St. Theophilus of Antioch

“The dinner being ended, He commits to Peter the superintendence over the sheep of the world, not to the others: So when they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonas, Do love you Me more than these do?’. Thence is taken the custom of threefold confession in baptism. There is a difference perhaps between lambs and sheep. The lambs are those just initiated, the sheep are the perfected.” (Patriarch of Antioch [A.D. 184]).


“Now this was said to Peter, because he was bolder than the rest, and might feel proud because of the things which Christ had promised.”