Joh 21 | TSK | STEP | Christ appearing again to his disciples is known of them by the great draught of fishes. He dines with them; earnestly commands Peter to feed his lambs and sheep; foretells him of his death; rebukes his curiosity touching John. The conclusion. these. Jesus. the sea.

naked.That is, he was only in his vest, or under garment; for [gumnos ,] naked, like the Hebrew {arom,} is frequently applied to one who has merely laid aside his outer garment. See 1 Sa 19:24; 2 Sa 6:20, on which see the note. To which may be added what we read in the LXX, Job 22:6, "Thou has taken away the covering of the naked," [amphiazo,] the plaid, or blanket, in which they wrapped themselves, and besides they had no other. In this sense Virgil says, {Nudus ara, sere nudus,} "plough naked, and sow naked," i.e., strip off your upper garments.

cubits.

De 3:11

they saw.

1Ki 19:5,6; Mt 4:11; Mr 8:3; Lu 12:29-31

and for.

Lu 5:6-8; Ac 2:41

Come.

Ac 10:41

dine.The word [ariston ,] like {prandere} was used for any meat taken before the {coena,} or supper.

durst.

4:27; 16:19; Ge 32:29,30; Mr 9:32; Lu 9:45

Lu 24:42,43; Ac 10:41

the third time.Or, as some read, the third day. On the day the Saviour rose he appeared five times; the second day was that day se'nnight; and this was the third day--or this was his third appearance to any considerable number of his disciples together. Though he had appeared to Mary, to the women, to the two disciples, to Cephas--yet he had but twice appeared to a company of them together.

20:19,26

son.

16,17; 1:42

Jona.

Mt 16:17

Bar-jona. lovest.

8:42; 14:15-24; 16:27; Mt 10:37; 25:34-45; 1Co 16:21,22

2Co 5:14,15; Ga 5:6; Eph 6:24; 1Pe 1:8; 1Jo 4:19; 5:1

more.

7; Mt 26:33,35; Mr 14:29

thou knowest.

17; 2Sa 7:20; 2Ki 20:3; Heb 4:13; Re 2:23

Feed.

Ps 78:70-72; Jer 3:15; 23:4; Eze 34:2-10,23; Ac 20:28; 1Ti 4:15,16

Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 5:1-4

lambs.

Ge 33:13; Isa 40:11; Mt 18:10,11; Lu 22:32; Ro 14:1; 15:1

1Co 3:1-3; 8:11; Eph 4:14; Heb 12:12,13; 1Pe 2:2

the second.

18:17,25; Mt 26:72

my sheep.

10:11-16,26,27; Ps 95:7; 100:3; Zec 13:7; Mt 25:32; Lu 15:3-7; 19:10

Ac 20:28; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25

the third.

13:38; 18:27; Mt 26:73,74; Re 3:19

grieved.

1Ki 17:18; La 3:33; Mt 26:75; Mr 14:72; Lu 22:61,62; 2Co 2:4-7

2Co 7:8-11; Eph 4:30; 1Pe 1:6

Lord.

2:24,25; 16:30; 18:4; Jer 17:10; Ac 1:24; 15:8; Re 2:23

thou knowest that.

15; Jos 22:22; 1Ch 29:17; Job 31:4-6; Ps 7:8,9; 17:3; 2Co 1:12

Feed.

15,16; 12:8; 14:15; 15:10; Mt 25:40; 2Co 8:8,9; 2Pe 1:12-15; 3:1

1Jo 3:16-24; 3Jo 1:7,8

but.

13:36; Ac 12:3,4

another.

Ac 21:11

thou wouldest not.

12:27,28; 2Co 5:4

by.

Php 1:20; 1Pe 4:11-14; 2Pe 1:14

Follow.

22; 12:26; 13:36,37; Nu 14:24; 1Sa 12:20; Mt 10:38; 16:21-25; 19:28

Mr 8:33-38; Lu 9:22-26

seeth.

7,24; 20:2

which.

13:23-26; 20:2

Lord.

Mt 24:3,4; Lu 13:23,24; Ac 1:6,7

If.

Mt 16:27,28; 24:3,27,44; 25:31; Mr 9:1; 1Co 4:5; 11:26; Re 1:7; 2:25

Re 3:11; 22:7,20

follow.

what.

De 29:29; Job 28:28; 33:13; Da 4:35

we know.

19:35; 1Jo 1:1,2; 5:6; 3Jo 1:12

there.

20:30,31; Job 26:14; Ps 40:5; 71:15; Ec 12:12; Mt 11:5; Ac 10:38

Ac 20:35; Heb 11:32

that even.This is a very strong eastern expression to represent the number of miracles which Jesus wrought. But however strong and strange it may appear to us of the western world, we find sacred and other authors using hyperboles of the like kind and signification. See Nu 13:33; De 1:28; Da 4:11; Ec 14:15. Basnage gives a very similar hyperbole taken from the Jewish writers, in which Jochanan is said to have "composed such a great number of precepts and lessons, that if the heavens were paper, and all the trees of the forest so many pens, and all the children of men so many scribes, they would not suffice to write all his lessons."

Am 7:10; Mt 19:24 CONCLUDING REMARKS ON JOHN'S GOSPEL. John, who, according to the unanimous testimony of the ancient fathers and ecclesiastical writers, was the author of this Gospel, was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Bethsaida, by Salome his wife, (compare Mt 10:2, with Mt 27:55, 56 and Mr 15:40,) and brother of James the elder, whom "Herod killed with the sword," (Ac 12:2.) Theophylact says that Salome was the daughter of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by a former wife; and that consequently she was our Lord's sister, and John was his nephew. He followed the occupation of his father till his call to the apostleship, (Mt 4:21, 22, Mr 1:19, 20, Lu 5:1-10,) which is supposed to have been when he was about twenty five years of age; after which he was a constant eye-witness of our Lord's labours, journeyings, discourses, miracles, passion, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. After the ascension of our Lord he returned with the other apostles to Jerusalem, and with the rest partook of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, by which he was eminently qualified for the office of an Evangelist and Apostle. After the death of Mary, the mother of Christ, which is supposed to have taken place about fifteen years after the crucifixion, and probably after the council held in Jerusalem about A.D. 49 or 50, (Ac 15.,) at which he was present, he is said by ecclesiastical writers to have proceeded to Asia Minor, where he formed and presided over seven churches in as many cities, but chiefly resided at Ephesus. Thence he was banished by the emperor Domitian, in the fifteenth year of his reign, A.D. 95, to the isle of Patmos in the Ægean sea, where he wrote the Apocalypse, (Re 1:9.) On the accession of Nerva the following year, he was recalled from exile and returned to Ephesus, where he wrote his Gospel and Epistles, and died in the hundredth year of his age, about A.D. 100, and in the third year of the emperor Trajan. It is generally believed that St. John was the youngest of the twelve apostles, and that he survived all the rest. Jerome, in his comment on Gal VI., says that he continued preaching when so enfeebled with age as to be obliged to be carried into the assembly; and that, not being able to deliver any long discourse, his custom was to say in every meeting, My dear children, love one another. The general current of ancient writers declares that the apostle wrote his Gospel at an advanced period of life, with which the internal evidence perfectly agrees; and we may safely refer it, with Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Mill, Le Clerc, and others, to the year 97. The design of St. John in writing his Gospel is said by some to have been to supply those important events which the other Evangelists had omitted, and to refute the notions of the Cerinthians and Nicolaitans, or according to others, to refute the heresy of the Gnostics and Sabians. But, though many parts of his Gospel may be successfully quoted against the strange doctrines held by those sects, yet the apostle had evidently a more general end in view than the confutation of their heresies. His own words sufficiently inform us of his motive and design in writing this Gospel: "These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name." (ch. 20:31.) Learned men are not wholly agreed concerning the language in which this Gospel was originally written. Salmasius, Grotius, and other writers, have imagined that St. John wrote it in his own native tongue, the Aramean or Syriac, and that it was afterwards translated into Greek. This opinion is not supported by any strong arguments, and is contradicted by the unanimous voice of antiquity, which affirms that he wrote it in Greek, which is the general and most probable opinion. The style of this Gospel indicates a great want of those advantages which result from a learned education; but this defect is amply compensated by the unexampled simplicity with which he expresses the sublimest truths. One thing very remarkable is an attempt to impress important truths more strongly on the minds of his readers, by employing in the expression of them both an affirmative proposition and a negative. It is manifestly not without design that he commonly passes over those passages of our Lord's history and teaching which had been treated at large by other Evangelists, or if he touches them at all, he touches them but slightly, whilst he records many miracles which had been overlooked by the rest, and expatiates on the sublime doctrines of the pre-existence, the divinity, and the incarnation of the Word, the great ends of His mission, and the blessings of His purchase.