John 21:7

7. The characteristics of the two Apostles are again delicately yet clearly given (John 20:2-9): S. John is the first to apprehend; S. Peter the first to act, and with impulsive energy [12]. Perhaps S. Peter’s haste to reach his Lord and S. John’s abiding in the boat to finish the fishing is meant to symbolize the early martyrdom foretold to the one (John 21:18) and the indefinite abiding suggested of the other (John 21:22).

ὁ κύρ. ἐστιν. For the third and last time S. John speaks in his own narrative: comp. John 1:38; John 13:25. The interval in time and thought between ‘Rabbi, where abidest thou?’ and ‘It is the Lord!’ sums up the contents of the Gospel.

ἐπενδύτης (here only in N.T.) is neither the ἰμάτιον nor the χιτών, but the workman’s ‘frock’ or ‘blouse,’ which he gathered round him “with instinctive reverence for the presence of his Master” (Westcott). Γυμνός need not mean more than ‘stripped’ of the upper garment. “No one but an eyewitness would have thought of the touch in John 21:7, which exactly inverts the natural action of one about to swim, and yet is quite accounted for by the circumstances” (Sanday).