Ὅτε οὖν ἠρίστησαν λέγει τῷ Σίμωνι Πέτρῳ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Σίμων Ἰωάννου ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον τούτων (John 21:15)

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Title:  So When They Had Finished Jesus Said to Simon Peter, “Simon of John, Do You Love Me More than These?”

The text is, “Ὅτε οὖν ἠρίστησαν λέγει τῷ Σίμωνι Πέτρῳ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Σίμων Ἰωάννου ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον τούτων λέγει αὐτῷ ναὶ κύριε σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φιλῶ σε λέγει αὐτῷ βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου”.

Ὅτε -> subordinating temporal conjunction -> when

οὖν -> coordinating inferential conjunction -> so

ἠρίστησαν -> third person, plural, aorist, active, indicative verb -> they had finished

λέγει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> says CER* said

τῷ -< masculine, singular, dative article -> the NRIEH**

Σίμωνι -> masculine, singular, dative, proper noun -> to Simon

Πέτρῳ -> masculine, singular, dative, proper noun -> Peter

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the NRIEH

Ἰησοῦς -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Jesus

Σίμων -> masculine, singular, vocative, proper noun -> Simon

Ἰωάννου -> masculine, singular, genitive, proper noun -> of John

ἀγαπᾷς -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> you do love

με -> first person, personal, singular, accusative pronoun -> me

πλέον -> comparative adverb -> more than

τούτων -> neuter, plural, genitive, demonstrative pronoun -> these

λέγει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> he said

αὐτῷ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, dative pronoun -> to him

ναὶ -> particle -> yes

κύριε -> masculine, singular, vocative noun -> Lord

σὺ -> second person, personal, singular, nominative pronoun -> you

οἶδας -> second person, singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> know

ὅτι -> subordinating complementary conjunction -> that

φιλῶ -> first person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> I have affection

σε -> second person, personal, singular, accusative pronoun -> for you

λέγει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> he says CER he said

αὐτῷ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, dative pronoun -> to him

βόσκε -> third person, singular, present, active, imperative verb -> you feed

τὰ -> neuter, plural, accusative article -> the NRIEH

ἀρνία -> neuter, plural, accusative noun -> lambs

μου -> first person, singular, genitive pronoun -> my

The meaning of this verse is,

So when they had finished, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon of John, do you love me more than these?”  He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.”  He said to him, “You feed my lambs.”

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the first example here, the verb “λέγει” is present tense, which in the indicative mood often can be rendered in the aorist tense, since it expresses linear action not in the present but at some point in the past.  The designation CER is equivalent to “Contextual English Rendering”.

**NRIEH: For the sake of clarity the word is translated into English, but to avoid such odd constructions as applying a definite article (“the”) to a substantive sufficiently determined by its being a proper noun, or by the use of a qualifier other than the definite article. An example would be the basic translation “Peter said to the Jesus”; the word “the” is completely unnecessary. There are many examples of this in the New Testament. The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

Ὅτε οὖν ἠρίστησαν λέγει τῷ Σίμωνι Πέτρῳ ὁ Ἰησοῦς Σίμων Ἰωάννου ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον τούτων (John 21:15) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.