John 21:1–14

or, Twin

Verse 3. How comes it that Peter, after his conversion, should return to his fishing, when Jesus Christ had said, that he that sets his hand to the plough, and looks back, is not worthy of the kingdom of heaven? The employments they applied to before their conversion, without being guilty of sin, these they might, without fault, exercise, after their conversion: therefore Peter returned to his fishing; but Saint Matthew never returned to his custom-house, because when once converted, we never can be allowed to give ourselves to these employments, which of themselves lead to sin. And there are many pursuits which can scarcely, or not at all, be followed without sin. Saint Gregory hom. xxiv. in Evan.

Verse 5. Have you any meat? [1] Have you any thing to eat? This is what is literally signified, both in the Latin and in the Greek text. Witham.

Verse 7. It is the Lord. S. Chrysostom says, we may here see the different characters of the two apostles, Peter and John; the former is more ardent, the latter more sublime; the first more vehement, the last more penetrating; for these reasons, John was the first to know Christ, Peter the first to hasten to him. Hom. lxxxvi.

Verse 8. The evangelist praises Peter, and excuses the other apostles: all come to Christ; the former leaving his boat, his companions, his nets and prey, arrives more expeditiously; the latter with the impediments of the boat and nets, and so forth and so forth arrive also, but not so readily; a just figure this of religious, who leave all to go directly to God, and of those who remain in the world, and have to navigate a treacherous element with imminent danger of shipwreck. Maldonatus.—The poet Sedulius writes thus on the nets:

Pendula fluctivagam traxerunt retia prædam,

Per typicam noscenda viam; nam retia dignis

Lucida sunt præcepta Dei, quibus omnis in illa

Dextra parte manens concluditur, ac simul ulnis

Fertur apostolicis Domini ad vestigia Christi.

200 cubits is about 100 yards or about 91 meters

Verse 9. Hot coals lying, and a fish laid thereon, and bread. The fish caught in the net were not yet drawn to land. These things, then, were created out of nothing, or miraculously transported thither, by the divine power. Witham.

Verse 11. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three; a figure of the great number to be converted by the labours of the apostles. Witham.

Verse 12. And none of them who were at meat, durst ask him, who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. It is likely he appeared to them with a countenance different, and brighter than before his death; yet they were presently so convinced it was Jesus, that they were ashamed to ask or doubt of it. Witham.

Verse 14. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples. He had appeared to them more than thrice, even the very day of his resurrection. Matthew 28:16. Here it is called the third time either because it was the third different day; or because it was the third time that he had then appeared to a considerable number together. After this, he appeared to them frequently, and conversed with them for forty days, till his ascension. See Acts, 1:3. 1 Corinthians 15:5. Witham.—This must be understood of the third day, or of the third time, that our Saviour appeared to his apostles assembled: the first day, being the day of his resurrection; the second, eight days after, when Saint Thomas saw, and believed; and on this day of their fishing. Saint Augustine tract. 122. in Joan.—The evangelists relate ten different manifestations of our Saviour, after his resurrection. First, he was seen by the women at the sepulchre; 2dly, he was again seen by the same holy women, returning from the sepulchre; 3dly, by Saint Peter; 4thly, by the two going to Emmaus; 5thly, by many at Jerusalem, when Thomas was not with them; 6thly, at the time when Saint Thomas saw him; 7thly, at the sea of Tiberias; 8thly, by the eleven, on a mountain of Galilee, according to Saint Matthew; 9thly, according to Saint Mark, by the disciples, at their refreshment, because he was going to sup with them no more; and 10thly, on the day of his ascension, raised from the earth into heaven. Saint Augustine de Concord. Ev. lib. iii. chapter 25.