Church Fathers Commentary John 21

St. Augustine of Hippo: The preceding words of the Evangelist seem to indicate the end of the book, but he continues further to give an account of our Lord’s appearance at the Sea of Tiberias: After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias.

St. John Chrysostom: He says, “Afterwards,” because He did not continually travel with His disciples as before. He says He “manifested Himself” because, His body being incorruptible, it was a condescension to allow Himself to be seen. He mentions the place to show that our Lord had taken away much of their fear and that they no longer remained indoors, even though they had gone to Galilee to avoid the persecution of the Jews.

The Venerable Bede: The Evangelist, as was his custom, first states the event itself and then explains how it happened: And on this wise showed He Himself.

St. John Chrysostom: Since our Lord was not with them regularly, the Spirit had not yet been given to them, and they had received no commission and had nothing to do, they returned to their trade as fishermen. And on this wise showed He Himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee—he who was called by Philip—and the sons of Zebedee, that is, James and John, and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter says to them, I go a fishing.

St. Gregory the Great: It may be asked why Peter, who was a fisherman before his conversion, returned to fishing, when it is said, “No man putting his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: If the disciples had done this after Jesus’s death and before His resurrection, we might have imagined that they did it in despair. But now, after He had risen from the grave, after they had seen the marks of His wounds and received the Holy Spirit by means of His breath, they suddenly become what they were before: fishers, not of men, but of fish.

We must remember, then, that their apostleship did not forbid them from earning a living by a lawful trade, provided they had no other means of supporting themselves. For if the blessed Paul did not use the power he had, as the other preachers of the Gospel did, but supported himself by his own means so that the Gentiles, who were strangers to the name of Christ, would not be offended by a doctrine that seemed to be for sale; and if, though educated differently, he learned a trade he never knew before so that the hearer might not be burdened while the teacher worked with his own hands—how much more could Peter, who had been a fisherman, work at what he knew if he had nothing else to live on at the time?

Someone might ask, “But how could he lack provision, when our Lord promised, ‘Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you’?” We answer that our Lord fulfilled this promise by bringing them the fish to catch—for who else could have brought them? He allowed them to experience the poverty that required them to fish only so that He could display a miracle.

St. Gregory the Great: A trade that was practiced without sin before conversion is not a sin after it. Therefore, after his conversion, Peter returned to fishing; but Matthew did not return to his post as a tax collector. For there are some occupations that can hardly, if at all, be carried on without sin, and these cannot be returned to after conversion.

St. John Chrysostom: The other disciples followed Peter. They say to him, We also go with you. From this time on, they were all closely united, and they also wanted to see the fishing. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. Their fishing at night was due to fear.

St. Gregory the Great: The fishing was made to be unsuccessful in order to heighten their astonishment at the miracle that followed: And that night they caught nothing.

St. John Chrysostom: In the midst of their labor and distress, Jesus presented Himself to them: But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. He did not make Himself known to them immediately but entered into conversation, and first He spoke in a human manner: Then Jesus says to them, Children, have you any meat?—as if He wanted to buy some from them. They answered Him, “No.” He then gives them a sign by which to recognize Him: And He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.

The moment of recognition reveals the different temperaments of Peter and John: one is fervent, the other sublime; one is quick to act, the other is perceptive. John is the first to recognize our Lord: Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved says to Peter, It is the Lord. Peter is the first to come to Him: Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked).

The Venerable Bede: The Evangelist alludes to himself here in his usual manner. He recognized our Lord either by the miracle, the sound of His voice, or the association with former occasions on which He found them fishing. Peter was “naked” in the sense that he was lightly dressed compared to his usual attire, just as we might say to someone we meet who is thinly clad, “You are quite bare.” Peter was dressed this way for convenience, as fishermen often are while working.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Peter’s girding himself is a sign of modesty. He girt himself with a linen coat, such as Thamian and Tyrian fishermen throw over themselves when they have nothing else on, or even over their other clothes.

The Venerable Bede: He went to Jesus with the same fervor he showed in everything he did: And cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship. We should not understand this to mean that Peter walked on top of the water, but that he either swam or waded through it, as he was very near the shore: For they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits.

Glossa Ordinaria: This is a parenthetical statement, for the text continues, “dragging the net with fishes.” The proper sequence of the text is: The other disciples came in a little ship, dragging the net with fishes.

St. John Chrysostom: Another miracle follows: As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. He no longer works with pre-existing materials but creates in an even more wonderful way. This shows that it was only out of condescension that He performed His miracles using existing matter before His crucifixion.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We should not understand this to mean that the bread was laid on the coals. Instead, it should be read as if it were structured this way: They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on the coals; and they saw bread.

Theophylact of Ohrid: To show that this was not a vision, He told them to bring some of the fish they had caught. Jesus says to them, Bring of the fish which you have now caught. Another miracle follows, namely, that the net was not broken by the great number of fish: Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In a mystical sense, in the catch of fish He symbolized the mystery of the Church as it will be at the final resurrection of the dead. To make this symbolism clearer, the account is placed near the end of the book. The number seven, which is the number of the disciples who were fishing, signifies the end of time, for time is counted by periods of seven days.

Theophylact of Ohrid: In the nighttime, before the presence of Christ the Sun, the Prophets caught nothing; for although they tried to correct the people, the people often fell back into idolatry.

St. Gregory the Great: It may be asked why after His resurrection He stood on the shore to receive the disciples, whereas before He walked on the sea. The sea signifies the world, which is tossed about by various causes of turmoil and by the waves of this corruptible life, while the shore, by its solidity, represents eternal rest. Therefore, because the disciples were still on the waves of this mortal life, they were laboring on the sea; but the Redeemer, having thrown off the corruption of the flesh through His resurrection, stood on the shore.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The shore is the end of the sea and therefore signifies the end of the world. The Church is here symbolized as she will be at the end of the world, just as the other catch of fish symbolized her as she is now. Previously, Jesus did not stand on the shore but got into Simon's boat and asked him to put out a little from the land.

In the former catch, the nets were not thrown to the right or to the left to symbolize either the good or the bad alone, but were cast without distinction: “Let down your nets for a catch,” meaning that the good and bad were mixed together. But here, the command is, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship,” signifying those who will stand on the right hand—the good.

Our Lord performed the first miracle at the beginning of His ministry and the second after His resurrection. This shows that the former catch of fish signified the mixture of good and evil that makes up the Church at present, while the latter signifies the good alone, which the Church will contain in eternity after the world has ended and the resurrection of the dead is complete.

But those who belong to the resurrection of life—that is, to the right hand—and are caught in the net of the Christian name will only appear on the shore, that is, at the end of the world after the resurrection. This is why the disciples were not able to draw the net into the boat and unload the fish as they did before. The Church keeps these people of the right hand, after their death, in a sleep of peace, as if in the depths of the sea, until the net is brought to shore.

The fact that the first catch involved two small boats, while the last was two hundred cubits from land—a hundred and a hundred—symbolizes, I believe, the two classes of the elect: the circumcised and the uncircumcised.

The Venerable Bede: The two hundred cubits signify the twofold grace of love—the love of God and the love of our neighbor—for it is by these that we approach Christ. The broiled fish is Christ who suffered. He condescended to be hidden in the waters of human nature and to be caught in the net of our night; and having become a fish by taking on humanity, He became bread to refresh us by His divinity.

St. Gregory the Great: The holy Church was committed to Peter; to him it is specifically said, “Feed My sheep.” What is later declared in word is now signified by this action. It is he who draws the fish to the solid shore, because it was he who pointed out the stability of the eternal homeland to the faithful. He did this by word of mouth and by his epistles, and he does this daily through signs and miracles. After stating that the net was full of large fish, the number is given: “Full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty and three.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: In the previous catch, the number of fish is not mentioned, as if in fulfillment of the prophecy in the Psalm, “If I should declare them and speak of them, they should be more than I am able to express.” But here, a specific number is mentioned, which we must explain. The number ten, from the Ten Commandments, signifies the law. But when grace is joined to the law, and the Spirit to the letter, the number seven is introduced, as this number represents the Holy Spirit, to whom sanctification properly belongs. Sanctification was first mentioned in the law with respect to the seventh day, and Isaiah praises the Holy Spirit for His sevenfold work and office. The seven of the Spirit added to the ten of the law make seventeen, and the numbers from one up to seventeen, when added together, make one hundred and fifty-three.

St. Gregory the Great: Seven and ten multiplied by three make fifty-one. The fiftieth year was a year of rest for the whole people from all their work. In unity is true rest, for where division is, true rest cannot be.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This does not signify that only one hundred and fifty-three saints will rise to eternal life; rather, this number represents all who partake of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This number also contains three fifties and a remainder of three, with reference to the mystery of the Trinity. The number fifty is made up of seven times seven plus one, signifying that those sevens are one.

The fact that they were “great fishes” is also not without meaning. For when our Lord says, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill”—that is, by giving the Holy Spirit through whom the law can be fulfilled—He says almost immediately after, “Whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

In the first catch, the net was broken, signifying schisms. But here, to show that in the perfect peace of the blessed there will be no schisms, the Evangelist continues, “And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.” He seems to be alluding to the previous instance where it was broken, making a favorable comparison.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When the fishing was finished, our Lord invited them to dine. Jesus said to them, Come and dine.

St. John Chrysostom: John does not say that He ate with them, but Luke does. He ate, however, not to satisfy the needs of His body, but to show the reality of His resurrection.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When the bodies of the righteous rise again, they will need neither the word of life to keep them from dying of disease or old age, nor any physical nourishment to prevent hunger and thirst. For they will be endowed with a sure and inviolable gift of immortality, so that they will not eat out of necessity, but will only be able to eat if they choose.

The need to eat and drink will be taken away from them, but not the ability. In the same way, our Savior took food and drink with His disciples after His resurrection—in His spiritual yet real flesh—not for nourishment, but as an exercise of His power.

No one dared to doubt that it was Him, much less deny it, for it was so evident. If anyone had doubted, they would have asked.

St. John Chrysostom: He means that they did not have the confidence to talk with Him as they had before. Instead, they sat looking at Him in silence and reverence, absorbed in observing His altered and now supernatural form, and were unwilling to ask any questions.

Knowing it was the Lord, they were in awe and ate only what He, in an exercise of His great power, had created. Again, He does not look up to heaven or do anything in a human manner, thus showing that His former acts of that kind were done only out of condescension. Jesus then comes, takes the bread and gives it to them, and the fish likewise.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Mystically, the cooked fish is Christ who suffered. And He is the bread that came down from heaven. The Church is united to Him as His body for participation in eternal bliss. Therefore, He says, Bring some of the fish that you have just now caught, to signify that all of us who have this hope—and who are represented by that group of seven disciples, which symbolizes the universal Church—partake of this great sacrament and are admitted to this bliss.

St. Gregory the Great: By holding this last feast with seven disciples, He declares that only those who are full of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit will be with Him in the eternal feast. Time is also reckoned by periods of seven days, and perfection is often designated by the number seven. Therefore, those who now strive for perfection are the ones who feast upon the presence of the Truth in that final banquet.

St. John Chrysostom: However, since He did not converse with them regularly or in the same way as before, the Evangelist adds, This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was risen from the dead.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This refers not to the number of appearances, but to the number of days on which He appeared: the first was the day He rose; the second was eight days later, when Thomas saw and believed; and the third was this day at the catch of fish. From then on, He appeared to them as often as He saw them, up until the time of His ascension.

We find ten occasions mentioned in the four Gospels on which our Lord was seen after His resurrection: first, at the sepulcher by the women; second, by the women returning from the sepulcher; third, by Peter; fourth, by the two going to Emmaus; and fifth, in Jerusalem, when Thomas was not present. The sixth was when Thomas saw Him; the seventh, at the Sea of Tiberias; and the eighth, by all eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee, as mentioned by Matthew. The ninth was when He ate with the disciples for the last time, and the tenth was when He was seen no longer on earth, but high up on a cloud.

Theophylact of Ohrid: When the meal was over, He entrusted to Peter—and not to the others—the oversight of the world’s sheep. So when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me more than these?

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord asked this, already knowing the answer. He knew that Peter not only loved Him, but loved Him more than all the rest.

Alcuin of York: He is called Simon, son of John, with John being his natural father. Mystically, however, Simon means “obedience” and John means “grace”—a name well-suited for him who was so obedient to God’s grace that he loved our Lord more ardently than any of the others. Such virtue arises from a divine gift, not from mere human will.

St. Augustine of Hippo: While our Lord was being condemned to death, Peter was afraid and denied Him. But by His resurrection, Christ implanted love in his heart and drove away fear. Peter had denied because he feared to die; but when our Lord had risen from the dead, and by His own death destroyed death, what was there for him to fear? He said to Him, Yea, Lord; You know that I love You. Upon this confession of his love, our Lord entrusted His sheep to him. He said to him, Feed My lambs, as if to show that the only way for Peter to prove his love was to be a faithful shepherd under the chief Shepherd.

St. John Chrysostom: What most attracts the divine love is care and love for our neighbor. Our Lord, passing over the other disciples, addresses this command to Peter, since he was the chief of the Apostles, the spokesman for the disciples, and the head of their college. Our Lord no longer remembers Peter’s sin of denial or brings it as a charge against him; instead, He immediately entrusts him with the oversight of his brethren. It is as if He said, “If you love Me, take responsibility for your brethren. Demonstrate the love you have always shown, and lay down for My sheep the life you once said you would lay down for Me.”

He asked the same question and gave the same command a third time to show how important He considers the oversight of His own sheep, and how He regards it as the greatest proof of love for Him.

Theophylact of Ohrid: From this exchange comes the custom of the threefold confession in baptism.

St. John Chrysostom: Being asked the question for a third time disturbed Peter. He was grieved because Jesus said to him the third time, Do you love Me? He was afraid, perhaps, of being rebuked again for professing a love greater than he possessed. So he appealed to Christ Himself, saying, Lord, You know all things—that is, the secrets of the heart, both present and future.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He was grieved because he was asked so often by the One who already knew the answer to His own question. He replied, therefore, from his inmost heart: You know that I love You.

He said no more, replying only what he knew about himself. He knew that he loved Him; whether anyone else loved Him, he could not tell, as he could not see into another’s heart. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep, as if to say, “Let the duty of love be to feed the Lord’s flock, just as the impulse of fear was to deny the Shepherd.”

Theophylact of Ohrid: There is perhaps a difference between lambs and sheep. The lambs are the newly initiated, while the sheep are those who are mature in the faith.

Alcuin of York: To feed the sheep means to support believers in Christ so they do not fall from the faith, to provide for the material needs of those under our care, to preach and to model that preaching with our own lives, to resist adversaries, and to correct those who wander.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Those who feed Christ’s sheep as if the sheep were their own, and not Christ’s, plainly show that they love themselves and not Christ. They are moved by the lust for glory, power, or gain, not by the love of obeying, ministering to, and pleasing God.

Let us, therefore, love Him and not ourselves. In feeding His sheep, let us seek His interests, not our own. For whoever loves himself and not God does not truly love himself. Since a person cannot live by his own power, to love oneself apart from God is to choose death, and one cannot truly love oneself if that self-love leads to destruction. In contrast, when we love Him by whom we live, we love ourselves all the more, precisely because we are not loving ourselves for our own sake, but so that we may love Him who is the source of our life.

But unfaithful servants arose who divided Christ’s flock and handed down that division to their successors. You can hear them say, “Those sheep are mine! What do you want with my sheep? I will not let you near them.” If we call the sheep “ours,” as they call them “theirs,” then Christ has lost His sheep.

John 21:18-19a

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord, having made Peter declare his love, informs him of his future martyrdom—an intimation to us of how we should love: Verily, verily, I say to you, When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked where you would. He reminds him of his former life, because while a young man has power in worldly matters and an old man has none, in spiritual things the opposite is true: virtue is brighter and manliness is stronger in old age. Age is no hindrance to grace.

Peter had always desired to share Christ’s dangers, so Christ tells him, “Be of good cheer; I will fulfill your desire in such a way that what you have not suffered when young, you shall suffer when old: But when you are old.” From this it appears that he was then neither a young nor an old man, but in the prime of his life.

Origen of Alexandria: It is not easy to find anyone ready to pass from this life at once; and so He says to Peter, When you are old, you shall stretch forth your hand.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, he shall be crucified. And to come to this end, Another shall gird you, and carry you where you would not. First, He said what would come to pass; secondly, how it would come to pass. For it was not when he was crucified, but when he was about to be crucified, that he was led where he would not.

He wished to be released from the body and be with Christ. If it were possible, however, he wished to attain eternal life without the pains of death. He went to this death against his natural will, but he conquered that will, triumphing over the human feeling—a feeling so natural that not even old age could deprive Peter of it.

But whatever the pain of death may be, it ought to be conquered by the strength of love for Him who, being our life, voluntarily underwent death for us. For if there is no pain in death, or very little, the glory of martyrdom would not be great.

St. John Chrysostom: He says, Where you would not, with reference to the natural reluctance of the soul to be separated from the body—an instinct implanted by God to prevent people from putting an end to themselves. Then, elevating the subject, the Evangelist says, This spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God—not simply that he “should die.” He expresses himself this way to intimate that to suffer for Christ was the glory of the sufferer.

But unless the mind is persuaded that He is truly God, the sight of Him can in no way enable us to endure death. Therefore, the death of the saints is a certainty of divine glory.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He who denied and loved, died in perfect love for Him for whom he had promised to die with misguided haste. It was necessary that Christ should first die for Peter’s salvation, and then Peter die for Christ’s Gospel.

John 21:19b-23

Our Lord, having foretold to Peter by what death he should glorify God, bids him follow Him. And when He had spoken this, He says to him, Follow Me. Why does He say, Follow Me, to Peter and not to the others who were present, who as disciples were already following their Master?

Or if we understand it of his martyrdom, was Peter the only one who died for the Christian truth? Was not James put to death by Herod? Someone will say that James was not crucified, and that this was fittingly addressed to Peter because he not only died but also suffered the death of the cross, as Christ did.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Peter, hearing that he was to suffer death for Christ, asks whether John was also to die. Then Peter, turning about, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on His breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrays you? Peter seeing him says to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?

St. Augustine of Hippo: He calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” because Jesus had a greater and more familiar love for him than for the others, so that He had him recline on His breast at supper. In this way, John further commends the divine excellence of the Gospel which he preached.

Some think—and they are not contemptible commentators on Scripture—that the reason John was loved more than the others was that he had lived in perfect chastity from his youth. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not to him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?

Theophylact of Ohrid: That is to say, “Shall he not die?”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Jesus says to him, What is that to you? and He then repeats, Follow you Me, as if John would not follow Him because he wished to remain until He came. Then went this saying abroad among the disciples, that that disciple should not die. Was this not a natural inference for the disciples to make? But John himself does away with such a notion: Yet Jesus said not to him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?

But if anyone so wishes, let him contradict this and say that what John says is true—namely, that our Lord did not say that disciple should not die, but that this was nevertheless signified by the words John records.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or let him say that Christ did not deny that John was to die—for whatever is born, dies—but said, I will that he tarry till I come, meaning, to live to the end of the world, and then he shall suffer martyrdom for Me. And therefore, they confess that he still lives but will be killed by the Antichrist, and will preach Christ’s name with Elijah. But if his sepulcher is brought up as an objection, they say that he entered it alive and went out of it afterward.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or perhaps one will allow that John still lies in his sepulcher at Ephesus, but asleep, not dead, and will offer as proof that the soil over his grave is moist and watery from his breathing. But why would our Lord grant it as a great privilege to the disciple whom He loved that he should sleep this long time in the body, when He released Peter from the burden of the flesh by a glorious martyrdom and gave him what Paul had longed for when he said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ?

If what is reported really takes place at John’s grave, it is done either to commend his precious death—since it did not have martyrdom to commend it—or for some other cause unknown to us. Yet the question remains: Why did our Lord say of one who was about to die, I will that he tarry till I come? It may also be asked why our Lord loved John the most when Peter loved our Lord the most. I might easily reply that the one who loved Christ more was the better man, and the one whom Christ loved more was the more blessed; only this would not be a defense of our Lord’s justice.

I will endeavor, then, to answer this important question. The Church acknowledges two modes of life as divinely revealed: one by faith and the other by sight. The life of faith is represented by the Apostle Peter, in respect of the primacy of his Apostleship; the life of sight is represented by John. Therefore, to the one it is said, Follow Me—that is, “Imitate Me in enduring temporal sufferings.” Of the other it is said, I will that he tarry till I come, as if to say, “You follow Me by enduring temporal sufferings; let him remain until I come to give everlasting bliss.”

To explain the meaning more fully: Let action, following the example of My Passion, be perfected; but let contemplation wait, still unformed, until at My coming it may be completed. It is a waiting—not simply remaining or continuing—but waiting for its completion at Christ’s coming. Now in this life of action, it is true that the more we love Christ, the more we are freed from sin. But He does not love us as we are; He frees us from sin so that we may not always remain as we are. He loves us, therefore, not for our present state but for our future one, when we will no longer possess that which displeases Him and from which He is freeing us.

So then, let Peter love Him, that we may be freed from this mortality; let John be loved by Him, that we may be preserved in that immortality. John loved less than Peter because he represented that future life in which we are loved much more. Our Lord said, I will that he remain (that is, wait) till I come, seeing that we do not yet have that greater love, but wait to have it at His coming. This intermediate state is represented by Peter, who loves but is loved less, for Christ loves us less in our misery than He will in our blessedness. Likewise, we now love the contemplation of truth as it will be then less than we will in our future state, because as yet we neither know nor possess it.

But let no one separate these illustrious Apostles. That which Peter represented and that which John represented were both destined to be fulfilled in their time.

Glossa Ordinaria: I will that he tarry, that is, “I do not will for him to suffer martyrdom, but to wait for the quiet dissolution of the flesh, when I shall come and receive him into eternal blessedness.”

Theophylact of Ohrid: When our Lord says to Peter, Follow Me, He confers upon him the supervision of all the faithful, and at the same time bids him imitate Him in everything—in word and deed. He also shows His affection for Peter, for we bid those who are most dear to us to follow us.

St. John Chrysostom: But if it is asked, “How then did James assume the see of Jerusalem?” I answer that our Lord enthroned Peter not as bishop of this see, but as teacher of the whole world. Then Peter, turning about, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper. It is not without meaning that the circumstance of leaning on His breast is mentioned; it is to show what confidence Peter had after his denial.

For he who at the supper did not dare to ask for himself, but gave his question to John to ask, now has the supervision of his brethren committed to him. Whereas before he gave a question concerning himself to another to ask, he now asks his Master questions concerning others. Our Lord, then, having foretold such great things for him, committed the world to him, prophesied his martyrdom, and made known his greater love, Peter wished to have John admitted to a share of this calling. He says, And what shall this man do? as if to say, “Will he not go the same way with us?”

For Peter had great love for John, as appears from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, which give many proofs of their close friendship. So Peter does for John the same favor that John had done for him; thinking that John wanted to ask about himself but was afraid, Peter puts the question for him. However, since the care of the world was now going to be committed to them, and they could not remain together without neglecting their charge, our Lord says, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? This is as if to say, “Attend to the work committed to you, and do it. If I will that he remain here, what is that to you?”

Theophylact of Ohrid: Some have understood Till I come to mean, “Until I come to punish the Jews who have crucified Me and strike them with the Roman rod.” For they say that this Apostle lived until the time of Vespasian, who took Jerusalem, and that he dwelt nearby when it was taken. Or, Till I come means, “until I give him the commission to preach, for to you I now commit the pontificate of the world. In this, follow Me, but let him remain until I come and call him, as I do you now.”

St. John Chrysostom: The Evangelist then corrects the opinion that had spread among the disciples.

St. John Chrysostom: John appeals to his own knowledge of these events, since he was a witness to them: This is the disciple which testifies of these things. When we assert any undisputed fact in common life, we do not withhold our testimony; much less would he, who wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The other Apostles did likewise, saying, And we are witnesses of these things, and that they wrote these things. John is the only one who appeals to his own testimony, and he does so because he was the last to write.

For this reason, he often mentions Christ’s love for him—that is, to show the motive that led him to write and to give weight to his history. And we know that his testimony is true. He was present at every event, even at the crucifixion, when our Lord committed His mother to him. These circumstances show both Christ’s love and his own importance as a witness. But if anyone does not believe, let them consider what follows: And there are also many other things which Jesus did. If, when there were so many things to relate, I have not said as much as the others and have often selected reproaches and insults in preference to other things, it is evident that I have not written with partiality. One who wants to show another to advantage does the very opposite, omitting the dishonorable parts.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Regarding the verse, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written, this means not that the world lacked space for them, but that the capacity of readers was not large enough to comprehend them.

Although sometimes words themselves may exceed the literal truth, the thing they express is still true. This is a mode of speech used not to explain something obscure or doubtful, but to magnify or emphasize a plain thing. Nor does it involve any departure from the path of truth, since the excess of the word over the literal fact is evidently only a figure of speech and not a deception. This way of speaking the Greeks call hyperbole, and it is found in other parts of Scripture.

St. John Chrysostom: This is said to show the power of Him who performed the miracles; that is, it was as easy for Him to do them as it is for us to speak of them, since He is God over all, blessed forever.