Jana 21:3 Komentarz

The evangelist seemed to have concluded his history with the foregoing chapter; but (as St. Paul sometimes in his epistles), new matter occurring, he begins again. He had said that there were many other signs which Jesus did for the proof of his resurrection. And in this chapter he mentions one of these many, which was Christ's appearance to some of his disciples at the sea of Tiberias, in which we have an account, I. How he discovered himself to them as they were fishing, filled their net, and then very familiarly came and dined with them upon what they had caught (Joh 21:1-14). II. What discourse he had with Peter after dinner, 1. Concerning himself (Joh 21:15-19). 2. Concerning John (Joh 21:20-23). III. The solemn conclusion of this gospel (Joh 21:24, Joh 21:25). It is strange that any should suppose that this chapter was added by some other hand, when it is expressly said (Joh 21:24) that the disciple whom Jesus loved is he which testifieth of these things.

After these things,.... The resurrection of Christ from the dead, his appearance to Mary Magdalene, and twice to his disciples; once when Thomas was absent, and at another time when he was present: Jesus showed himself again to the disciples, a third time, as in Joh 21:14 though not to them all; seven are only mentioned, as together, when he appeared to them: at the sea of Tiberias; the same with the sea of Galilee; see Joh 6:1 for after the second appearance of Christ to his disciples, they went from Jerusalem to Galilee, by the order of Christ, who appointed to meet them there, Mat 28:10 and on this way showed he himself; the manner in which he made his appearance, and the persons to whom, are as follow.

Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing,.... Which was his business before his conversion; and now having nothing to do, and his Lord and master having, as yet, no service for him in the ministry of the word, until the Spirit was poured down in an extraordinary manner, which was given to be expected, in the mean while he was inclined to, and resolved upon taking up his former employment; partly that he might not live an idle life, and partly to obtain a livelihood, which was now to be sought after in another manner, since the death of Christ; and these inclinations and resolutions of his he signifies to the rest of the disciples, who agreed with him: they say unto him, we also go with thee; that is, a fishing; for it seems to have been the business and employment of them all formerly: the place they went to was the sea of Tiberias, as appears from Joh 21:1 a place free for any to fish at. This is said to be one of the ten traditions which Joshua delivered to the children of Israel, when he divided the land among them (z): "that any man should be free to catch fish in the waters (or sea) of Tiberias; and he might fish with an hook only; but he might not spread a net, or place a ship there, except the children of the tribe to whom that sea belonged in their division.'' But now these disciples, or the greater part of them at least, belonging to the tribe and division in which the sea was, had a right to carry a ship or boat thither, and make use of a net, as they did. Besides, there was another reason for fishing here, because there were no unclean fish; for the Jews say (a), that "in a place of running water no clean fish goes along with unclean fish, and lo, the sea of Tiberias is , "as running waters".'' They went forth: from the house, town, or city where they were, whether Capernaum, or Bethsaida, or Tiberias itself: and entered into a ship immediately; which was either one of their own, that belonged to some one of them before their call; which though they had left, had reserved their right and claim unto; see Luk 5:3 or which they hired for their present purpose: the word immediately is not in the Vulgate Latin, nor in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, nor in Beza's ancient copy: and that night they caught nothing. They went out in the evening of the day, and fished all night, that being a proper time for such business, and the most likely to succeed in, but caught no fish, or very little: and so it is sometimes with Gospel ministers, who are fishers of men, though they take every opportunity, and the most proper methods to gain souls to Christ, yet sometimes do not succeed; which makes things look dark and gloomy in their apprehensions. (z) Maimon. Hilch. Nezike Maramon, c. 5. sect. 3. Vid. T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 81. 1. (a) T. Hieros. Avoda Zara, fol. 42. 1.

This is the whole import of this passage: Those who had completed their work in the darkness, before the disciples, had not caught anyone in their nets and snatched them from demonic deceit. They may have caught a very few people, which is almost the same thing as nobody. Not even those who served the types and shadows had been caught, since they also despised the divine law and obeyed instead human commandments. Even worse, the multitude of the Gentiles had also not been caught by the nets, since they did not receive the teachings of God. But when “the sun of righteousness” came, that is, the one who hungered after the salvation of the human race, he did not find anything edible among them. He told them to cast forth the word of the gospel, which is the teaching, on the right side of the boat. One can understand that the law and the prophets had been casting forth their words on the left side. By the grace of the one who gave the order, the disciples drew in many. For the marvel on this matter surpasses the fish of the apostles.

Simon, therefore, comes to fish. For since neither was He with them continually, nor was the Spirit yet given, nor they at that time yet entrusted with anything, having nothing to do, they went after their trade.

(Hom. lxxxvii) As our Lord was not with them regularly, and the Spirit was not given them, and they had received no commission, and had nothing to do, they followed the trade of fishermen: And on this wise showed He Himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee; he who was called by Philip, and the sons of Zebedee, i. e. James and John, and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. (Hom. lxxxvii) The other disciples followed Peter: They say unto him, We also go with thee; for from this time they were all bound together; and they wished too to see the fishing: They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. They fished in the night, from fear.

Having then nothing to do, they went to their fishing, and this same they did by night, because they were greatly afraid. This Luke also mentions; but this is not the same occasion, but a different one. And the other disciples followed, because they were henceforth bound to one another, and at the same time desired to see the fishing, and to bestow their leisure well.

(Tract. cxxii) If the disciples had done this after the death of Jesus, and before His resurrection, we should have imagined that they did it in despair. But now after that He has risen from the grave, after seeing the marks of His wounds, after receiving, by means of His breathing, the Holy Ghost, all at once they become what they were before, fishers, not of men, but of fishes. We must remember then that they were not forbidden by their Apostleship from earning their livelihood by a lawful craft, provided they had no other means of living. For if the blessed Paul used not that power which he had with the rest of the preachers of the Gospel, as they did, but went a warfare upon his own resources, lest the Gentiles, who were aliens from the name of Christ, might be offended at a doctrine apparently venal; if, educated in another way, he learnt a craft he never knew before, that, while the teacher worked with his own hands, the hearer might not be burdened; much more might Peter, who had been a fisherman, work at what he knew, if he had nothing else to live upon at the time. But how had he not, some one will ask, when our Lord promises, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you? (Matt. 6:33) Our Lord, we answer, fulfilled this promise, by bringing them the fishes to catch: for who else brought them? He did not bring upon them that poverty which obliged them to go fishing, except in order to exhibit a miracle.

The narrative itself begins in this way: "After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed He (Himself). There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee." The inquiry is usually made in connection with this fishing of the disciples, why Peter and the sons of Zebedee returned to what they were before being called by the Lord; for they were fishers when He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they put such reality into their following of Him then, that they left all in order to cleave to Him as their Master. We have therefore to give those who are disturbed by this the answer, that they were not prohibited from seeking necessary sustenance by their manual craft, when lawful in itself, and warranted so long as they preserved their apostleship intact, if at any time they had no other means of gaining a livelihood.

(Tract. cxxii) Mystically, in the draught of fishes He signified the mystery of the Church, such as it will be at the final resurrection of the dead. And to make this clearer, it is put near the end of the book. The number seven, which is the number of the disciples who were fishing, signifies the end of time; for time is counted by periods of seven days. (Tract. cxxii) The shore is the end of the sea, and therefore signifies the end of the world. The Church is here typified as she will be at the end of the world, just as other draughts of fishes typified her as she is now. Jesus before did not stand on the shore, but went into a ship which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. In a former draught the nets are not thrown to the right, or to the left, so that the good or the bad should be typified alone, but indifferently: Let down your nets for a draught, (Luke 5:4) meaning that the good and bad were mixed together. But here it is, Cast the net on the right side of the ship; to signify those who should stand on the right hand, the good. The one our Lord did at the beginning of His ministry, the other after His resurrection, showing therein that the former draught of fishes signified the mixture of bad and good, which composes the Church at present; the latter the good alone, which it will contain in eternity, when the world is ended, and the resurrection of the dead completed. But they who belong to the resurrection of life, i. e. to the right hand, and are caught within the net of the Christian name, shall only appear on the shore, i. e. at the end of the world, after the resurrection: wherefore they were not able to draw the net into the ship, and unload the fishes, as they were before. The Church keeps these of the right hand, after death, in the sleep of peace, as it were in the deep, till the net come to shore. That the first draught was taken in two little ships, the last two hundred cubits from land, a hundred and a hundred, typifies, I think, the two classes of elect, circumcised and uncircumcised.

Precisely also in this very way did the Lord fulfill His promise. For who else placed there the fishes that were to be caught, but He, who, we are bound to believe, threw them into the penury that compelled them to go a fishing, for no other reason than that He wished to show them the miracle He had prepared, that so He might both feed the preachers of His gospel, and at the same time enhance that gospel itself, by the great mystery which He was about to impress on their minds by the number of the fishes.

This is a great mystery in the great Gospel of John; and to commend it the more forcibly to our attention, the last chapter has been made its place of record. Accordingly, inasmuch as there were seven disciples taking part in that fishing, Peter, and Thomas, and Nathanael, and the two sons of Zebedee, and two others whose names are withheld, they point, by their septenary number, to the end of time. For there is a revolution of all time in seven days. To this also pertains the statement, that when the morning was come, Jesus stood on the shore; for the shore likewise is the limit of the sea, and signifies therefore the end of the world. The same end of the world is shown also by the act of Peter, in drawing the net to land, that is, to the shore. Which the Lord has Himself elucidated, when in a certain other place He drew His similitude from a fishing net let down into the sea: "And they drew it," He said, "to the shore." And in explanation of what that shore was, He added, "So will it be in the end of the world."

That, however, is a parable in word, not one embodied in outward action; and just as in the passage before us the Lord indicated by an outward action the kind of character the Church would have in the end of the world, so in the same way, by that other fishing, He indicated its present character. In doing the one at the commencement of His preaching and this latter after His resurrection, He showed thereby in the former case that the capture of fishes signified the good and bad presently existing in the Church; but in the latter, the good only, whom it will contain everlastingly, when the resurrection of the dead shall have been completed in the end of this world.

(Hom.) The fishing was made to be very unlucky, in order to raise their astonishment at the miracle after: And that night they caught nothing.

It can be asked why Peter, who was a fisherman before his conversion, returned to fishing after his conversion; and since the Truth says: "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," why did he return to what he had left behind? But if the virtue of discernment is examined, it is quickly seen that indeed the occupation which existed without sin before conversion was not a fault to take up again even after conversion. For we know that Peter was a fisherman, but Matthew was a tax collector; and after his conversion Peter returned to fishing, but Matthew did not return to the business of tax collecting, because it is one thing to seek a living through fishing, but another thing to increase wealth through the profits of tax collecting. For there are many occupations which can be carried on without sins either with difficulty or not at all. Those occupations, therefore, which involve one in sin—it is necessary that the mind not return to these after conversion.

In the night time before the presence of the sun, Christ, the Prophets took nothing; for though they endeavoured to correct the people, yet these often fell into idolatry.

The disciples were catching fish, for they had nothing else to occupy themselves with. Jesus Himself was not constantly with them, the Spirit had not yet been given to them, and the teaching ministry had not been entrusted to them definitively; therefore they took up their former trade. Peter, being very active, cannot remain idle, but eagerly rushes to the task, and the rest follow him, because they no longer separated from one another.

They were fishing, and so we first see Peter asking about this; the willingness of the others to go with him; and then their efforts. Peter asks them to go fishing, saying, I am going fishing. In the mystical interpretation, this signifies the work of preaching: "I will make you fishers of men" (Mt 4:19). So when Peter said, I am going fishing, the mystical sense is that he is taking the others to share in his concerns and preaching: "So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you" (Ex 18:22). Their actual fishing seems to go against Luke (9:62): "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." And it is clear that Peter had given up his work as fisherman. Why then did he return to it and look back? I answer, with Augustine, that if he had returned to this work of fishing before Christ's resurrection and before seeing Christ's wounds, we would think that he was acting out of despair. But now, even after Christ returned from the grave, after they had seen his wounds, and had received the Holy Spirit by Christ's breathing on them, they became what they were before, fishers of fish [not of men]. We can learn from this that a preacher can use his abilities to earn the necessaries of life and still preserve the integrity of his apostolate, if he has no other means of sustenance. For if St. Paul learned an art he did not previously have in order to obtain the food he needed, so as to avoid being a burden to others, Peter could all the more do this by using his own skill. Augustine says that a preacher can do this when he cannot gain a living in any other way. But in this case Peter did have another way, for our Lord promised: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well," that is, what is necessary for life (Mt 6:33). The answer is that it is true that these things will be added, with our cooperation. So our Lord did keep his promise here, with the cooperation of Peter. For who else but our Lord caused the fish that were caught to be within the range of their net? Gregory remarks that there are two kinds of work. One absorbs the mind, and hinders our spiritual concerns, as tax collecting. No one should return to such work, even to provide food. So we do not read that Matthew returned to his tax collecting post. There is another kind of work which can be done without sin and without absorbing the mind, such as fishing and things like that. And it was not a sin for Peter to return to this kind of work after his conversion. The others agree to this, We will go with you. This sets an example for preachers and prelates to encourage each other in their work of turning people to God: "A brother helped is like a strong city" (Prv 18:19); "He was like a young cedar on Lebanon; and they surrounded him like the trunks of palm trees" (Sir 50:12). Next, we see that they were working at this, They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Here he touches on three things that preachers ought to do. First, they should leave those places which are sunk in sin: "Come out from them," the Chaldaeans, "and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; and I will welcome you" (2 Cor 6:17). And they should go out from their carnal affections: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house" (Gen 12:1). And also leave the quiet of contemplation: "Let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards" (Song 7:11). Secondly, preachers should get into the ship, that is, go forward in charity within the unity of the Church, which is called a ship: "In the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water" (1 Pet 3:20). They should also board the ship of the cross by depriving the flesh: "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14); "Blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes" (Wis 14:7). Thirdly, preachers should have total confidence in the help of Christ. All that night they caught nothing, because as long as God's help and the interior Preacher are not there, the words of the preacher have no effect. But when the light comes, enlightening hearts, the preacher makes a catch: "Send out your light and your truth" (Ps 42:3). Here, night indicates the lack of divine help: "Night comes, when no one can work" (9:4). Or, one could say, that night, during the time of the Old Testament, they caught nothing, because they could not bring the Gentiles to the faith: "The night has passed" (Rom 13:12). According to Augustine, they were fishing at night because they were still afraid.

Jesus shows himself to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, Joh 21:1-5. The miraculous draught of fishes, Joh 21:6-11. He dines with his disciples, Joh 21:12-14. Questions Peter concerning his love to him, and gives him commission to feed his sheep, Joh 21:15-17. Foretells the manner of Peter's death, Joh 21:18, Joh 21:19. Peter inquires concerning John, and receives an answer that was afterwards misunderstood, Joh 21:20-23. John's concluding testimony concerning the authenticity of his Gospel, and the end for which it was written, Joh 21:24, Joh 21:25.

Peter saith - I go a fishing - Previously to the crucifixion of our Lord, the temporal necessities of himself and his disciples appear to have been supplied by the charity of individuals: Luk 8:3. As it is probable that the scandal of the cross had now shut up this source of support, the disciples, not fully knowing how they were to be employed, purposed to return to their former occupation of fishing, in order to gain a livelihood; and therefore the seven, mentioned Joh 21:2, embarked on the sea of Tiberias, otherwise called the sea of Galilee. That night they caught nothing - God had so ordered it, that they might be the more struck with the miracle which he afterwards wrought.

SUPPLEMENTARY PARTICULARS. (John 21:1-23) Jesus showed himself again--manifested himself again. and on this wise he manifested himself--This way of speaking shows that after His resurrection He appeared to them but occasionally, unexpectedly, and in a way quite unearthly, though yet really and corporeally.

Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing--(See on Luk 5:11). that night . . . caught nothing--as at the first miraculous draught (see on Luk 5:5); no doubt so ordered that the miracle might strike them the more by contrast. The same principle is seen in operation throughout much of Christ's ministry, and is indeed a great law of God's spiritual procedure with His people.