John 21 Footnotes

21:1 Why do we suddenly find the disciples back north in Galilee? One week after the beginning of Passover in Jerusalem, the Feast ended. They were heading home. Matthew and Mark described resurrection appearances only in Galilee; Luke, only in Judea. John recognized that Jesus appeared to his followers in both locations.

21:22-23 The dominant early church tradition attests that John was the one disciple who did not die a martyr’s death but lived out his life in old age to virtually the end of the first century, ministering in and around Ephesus (including a brief exile in the AD mid-90s on the island of Patmos, during which he wrote the book of Revelation). It is possible that John died shortly after completing a draft of his Gospel and that, because of the misinterpreted report described here, his followers added this closing information by way of clarification.

21:24-25 These verses also read most naturally as an addition of John’s followers—note the first person singular and plural pronouns versus the third-person reference to the beloved disciple. At the same time they attribute the book itself to John and certify its accuracy. If this reconstruction is accurate, it means merely that God inspired multiple authors, no differently than with the books of Psalms or Proverbs or with the addition of the account of Moses’s death to Deuteronomy.