John 21

The chapter John 21 in the Bible contains an account of the post-Resurrection appearance in Galilee, which the text describes as the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples. In the course of this chapter, there is a miraculous catch of 153 fish, the confirmation of Peter's love for Jesus, a foretelling of Peter's death by crucifixion, and a comment about John's future.

Appendage

In the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John, the text summarises the many signs that Jesus performed for his followers, not all of which could be recorded in the Gospel. John 21 begins simply with "After these things..." ( _el. Μετὰ ταῦτα) and recounts another appearance of Jesus. This chapter is more ecclesiastically oriented than the rest of the book, stressing the role of Peter as the shepherd. The Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed.) as well as the major translations of the New Testament (KJV, NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV) retain this chapter in their editions as original. One point of view is that the author simply decided to add an additional incident at some time after writing the book, but before final publication. Westcott stated, :"It is impossible to suppose that it was the original design of the Evangelist to add the incidents of chapter 21 after the verses which form a solemn close of his record of the great history of the conflict of faith and unbelief in the life of Christ".

But Donald Guthrie writes::"It is unlikely that another author wrote this section since there are several points of contact in it with the style and language of previous chapters..."(IVP New Bible Commentary)

The Church Father Tertullian wrote, "And wherefore does this conclusion of the gospel affirm that these things were written unless it is that you might believe, it says, that Jesus Christ is the son of God?", which describes the end of Chapter 20, not Chapter 21. However, the Nestle-Aland critical text of the New Testament lists no surviving copies of the Gospel that omit this chapter.

The description of the "beloved disciple's" (normally assumed to be John) fate is presented as an aside to Peter. Jesus says that it is not Peter's concern, even if Jesus should wish that that disciple remain alive until the end of time. The following verse clarifies that Jesus did not say "This disciple will not die", but that it was not for Peter to know.

Verses 24-25

The chapter is closed by two verses that sit incongruously with the remainder of the chapter - referring to the author of the gospel (whoever it might be) in the 3rd person ("... for we know that what he says is true").

Manuscript evidence

In an essay, contributed on behalf of scholars unconvinced of any decisive sense of "originality" to John 21 (published in 2007), Felix Just wrote: "We (unfortunately!) do not possess any ancient manuscript of John that actually ends at 20:31." [Felix Just, 'Combining Key Methodologies in Johannine Studies', in Tom Thatcher (ed), "What We Have Heard from the Beginning: The Past, Present, and Future of Johannine Studies", (Baylor University Press, 2007), p. 356.] In other words, ancient manuscripts that contain the end of John 20 also contain text from John 21. So if John 21 is an addition, it was so early and so widespread, that no evidence of the prior form has survived.

Both "Novum Testamentum Graece" (NA27) and the United Bible Societies (UBS4) provide critical text for John 21. Neither provides any evidence at all for omission of John 21, since none exists. However, the following are cited as witnesses for the various text-critical decisions in the chapter, as such they are evidence for the originality of John 21.:Papyri 66 ("c". 200) and 59 (7th century); Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus (4th century), Washingtonianus ("c". 400), Alexandrinus, Ephraemi and Bezae (5th century), Petropolitanus Purpureus and Guelferbytanus A (6th), Regius (8th), Cyprius, Sangallensis, Koridethi and Petropolitanus (9th), Athous Lavrensis ("c". 900), Monacensis and Tischendorfianus IV (10th); Uncial 0250; Families 1 and 13; Minuscules 1, 33, 565, 700, 892, 1009, 1010, 1071, 1079, 1195, 1216, 1230, 1241, 1242, 1546, 1646, 2148 and 2174; Lectionaries "l"⁸⁴⁴, "l"²¹¹, "l"¹⁷⁶¹; the Byzantine majority text; Old Latin, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopic translations; John Chrysostom (died 407).

Notes

ee also

*Mark 16
*Pericope Adulterae
*Textual Criticism