John Gill Commentary John 21

After these things
The resurrection of Christ from the dead, his appearance to Mary Magdalene, and twice to his disciples; once when Thomas was absent, and at another time when he was present:

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples ,
a third time, as in (John 21:14) though not to them all; seven are only mentioned, as together, when he appeared to them:

at the sea of Tiberias ;
the same with the sea of Galilee; see (John 6:1) for after the second appearance of Christ to his disciples, they went from Jerusalem to Galilee, by the order of Christ, who appointed to meet them there, (Matthew 28:10Matthew 28:16)

and on this way showed he himself ;
the manner in which he made his appearance, and the persons to whom, are as follow.

There were together
In one place, in one house, in some town, or city of Galilee, not far from the sea of Tiberias; nor, as very likely, far from the mountain where Christ had promised to meet them. Simon Peter, who though he had denied his Lord, dearly loved him, and truly believed in him, kept with the rest of his disciples, and was waiting for another interview with him:

and Thomas, called Didymus ;
who, though for a while an unbeliever with respect to the resurrection of Christ, was now fully assured of it, and, for the future, was unwilling to lose any opportunity of meeting with his risen Lord.

And Nathanael of Cana in Galilee ;
an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile. Dr. Lightfoot thinks he is the same with Bartholomew, and so one of the eleven. The Syriac version reads it, "Cotne", and the Persic, Catneh of Galilee; no doubt the same place is meant, where Jesus turned water into wine, of which Nathanael was an inhabitant:

and the sons of Zebedee ;
who were James, whom Herod killed with the sword, and John, the writer of this Gospel:

and two other of his disciples ;
who are thought to be Andrew and Philip; which is very likely, since they were both of Bethsaida, (John 1:44) a city in Galilee, and not far from the sea of Tiberias. Andrew is particularly mentioned by Nonnus: so that here were seven of them in all; four of them, according to this account, being wanting; who must be James the less, the brother of our Lord, Judas called Lebbaeus, and surnamed Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite, or Zealot, and Matthew the publican.

Simon Peter says to them, I go a fishing
Which was his business before his conversion; and now having nothing to do, and his Lord and master has, as yet, no service for him in the ministry of the word, until the Spirit was poured down in an extraordinary manner, which was given to be expected, in the mean while he was inclined to, and resolved upon taking up his former employment; partly that he might not live an idle life, and partly to obtain a livelihood, which was now to be sought after in another manner, since the death of Christ; and these inclinations and resolutions of his he signifies to the rest of the disciples, who agreed with him:

they say to him, we also go with you ;
that is, a fishing; for it seems to have been the business and employment of them all formerly: the place they went to was the sea of Tiberias, as appears from (John 21:1) a place free for any to fish at. This is said to be one of the ten traditions which Joshua delivered to the children of Israel, when he divided the land among them ^F26 : ``that any man should be free to catch fish in the waters (or sea) of Tiberias; and he might fish with an hook only; but he might not spread a net, or place a ship there, except the children of the tribe to whom that sea belonged in their division.''

But now these disciples, or the greater part of them at least, belonging to the tribe and division in which the sea was, had a right to carry a ship or boat thither, and make use of a net, as they did. Besides, there was another reason for fishing here, because there were no unclean fish; for the Jews say ^F1 , that ``in a place of running water no clean fish goes along with unclean fish, and lo, the sea of Tiberias is (Nh Nyklhm) (Mymh Nwgk) , "as running waters".''

They went forth :
from the house, town, or city where they were, whether Capernaum, or Bethsaida, or Tiberias itself:

and entered into a ship immediately ;
which was either one of their own, that belonged to some one of them before their call; which though they had left, had reserved their right and claim unto; see (Luke 5:3) or which they hired for their present purpose: the word immediately is not in the Vulgate Latin, nor in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, nor in Beza's ancient copy:

and that night they caught nothing .
They went out in the evening of the day, and fished all night, that being a proper time for such business, and the most likely to succeed in, but caught no fish, or very little: and so it is sometimes with Gospel ministers, who are fishers of men, though they take every opportunity, and the most proper methods to gain souls to Christ, yet sometimes do not succeed; which makes things look dark and gloomy in their apprehensions.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Maimon. Hilch. Nezike Maramon, c. 5. sect. 3. Vid. T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 81. 1.
• F1: T. Hieros. Avoda Zara, fol. 42. 1.

But when the morning was now come
The day began to dawn, and light to appear, very early in the morning; for Christ visits his right early, and is a present help to them in their time of trouble.

Jesus stood on the shore :
on firm ground, while his disciples were beating about in the waves, and toiling to no purpose. So Christ, risen from the dead, is glorified, is in heaven; but not unmindful of his people amidst all their afflictions in this world:

but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus ;
though he was so near them that they could hear what he said; but it not being broad daylight they could not distinctly discern him, or their eyes might be held that they could not know him. So Christ is sometimes near his people, and they know it not.

Then Jesus says to them, children
And still they knew him not, though he used this endearing and familiar appellation, and which they had been used to hear from him; and he had called them by a little before his departure from them, (John 13:33) and which he uses here as expressive of his tender affection for them, their relation to him, and that he might be known by them:

have you any meat?
that is, as the Syriac renders it, (oelml Mdm) , "anything to eat"; meaning fish that they had caught, and whether they had got a sufficient quantity to make a meal of for him and them.

They answered him no.
They had got nothing at all, or at least what they had was far from being enough to make a breakfast of; for so a meal early in a morning may be most properly called, though it is afterwards called dining.

Christ's children, true believers, are sometimes without spiritual food; there is always indeed enough in Christ, and he has a heart to give it; but either through prevailing iniquity they feed on something else, or do not go to him for food, or go elsewhere; but he will not suffer them to starve; for as he has made provisions for them in the ministry of the word and ordinances, and he himself is the bread of life; if they do not ask him for food, he will ask them whether they have any; will kindly invite them to the provisions he himself makes; will bid them welcome, and bless them to them.