comp. 5368.
5368.
phileo, fid'-eh'-o; to be a friend to
(fond of (an individual or an object), i.e. have affection
for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment
or feeling; while 25 is wider, embracing espec.
the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as
a matter of principle, duty and propriety: the former
being chiefly of the heart and the latter of the head);
spec. to kiss (as mark of tenderness):kiss, love.
The
first word involves a deeper, self-sacrificing love. The
second is more of a friendly affection. Jesus was asking
Peter whether he really loved him in the sense of being
prepared to sacrifice his own desires. Peter was only prepared
to say that he felt love for Jesus. A week or so before
this conversation, Peter felt his life was threatened and
to save himself he had denied he knew Jesus (see Luke 22:54-62).
So now he was not prepared to say he was ready to love Jesus
in the deeper sense because he felt he had previously let
Jesus down.
Without
knowing the Greek words translated "love" in this passage,
the meaning of the conversation would be unclear.
There
are many software packages which include the text of the
entire Bible, often in several different versions. They
also enable fast searching for words or phrases. For example,
the concordance exercise on page 77 asked you to find occurences
of the phrase "Son of Man". This is difficult using a printed
concordance but very easy using a computer concordance because
it allows searching for the whole phrase rather than individual
words.
Some
computer Bibles also contain lexicons and it is possible
to find where the underlying Greek and Hebrew words have
been used even when they have been translated differently
in different places.
The
larger Bible software packages include other Bible study
tools such as Bible dictionaries, atlases and commentaries
which axe all linked together.
