John 21:25
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| Overview - John 21 | |
| 1 | Christ appearing again to his disciples is known of them by the great draught of fishes. |
| 12 | He dines with them; |
| 15 | earnestly commands Peter to feed his lambs and sheep; |
| 18 | foretells him of his death; |
| 22 | rebukes his curiosity touching John. |
| 24 | The conclusion. |
 | |
John 21:25 (King James Version)
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
- there
- John 20:30 John 20:31 Job 26:14 ; Psalms 40:5 ; 71:15 Ecclesiastes 12:12 ; Matthew 11:5 ; Acts 10:38
- Acts 20:35 ; Hebrews 11:32
- that even
- This is a very strong eastern expression to represent the number of miracles which Jesus wrought. But however strong and strange it may appear to us of the western world, we find sacred and other authors using hyperboles of the like kind and signification
- See Numbers 13:33 ; Deuteronomy 1:28 ; Daniel 4:11 ; Ecclesiastes 14:15 .Basnage gives a very similar hyperbole taken from the Jewish writers, in which Jochanan is said to have "composed such a great number of precepts and lessons, that if the heavens were paper, and all the trees of the forest so many pens, and all the children of men so many scribes, they would not suffice to write all his lessons."
- Amos 7:10 ; Matthew 19:24 John, who, according to the unanimous testimony of the ancientfathers and ecclesiastical writers, was the author of thisGospel, was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Bethsaida, bySalome his wife, (compare Mt 10:2, with Mt 27:55, 56 and Mr15:40,) and brother of James the elder, whom "Herod killed withthe sword," (Ac 12:2.) Theophylact says that Salome was thedaughter of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by a former wife; andthat consequently she was our Lord's sister, and John was hisnephew. He followed the occupation of his father till his callto the apostleship, (Mt 4:21, 22, Mr 1:19, 20, Lu 5:1-10,) whichis supposed to have been when he was about twenty five years ofage; after which he was a constant eye-witness of our Lord'slabours, journeyings, discourses, miracles, passion,crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. After the ascensionof our Lord he returned with the other apostles to Jerusalem,and with the rest partook of the outpouring of the Holy Spiriton the day of Pentecost, by which he was eminently qualified forthe office of an Evangelist and Apostle. After the death ofMary, the mother of Christ, which is supposed to have takenplace about fifteen years after the crucifixion, and probablyafter the council held in Jerusalem about A
- D. 49 or 50, (Ac 15.,) at which he was present, he is said by ecclesiasticalwriters to have proceeded to Asia Minor, where he formed andpresided over seven churches in as many cities, but chieflyresided at Ephesus. Thence he was banished by the emperorDomitian, in the fifteenth year of his reign, A
- D. 95, to the isle of Patmos in the gean sea, where he wrote the Apocalypse,(Re 1:9.) On the accession of Nerva the following year, he wasrecalled from exile and returned to Ephesus, where he wrote hisGospel and Epistles, and died in the hundredth year of his age,about A
- D. 100, and in the third year of the emperor Trajan. It is generally believed that St. John was the youngest of thetwelve apostles, and that he survived all the rest. Jerome, inhis comment on Gal VI., says that he continued preaching when soenfeebled with age as to be obliged to be carried into theassembly; and that, not being able to deliver any longdiscourse, his custom was to say in every meeting, My dearchildren, love one another. The general current of ancientwriters declares that the apostle wrote his Gospel at anadvanced period of life, with which the internal evidenceperfectly agrees; and we may safely refer it, with Chrysostom,Epiphanius, Mill, Le Clerc, and others, to the year 97. Thedesign of St. John in writing his Gospel is said by some to havebeen to supply those important events which the otherEvangelists had omitted, and to refute the notions of theCerinthians and Nicolaitans, or according to others, to refutethe heresy of the Gnostics and Sabians. But, though many partsof his Gospel may be successfully quoted against the strangedoctrines held by those sects, yet the apostle had evidently amore general end in view than the confutation of their heresies.His own words sufficiently inform us of his motive and design inwriting this Gospel: "These things are written that ye mightbelieve that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and thatbelieving, ye might have life through his name
- " (ch. 20:31 .)
Learned men are not wholly agreed concerning the language inwhich this Gospel was originally written. Salmasius, Grotius,and other writers, have imagined that St. John wrote it in hisown native tongue, the Aramean or Syriac, and that it wasafterwards translated into Greek. This opinion is not supportedby any strong arguments, and is contradicted by the unanimousvoice of antiquity, which affirms that he wrote it in Greek,which is the general and most probable opinion. The style ofthis Gospel indicates a great want of those advantages whichresult from a learned education; but this defect is amplycompensated by the unexampled simplicity with which he expressesthe sublimest truths. One thing very remarkable is an attemptto impress important truths more strongly on the minds of hisreaders, by employing in the expression of them both anaffirmative proposition and a negative. It is manifestly notwithout design that he commonly passes over those passages ofour Lord's history and teaching which had been treated at largeby other Evangelists, or if he touches them at all, he touchesthem but slightly, whilst he records many miracles which hadbeen overlooked by the rest, and expatiates on the sublimedoctrines of the pre-existence, the divinity, and theincarnation of the Word, the great ends of His mission, and theblessings of His purchase.