John 21:15-25

Christian Standard Bible

Jesus’s Threefold Restoration of Peter

¹⁵ When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John,^[a] do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”

“Feed my lambs,” he told him. ¹⁶ A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love^(A) me?”^(B)

“Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.”

“Shepherd^(C) my sheep,”^(D) he told him.

¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love^(E) me?”

Peter was grieved^(F) that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything;^(G) you know that I love you.”

“Feed^(H) my sheep,” Jesus said. ¹⁸ “Truly I tell you,^(I) when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ He said this to indicate by what kind of death^(J) Peter would glorify God.^(K) After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.”^(L)

Correcting a False Report

²⁰ So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved^(M) following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” ^{(N) 21} When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”

²² “If I want him to remain until I come,”^(O) Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

²³ So this rumor^[b] spread to the brothers and sisters^(P) that this disciple would not die.^(Q) Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Epilogue

²⁴ This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

²⁵ And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books^[c] that would be written.^(R)