John 21:19

John 21:19. But this said he, signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God. It is impossible to deny that in these words the Evangelist refers to ‘death' in the ordinary sense of the term. If, then, we consider (1) the peculiar expressions used in the last verse; (2) the tradition of the Church (usually regarded as worthy of trust), that Peter died by crucifixion; and (3) the fact that, at the time when the words were written, Peter's death must have been long past: it is at once to be admitted that the Evangelist applies John 21:18, in the first instance at least, to the actual crucifixion of Peter. But it is not necessary to suppose that all the clauses of the verse refer to the literal crucifixion, or that the meaning of any of them is exhausted by that fact (comp. John 12:32-33). The singular words, ‘he should glorify God,' confirm the interpretation we have given. There is no evidence that at this early stage of Christian history this expression was used for martyrdom. It cannot therefore be explained in the light of martyrdom alone. We must compare such passages as chaps, John 12:28; John 13:31; John 14:13; John 15:8; John 17:1; John 17:4; and, doing so, we learn that the death of Peter is not viewed simply as the closing act of his career, but as an act in which that second life of his which had been spoken of in John 21:18 reached its culminating point. Thus there is nothing in John 21:19 limiting John 21:18 to that act of crucifixion which the several clauses of the verse compel us to pass.

And when he had said this, he saith unto him, Follow me. To confine the meaning of the words ‘Follow me' to the literal following of Jesus on the pre sent occasion, as if all their import were that Jesus had gone forward a few steps, telling Peter to come after Him, is so much out of keeping with the sense in which similar words are used even in the earlier Gospels, and so much more out of keeping with the style of John, that such an interpretation hardly needs to be refuted. That indeed our Lord did move forward, and that He meant Peter to follow Him, is highly probable, especially from John 21:20. But this is certainly not the whole meaning. The external following foreshadows an imitation of Christ in His accomplishment of the Father's will, and His drinking of the cup put into his hands by the Father, until, in the one case as in the other, the cross itself is reached.