The Restoration

By the Sea of Tiberias, after the Resurrection and a second miraculous catch, the risen Christ asks Peter three times “do you love me?” — once for each denial — and three times commits to him the charge to “feed my lambs” and “tend my sheep,” before foretelling the death by which Peter would glorify God (John 21:15–19). This file follows the dialogue word for word, weighs the agapaō/phileō question, and shows why the Orthodox tradition reads the restoration as both the healing of the chief apostle and the type of all repentance.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

The Setting by the Lake

The twenty-first chapter of John — whether an original conclusion or an appendix, a much-discussed question (see below) — brings the disciples back to Galilee and to the Sea of Tiberias, where the story began. Peter says, “I am going fishing,” and the others go with him; they catch nothing through the night (John 21:3). At daybreak a figure on the shore tells them to cast on the right side; the net fills with a great catch — 153 fish — and the beloved disciple recognizes the Lord (John 21:6–7). At this Peter, characteristically, throws himself into the sea to reach Christ first (John 21:7). The scene deliberately echoes the first miraculous catch and call (Luke 5:1–11; see The Call of Simon): the same lake, the same empty nets, the same sudden abundance at the Lord’s word, the same Peter. And there is a charcoal fire on the shore (John 21:9) — the same word, anthrakia, used only here and at the courtyard fire where Peter denied him (John 18:18). The setting is built to recall both the call and the fall.

The Threefold Question

After the meal, “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’” (John 21:15–17).

The threefold question for the threefold denial is unmistakable, and the patristic tradition reads it so: as Peter denied three times by the fire, so by another fire he is asked three times to confess his love and is three times restored and re-commissioned. The grief at the third asking (John 21:17) recalls the bitter tears of the denial (Luke 22:62); the wound is reopened that it may be healed. St. John Chrysostom: by the threefold confession the Lord “set right the threefold denial,” and committed to Peter “the presidency over the brethren” not as a reward of nature but as the fruit of a love now proved (Homilies on John 88.1; trans. NPNF I/14).

Agapaō and Phileō

The dialogue famously alternates two Greek verbs for “love”: in the first two questions Jesus uses agapaō, and Peter answers each time with phileō; in the third question Jesus uses phileō, the word Peter has been using, and it is then that Peter is grieved. Two readings stand in the tradition and the scholarship:

The verbs are deliberately distinguished. On this reading, urged by some fathers and older commentators, Jesus first asks for the higher, self-giving agapē and Peter, humbled by his fall, can only claim the warmer, more personal philia; at the third asking Jesus condescends to Peter’s own word, and Peter is grieved that the Lord has, as it were, questioned even his philia. This reading finds spiritual depth in Peter’s chastened humility.
The verbs are synonyms varied for style. On this reading, defended by much modern scholarship, John’s Gospel uses agapaō and phileō interchangeably throughout (cf. John 3:35 with 5:20; 11:5 with 11:3), and the alternation here is the Evangelist’s habitual stylistic variation, like the parallel variation of “lambs/sheep” and “feed/tend”; the grief is simply at the third asking, not at a change of verb.

[Disputed: whether the *agapaō*/*phileō* alternation in John 21:15–17 is theologically significant or mere stylistic synonymy is debated. The synonymy view (e.g. most modern commentators, noting John's interchangeable usage and the parallel variation of *boskō*/*poimainō* and *arnia*/*probata*) is now the majority scholarly position; the distinguishing view retains a following and a long devotional and patristic resonance. The Orthodox reading does not depend on settling this: the threefold restoration answers the threefold denial on either account.]

“Feed My Sheep”

To each confession of love the Lord answers with a charge: “Feed my lambs” (boske ta arnia mou), “Tend my sheep” (poimaine ta probata mou), “Feed my sheep” (boske ta probata mou) (John 21:15–17). The pastoral commission is the substance of the restoration. Peter is not merely forgiven; he is re-entrusted with the care of Christ’s flock — and the flock remains emphatically Christ’s (“my lambs,” “my sheep”), entrusted to Peter as shepherd under the one Good Shepherd (John 10:11). The Roman Catholic tradition reads this commission, with Matt 16:18–19 and Luke 22:32, as part of the unique Petrine office of universal pastorate; the Orthodox tradition reads it as the restoration of the fallen apostle to the apostolic shepherding shared by all who tend the flock of God — exactly the charge Peter himself will lay on all presbyters: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you… not domineering over those in your charge” (1 Peter 5:2–3; see First Peter). The bearing of this scene on the primacy question is carried in Section 07 (see Primacy and the Orthodox Reading).

“By What Death He Would Glorify God”

The restoration ends with a prophecy of Peter’s own martyrdom, which seals the whole. “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” The Evangelist glosses it: “This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God” (John 21:18–19). The “stretching out of the hands” was read very early as a reference to crucifixion (so Tertullian and the later tradition), and the prophecy answers Peter’s failed boast at the Supper that he would lay down his life: now, restored, he will indeed do so (see The Martyrdom). And then comes the word that ties the end to the beginning: “And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me’” (John 21:19) — the same summons given by the same lake at the first call (Mark 1:17). The restored Peter is called again to follow, this time all the way to the cross.

The Type of Repentance

The Orthodox tradition holds the denial and the restoration together as one movement, and reads in it the very pattern of repentance. Peter’s fall is real and grievous; his weeping is real; and his restoration is the free gift of the risen Lord, who seeks him out, reopens the wound, and heals it threefold. The chief of the apostles is the chief of penitents — which is why the Church’s hymns for the days of repentance invoke “the tears of Peter,” and why the Orthodox reading insists that Peter’s authority among the apostles is the authority of a forgiven sinner restored by love, not the prerogative of a flawless prince. As Chrysostom puts it, the Lord “committed to him the care of his brethren” precisely after, and because of, the proof of his love (Homilies on John 88.1; NPNF I/14).

(On the question whether John 21 is original to the Gospel or a later appendix, see The Sources and What Can Be Known; the chapter is present in all manuscripts and is universally received as canonical Scripture.)

References

The Holy Bible — Luke 5:1–11; 22:31–32, 62; John 10:11; 18:18; 21:1–19; 1 Peter 5:2–3. Cited by book chapter:verse.
John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Gospel of St. John 88. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 14. (The threefold confession setting right the threefold denial; the entrusting of the flock.)
Cyril of Alexandria. Commentary on the Gospel of John, on John 21. (The restoration and the pastoral charge.)
Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John (XIII–XXI). Anchor Bible 29A. New York: Doubleday, 1970. (The agapaō/phileō question; John 21 as appendix.)
Bockmuehl, Markus. Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.