Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 21:22
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what [is that] to thee? follow thou me.
22. If I will ] Christ died and rose again that He might become the Lord and Master both of the dead and the living (Rom 14:9). He speaks here in full consciousness of this sovereignty. For the use of ‘I will’ by Christ comp. Joh 17:24; Mat 8:3 and parallels, Mat 26:39. While the ‘I will’ asserts the Divine authority, the ‘if’ keeps the decision secret.
that he tarry ] Better, that he abide; it is S. John’s favourite word which we have had so often (Joh 1:32-33; Joh 1:39-40, Joh 2:12, Joh 3:36, Joh 4:40, &c., and twelve times in chap. 15) [16]. S. Peter’s lot was to suffer, S. John’s to wait. For ‘abide’ in the sense of remain in life comp. Joh 12:34; Php 1:25 ; 1Co 15:6.
till I come ] Literally, while I am coming. The words express rather the interval of waiting than the end of it. Comp. Joh 9:4; Mar 6:45. This at once seems to shew that it is unnecessary to enquire whether Pentecost, or the destruction of Jerusalem, or the apocalyptic visions recorded in the Revelation, or a natural death, or the Second Advent, is meant by Christ’s ‘coming’ in this verse. He is not giving an answer but refusing one. The reply is purposely hypothetical and perhaps purposely indefinite. But inasmuch as the longer the interval covered by the words, the greater the indefiniteness, the Second Advent is to be preferred as an interpretation, if a distinct meaning is given to the ‘coming.’
what is that to thee? ] The words are evidently a rebuke. There is a sense in which ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ is a safeguard against curiosity and presumption rather than a shirking of responsibility.
follow thou me ] ‘Thou’ is emphatic, contrasting with the preceding ‘he,’ which is emphatic also.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
That he tarry – That he live. The same word is used to express life in Phi 1:24-25; 1Co 15:6.
Till I come – Some have supposed this to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem; others to the day of judgment; others to signify that he would not die a violent death; but the plain meaning is, If I will that he should not die at all, it is nothing to thee. In this way the apostles evidently understood it, and hence raised a report that he would not die. It is remarkable that John was the last of the apostles; that he lived to nearly the close of the first century, and then died a peaceful death at Ephesus, being the only one, as is supposed, of the apostles who did not suffer martyrdom. The testimony of antiquity is clear on this point; and though there have been many idle conjectures about this passage and about the fate of John, yet no fact of history is better attested than that John died and was buried at Ephesus.
What is that to thee? – From this passage we learn:
1.That our main business is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
2.That there are many subjects of religion on which a vain and impertinent curiosity is exercised. All such curiosity Jesus here reproves.
3.That Jesus will take care of all his true disciples, and that we should not be unduly solicitous about them.
4.That we should go forward to whatever he calls us to persecution or death – not envying the lot of any other man, and anxious only to do the will of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. If I will that he tarry till I come] There are several opinions concerning this: the following are the principal.
1. Some have concluded from these words that John should never die. Many eminent men, ancients and moderns, have been and are of this opinion.
2. Others thought that our Lord intimated that John should live till Christ came to judge and destroy Jerusalem. On this opinion it is observed that Peter, who was the oldest of the apostles, died in the year 67, which, says Calmet, was six years before the destruction of Jerusalem; and that John survived the ruin of that city about thirty years, he being the only one of the twelve who was alive when the above desolation took place.
3. St. Augustin, Bede, and others, understood the passage thus: If I will that he remain till I come and take him away by a natural death, what is that to thee? follow thou me to thy crucifixion. On this it may be observed, that all antiquity agrees that John, if he did die, was the only disciple who was taken away by a natural death.
4. Others imagine that our Lord was only now taking Peter aside to speak something to him in private, and that Peter, seeing John following, wished to know whether he should come along with them; and that our Lord’s answer stated that John should remain in that place till Christ and Peter returned to him; and to this meaning of the passage many eminent critics incline. For neatly eighteen hundred years, the greatest men in the world have been puzzled with this passage. It mould appear intolerable in me to attempt to decide, where so many eminent doctors have disagreed, and do still disagree. I rather lean to the fourth opinion. See the conclusion of the Preface to this Gospel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our Lord only checks the curiosity of Peter, and minds him to attend things which himself was concerned in; telling him, he was not concerned what became of John, whether he should die, or abide upon the earth until Christs second coming: it was Peters concern, without regarding what others did, or what became of them, himself to execute his Masters command, and follow his example.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22, 23. Jesus saith to him, If Iwill that he tarry fill I come, what is that to thee? follow thoumeFrom the fact that John alone of the Twelve survived thedestruction of Jerusalem, and so witnessed the commencement of thatseries of events which belongs to “the last days,” manygood interpreters think that this is a virtual prediction of fact,and not a mere supposition. But this is very doubtful, and it seemsmore natural to consider our Lord as intending to give no positiveindication of John’s fate at all, but to signify that this was amatter which belonged to the Master of both, who would disclose orconceal it as He thought proper, and that Peter’s part was to mindhis own affairs. Accordingly, in “follow thou Me,” the word”thou” is emphatic. Observe the absolute disposal ofhuman life which Christ claims: “If I will that he tarrytill I come,” &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jesus saith unto him,…. Christ vouchsafes an answer to Peter, but not a very clear one, nor such an one as he wished for, and not without a rebuke to him:
if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? meaning, that if it was his pleasure that he should live, not till his second coming to judge the quick and dead at the last day, but till he should come in his power and take vengeance on the Jewish nation, in the destruction of their city and temple by the Romans, and in dispersing them through the nations of the world; till which time John did live, and many years after; and was the only one of the disciples that lived till that time, and who did not die a violent death; what was that to Peter? it was no concern of his. The question was too curious, improper, and impertinent; it became him to attend only to what concerned himself, and he was bid to do:
follow thou me; whence it may be observed, that it becomes the saints to mind their duty in following Christ, and not concern themselves in things that do not belong to them. Christ is to be followed by his people as their leader and commander; as the shepherd of the flock; as a guide in the way, and the forerunner that is gone before; as the light of the world; as the pattern and example of the saints, and as their Lord and master; and that in the exercise of every grace, as humility and meekness, love, zeal, patience, and resignation to the will of God; and also in the discharge of duty, both with respect to moral life and conversation, and instituted worship, as attendance on public service, and submission to ordinances; and likewise in enduring sufferings patiently and cheerfully for his sake. Saints are under obligation to follow Christ; it is their interest so to do; it is honourable, safe, comfortable, and pleasant, and ends in happiness here and hereafter.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If I will ( ). Condition of the third class with and the present active subjunctive of .
Till I come ( ). Literally, “while I am coming” ( and the present indicative, not (second aorist active subjunctive).
What is that to thee? ( ;). A sharp rebuke to Peter’s keen curiosity.
Follow thou me ( ). “Do thou me keep on following.” That lesson Peter needed.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Till I come [ ] . Rather, while I am coming. Compare Joh 9:4; Joh 12:35, 36; 1Ti 4:13.
What is that to thee [ ; ] ? Literally, what as concerns thee?
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Jesus saith unto him,” (legei auto ho lesous) “Jesus said to him,” directly, personally, and pointedly, with a slight rebuke. One is not to muse too much about the business of others.
2) “If I will that he tarry till I come,” (ean auton thelo menein heos erchomai) “If I will that he remain until I come (again) of my own volition or choice,” through patient waiting, without dying as a martyr, Heb 10:36-37; Joh 14:1-3; 1Th 1:10; 1Th 5:23.
3) “What is that to thee?” (ti pros se) “What is that to you?” Not all have the same Divine calling in life’s service, suffering, or death, to God’s glory, 1Co 10:31. Consecration, more than speculation, is what is needed by everyone, Rom 12:1-2.
4) “Follow thou me.” (su moi akolouthei) “You are to follow me,” follow for yourself where I lead. Let each be fully consecrated to Him whether to live, to serve, to suffer, or to die for Him, for each shall surely receive his own reward, 1Co 3:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. If I will that he remain. It has been customary to take this sentence as detached, and to read the former clause affirmatively, I will that he tarry till I come; but this has been done through the ignorance of transcribers, not through the mistake of the translator; for he could not have been mistaken about the Greek word, but a single letter might easily creep into the Latin version, so as to alter the whole meaning. (237) The whole sentence, therefore, is a question, and ought to be read in immediate connection; for Christ intended to put his hand on his disciple, in order to keep him within the limits of his calling. “It is no concern of yours,” says he, “and you have no right to inquire what becomes of your companion; leave that to my disposal; think only about yourself, and prepare to follow where you are called.” Not that all anxiety about brethren is uncalled for but it ought to have some limit, so that it may be anxiety, and not curiosity, that occupies our attention. Let every man, therefore, look to his neighbours, if by any means he may succeed in drawing them along with him to Christ, and let not the offenses of others retard his own progress.
(237) Calvin here throws out a conjecture, that the clause originally stood in the Vulgate, SI eum volo manere , and that by the addition of” a single letter” to the first word of the clause, some ignorant transcriber altered it to SIC eum rolo manere He declares it to be impossible that the word Sic should have found its way into the verse in any other manner, because the translator could not mistake the meaning of “the Greek word” ἐάν — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?The answer must be taken as reproving the spirit which would inquire into anothers life and work, with the effect of weakening the force of its own. Here, as in all the earlier details of St. Peters life, his character is emotional, earnest, loving, but wanting in depth, and not without self-confidence. The words Follow Me, the meaning of which he has not missed, may well have led him to thoughts and questions of what that path should be, and the truth may well have sunk into the depth of his heart, there to germinate and burst forth in principle and act. But he is at once taken up with other thoughts. He is told to follow, but is ready to lead. He would know and guide his friends life rather than his own. To him, and to all, there comes the truth that the Father is the husbandman, and it is He who trains every branch of the vine. There is a spiritual companionship which strengthens and helps all who join in it; there is a spiritual guidance which is not without danger to the true strength of him that is led, nor yet to that of him who leads.
The word rendered tarry is that which we have before had for abide (see Joh. 12:34, and comp. Php. 1:25 and 1Co. 15:6). It is here opposed to Follow Me (in the martyrdom), and means to abide in life.
The phrase, If I will that he tarry till I come, is one of those the meaning of which cannot be ascertained with certainty, and to which, therefore, every variety of meaning has been given. We have already seen that the Coming of the Lord was thought of in more than one sense. (Comp. especially Notes on Mat. 16:28 and Matthew 24; and see also in this Gospel, Note on Joh. 14:3.) The interpretation which has found most support is that which takes the coming of the Lord to mean the destruction of Jerusalem, which St. John, and perhaps he only of the Apostles, lived to see. But the context seems to exclude this meaning, for the mistake of Joh. 21:23 would surely have been corrected by a reference to the fact that St. John had survived, and wrote the Gospel after, the coming of the Lord. The interpretation which the next verse itself suggests is that our Lord made no statement, but expressed a supposition, If I will, If it even be that I will; and this both gives the exact meaning of the Greek, and corresponds with the remainder of our Lords answer. He is directing St. Peter to think of his own future. and not of his friends; and He puts a supposition which, even if it were true, would not make that friends life a subject for him then to think of. Had our Lord told him that St. John should remain on earth until His coming, in any sense of the word, then He would have given an answer, which He clearly declined to give.
Follow thou me.The pronoun thou is strongly emphatic. Thy brothers life is no matter for thy care. Thy work is for thyself to follow Me.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. If I will Our Lord here assumes to be Lord of man’s destiny. Though he permit, yet nothing can take place without his permissive will. Now the Lord’s answer to Peter’s question is purposely pregnant with two or three admissible meanings; nevertheless of the two or three possible meanings but one is the true one. Tarry [on earth] till I come That is, remain living to the judgment day, be the same a longer or shorter period. If that were Christ’s will, what is that to Peter? Commentators of all ages falter and vibrate around, and then from, this plain meaning. Jesus does not say that John will live to the Second Advent; but he does most truly say that it is none of Peter’s business if he does. At the same time he intimates that if John’s future be not this, it is something so much like it that it may be shadowed under these words. If, firstly, the word come be taken in the sense of Joh 14:3, then the sentence is that John shall not, like Peter, be bound and violently slain; but shall quietly and peacefully tarry until the Lord shall please to come at the hour of death and take him to himself. Or, secondly, if the Lord shall in his own time vouchsafe to John individually a Christophany, that is, a special parousia or coming to him alone what had Peter to say to it? John did tarry until the Lord in that Christophany did come. Rev 1:12-20. And this last was, perhaps, the true meaning at which the Lord so enigmatically hinted, and which justifies the indicative I will in the Greek.
Follow thou me In token of that future spiritual or historical following which the bodily act represented, Peter now follows his departing Lord. To what direction and result? No one knows; for John there leaves them; and the whole scene seems to vanish like a morning dream. But even at this late age of the world let us venture, from the nature of the symbol, to conjecture how our Lord finished this interview. If we may suppose, then, that, as Peter followed, Jesus suddenly vanished in an upward splendour, the symbolic action would then express a complete and required meaning. Follow me, Peter during thy whole future earthly life without swerving, historically as now corporeally, even through suffering and death, and thy path shall end, as mine now merges, in ascending GLORY. It will be seen by this view, that the rebuke of Peter’s sidelong question about John is less severe than commentators generally make it. It was a rebuke, in symbol, which signified that Peter’s future following his Lord ought to be unvarying, regardless of all incidental considerations.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Jesus says to him, “If I will that he tarry until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”
Jesus told Peter that what would happen to others was of no concern of his. He must concentrate on following Jesus, not be looking at the futures of others. Their lives were under God’s control. There is here the firm indication that Jesus controls the destiny of His own. If Jesus wills that John will stay alive until His return that is Jesus’ business, not Peter’s. He must not get above himself.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 21:22-23. If I will that he tarry, &c. “If it is my pleasure that he should live till my coming [in judgment upon Jerusalem], what is that to thee?” So the word signifies, being elliptical for the words , to abide in the flesh. We have both the elliptical and complete phrase, Php 1:24-25. The brethren, it seems, understood, by Christ’s coming, his coming to future judgment; and upon this foundation they grounded their notion that John should not die: and that there was such a notion and tradition among the ancients, learned writers have particularly shewn; and among the rest, Fabricius, in his Codex Apocal. Nov. Test. vol. 2: p. 533. This prophetic suggestion of the longevity of St. John was verified by the event; for he lived till Trajan’s time, or thereabouts, which was near one hundred years after Christ’s birth, and thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem; so that he did abide in the flesh till his Lord came to take signal vengeance on that devoted city. Our Lord’s reply to St. Peter seems very strongly to discourage a curiosity ofinquiring into other men’s affairs, and into doctrines which are of no importance in religion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 21:22 . Jesus gives, in virtue of His personal sovereignty over the life and death of His own (comp. Rom 14:9 ), to the unwarranted question, put by Peter, too, not merely out of curiosity, but even from a certain jealousy (Chrysostom, Erasmus, Wetstein, and several others import: out of particular love to John), [289] the answer: that it does not at all concern him, if He have possibly allotted to John a more distant and happier goal, and leads him, who had again so soon turned away his gaze from himself, immediately back to the task of imposed upon him, Joh 21:19 .
] Opposite of the , to be fulfilled by the death of martyrdom; hence: be preserved in life . Comp. Joh 12:34 ; Phi 1:25 ; 1Co 15:6 ; Kypke, I. p. 415 f. Olshausen (and so substantially even Ewald) arbitrarily adds, after Augustine, the sense: “to tarry in quiet and peaceful life.” [290]
] By this Jesus means, as the solemn and absolute itself renders undoubted, His final historical Parousia , which He, according to the apprehension of all evangelists and apostles, has promised will take place even before the passing away of the generation (see note 3 after Mat 24 ), not the destruction of Jerusalem, which, moreover, John far outlived ( in Theophylact, Wetstein, Lange, and several others, including Luthardt, who sees in this destruction the beginning of the Parousia, in opposition to the view of the N. T. generally, and to Joh 21:23 ); not the world historical conflict between Christ and Rome, which began under Domitian (Hengstenberg); not the carrying away by a gentle death (Olshausen, Lange, Ewald, after the older expositors, as Ruperti, Clarius, Zeger, Grotius, and several others); not the leading out from Galilee (where John in the meanwhile was to remain) to the scene of Apostolic activity (Theophylact); not the apocalyptic coming in the visions of John’s revelation (Ebrard); not the coming at any place, where John was to wait (Paulus)! See rather Joh 14:3 ; 1Jn 2:28 ; 1Jn 3:2 . On (as 1Ti 4:13 ), as long as until I come, see Buttmann, Neut. Gr . p. 199 [E. T. p. 231]. In ., bears the emphasis, in opposition to the other disciples.
[289] Comp. Luthardt: “only loving interest for his comrade,” to which, however, the reproving , ver. 22, does not apply.
[290] Comp. Godet, who, strangely enough, finds here an allusion to the fact that John remained at rest in the boat, and with his comrades (except Peter) towed the full net to land, where Jesus was. This allusion again includes the other, that John, in the history of the development of the founding of the church, received “ a calm and collected part .” And with this Godet finally connects: At the great gospel draught of fishes in the Gentile world, where Peter at the beginning stood foremost, “ John assisted thereat until the end of the first century, a type of the whole history of the church, and here begins the mystery perhaps he is therewith associated in an incomprehensible manner until the end of the present economy, until the vessel touches the shore of eternity .” Thus, if we depart from the clear and certain sense of the words, we fall into the habit of phantasy , so that we no longer expound , but invent and create .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
Ver. 22. If I will that he tarry ] Si eum volo manere. This the Vulgate corruptly reads, Sic eum volo manere. Ambrose, Austin, Bede, Lyra, Rupert, &c., retain this reading. Trapezuntius defends it, Bessarion opposeth it, the Greek text refutes it. Yet is the Vulgate translation so extolled and idolized by the Papists, that if the originals differ from it anywhere, they must be corrected by it, and not it by the originals. Sed Hebraei bibunt fontes, Graeci rivos, Latini paludes, saith Reuchlin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22. ] The words ; imply a rebuke; not perhaps however so sharp a one as has been sometimes seen in them. They remind Peter of the distinctness of each man’s position and duty before the Lord; and the ., which follows, directs his view along that course of duty and suffering, which was appointed for him by his Divine Master. Notice the emphatic expression of , and the emphatic position of : q. d. ‘ His appointed lot is no element in thy onward course: it is ME that thou must follow.’
On the , three opinions have been held (for that which refers the words to John’s remaining where he then was, on the shore, till the Lord returned from His colloquy with Peter, is not worth more than cursory mention): (1) that of Aug [262] , Maldon., Grot., Lampe, Olsh., &c. (it being allowed on all hands, that means to remain in this life: see reff. and ch. Joh 12:34 ), “If I will that he remain till I fetch him,” i.e. by a natural death . But this is frigid, and besides inapplicable here. Peter’s death, although by the hands of an , was just as much the Lord’s ‘ coming for him ,’ as John’s, and there would thus be no contrast. (2) That that ‘coming of the Lord’ is meant which is so often in the three Gospels alluded to (see especially notes on Mat 24 .), viz. the establishment in full of the dispensation of the Kingdom by the destruction of the nation and temple of the Jews. This is the view of some mentioned by Theophyl., of Bengel (see below), Stier, Drseke, Jacobi, &c. and is upheld by the similar place, Mat 16:28 . (3) That the Lord here only puts a case, “Even should I will that he remain upon earth till My last coming what would that be to thee?” This view is upheld by Trench, Miracles, p. 466, edn. 2; but I think must be rejected on maturer consideration of the character of the words of our Lord, in whose mouth such a mere hypothetical saying would be strangely incongruous, especially in these last solemn days of his presence on earth.
[262] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
The second view seems then to remain, and I adopt it with some qualification.
At the destruction of Jerusalem began that mighty series of events of which the Apocalypse is the prophetic record, and which is in the complex known as the ‘COMING OF THE LORD,’ ending, as it shall, with His glorious and personal Advent. This the beloved Apostle alone lived to see, according to ancient and undoubted tradition (Euseb. H. E. iii. 23). When De Wette (whom Lcke in the main follows: see also Mr. Elliott, Apocal. Alf. p. 160) calls this interpretation ganz nichtig , and would interpret this answer by the current idea in apostolic times, that His coming was very near, he is assuming (1) that this was the idea of the Apostles themselves (see 2Th 2:2-3 ; 2Pe 3:3-4 ; 2Pe 3:8-9 ); (2) that this answer is not that of our Lord, but apocryphal. If all that he says about the early expectations of the Church were granted, it would not follow that the view above taken is erroneous. And as to the chapter having been written after the death of John and the destruction of Jerusalem, see below.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 21:22 . To which Jesus replies with a shade of rebuke, . Peter, in seeking even to know the future of another disciple, was stepping beyond his province, ; . Your business is to follow me, not to intermeddle with others. Cf. A Kempis’ description of the man who “neglects his duty, musing on all that other men are bound to do”. De Imit. Christi , ii. 3. Over-anxiety about any part of Christ’s Church is to forget that there is a chief Shepherd who arranges for all. This part of the conversation might not have been recorded, but for a misunderstanding which arose out of it.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If. App-118.
tarry. Greek meno, translated abide, remain, &c. See book comments for John.
what, &c. Peter’s curiosity rebuked. Compare Mat 17:4.
to = with reference to. Greek. pros. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] The words ; imply a rebuke;-not perhaps however so sharp a one as has been sometimes seen in them. They remind Peter of the distinctness of each mans position and duty before the Lord; and the ., which follows, directs his view along that course of duty and suffering, which was appointed for him by his Divine Master. Notice the emphatic expression of , and the emphatic position of : q. d. His appointed lot is no element in thy onward course: it is ME that thou must follow.
On the , three opinions have been held (for that which refers the words to Johns remaining where he then was, on the shore, till the Lord returned from His colloquy with Peter, is not worth more than cursory mention): (1) that of Aug[262], Maldon., Grot., Lampe, Olsh., &c. (it being allowed on all hands, that means to remain in this life: see reff. and ch. Joh 12:34), If I will that he remain till I fetch him, i.e. by a natural death. But this is frigid, and besides inapplicable here. Peters death, although by the hands of an , was just as much the Lords coming for him, as Johns, and there would thus be no contrast. (2) That that coming of the Lord is meant which is so often in the three Gospels alluded to (see especially notes on Matthew 24.), viz. the establishment in full of the dispensation of the Kingdom by the destruction of the nation and temple of the Jews. This is the view of some mentioned by Theophyl., of Bengel (see below), Stier, Drseke, Jacobi, &c.-and is upheld by the similar place, Mat 16:28. (3) That the Lord here only puts a case,-Even should I will that he remain upon earth till My last coming-what would that be to thee? This view is upheld by Trench, Miracles, p. 466, edn. 2; but I think must be rejected on maturer consideration of the character of the words of our Lord, in whose mouth such a mere hypothetical saying would be strangely incongruous, especially in these last solemn days of his presence on earth.
[262] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
The second view seems then to remain, and I adopt it with some qualification.
At the destruction of Jerusalem began that mighty series of events of which the Apocalypse is the prophetic record, and which is in the complex known as the COMING OF THE LORD, ending, as it shall, with His glorious and personal Advent. This the beloved Apostle alone lived to see, according to ancient and undoubted tradition (Euseb. H. E. iii. 23). When De Wette (whom Lcke in the main follows: see also Mr. Elliott, Apocal. Alf. p. 160) calls this interpretation ganz nichtig, and would interpret this answer by the current idea in apostolic times, that His coming was very near, he is assuming (1) that this was the idea of the Apostles themselves (see 2Th 2:2-3; 2Pe 3:3-4; 2Pe 3:8-9); (2) that this answer is not that of our Lord, but apocryphal. If all that he says about the early expectations of the Church were granted, it would not follow that the view above taken is erroneous. And as to the chapter having been written after the death of John and the destruction of Jerusalem, see below.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 21:22. , saith) The Divine counsels respecting believers are more concealed than respecting the ungodly. Comp. Joh 21:20, as to the traitor.-, if) Never did the Lord give an unmixed repulse to His friends, however unseasonable their question might be. For which reason, not even in this instance does He repress Peter with unmixed sternness, but intimates, under the exterior repulse, something of kindness: even as also the , he or him, which is relative, is more gentle than if He had used , this person, which is demonstrative, in His reply to him. Therefore there is an ambiguity both weighty, and at the same time pleasing, in effect: For the conditional if does not affirm, if Jesus words are to be taken of the full completion of His second advent: His words hold good, even absolutely, if they are taken of the first beginnings of His advent. And, indeed, the brethren felt that the if was not altogether, in its rigid strictness, employed by the Lord: although they ought not to have set it aside wholly: Joh 21:23.-, that He) So indicative of what was about to happen to Him is given to John, who was less forward to ask the question (for even on the former occasion he had not asked until he was prompted [by Peter] to do so [ch. Joh 13:24], Joh 21:20), but who, notwithstanding, wished to ask it. More is revealed to those who are less disposed to pry curiously.-, I will) Implying the power of Jesus as to the life or death of His people: Rom 14:9, To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.-, remain, tarry) remain on earth. 1Co 15:6, The greater part remain unto this present. On the contrary, the dead are termed , those who have departed. Augustine interprets it expectare, to await: expectation or awaiting no doubt follows as the consequence of remaining: but the notion of remaining continues without sacrifice of truth.- , until I come) i.e. until I shall in very deed be coming in glory, and so John will be able to testify of Me in this Present, Behold He cometh [Rev 1:7]. The time of the Lords coming succeeds immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem: Mat 23:39; Mat 24:29, note: which advent John obtained the privilege of describing in the Apocalypse. The principal apostles of the twelve were the two, Peter and John: the former, laid the foundation; the latter, the crowning topstone: if a third is to be added, it is James, the first martyr of them, who, moreover, was present also at this feast, rather than at the conversation. The cross was promised in this place, to Peter; to John was promised in an enigmatical manner, that great Apocalypse. And as it were the middle point between this discourse of the Lord and the death of John, was the martyrdom of Peter: the years 30, 67, and 98 of the received era, claiming to themselves respectively these three important events. It is only in this point of view that the antithesis is more fully to be perceived: Peter by death follows Jesus in His departure out of the world: Joh 21:19, note: but John remains in the world, until He, the same, comes. In truth, the ministry of John, in writing and sending the Apocalypse, is equal [in point of patient suffering] to the cross endured by Peter, by reason of the very severe ordeal of trials to be endured by the former in the meanwhile: Rev 1:17; Rev 10:9-10. Nor was the writing of the Apocalypse less profitable to the Church, than Peters martyrdom. John, according to the prophecy, was about to remain in life, after having outlived all dangers, until the fit time should arrive, when, almost all his colleagues being long ago dead, the Jewish state overthrown, and the Christian Church established, he was to be the minister of the Apocalypse, the beginning and ending of which is that constantly recurring and solemn expression, He cometh, I come, Come, ch. Rev 1:7, Rev 22:20, etc. For it was becoming that the Apocalypse should not be published sooner, and yet that it should be published by an apostle. Wherefore the promise which was formerly given to John, in conjunction with others, Mat 16:28, (where see the note on the different succession steps of the coming), is now in this passage confined to John alone, in a remarkable, preeminent, and unprecedented manner. Often a thing is said then to come to pass, when it is vividly presented before us as about to be: see note on Act 13:33. [God said this at the time that the Psalm was composed, speaking of it as a thing then present, because it was then represented as about to be]: for which reason the Lord is said to come in that most vivid, prophetical, and apocalyptical representation. And not only in vision, but in the eyes and feeling of John, and thenceforward after that most solemn denunciation, and most especially at the actual time of Johns death, and subsequently, He is in actual fact rather coming, than about to come. For whilst John remained, the fulfilment began to come to pass, the trumpet having been given even to the seventh angel himself, Rev 11:15, note. And just as all the forty days after the Resurrection were days of Ascension (Joh 20:17, note), so at a very brief interval after the Ascension is the time of the Coming to judgment, inasmuch as no other step interposed between, Act 1:11 [wherein the second coming is joined immediately with the Ascension]: For the sitting at Gods right hand does not differ from the Ascension, except in so far as the actual state differs from the act. Therefore Christ expects, and is ready, Heb 10:13; 1Pe 4:5. In the mention of His coming, all the events on this side of it which the Apocalypse contains, are included. There is one last hour, upon which also the coming of Antichrist falls, 1Jn 2:18. Immediately after the Apocalypse, John departed and died (Comp. Luk 2:26; Luk 2:29, Simeon), after great afflictions, by a natural death; as Daniel did, ch. Joh 12:13; with whom John had much in common. In fine, that sentiment, until John shall write the Apocalypse, could be put forward in these words with as much truth and literal strictness as characterized John at the time when, in writing the Apocalypse, he wrote that the Lord comes. Thus both the forerunners and messengers of the coming of the Lord, His first and His second, were of the one name, John the Baptist and John the Apostle. The history of the Old Testament is arranged by the lives of the patriarchs and kings, and by the weeks of Daniel: whilst the Apocalypse has predicted the periods of the New Testament history, which was about to follow after. The whole of the golden chain is completed in the middle, first by the life of Jesus Christ, then next by the remaining of John, who also alone of the Evangelists has recorded all the Passovers and the years intervening between the baptism of Christ and the time of this discourse: He alone of all has acted the part of a chronologer of all the times of the New Testament. See how great was the dignity conferred on the beloved disciple.- ; what is that to thee?) This brings back the curiosity of Peter to order; but at the same time it much more intimates, that his course would be already ended, whilst John was still doing his work, and was subserving the advent of the Lord. The martyrdom of Peter was consummated several years before the destruction of Jerusalem: that destruction had the Lords advent subsequent to it.-, thou) A weighty and merciful command.- , follow Me) The future is contained in the Imperative: Give all thy attention to that which belongs to thee: leave to him (that disciple) what belongs to him. Similarly the Lords words concerning John, intimated not only what the Lord wishes to be done, but what is about to be.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 21:22
Joh 21:22
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.-So he gave an evasive answer with the hint that it did not concern him. [John did literally tarry until Jesus came, until he saw him, heard him speak and recorded in the last revelation from the Lord to the world in the book of Revelation. About sixty years from the time that Jesus uttered these words, John was an exile in Patmos. There, on a Lords day, Jesus came and revealed to him the message he addresses to the seven churches of Asia.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The Individuality of Duty
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.Joh 21:22.
1. This is the last recorded dialogue between Peter and Christ, and it has a special and a touching interest from the fact that it is so. How many and how varied these dialogues had been, and how rich and how vivid the instruction they contain! They form a magazine of truth in themselves, and had we no other fragments of Christs life handed down to us than the narrative of His dealings with Peter, we should still have a tolerably full indication both of the doctrine He intends us to believe and of the duty He commands us to practise. And now the revelation was wound up, and the interviews themselves were to cease. Whatever further talk the Lord had with Peter, something sealed the lips of the evangelist; for with these words before us his record ends.
Could there be a more fitting and consistent close to the whole? It is the same Peter who speaks, tender-hearted and impulsive as ever, with a trace of the old leaven not yet purged. It is the same Christ, too, who answers him, true to the message and unaltered in the character He had revealed from the very first. Follow me, He said three years before by the lakeside where Peter was plying his toils, unaware of the destiny that awaited him. And now, after all that had come and gone, when faith had been strengthened by experience, and the cord of love that had first drawn the heart after Christ had become a fast firm cable, wrought through long days of fellowship and common toil, there, at the self-same spot where Christ called His disciple before, He calls him again, reminding him, as He does so, that the omega of his life is the same as its alpha, even the duty of personal discipleship, the word Follow me.
2. When Jesus had said Follow me, Peter turned about and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following. At once he put the question, Lord, and what shall this man do? Christs answer is our text.
Now it is not easy to determine with any certainty the spirit in which that question was asked, or the meaning of the answer it received. Some have imagined that Peter, fancying from Christs silence regarding the beloved disciple, that his course would be free from those fiery troubles which had just been foretold for himself, inquired, with a kind of envious dissatisfaction, respecting the destiny of John. This explanation, however, seems incredible. We must remember that the thrice-repeated question, Lovest thou me? had only just thrilled on his ear, awakening solemn memories of his thrice-repeated denial. We must remember that Christ had suddenly revealed the future, and indicated a martyrs death as his lot in the day of his old age. We must bear in mind that Peter possessed that generous impulsive nature which would prompt a man under excitement to forget his own sorrows in unselfish devotion to his friends. And then, remembering that from the recent conversation with Christ, his heart must have been quivering with the emotions of love and sorrow, it is hard to conceive that one feeling of jealous discontent could have suggested this inquiry.
Most probably the question sprang from earnest anxiety regarding Johns destiny. It may even be that Peter, having at length learned the glory of sharing the Saviours cross, was concerned lest his brother disciple should not have the honour of following so closely in his Masters sufferings as himself. Mingled with that would be the anxious feeling which men of Peters ardent and unselfish nature ever cherish regarding the future of a friend. It is easier for such impetuous souls to trust their own lot in Gods hands than that of their brother; they can accept sorrow more calmly for themselves than view its advent for another. And in this spirit of unselfish devotionrising even to restless curiosity regarding the Divine planit probably was that, gazing on the beloved disciple Peter forgot the picture of his own martyrdom in his solicitude for John.
3. Christs answer contains three statements
I.The duty of following Him lies on every one of usFollow thou me.
II.The manner of the following rests upon His will and our individualityIf I will that he tarry till I come.
III.We are warned against needless curiosity or anxietyWhat is that to thee?
I
Following is for All
Follow thou me.
This is the Lords command to each of His disciples. We have heard His voice saying Come unto me, and now He says, Follow thou me.
1. Notice how comprehensive is this command. It includes every other requirement and precept of the Gospel, and it calls into action every power and faculty of our renewed being.
(1) It means follow with the heart.This is no mere external compliance, no mere outward conformity to our blessed Masters will. It is the service of the heart. The force that is brought to bear on the disciple is not that of compulsion, but of attraction. Draw me, we will run after thee (Son 1:4). No man can follow Christ whose heart has not been won by Him. Whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered (Rom 6:17, R.V.). It is neither the terrors of the law nor the fear of a judgment to come that enables us to respond to this command. It is the attraction of Divine love that is the power. The Lord Himself must be the loadstone of our hearts.
Every question was among some of his friends an open question. Strauss and Comte, Mill and Bentham, Coleridge, Carlyle, and Maurice appear as factors again and again in the discussions of that time. But nothing seems to have disturbed his balance; his heart stood fast. His habit of obedience to his mother, and his intense affection for her, had insensibly passed into strict obedience to conscience. Perhaps one of the chief lessons of his early life is that this affectionate obedience is the soil in which faith flourishes.1 [Note: Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, i. 54.]
(2) It means follow in faith.Following is often like stepping out on the unseen. It is often like walking on the water. We could never venture out without a Divine warrant. But He who granted it to Peter when He said Come! gives us the same warrant when through the darkness and the trial He says, Follow thou me. This needs the courage of faith. Without faith we could not take a single step, for it is an impossible walk except to him that believeth. The stepping-stones of faith are the promises of God. But supposing I have no faith, says one; what am I to do? Dont think of believing at all. Think of Him who bids you follow Him. Hearken to His voice. In other words, listen to His written Word: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).
Can you picture it at all? The church is built by the nativeswalls of nipa palm spines, and thatched roof of palm leaves, floor of barktwo doorways on each side, and one at each end, and plenty of square openings for windows. We have no church members here yet, but we think of the Moffats, and feel encouraged. They were fifteen years working at one station and not one member, and yet she asked a friend to send her a communion service, and directly after it arrived they needed it.1 [Note: James Chalmers, 337.]
(3) It means follow with the willOur wills must be in this following, or it means nothing. All true obedience begins, not in the outward action, but in the inward spring of all activity; that is, in the will. We must will to do His will, if we would follow Christ. We become obedient within, before we are obedient in the outward act. The moment for action may not have arrived, but the time for willing to be obedient is always present.2 [Note: E. H. Hopkins.]
The wish to disobey is already disobedience; and although at this time I was really doing a great many things I did not like, to please my parents, I have not now one self-approving thought or consolation in having done so, so much did its sullenness and maimedness pollute the meagre sacrifice.3 [Note: Ruskin, Praeterita, i. 424.]
2. Notice how difficult it is. Against us are the efforts of our great spiritual adversary. He is constantly on the watch with a view to hindering Gods children in their progress. But this, let us never forget, is not without Gods permission. It is His will that our following of Him should be, not apart from obstacles, but in the midst of them, in spite of them.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.1 [Note: G. K. Chesterton, Whats Wrong with the World.]
(1) There are alluring attractionsearthly objects and pursuits that appeal to our natural inclinations. Some of them are perfectly harmless in themselves, but when they are yielded to, we discover afterwards that they have lowered our spiritual tone, and robbed us of our strength. And so we have been impeded in our progress.
Progress is marked by stations left behind. If we follow Jesus, we go somewhere, which means leaving some place. Journeying with the breast to the East means with the back to the West. The disciples left their boats and nets when they followed Jesus. What has our following cost us? What selfish plans, worldly projects, doubtful amusements, dangerous companionships, are behind us for the Kings and the kingdoms sake? We sing, Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee, but another hymn brings the thought to a sharp point, Have I left aught for Thee?2 [Note: M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-Day Living, 25.]
As for the pleasures of this Life, and outward Business, let that be upon the bye. Be above all these things, by Faith in Christ; and then you shall have the true use and comfort of them,and not otherwise. How true is this; equal in its obsolete dialect, to the highest that man has yet attained to, in any dialect old or new!3 [Note: Carlyle, Cromwells Letters and Speeches, ii. 136.]
(2) Then there are perplexing problems.Perhaps we are troubled as we look around upon the sufferings of our fellow-creatures. We think of the multitudes living in darkness and degradation, not only in heathen lands, but in our own Christian England. We are unable to fathom the mysteries these questions suggest. Or, it may be, we are perplexed by the objections of sceptics to the truth of Holy Scripture. We are unable to find an answer to these things. What is the remedy? Look to the Master, who says, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. We must rest in His wisdom, we must confide in His faithfulness, and, without waiting to question or to speculate, we must be prompt in our obedience, and follow Him.
All the great mysteries are simple as well as unfathomably deep; and they are common to all men. Every Christian feels them less or more.1 [Note: Memoir of John Duncan, 403.]
(3) Then there are distracting caresthe things that belong to the ordinary business of daily life. Some of these are very common matters, and perhaps very trivial, but Gods children, when they carry them, find them a serious hindrance to their progress. It is quite possible to be so overburdened by care that we cease to follow Christ. We must learn the secret of committing all into His hands daily if we would know what it is to follow the Lord fully.2 [Note: E. H. Hopkins.]
Acts of obedience are not perfect, and therefore yield not perfect Grace. Faith, as an act, yields it not; but only as it carries us into Him, who is our perfect rest and peace; in whom we are accounted of, and received by, the Father,even as Christ Himself. This is our high calling. Rest we here, and here only. Even so, my noble one! The noble soul will, one day, again come to understand these old words of yours.3 [Note: Carlyle, Cromwells Letters and Speeches, iii. 190.]
There is a beautiful old tradition, done finely into verse by one of our poets, that, during the demon-raging fury of the Neronic persecution, Peter, visiting the harried flock at Rome, who nevertheless were undaunted in their brave stand for the Name of Christ, was one day waited upon by the threatened Christians, who urged him to leave the city of death, that he might continue, in less dangerous places, to carry on his apostolic work.
Not in yon streaming shambles must thou die;
We counsel, we entreat, we charge thee, fly!
The Apostle protests that his place is the place of danger, and that, come what may, in Rome he will remain. One by one they pleadfor the sake of multitudes who will be as sheep without a shepherd, for the Kingdoms sake, for Christs sakethat Peter, though for himself not caring, yet, as caring for others, may seek safety in flight. At last he yieldsyields to their importunity. He goes forth, in the night-time, through the Capuan gate. Stealthily, swiftly, he pursued his way
To the Campania glimmering wide and still,
And strove to think he did his Masters will.
But he fights with pursuing doubts. Is his flight cowardice? or is it for the sake of longer-continued testimony? Is he still true to the voice which said, Follow thou me? Soon shall he have his answer. What is that vision of the night?
Lo, on the darkness brake a wandering ray:
A vision flashed along the Appian Way.
Divinely in the pagan night it shone
A mournful Facea Figure hurrying on
Though haggard and dishevelled, frail and worn,
A King, of Davids lineage, crowned with thorn.
Lord, whither farest? Peter, wondering cried.
To Rome, said Christ, to be re-crucified.
Into the night the vision ebbed like breath;
And Peter turned, and rushed on Rome and death.1 [Note: T. F. Lockyer, Seeking a Country, 101.]
II
The Manner of Following is for the Individual
If I will that he tarry till I come.
The first thought is that it is the duty of us all to follow; the second is that the manner of following rests upon His will and is made to suit our individuality. To the anxious Peter, Christ declared that Johns course was to be different from his own. By the words, What is that to thee, He emphatically indicated a distinctionimplying by them that he should go his own way and leave his brothers cause in His hands. The one was to labour, the other to wait. The one was to preach the Gospel throughout the world, and be summoned to heaven by the sufferings of martyrdom, the other was to watch in long banishment the coming again of the unseen Saviour when the old economy should fall, and then in peaceful old age to pass to the eternal home. All this marked difference of destiny by which they were each to follow the Saviour is contained in the reply, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
1. Christ appoints a separate experience for each of His followers. Lord, what shall this man do? What is that to thee? No words could mark more emphatically the great difference which was henceforth to exist between the paths of those two men who had hitherto followed Christ side by side. They seem to express a kind of impassable solitude in which each man was to live. John could not lead the life of Peter; Peter could not fulfil the destiny of John. In different and lonely ways they were each to travel till the end should come. The life of Peter was to be action crowned by suffering, the life of John a patient waiting for the manifestation of Christthere, in the difference between labouring and watching, lay the difference in their respective courses. Now, if we contemplate the distinctive characters of these two men, we shall find its Divine meaning. Each course was beautifully adapted to train their individual characters, and to fit them for their individual work.
What could be more appropriate as a close to the life of Christ than such a picture as this, which opened out such a view of the Churchs mission, as waiting and yet working, as suffering and yet serving? The great difficulty in the mind of Peter was how to reconcile the two, so that they might live and act harmoniously together. This difficulty was to be solved in course of time, when the days of trial and persecution came on the Church. Then it was seen that something more was needed than suffering and service; they would have to tarry or wait in patient expectation for the coming of Christ. In this way, the waiting spirit, the spirit of John, came to be more and more developed in the Church; and in proportion as it becomes developed, so ought the active spirit, the spirit of Peter, to make a corresponding advance. And thus the two sides of the Churchs life will advance in harmonious union, until, by the discipline of suffering, and service, and patience, it is perfected in every part.1 [Note: D. Merson, Words of Life, 223.]
2. The discovery of our own particular path is found in the revelation of His will which God makes to us. If I will that he tarry. To follow Christ is, like Him, to obey whenever Gods will is clear; to be patient like Him when it is dark. And this is a rule which applies to all circumstances, and one which can be obeyed in defiance of all results. There are circumstances to which no other law applies; under which no experiences of other men can help us. The only course at such times is to act at once under such light as we may possess. Do the duty that is nearest to you. Follow Christ in His perfect, unmurmuring obedience, and as you follow, a fuller light will come. It may be that your duty is not to act, but to be patient: if so, forget not that they also serve who only stand and wait. And to follow Christ is to do Gods will and challenge results. When that will is clear, we have no right to look at consequences. The command to Peter was a command to challenge all issues, although another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not, follow thou me.
There is one way for thee; but one; inform
Thyself of it; pursue it; one way each
Soul hath by which the Infinite in reach
Lieth before him; seek and ye shall find:
To each the way is plain; that way the wind
Points all the trees along; that way run down
Loud singing streams; that way pour on and on
A thousand headlands with their cataracts
Of toppling flowers; that way the sun enacts
His travel, and the moon and all the stars
Soar; and the tides move towards it; nothing bars
A man who goes the way that he should go;
That which comes soonest is the thing to do.
Thousand light-shadows in the rippling sand
Joy the true soul; the waves along the strand
Whiten beyond his eyes; the trees tossed back
Show him the sky; or, heaped upon his track
In a black wave, wind heaped, point onward still
His way, one way. O joy, joy, joy, to fill
The day with leagues! Go thy way, all things say,
Thou hast thy way to go, thou hast thy day
To live; thou hast thy need of thee to make
In the hearts of others; do thy thing; yes, slake
The worlds great thirst for yet another man!
And be thou sure of this: no other can
Do for thee that appointed thee of God;
Not any light shall shine upon thy road
For other eyes;
Thee the angel calls,
As he call others; and thy life to thee
Is precious as the greatests life can be
To him; so live thy life and go thy way.1 [Note: Richard Watson Dixon.]
III
Be Not Too Curious or Anxious
What is that to thee?
In these words there seems to be conveyed to us a warning against unnecessary curiosity or anxiety about the lot of others, and in general about the providence of God. Peters anxiety typifies the impertinence of curiosity, the impatience of ignorance, in things sacred, which has been the temptation of Christians in every age. The rebuke is the Masters protest against indulgence in this spirit. Energetic work in the present, not idle speculation about the future, is the parting charge which He gives to His chief disciple, and through Him to His whole Church so long as time shall be.
There are several occasions in the Gospel narrative on which a temper near akin to this was checked and corrected by our blessed Lord. Two of them are recorded in the thirteenth chapter of St. Luke. Tell me not (He would there say) of those Galileans whom the cruel Pilate ordered to be massacred while they were engaged in sacrifice; or of those eighteen inhabitants of Jerusalem, upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, and slew them; tell me not of these, as though you would seek to pry into the judicial dealings of Gods providence towards them; but look rather to yourselves, and be assured of this, that except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And again, Ask me not, in a spirit of unprofitable curiosity, or of self-righteous estimate of your own condition, whether there be few, or many, who are to be saved; but ask this rather of your own consciencesare ye striving to enter in at the strait gate? for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in and shall not be able.
1. Our Lord did not mean to arrest the spirit of legitimate inquiry.Curiosity is the parent of knowledge. Peters question concerning the future reserved for his friend seems to have been prompted partly by affection, but partly also by curiosity. Both instincts belong to our essential human nature. When God created man, He breathed into him an inquiring spirit, and made him eager to explore the mysterious world which spreads round about him, and to search out whatever things are hidden and unknown. Urged by this great impulse, the captains of adventure forced their way through forest and wilderness, and steered by the stars across an uncharted sea. And every lad who is worth his salt still tingles at times with the ancient longing to wander in strange lands, that he may discover for himself what treasures they conceal. It is the same imperious desire that has gathered the facts of science and framed the systems of philosophy. As Cudworth quaintly puts it: The sons of Adam are now as busy as ever himself was, about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, shaking the boughs of it and scrambling for the fruit: and people who pride themselves on being neither philosophical nor scientific betray this elemental instinct of curiosity in double measure in regard to everything which is human or which deals with humanity.
I am reminded, by one who was present, of a scene when some Americans were announced, seeking an interview, What is it you want? she [Jenny Lind] asked, standing very erect. Oh, Madame Goldschmidt, we hoped to have the pleasure of seeing you, and making your acquaintance. Well, here is my front! Then (with a whisk round), There is my back. Now (with a deep curtsey) you can go home, and say that you have seen me! After her visitors had crept out abashed, she was very penitent for having been at all rude. But she could not endure any impertinent curiosity; and it was always a perilous experiment to introduce a stranger to her, lest she should suspect some motive in the introduction, when her coldness would be freezing.1 [Note: H. Scott Holland, Personal Studies, 23.]
2. Jesus did not desire to discourage sympathetic interest in the welfare of others.It would be strange indeed if He did, He, who in word and act preached the principle, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Yet it may be one thing to say, What shall I do for this man? and another, and a very different one, to ask, What shall this man do? In the first case, the question turns upon present duty, in the second it turns upon future events. The former word raises the thought of a responsibility that is mine, the latter intermeddles with a care which is really not mine, but Gods. And in every such case, as we pass from what is practical to what is curious, and let the thoughts turn from the matters of personal duty to the mysteries of Divine administration, the Saviour refuses to lift the veil, saying, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther. The secret things belong unto God, but the things that are revealed belong unto thee to do them. Askest thou, What shall this man do? What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
We are not to suppose that the doctrine of altruism is a gospel peculiar to the enlightenment of more modern times; there is a Christian altruism that is far more ennobling and radical than anything to which infidel ethics has given the name. Here, as elsewhere, the ideas with which it is hoped to supersede the Bible have been drawn from the Bible itself, as if the voice could be silenced by the echo, and the substance be banished by its own pallid shadow. We grant it all. But if the question be a question of what is spiritual, if it be a question between the keeping of your own soul unspotted on the one hand, and the doing of some imagined service for your neighbour on the other, then remember that Christ says, What is that neighbours state unto thee?what is it, that is to say, in these particular circumstances, under these particular conditions?Follow thou me! Personal holiness is the main thing, personal discipleship, personal salvation. It is your first duty to save your soul, and that not for your own sake merely, but for the sake of a God who has given you the trust, and asks it back from your hands by a right which is peculiarly His own. Why do I say these things? Because there is a class of literature and of sentiment at the present day that exalts the doctrine of love and self-sacrifice towards our neighbour to the extent of attempting to enlist admiration when love and self-sacrifice lead to sin for his sake. No, in the matters that pertain to the soul, its welfare and safe-keeping, ones own cares come first. And to give them anything else than the first place is to become practical idolaters by the preference of a neighbours claim to Gods.1 [Note: W. A. Gray, The Shadow of the Hand, 149.]
Men speak too much about the world. Each one of us here, let the world go how it will, and be victorious or not victorious, has he not a Life of his own to lead? One Life; a little gleam of Time between two Eternities; no second chance to us forevermore! It were well for us to live not as fools and simulacra, but as wise and realities. The worlds being saved will not save us; nor the worlds being lost destroy us. We should look to ourselves: there is great merit here in the duty of staying at home! And on the whole, to say truth, I never heard of worlds being saved in any other way. That mania of saving worlds is itself a piece of the Eighteenth Century with its windy sentimentalism. Let us not follow it too far. For the saving of the world I will trust confidently to the Maker of the world; and look a little to my own saving, which I am more competent to!1 [Note: Carlyle, Heroes and Hero-Worship, 163.]
Thomas Kempis tells us that
If you could let men go their way,
They would let you go yours;
and he adds:
We might have peace, great peace,
If we would not load ourselves with others words and works,
And with what concerns us not.
How can he be long at rest
Who meddles in anothers cares,
And looks for matters out of his own path,
And only now and then gathers his thoughts within him?2 [Note: Lord Avebury, Peace and Happiness, 342.]
3. We must be concerned for others but we may be over-anxious.Some men, of ardent, energetic temperament, seem to have very exaggerated ideas of the extent of their responsibility. They seem to live only to keep all other people straight. No heresy can anywhere be broached, but they must rush to the front and expose it. No iniquity can anywhere be practised, but they must drag it into the light to condemn it. God made them keepers of their own vineyards, but they spend all their time in looking after other mens vines. Unquestionably there is something noble in this temper; but there is something quixotic too; and Christ seems here to teach that He imposes upon no man such a responsibility. The world is sadly full of evil, scepticism, infidelity, superstition, immorality, on every side. What, then, am I as a Christian to do? Simply to obey my Masters command, Follow thou me,protest assuredly, where a protest must be made to clear oneself of all complicity with sin; protest where a protest is needed to save a brother, and to put a wrong-doer to shame; but before all that, be thou a true disciple, whoever may be false; be thou thyself a holy example of justice and mercy and purity and truth, though all the world should be only a sweltering mass of impiety, and impurity, and wrong.
I was once sitting in a room where I had to wait for half an hour before a meeting, and by the fire was sitting a poorly clad, rather wretched-looking, old man, gently moaning at intervals. I asked him if anything was the matter, and he said, No; I was only just thinking what a deal of trouble it takes to get the world right and to keep it right.1 [Note: Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 222.]
One man is a missionary perhaps in some foreign land; he is alone, one Christian among thousands of heathen, and he would fain know what will become of all these. Another is labouring single-handed as a parochial minister in the midst of a thronging town population whom his words never reach and never can reach; and he asks in dismay what shall be the end of all these. If he picks up one soul here and another there out of the seething mass of ignorance and vice, it is all that he can hope to do. To his faithless questioning the rebuke is addressed, What is that to thee? Thou hast a work to do; thou hast a message to deliver. Thou knowest that thy message is truth, and because it is truth, therefore it is salvation. This is enough for thee. Execute thy task to the best of thy power, and leave the rest to Me.2 [Note: J. B. Lightfoot, Ordination Addresses, 165.]
4. Peters question is often the question of vain speculation about the purposes of God.It cannot be otherwise than that His deep purposes should be hidden, for He is God, and His designs cannot be scanned and measured by human wisdom. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out, said one very near to the heart of God. So does He manifest His independence to the will and the counsel of His creatures. It is the glory of God to conceal His purposes. Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Such concealment is adapted to our condition. By it He trains us to submission; He promotes within us humility, He awakens us to constant ceaseless vigilance; He inspires diligence in our daily living; by gradually removing the cloud from His throne, He makes a constant revelation of truth. Well said Robinson, There is a new light in Gods word that is yet to break out. Who knows all the mysteries contained in this volume? Eternity will not be long enough for the full development of all that was in Gods thought, Gods heart, when He inspired this Book. But still there are among us men who are curiosity-mongers about the purposes of God. They will have all Gods depths to be shallows rather than confess their own inability to fathom all mysteries with their own reason.
In my student days I had a very intimate friend, who was pre-eminently successful in gaining prizes by written competition. So surely as he went in for any particular subject, whether classics, philosophy, or mathematics, he came out first. In the general work of the classes and in the recitations he did not appear to be any better than his neighbours; but at a written examination he was facile princeps. At the end of our course I asked him to explain this to me, and he revealed his secret thus: You take the questions in the paper as they come; hence, if the first question is a very hard one, you spend, perhaps, the whole time allotted for the paper upon that; but when I get a paper into my hand, I read over all the questions, pick out those that I see I can answer at once, and then having disposed of them, and made sure that they will count, I go on to the harder ones. I pass through the plain ones to the difficult, and I take care always to do the one before I attempt the other. There was great wisdom in the plan, and in the college of life more of us, I imagine, would come out prizemen at the last, if we were to let the hard things of speculation alone, at least until we have performed the plain duties which our Saviour has set before us. But if this be so with the hard things, how much more does it hold of those things which are insoluble by mere human reason. Yet how many there are among us who make difficulties, for the existence of which they are not responsible, and for the removal of which they are incompetent, a reason either for their refusing to follow Christ, or for following Him only afar off.1 [Note: W. M. Taylor, The Limitations of Life, 66.]
(1) There are the mysteries of Gods Providence. How often are we completely at our wits end what to make of them. When we begin to inquire into the meaning of this or that occurrence, we get no reply. We meet with things that baffle explanation in our everyday life. The good are taken away, and the wicked left; strong men are cut down in the midst of their days and usefulness. We see communities visited with the most appalling calamities, young and innocent lives taken away in one fell disaster. We see the rising hope of a happy home laid low by the ravages of death, and the weak and feeble spared to a lingering old age. We can scarcely open a newspaper without reading of sufferings and fatalities that make the heart bleed. These things are mysteries to us. We try to explain them, but our explanations are often as perplexing as the mysteries themselves.
That old debate which waxed so hot between Job and his friends in the far land of Uz has emerged anew in some form or other in every individual heart and in every successive generation. It has never received fuller or more exhaustive treatment than it had at the hands of these Eastern sages. Yet virtually they left it where they found it. Jehovah appeared to them at the close asserting His sovereignty, and claiming His right to veil Himself in clouds and darkness. He asked them to confide in His wisdom, and to leave the matter in His hands. And what farther can we get than that? We are not responsible for the government of the world. It is not ours to sit upon the throne. We may well leave the vindication of Gods workings to God Himself. He will take care of His own honour. Meanwhile for us there is the lowlier province of working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, under the assurance that it is God who worketh in us, to will and to do of his good pleasure. To us the gospel has been preached, and for the use we make of that we shall be held to account. To us the Saviour has said, Follow me, and for the answer we give to that earnest call we shall be responsible.
The saintly Robert Leightonsometime Bishop of Dunblane (of whom, as I am his unworthy successor in the Episcopate of that See, so I would wish to be indeed his follower, even as he was of Christ)that holy Bishop has a sermon upon this textpreached before the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, November 14, in 1669in which, speaking of the state of things as it existed in this country two hundred years ago, he exclaims: Ah! my brethren, the body of religion is torn, and the soul of it expires, while we are striving about the hem of its garment. Alas! there is too much reason still for the same complaint. We are still far too much inclined to place speculation before practice, to place knowledge before virtue; to be curious about the future rather than to be careful for the present; to be inquisitive about others rather than to be well acquainted with ourselves. How few of us are there, it is to be feared, who could appeal to God in those beautiful sentiments expressed in the 131st Psalm: Lord, I am not high-minded; I have no proud looks; I do not exercise myself in great matters, or in things which are too high for me. But I refrain my soul and keep it low; like as a child that is weaned from his mother; yea, my soul is even as a weaned child. To say this, and to say it truly, would be indeed to follow Christ.1 [Note: C. Wordsworth, Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel, 166.]
All that we can safely gather from his conversation at St. Helena is that his mind turns greatly on these questions of religion. He ponders and struggles. A remark which he lets fall at St. Helena explains probably his normal state of mind. Only a fool, he says one day, says that he will die without a confessor. There is so much that one does not know, that one cannot explain. And as he spoke of the mysteries of religion, we may speak of his frame of mind with regard to them. There is so much that one does not know, that one cannot explain.2 [Note: Lord Rosebery, Napoleon, the Last Phase, 173.]
(2) There are difficulties connected with doctrines of the faith, which rest upon unrevealed mysteries behind them. If we are perplexing ourselves with such things as the fall of man, the sin of the angels, the salvability of the heathen, the locality of heaven, and of the spirits in prison, the decrees of God that seem to destroy the free will of man, or that great problem that presses with equal force on the brain of the wisest philosopher and the heart of the little child, why God permitted the entrance of evil into the world at the first, and why He permits its dominion still; we can not only calm ourselves by the reflection that probably these are depths that no created mind can sound; but still more by the voice of our heavenly Lord, who does not explain any one of them, but says, Leave mysteries to God, and do thou thine own work of following Me.
I read Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Coleridge, Philip Van Artevelde, for views of man to meditate upon, instead of theological caricatures of humanity; and I go out into the country to feel God; dabble in chemistry, to feel awe of Him; read the life of Christ, to understand, love, and adore Him; and my experience is closing into this, that I turn with disgust from everything to Christ. I think I get glimpses into His mind, and I am sure that I love Him more and more. A sublime feeling of a Presence comes upon me at times, which makes inward solitariness a trifle to talk about.1 [Note: Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson, 152.]
As to what you may think of my beliefs I have no fear; they need not be discussed and they cannot be attacked.
But your church has its dogmas.
There is not a dogma of my church that I have ever thought of for a momentor of any other church.
How can you remain in your church without either believing or disbelieving its dogmas?
My church is the altar of Christ and the House of God, replied Gabriella simply. And so is any other church.
And you believe in them all? he asked in wondering admiration. I believe in them all.2 [Note: James Lane Allen.]
I have a life with Christ to live,
But, ere I live it, must I wait
Till learning can clear answer give
Of this and that books date?
I have a life in Christ to live,
I have a death in Christ to die;
And must I wait, till science give
All doubts a full reply?
Nay rather, while the sea of doubt
Is raging wildly round about,
Questioning of life and death and sin.
Let me but creep within
Thy fold, O Christ, and at Thy feet
Take but the lowest seat,
And hear Thine awful voice repeat
In gentlest accents, heavenly sweet,
Come unto Me, and rest:
Believe Me, and be blest.3 [Note: John Campbell Shairp.]
(3) Then there are mysteries in the future that we should like to have cleared up. We should like to know the times and the seasons, and we are told that it is not for us to know the times and the seasons, which the Father has placed in His own hands. There are many questions respecting the life to come that press for an answer, such as the nature of the punishment in reserve for the wicked, the occupation of the redeemed, the appearance of the Saviour, the recognition of friends, and the nature of the intercourse in the next life. Regarding these questions, we are left in comparative ignorance, and so their solution cannot be of much practical importance. It is unimportant to know the nature of future punishment; but it is all-important to avoid it. It is unimportant to know the character of the heavenly state; but it is all-important to prepare for it. It might satisfy our curiosity to know if there will be recognition of friends in the next life; but it is of eternal moment to strive to enter in at the strait gate. A veil is drawn over these questions, and our prying into them can do no good. We have been told enough for the practical guidance of life, and whatever interferes with that should be let alone. What is it to us? Let us use to the full the knowledge that God has given us respecting the duties of the present, and the mysteries of the future will be cleared up in due time. Let us act up to our present light, and when we are in a position to benefit by more, more will be given. Meanwhile, let our desire be to follow Jesus; and as we follow Him the light will brighten, our vision will widen, until, amid clearer light than that of the sun, we shall read all mysteries plain, and know even as also we are known.
The Archbishop was spending the day here, and preaching for me. After lunch we went into my study, and he let me talk to him. He was so exceedingly fatherly that day, that I was led on to talk to him about the great problems and mysteries of life, and told him of a certain matter which weighed upon me at times with an almost insupportable weight. It was connected with the hereafter. I may as well say it was the notion of endlessness of time. He listened patiently, and suggested certain lines of thoughtand asked if I did not think Hegels philosophy helped over such a matter.
Then I said, bluntly enoughMy Lord, have you never had any of these troubles? Dont you ever feel the mystery of that other life?
He turned in his chair, put his hand up to his chin, looked at me a moment in his steady way, and then saidYes, I think I know what you mean. But I believe so entirely that God is my Father, and that He loves me, and that He will make me perfectly happy in the other life, that I never worry myself over what that life will be.1 [Note: 1 Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, ii. 655.]
Experience bows a sweet contented face,
Still setting-to her seal that God is true:
Beneath the sun, she knows, is nothing new;
All things that go return with measured pace,
Winds, rivers, mans still recommencing race:
While Hope beyond earths circle strains her view,
Past sun and moon, and rain and rainbow too,
Enamoured of unseen eternal grace,
Experience saith, My God doth all things well:
And for the morrow taketh little care,
Such peace and patience garrison her soul:
While Hope, who never yet hath eyed the goal,
With arms flung forth, and backward-floating hair,
Touches, embraces, hugs the invisible.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
The Individuality of Duty
Literature
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), The Highway of Holiness, 126.
Ballard (F.), Does it Matter what a Man Believes? 63.
Bickersteth (C.), The Gospel of Incarnate Love, 106.
Burrell (D. J.), God and the People, 167.
Darlow (T. H.), Via Sacra, 125.
Dix (M.), Christ at the Door of the Heart, 158.
Gray (W. A.), The Shadow of the Hand, 133.
Harper (F.), A Broken Altar, 50.
Hopkins (E. H.), Hidden, yet Possessed, 19.
Hull (E. L.), Sermons, iii. 230.
Knight (G. H.), The Masters Questions to His Disciples, 360.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Ordination Addresses, 149.
Lockyer (T. F.), Seeking a Country, 94.
Merson (D.), Words of Life, 213.
Mortimer (A. G.), Jesus and the Resurrection, 248.
Myres (W. M.), Fragments that Remain, 20, 28.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 25
Pearson (J. B.), Disciples in Doubt, 113.
Pope (W. B.), Discourses, 343.
Power (P. B.), The I Wills of Christ, 283.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, viii. 383.
Rendall (G. H.), Charterhouse Sermons, 149.
Stanley (A. P.), Sermons and Essays on the Apostolical Age, 234.
Stevens (W. B.), Sermons, 78.
Stone (D.), The Discipline of Faith, 167.
Taylor (W. M.), The Limitations of Life, 63.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), vi. No. 648.
Westcott (B. F.), Social Aspects of Christianity, 197.
Westcott (B. F.), Peterborough Sermons, 255.
Wordsworth (C.), Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel, 155.
American Pulpit of the Day, i. 448 (Tyng).
Christian Age, xliii. 242 (Abbott).
Twentieth Century Pastor, xxix. 132.
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
If: Mat 16:27, Mat 16:28, Mat 24:3, Mat 24:27, Mat 24:44, Mat 25:31, Mar 9:1, 1Co 4:5, 1Co 11:26, Rev 1:7, Rev 2:25, Rev 3:11, Rev 22:7, Rev 22:20
follow: Joh 21:19
Reciprocal: Deu 29:29 – secret Mat 4:19 – Follow Mar 13:4 – General Mar 16:19 – after Luk 9:27 – some Luk 13:23 – And Luk 21:7 – when Joh 10:27 – and they Joh 12:26 – let Joh 13:36 – thou Act 10:42 – he commanded
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
Jesus did not answer Peter’s question directly. Tarry till I come means not only that he would not die a violent death, but would not die at all before Jesus returned to earth. But Jesus did not say that such a thing would happen, only that if it did, it would be no concern of Peter’s; his duty was to follow Jesus.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 21:22-23. Jesus saith, If I will that he tarry Without dying; till I come With power and great glory, to execute the judgment I have threatened on mine enemies. Till then he certainly did tarry, and who can say when or how he died? What is that to thee Or to any one else? Follow thou me Mind thou thine own duty, and endeavour to prepare for thine own sufferings, and pry not, with a vain curiosity, into the secret events which may befall him or any other of thy brethren. Then As this answer was not rightly understood; went this saying abroad among the brethren That is, among the other followers of Christ; (our Lord himself taught them to use that appellation, Joh 20:17;) that that disciple should not die; and the advanced age to which he lived gave some further colour for it; yet Jesus said not unto him Or of him; He shall not die Not expressly. And St. John himself, at the time of writing his gospel, seems not to have known clearly whether he should die or not; but, If I will, &c. He only said the words expressed before, which, if St. John understood, he did not think proper to explain.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 22, 23. Jesus says to him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is it to thee? Follow thou me! 23. The report spread abroad, therefore, among the brethren that this disciple should not die; but Jesus did not say to him that he should not die, but, If I will that he tarry till I come.
This question of Peter, although springing from an affectionate feeling, had something indiscreet in it; this the Lord makes him feel by the words: What is it to thee? The coming of the Lord, in the fourth Gospel (ch. 14-16), denotes His coming in the Spirit, from the day of Pentecost. This meaning is not applicable here, since Peter, as well as John, was present at that event. In the passage Joh 14:3, the expression the coming of Jesus includes, in addition to His return in the Spirit, the death of the apostles. This application has been attempted here, in the sense that Jesus would predict for John a gentle and natural death at the end of a long apostolic career, in contrast with the martyrdom of Peter. This, or nearly this, is the view of Grotius, Olshausen, Weitzel and Ewald. But could the Lord mean to say that He returns only for those of His followers who die by a natural death, and not for those who perish by a violent death? This would be a strange, even an absurd idea, and one which is contradicted by the story of the death of Stephen. As the coming of the Lord denotes in the Synoptics and with John himself (1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 3:2) the glorious return of Jesus at the end of the present economy, Meyer, Reuss, Weiss and others apply this sense here: If I will that he tarry till my Parousia. It was thus that the contemporaries of John interpreted this saying, until the time of his death; for it is only thus that we can understand the inference, which they drew from it, that he would not diethat is, that he would belong to that company of believers who, being alive at the moment of the Parousia, will not be raised, but translated (1Co 15:51).
This explanation was so much the more natural at that period, since there was a belief in the nearness of the Parousia. It continued even after the death of John, in the form of the popular legend, according to which John was said to have laid himself down in his grave and to be sleeping there until the return of Christ, or in that of the Greek legend, according to which John was said to have been raised immediately after his death, and was to reappear with the two witnesses of the Apocalypse in order to sustain the Church in its last struggle against Antichrist. But, setting aside these legends, if this view is accepted, it must be resolutely maintained, with Weiss, that Jesus shared the error of His contemporaries in relation to the nearness of His return, which would absolutely contradict the Synoptic documents (see my Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Vol. II., pp. 325, 336), or fall back, with Meyer, upon the hypothetical form of Jesus’ words: If I will, which is no less inadmissible, for Jesus could not have presented as possible (on the condition of His good pleasure) a thing which was impossible.
He promised, according to others (Lange, Luthardt, etc.), the preservation of John’s life until the great judgment in the fall of Jerusalem, which may indeed be called the first act of the Coming of Christ; comp. Mat 10:23 : I say to you that you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come; and Mat 26:64 : Henceforth you shall see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Peter did not see this great manifestation of the glorified Christ, but John survived it. Yes, objects Weiss, but far too long for this explanation. But the length of time that John still lived after this event is of little consequence. For the until has nothing exclusive in it. Of all these proposed views, this would seem to us the least improbable. The attempt has also been made to apply this saying to the Apocalyptic vision, which Jesus here promised to John (Bengel, Hengstenberg); or a proof has been sought in it in favor of the necessity of the apostleship even till the end of time (Thiersch); Schelling (comp. Bonnet) saw in it the promise of the Johannean period, which, succeeding that of Peter (the middle ages) and that of Paul (the Reformation), would close the earthly development of the Church.
I have already before this observed that, as the primitive epoch of humanity had its Enoch and the theocratic epoch its Elijah, the Christian epoch might well have also its leader freed from death. And I have asked whether John might not in a mysterious way accompany the progress of the Church on earth, as in the scene of the draught of fishes he accompanied to the shore the boat which was suddenly abandoned by Peter. One raises such a question evidently only when one is not completely satisfied with any of the solutions which more naturally present themselves.
From this point is discovered to us the unity of ch. 21. The foundation of the whole scene is the miraculous draught of fishes, which typifies the future of the Christian ministry, in general. On this foundation the two special narratives stand forth, having relation to the part and destiny of the two principal apostlesPeter, who will leave the boat of the Church suddenly by the violent death of martyrdom, and John, who will accompany it even to the shore.
After this saying relative to John, Jesus again invites Peter to follow Him in order to receive His orders, and to resume, from that moment, the active service of the ministry and of the direction of the apostolate, which had been temporarily interrupted. The , thou, which Jesus makes prominent here (comp. the difference in Joh 21:19), contrasts Peter with John: Thou do thou think of what I command thee, and leave to God His own secrets. The Alexandrian authorities place the , me, before the verb, which would give it a special emphasis: Occupy thyself with me and with no other! This seems to me forced. The author, without indicating in Joh 21:23 the meaning of the saying of Jesus, which perhaps he does not himself know, contents himself with correcting the misapprehension which was connected with it.
The last words: what is it to thee? are not indispensable, and it is possible that the reading of the Sinaitic MS., which omits them, is the true one. The present , he does not die, is that of the idea. We feel that the author reproduces this , this saying, just as it was repeated in the Church at the very moment when he was writing.
To whom are we to ascribe the redaction of this supplement? The stamp of the Johannean style and manner is so impressed upon it from one end to the other, that there are only two alternatives: either a man living in habitual association with the apostle drew up this narrative, after having often heard it from his lips, or John himself drew it up. Between these two suppositions, the choice is of little consequence. In favor of the second may be alleged: 1. The last place assigned to the two sons of Zebedee among the apostles named in Joh 21:1; John 2. The very delicate way in which the finest shades of the conversation between Jesus and Peter are given. For the former may be urged: 1. The use of some terms which are not found again in the writings of John 2. The relation between Joh 21:23 and Joh 21:24, which easily leads us to regard him who wrote Joh 21:23 as one of those who say: We know, in Joh 21:24; perhaps, also, as the one who speaks in the first person singular in Joh 21:25.
Baur and a part of his school have seen in the redaction and addition of this appendix a manoeuvre designed to exalt John, the apostle of Asia Minor, above Peter, the patron of the Church of Rome. But it is precisely Peter who is made prominent in this story (comp. Joh 21:1; Joh 21:11; Joh 21:15-17; Joh 21:19; Joh 21:22). So Koestlin and Volkmarhave made a complete turn, and claimed that, contrary to the intention of the whole Gospel, this chapter is a Roman addition designed to make Peter prominent, whom the author of the fourth Gospel had constantly tried to depreciate. Reuss expresses himself more circumspectly: the author desired to re-establish the consideration for Peter, compromised by his denial.
The first two suppositions counterbalance each other. The third would suit rather the end which Jesus proposed to Himself in the scene itself, than the design which presided over its redaction.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Ver. 22.-Jesus saith unto him, So I will him to tarry till I come, what to thee? There is a threefold reading here. The first, the Greek, and from it the Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, If I will him to tarry. The second is, S. Jerome’s (lib. 2, cent. Jovin) and others, If so. The third is the Latin, and especially the Roman, codices, So I will him to tarry. This is the reading of S. Augustine, Bede, Rupert, the Gloss, S. Thomas, Lyra, and others. George Trapezuntius endeavours, although a Greek, to defend this reading by many arguments. Cardinal Bessarion refutes him, and defends the first reading. It is in favour of the first reading that the Latin si is easily changed into sic. But the Greek , could not easily be transformed into . Again, the first reading gives a plain sense: thus, “If I will that John should remain in life, and not be crucified as I will thee to be, what is it to thee? Follow Me, and leave John to My care.” For Christ wishes only to repress Peter’s curiosity, that, intent upon himself alone, he should leave the care of John to Christ. So S. Cyril, &c.
The arguments in favour of the third reading are, 1. That the Roman edition, corrected by order of the Pope, as well as many MSS. and Latin interpreters, have it. 2. That according to it Christ gives more satisfaction to Peter’s question. 3. That from it the disciples would more readily take up the opinion about John, that he was not to die. 4. Because Trapezuntius, who was an excellent Greek scholar, shows that the Greek particle and the Latin si have this force, that joined with the indicative mood they way be taken affirmatively, but with the subjunctive mood, hypothetically. For it is one thing to say, if I love thee, I do not injure thee: but another to say, if I loved thee, I will not injure thee. In the first proposition love is affirmed: in the second not, but the matter is put doubtfully. Since therefore the Evangelist here uses the indicative mood, the proposition is affirmative. Moreover, says Trapezuntius, the Fathers in this place translated sic, so, instead of si, if, lest persons but slenderly acquainted with the Greek and Latin tongues should misunderstand the meaning of si, because of its double force. The Latin si, if, therefore, both here and in some other places, is affirmative, not doubtful. Thus Virgil (n. vi.) says, If the fates call (vocant) thee, that is, when the fates call thee. And in the same book, If Orpheus could (potuit) call back the manes of his wife, he affirms that he could.
Observe from the words, So I will him to tarry till I come, many have thought that John is not dead, but will come with Elias and Enoch to contend with Antichrist. Indeed the angel seems to assert this in the Apocalypse, saying to John, “Thou must prophesy again before the Gentiles.” (Rev 10:2.) So thought Hippolytus (Tract. de Consummat. Sculi), Dorotheus, and Metaphrastes (Life of S. John), Damascene (Orat. de Trans.). The latter supports his opinion by Luke ix. 27: “There be some standing here which shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God.” So, too, S. Ambrose understands the passage (lib. vii. in Luc.) Theophylact, Salmeron, and Barradi are all inclined to take the same view.
Others, again, whom S. Augustine refutes, think that S. John is alive within the tomb, because the earth above his sepulchre is said to quiver; and think that this is occasioned by S. John’s breathing.
But I say it is far more like the truth, and to myself a matter of certainty, that S. John died a natural death.
This is the general tradition of the Fathers, as Irenus, Tertullian, Eusebius, SS. Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, Bede and others. From whom Baronius gathers that S. John died A.D. 101, in the ninth year of Pope Clement, the second year of Trajan’s reign, sixty-eight from Christ’s crucifixion, and of his age the ninety-third. I say he died at Ephesus, and was buried near that city, and was succeeded in the bishopric of Ephesus by Onesimus, the disciple of S. Paul. The tradition of the Church which celebrates the Feast of S. John as departed this life, and as now reigning with Christ in heaven, confirms this. For this is the lot of none except after death.
Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc. lib. i. c. 26) describes the way in which S. John died. “John the Evangelist, an old man and full of days, laid himself down in his tomb.” And in his first book on the glory of the Martyrs he says, “John went down alive into the tomb, and commanded it to be covered with earth. Now from his sepulchre there is an abundant supply of manna like fine meal, from which the blessed relics are carried all over the world, and afford healing to the sick.” Peter Damian says in his second Sermon on S. John, “Who is there whom the marvellous strangeness of this happy migration does not move? Who does not wonder at the glory of this most happy consummation? For he who lived marvellously died also marvellously. And forasmuch as he did not lead the common life of men, he passed not hence by a common death. For as histories relate, he ordered a square chamber to be constructed in the church, and by and by descended into it. Then stretching forth his hands, he remained a long while in prayer, and so passed to eternity. In a short space so great a light shone upon him from heaven, that no one could bear to look at it. After that the chamber was found to contain only manna, which, as is said, it continues to produce abundantly until this very day. For so it seemed good that the disciple who was so dear to the Author of life should depart out of this world, and that he should be a stranger to the pangs of death who had been a stranger to the corruption of the flesh.”
Nicephorus adds that the body of S. John, like that of the Blessed Virgin, was not found in his sepulchre, but that it rose again, and was raised by Christ to heaven. S. Ambrose makes mention of this opinion (Ser. 20. in PS. cxviii.) S. Thomas also, and B. Peter Damian held this as a pious opinion. Nevertheless it has no sure foundation either in Scripture, or in the tradition of the Ancients. Indeed it is opposed to the fact that in the Council of Ephesus the relics of the martyrs, and especially of S. John, were ordered to be collected. And Pope Celestine, in his epistle to the Council of Ephesus, says, “Before all things ye ought especially to consider, and again and again call to mind (these things), you, to whom John the Apostle preached, whose relics present with you ye honour.”
If then the relics of S. John were at Ephesus, he cannot yet have risen again, unless any one should maintain that they were the relics, not of his body, but of his clothes, his books, &c., or possibly of his hair and beard. Be this as it may, it is not possible at the present time to find any other relics of the body of S. John.
You will ask, how is it that S. John is called by the Fathers and the Church a martyr, if he died a natural death? I reply, with S. Jerome, that S. John was a martyr because he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome before the Latin Gate by the Emperor Domitian on account of his preaching Christ, as Tertullian testifies (de Prscrip. c. 36). The most ancient testimony of the Roman Church confirms this. In memory thereof a church has been erected on the site, and the Church has appointed a yearly commemoration of the same on the 6th of May. For although S. John did not then die, but came out of the caldron unhurt, yet because he willingly offered himself to such a cruel death for the sake of Christ, and because that boiling oil would naturally and necessarily have produced death, unless he had been miraculously preserved unhurt, therefore S. John was truly a martyr, and is rightly called a martyr.
Moreover, this present passage, as well as S. Luk 9:27, and Rev 10:11, as I there show, do not favour a contrary opinion. For the meaning is, (1.) “I wish thee, 0 Peter, to follow Me by the cross, but John I will to remain so (sic), i.e., without the cross, or a violent death, until I come, that having died by a natural death I should take him to Myself in heaven.” So S. Augustine, Bede, &c.
(2.) It may mean, “I will John to abide in life until I come to the public destruction of Jerusalem. Until I come, by means of Titus and the Romans, to avenge the death of Myself as Messiah by the destruction of the whole Jewish nation. For S. Peter and the rest of the Apostles were put to death before the destruction of Jerusalem. S. John alone of the Apostles survived it. So those two brethren, James and John, were the beginning and the end of the Apostolic martyrdoms. So Theophylact and others. Some add with Theophylact that S. John remained in Judea until its destruction, and that it was that which was meant by Christ.
Christ willed S. John to survive for so long a time for four reasons. The first was that John might be a foundation and pillar of the Church against the already nascent heretics, and that he might testify to all that the words and deeds of Christ which were written by the other Evangelists, as well as by himself in this Gospel, are most true, yea, that he saw them with his eyes, and heard them with his ears. 2d. That this his longevity might stand in the place of martyrdom, for John greatly desired to die, that he might enjoy Christ, saying as he did at the end of the Apocalypse, Come, Lord Jesus. 3d. That when the destruction of Judea was at hand he might warn the Christians to depart out of it. 4th. That he might testify to all that the destruction of the Jews was caused by their having put Christ to death, and that it had been foretold by Christ, and that he might by this strengthen believers in the faith of Christ and convert the unbelieving Jews.
Lastly, whether you read if, or so, the meaning will be the same if si be understood. Wherefore some read si sic (if so), as if Christ said, “Granted that I wish John to remain, what is it to thee?”
Moreover, S. Csarius, the brother of S. Gregory Nazianzen, (Dial. 5), gives this fresh interpretation, “I wish John to remain here by the sea of Galilee,” but this seems too literal and frigid.
Anagogically, the contemplative and beatific and triumphant life in heaven is here represented in St. John, and the active and militant life on earth in S. Peter. Listen to S. Augustine (Tract. 124) “Why did the Lord love John the most when Peter loved the Lord the most? By so much I understand he is better who most loves Christ, but he is happier whom Christ most loves. I think then that two modes of life are here signified, one which is in faith by the Apostle Peter, on account of the primacy of his apostleship; and therefore it is said to him, Follow Me, by imitation, viz., in bearing temporal ills. But the other life, which is in hope, by S. John, concerning whom it is said, So I will him to tarry till I come, when, that is, I am about to give him everlasting blessings. Let perfect action follow Me, being made strong by the example of my Passion: but let contemplation remain in an inchoate condition, i.e., let it look for perfection when I come.”
Both are more briefly stated in the Gloss: “That one should love most is for mercy to be made manifest, and justice hidden. Here two modes of life are commended to the Church. For the government of the storm-tossed Church the keys are given, for binding and loosing sins. For the sake of that quiet rest upon the bosom of Jesus a man lies down where he may drink of truth. And because John is a virgin, he is a type of that life to come, where they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
Tropologically, virginity, and the incorruption of virgins, integrity, and immortality, as they seem always to remain in the same state living and flourishing, are here represented, since S. John continued a very long time. For chaste souls imitate the holiness and purity of God. Hence they are made like unto God, and are beloved by Him. For this cause the Blessed Peter Damian calls S. John an organ of the Divine mysteries, a ray of heaven, a celestial eagle.
Wherefore that saying went abroad, &c, namely, that S. John would not die, but would remain alive until Christ should come at the day of judgment, and then carry him alive with Him to heaven. And no marvel, for, as I have said a little above, many of the Fathers thought the same.
Ver. 23.-Yet Jesus said not, &c. This is the correction. John corrects the mistaken opinion of the disciples concerning himself, that he should not die. Whence it may be gathered that the meaning of Christ’s words was different, and that John really died, as I have shown upon verse 22.
Ver. 24.-This is that disciple, &c., viz. John, who for the sake of modesty speaks of himself in the third person. As though he said, “This is not the testimony of myself alone, but I, and all who have been conversant with Christ, all who have been their hearers and disciples, know that this disciple testifies and writes the truth. For at that time there were but few survivors of those who had conversed with Christ, but many survived who had beard the same things from them. For John wrote this Gospel against Cerinthus, Meander, Ebion, and other rising heretics, who denied that Christ was God, and therefore detracted from His preaching and Gospel, as though it were false and feigned.
There are also many other things, &c. After the words the world itself, the Syriac version adds, as I think. First, S. Augustine, Bede, S. Thomas, and others explain the words, the world itself could not contain the books, not of local space, but of the capacity of readers. As it were, “The whole world could not receive, i.e. could not understand, could not penetrate the mysteries of the doctrine and life of Christ, because they are too profound and Divine.” But in this sense who is able to contain, in the sense of thoroughly penetrating, one single sentence of Christ concerning the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, &c.?
S. Jerome and others interpret capere by to receive by faith, to believe this. As it were, “If so many, and such unheard-of, and stupendous miracles of Christ were related, worldly men could not bear them, but would think either that the eyes of men were deluded by magic arts, or else that all were dreams and fables, and that so many and such great things could not be done by any one.” Therefore the Evangelists say but little concerning the greatest miracles. But to this is opposed that the unbelieving would believe not one single miracle of Christ, whilst the faithful would have believed them all. Observe, moreover, the Evangelist says books, not miracles.
3. And giving the true meaning, the words are an hyperbole. As though it were said, If every one of the words and deeds of Christ were written down, so many and so great things would have to be written, that the world would be filled with books-so many books would require to be written, that they would be, so to say, innumerable. Thus it is commonly said, In such a library there are books innumerable, that is very many. Such is the expression in chap. xii. 19, “The whole world is gone after Him,” meaning, very many follow Jesus. So Cyril, Chrysostom, Bede, Theophylact, Jansen, Toletus, and others. From hence it is plain that the Evangelists have omitted very many of the words and deeds of Christ, and recorded comparatively few, that from them we might acknowledge Christ to be both God and man, and might, as the proverb goes, estimate the power of a lion by his claw.
You may say, This hyperbole seems extravagant, for the whole world could contain innumerable myriads of books. I reply, it is not too bold an hyperbole, yea, it is too feeble if we take into account the greatness, the excellence, and the majesty of the things to be written. For observe that there were in Christ two natures, the Divine and the human-therefore His actions had a twofold, yea a threefold, character. First, in that they were Divine, He knew all things, and comprehended all things, He loved the Father with an infinite love, He breathed the Holy Spirit, and so on. Which things, were they to be written about in accordance with their worthiness, infinite books must be written, which the world could not contain. For however many might be written by men, they could not adequately set forth, much less exhaust, one single Divine, and therefore altogether infinite, action of Christ. So Christ by one word and conception of His mind, knows all things, comprehends them, saith and speaks them. Moreover, one such word of His is so fruitful and sublime that all angels and men could not adequately and fully express it in an infinite number of words and books. Indeed, one of the Seraphim knows more, says and does more, in a single act than the infirm angels and men in many acts. Much more is this so with Christ, who far surpasses all the Seraphim. This second sort of Christ’s actions were human acts, such as to speak, to eat, to walk. If these be regarded merely as human acts, they might be written in a few books. But if they be regarded as they were done by Christ, and directed by the interior spirit of prudence, charity, and the other virtues, they could not be worthily described by any human pen, because no one could by writing adequately express the spirit and virtues of Christ. For Christ did all His works with all their accompaniments so perfectly, so angelically, that no authors could perfectly set them forth before the eyes of men. For each several action of Christ contained in itself so many virtues, excellences, and perfections, that it could not be equalled by any number of our actions.
The third kind of the actions of Christ were mixed, i.e., partly human, and partly Divine. These therefore are called by S. Dionysius theandric, i.e., Divinely-human actions. Such are to preach the Gospel, to raise the dead, to institute the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, things which Christ did as man, but in which He was directed by the Deity, hypostatically united to Himself. Far less then can these actions, regarded as to their worthiness, be adequately unfolded and set forth by all the writers who are, have been, or ever will be. For they are actions directly emanating from God, and therefore containing in themselves a Divine power and excellency, which far surpass the genius and ability of all authors to write them, according to the words in Job (xi. 7), “Canst thou comprehend the footsteps of God, and find out the Almighty to perfection? He is higher than heaven, what wilt thou do? Deeper than hell, whence wilt thou know? The measure is longer than the earth, broader than the sea.”
Lastly, the truth of this hyperbole is made plain by the event and experience. For we see every year so many discourses, lectures, sermons, concerning the life and deeds of Christ, so many books written, so many commentaries, that to enumerate them would be impossible. And so, if the world were to endure for ever, the same thing would go on from year to year. If all were to be gathered in one (at last), the world could not contain them. Wherefore S. Leontius (Serm. de. Nativ. 9) saith, “The greatness of the Divine working exceeds the capacity of human speech. Never therefore will subjects of thanksgiving fail, because the abundance of them that praise will never cease.”
Tropologically: From hence learn of Christ to fulfil thy years with virtues. Be continually occupied in the doing of many great and heroic works of virtue. Go from virtue to virtue until thou shalt see the God of gods in Sion. As Zeuxis the illustrious painter said, “I paint for eternity,” so say thou, “I live for eternity.” Say to thyself, I am painting the picture of a holy life. I am painting a portrait which I may show to God and the angels in heaven, to be for ever before their eyes, that the blessed ones may admire it, and praise it through all eternity. Imitate Christ therefore, and follow His life and faith. That faith is the true and ancient faith which Christ delivered to Peter, Peter to his successors the Supreme Pontiffs and the Roman Church, to be as it were a deposit to be kept inviolable. Flee therefore from every novelty in the faith, which the innovators fashion of themselves, and thrust upon thee. For a new faith is faithless, deceitful, and a lie. It is not faith, but perfidy.
S. Paul, writing to the Romans, bestows upon them this commendation (Rom 1:8.), “Your faith is announced in all the world.” S. Irenus, who was the disciple of S. Polycarp, and through him of S. John, calls the Roman Church (Lib. 3, caps. 3, 4) the rich repository of ecclesiastical traditions, because, as he says, “The Apostles most fully deposited in her all things which appertain to the Truth, that whosoever will may take from her the water (potum) of life.” S. Cyprian (Ep. 45) calls her the mother (matricem) of the churches. For to this Church, that is, those who are faithful everywhere, saith Irenus, “it is necessary that every Church should agree, on account of its more powerful principality, in which Church that tradition which is from the Apostles has been preserved by those who are in every place.” Tertullian (lib. de prscrip. heret. c. 36) says, “Thou hast Rome, from whence we too have authority. 0 happy Church, into which the Apostles with their blood poured all their doctrine, where Peter was made like unto the Passion of the Lord, where Paul was crowned after the manner of John the Baptist, where the apostle John was immersed in boiling oil and felt no hurt.” Again, S. Jerome saith (Pref. in l. 2, Com. in Ep. ad Galat.), “Do you wish to know, 0 Paula and Eustochium, how the Apostle delineated every province by its own characteristics? Even until this very day the vestiges remain both of their virtues and their faults. The faith of the Roman Christians is commended. Where indeed are the churches still frequented with so much zeal as at Rome? Where is there such flocking to the tombs of the martyrs? Where do the Amens so resound like peals of heavenly thunder, whilst the deserted idol temples shake to their foundations? All this is not because the Romans have any different faith from that of all the churches of Christ, but because their devotion and their childlike faith is greater.”
Learn therefore the Gospel and the faith of Christ from the Roman Church: and show it forth in your life and conduct. And daily make much progress therein, so shalt thou follow Christ, and be with Him in heavenly glory. The work which here thou workest in a moment shall abide for ever, and give thee gladness. The work which here thou workest not, thou shalt lose everlastingly, so that never more shalt thou be able to compass it. This will God Himself require of thee in the last and fateful day of the universe, when with all His angels the judge shall sit upon His throne, to take account of the quick and the dead, and to try thee as to thy Christian life and profession, that if thou hast followed the right path He may award thee heaven, but if not, consign thee to hell. It is here thou castest the die for eternity. Take heed that thou castest aright. For the throw once cast may never be recalled.
Believe, Study, Live, Paint, for Eternity.
0 how long, 0 how deep, 0 how infinite, 0 how blessed, or else how miserable, is that Mistress of everlasting ages, that endless, that ever-enduring eternity. “0 frail man! how little is all thou doest for the hope of eternity.”-Eusebius Emissenus.
Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary
Jesus essentially told Peter that John’s future was none of his business. Rather than concerning himself with God’s will for other people, even those closest to him, he should concentrate on following Jesus faithfully himself. The "you" in the Greek text is emphatic. Even if it was Jesus’ will for John to remain alive until He returned, that was not to be Peter’s concern.
The reference to Jesus’ return is probably a reference to the Rapture rather than the Second Coming in view of what Jesus had promised these disciples in Joh 14:1-3.