Undesigned Coincidences: "Do you love me more than these [love me]?"

In this last installment of my 2023 undesigned coincidence series, I touch on a lot of topics. Which is stronger, a UC where something in a later work explains something in an earlier work or a UC where something in an earlier work explains something in a later work? I suggest that neither is per se stronger and that apparent casualness is far more important than the direction of explanation. I also suggest that if someone is going to dismiss a UC because he can come up with a hyper-subtle possibility in which an author deliberately connects his work with another work but makes it look like he's doing it casually, that person isn't going to be fazed by either direction of explanation. But if you think that one direction is stronger than the other, you should know that we do have apparent UCs both directions. I then discuss the scene where Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me more than these?" I suggest that this forms an undesigned coincidence with Peter's earlier boast that even if the other disciples forsook Jesus, he never would do so. That boast is reported only in the Synoptics. I also talk about what I think is wrong with the interpretation that by "these" Jesus is referring to the fish, the boats, or the "worldly" life of a fisherman. Finally, I give a hint of where I'll be going next on this channel, where we're making common sense rigorous. Thumbnail courtesy of FreeBibleimages.org