John 21:18

ἀμὴν�. This peculiarity of S. John’s Gospel (see on John 1:51) is preserved in the appendix to it [21]. Νεώτερος, younger than thou art now. The middle instead of ἐζώννυες σεαυτόν would have been correct, as in Acts 12:8; but then the contrast between σεαυτόν and ἄλλος would have been lost: ἐζώννυσο is ‘thou didst gird (thyself);’ ἐζώννυες σεαυτόν is ‘thou didst gird thyself.’

ἐκτενεῖς τ. χ. Either for help, or in submission to the enforced girding to which the condemned are subjected. Ὅπου οὐ θ. means to death: not that S. Peter will be unwilling to die for his Lord, but that death, and especially a criminal’s death, is what men naturally shrink from. The expression would be a strange one if ἄλλος means God, and the reference is to His equipping the Apostle for an unwelcome (!) career. And what in that case can ὄταν γηράσῃς mean?

The common interpretation that ‘stretch forth thy hands’ refers to the attitude in crucifixion, and ‘gird thee’ to binding to the cross, is precarious, on account of the order of the clauses, the taking to execution being mentioned after the execution. But it is not impossible; for the order of this group of clauses may be determined by the previous group, and the order there is the natural one. The girding naturally precedes the walking in the first half; therefore ‘gird’ precedes ‘carry’ in the second half, and ‘stretch forth thy hands’ is connected with ‘gird’ rather than ‘carry’ and therefore is coupled with ‘gird.’ Or again ‘carry thee &c.’ may possibly refer to the setting up of the cross after the sufferer was bound to it: in this way all runs smoothly.