John 21:1-14

The Appearance by the Lake of Tiberias. As Josephus speaks of the lake as the lake near Tiberias, the name used here cannot be pressed as a proof of late date. The verb used for manifested is not found in the gospel in connexion with the Resurrection appearances. There is also no mention of the sons of Zebedee. The last extant sentence of the Petrine Gospel shows that it contained a similar story. I Simon Peter and Andrew my brother taking our nets went back to the sea, and there was with us Levi the son of Alphæ us. Loisy and others believe that both accounts are based on a narrative of a first appearance after the Resurrection to Peter and (?) others in Galilee, which perhaps came from the lost ending to Mk. It is the Beloved Disciple who first recognised the Lord (cf. John 20:8). Where he sees, Peter acts. He casts himself into the sea and swims the hundred yards or so that separate the boat from the land. When the others reach land they find the results of his work (John 21:9). Meanwhile at the Lord's request for fish from their catch Peter returns to the ship (John 21:11), and he and they succeed now in bringing their net to land. Here as elsewhere the author does not keep to the strict order of incident, but his account seems to present a scene on the lines suggested. Various interpretations of the number of fishes have been suggested. We may notice (a) 50 x 3 + 3 = the Trinity; (b) the number of species of fishes was reckoned to be 153, hence a picture of the universality of the Gospel (Jerome); (c) the numerical value of the Heb. name Simon Jona (118 + 35); (d) 153 is a triangular number, the sum of the first John 21:17 units. It represents the faithful, inspired by the sevenfold Spirit, keeping the ten Commandments. No doubt to the author it was significant, though we cannot determine whence he derived it, or what significance he found in it. The language of John 21:13 closely resembles that of John 6:11, a fact made still more prominent in the Western text, which adds, having given thanks. The Eucharistic character of both meals is emphasized by the author. The third manifestation (contrast the coming of ch. 20) takes no account of the appearance to Mary in its reckoning of manifestations to the disciples. There is no need to find in it the traces of an earlier account, in which this story appeared as the third Galilean manifestation of His glory during the ministry.