John 21
A morning on the lake, a miraculous catch of fish, and Jesus asking Peter three times — do you love me? — restoring the disciple who denied him three times.
Summary
Seven disciples go night-fishing on the Sea of Tiberias and catch nothing. At daybreak a figure on the shore calls to them and tells them to cast the net on the right side of the boat; they do, and they cannot haul it in for the quantity of fish. The Beloved Disciple says to Peter: it is the Lord. Peter, hearing this, puts on his outer garment and jumps into the sea; the other disciples come in the boat, dragging the net, about a hundred yards from shore. On land there is a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus says bring some of the fish you have caught. Peter hauls the net ashore; it holds a hundred and fifty-three large fish, and the net does not tear. Come and have breakfast, Jesus says. No one dares ask who he is; they know it is the Lord. He takes the bread and gives it to them, and likewise the fish.
After the meal Jesus asks Peter three questions, each one Simon, son of John, do you love me? The word Jesus uses in the first two questions is the Greek agapē; Peter answers each time with phileō, the word for friendship. The third time Jesus uses Peter's word; Peter is grieved because he asked a third time. Three times Peter answers yes; three times Jesus assigns a pastoral commission: feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Jesus then says that when Peter was young he dressed himself and went where he wanted; when he is old he will stretch out his hands and another will dress him and carry him where he does not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. Follow me. Peter turns and sees the Beloved Disciple following and asks what will happen to him; Jesus says if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? The rumour spread that this disciple would not die; Jesus had not said that. The chapter ends: this is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did; were every one of them written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
- John 1Chapter 1 falls into two distinct movements.
- John 2Chapter 2 contains the first two incidents of the public ministry, set in very different registers.
- John 3Chapter 3 divides into a dialogue and a testimony.
- John 4Chapter 4 is built around the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in any of the four gospels.
- John 5Chapter 5 turns on a Sabbath healing that provokes the first sustained conflict with the religious authorities and generates a major theological discourse.
- John 6Chapter 6 is the longest in the gospel and the most demanding.
- John 7Chapter 7 is one of the most dramatic scenes of the public ministry, set during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
- John 8Chapter 8 opens with the pericope of the woman taken in adultery (verses 1–11), absent from the earliest manuscripts and widely understood as a later addition, but narratively powerful: whoever is without sin may cast the first stone.
- John 9Chapter 9 is the most novelistic chapter in John and a sustained piece of dramatic irony.
- John 10Chapter 10 follows directly from the expulsion of the man born blind in chapter 9 and develops two sustained metaphors.
- John 11Chapter 11 is the dramatic climax of the Book of Signs and the most fully narrated miracle in John.
- John 12Chapter 12 is the bridge between the two halves of the gospel.
- John 13Chapter 13 opens the Book of Glory and sets the scene for the Farewell Discourse that occupies chapters 14–17.
- John 14Chapter 14 is the opening movement of the Farewell Discourse and contains several of the most quoted passages in the gospel.
- John 15Chapter 15 moves through two large movements: the vine and branches discourse (verses 1–17) and the warning about the world's hostility (verses 18–27).
- John 16Chapter 16 continues the Farewell Discourse and moves through three phases.
- John 17Chapter 17 is the high-priestly prayer, unique in the New Testament: Jesus prays at length in the hearing of his disciples on the night of his arrest.
- John 18Chapter 18 covers the arrest, the hearings before Annas and Caiaphas, Peter's three denials, and the first half of the Roman trial before Pilate.
- John 19Chapter 19 covers the final stages of the trial and the crucifixion.
- John 20Chapter 20 narrates the resurrection in two stages across two distinct scenes.
- John 21Chapter 21 is often discussed as a possible appendix, since chapter 20 closes with a purpose statement that reads like an ending.