Charles Ellicott Commentary John 21

The impression that St. John would not die belongs to the period when the Second Advent was expected to occur within a lifetime. This period ceased with the first generation of Christians, and this mistake would therefore point to the close of the first century as a limit beyond which the date of the Gospel cannot be placed.

The mistake having been made, the obvious correction after St. John’s death would have been simply to record that event. The correction of the text would place these words within his lifetime.

Simon Peter said to them, I go a fishing.—The words are the vivid representation by an ear-witness of what actually took place as they returned to their ordinary work during the interval between the Passover and Pentecost. It does not express either an abandonment of their higher vocation or an expectation of the presence of the Lord. The picturesque coloring of the whole scene is quite in St. John's style, as is also the simple coordinate arrangement of sentences without connecting particles.

And that night they caught nothing.—Compare Luke 5:5 for the fact; but the words are different. The word here rendered “caught” occurs nowhere in the other Gospels, but is found again in this chapter (John 21:10), and six times in the earlier chapters of the Gospel (John 7:30; John 7:32; John 7:44; John 8:20; John 10:39; John 11:57). It occurs also in Revelation 19:20.

Jesus stood on the shore.—Compare to John 20:19; John 20:26. The words express the sudden appearance without any indication of His coming. He was then standing in the midst, or on the shore, but no one knew from where or how.

The disciples did not know that it was Jesus.—Compare to John 20:14.

Children, have ye any meat?—The word rendered “Children” (or, as the margin has it, Sirs), is used in addressing others only by St. John among the New Testament writers (1 John 2:13; 1 John 2:18). This is not the word used in John 13:33. In that verse, we find an expression denoting His affectionate tenderness for the disciples. Such an expression would not have been appropriate here, because He does not immediately reveal His identity to them. It is a word that, indeed, may express His love for them , but which appears also to have been used as an address to workmen or inferiors, not unlike our own words “boys” or “lads.” They seem to take it in this sense, as though some traveller passing by asked the question because he wished to purchase some of their fish.

The word rendered “meat” occurs here only in the New Testament. It means anything eaten with bread, and was used as equivalent to the fish which was the ordinary relish. (Compare to Note on John 6:9.)