[B-Greek] Do You Love Me?

Tim Davis jttyger at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 24 07:09:26 EDT 2007


If you would permit a newbie to speak...

I tend to view that passage not as a reaffirmation of
Peter, but as Jesus correcting Peter (again) so that
he can become the leader the early church will need
(and therefore think Peter's consistent use of FILEW
and especially Jesus' transition to FILEW from AGAPAW
is significant in this case).  I am driven to this
interpretation less by the verbal shifts themselves
than by the following elements of the context:

1.  Peter being ELUPHQH at Jesus putting him to the
question TO TRITON.

2.  Peter's reaction to Jesus' prophecy about his
martyrdom (Peter still seems worried about his own
status, not the Kingdom's goals).  

3.  Jesus' dismissal of Peter's question about John
followed by the more emphatic SU AKOLOUQEI MOI (which
previously was only AKOLOUQEI MOI).

Given those things, I think we can then look at the
syntax and make a case for the shift in verb being
significant in this instance.  

All that said, in general, I think David has an
excellent point.  If we recall that the NT manuscripts
werewrittenwithoutspacesorpunctuationlikethisexceptinallcaps,
then we can see just one advantage to word variation
besides meaning shift - to serve as de facto spacing
and punctuation.  

With respects,
Tim Davis
Birmingham, AL USA

--- "David E. Kiefer, Registrar" <dkiefer at fuller.edu>
wrote:

> Most of the discussions about synonyms leave out the
> whole area of 
> literary style. It is very common in the Old and New
> Testaments to use 
> words and phrases that, in a given context, are used
> synonymously 
> ("prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths
> straight" [Isaiah 40:3, 
> Mark 1:3] or "that you be united in the same mind
> and the same 
> understanding" [1 Cor 1:10]). Words can both be
> interchangeable and be 
> used with different meanings when desired.
> 
> I believe it was Leon Morris in his "Studies in the
> Fourth Gospel" who 
> wrote about the extensive use of synonyms as a
> possible feature of the 
> style of John. In this same passage in John 20,
> remember the responses: 
> "Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep." And all the
> focus on AGAPAW and 
> FILEW overlooks perhaps the most important part of
> this episode: that 
> Jesus is giving Peter three chances to afffirm his
> devotion, one for 
> each denial, and with each response Jesus restores
> the leadership role 
> that Peter had abdicated by his denial.
> 
> We don't pay much attention to concerns about words
> being used 
> synonymously when the words do not seem to have
> theological 
> significance. No one notices that in the space of
> only a few verses in 
> Acts, three different words are used to refer to
> where they locked up 
> the apostles (Acts 5:23).
> 
> There is certainly a time for precision in the use
> of words, but there 
> is a whole other level of the use of words in which
> style, imagery, 
> emphasis, and  other such functions of language --
> any language -- 
> transcend that capability for precision. The trick
> is in perceiving 
> which is in play at any given time.
> 
> Ron Bonica wrote:
> > Folks,
> >
> > Please pardon a newbie question:
> >
> > In John 21:15, Jesus asks Peter, "AGAPAC ME PLEON
> TAUTWN". Peter replies
> > "NAI KURIE, SU OIDAS HOTI FILW SE".
> >
> > Peter has switched verbs. It seems that the
> appropriate answer would
> > have been "NAI KURIE, SU OIDAS HOTI AGAPW SE". Is
> there some reason why
> > that reply would have been ungrammatical or
> inappropriate? If not, are
> > the words "AGAPW" and "FILW" one hundred percent
> identical in meaning.
> > Or is there some shade of difference between them?
> >
> >                                             Ron
> > ---
> > B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> > B-Greek mailing list
> > B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> >   
> -- 
> __________________________
> 
> David E. Kiefer, Registrar and Instructor in Greek
> Fuller Theological Seminary
> 135 N Oakland Ave
> Pasadena, CA  91182
>  
> dkiefer at fuller.edu
> Phone 626-584-5409
> Fax   626-584-5564	
> 
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> 


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