June 6, 2025 • 24 mins
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John 21: 20-25 - 'The disciple is the one who vouches for these things and we know that his testimony is true.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 878 (in 'Why the Ecclesial Ministry') - Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a personal character. Although Christ's ministers act in communion with one another, they also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally: "You, follow me" in order to be a personal witness within the common mission, to bear personal responsibility before him who gives the mission, acting "in his person" and for other persons: "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ..."; "I absolve you...."
- 515 (in 'Christ's whole life is a mystery') - The Gospels were written by men who were among the first to have the faith and wanted to share it with others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see and make others see the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life.
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hi everyone, welcome, once again, to daily gospel exegesis,
where we do just that, we do an exegesis of the Gospel reading
from today's Catholic mass. So really giving you the tools
to dig into the text. And what it probably meant in
its original context, which is something we need to do more of
As Catholics, so let's have a look at today's passage, which
(00:34):
is the very end of the Gospel ofJohn, John chapter 21 verses 20
to 25. Peter turned and saw the
disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned on
his breast at the supper and hadsaid to him, Lord.
Who is it? That will betray you seeing him.
(00:56):
Peter said to Jesus. What about him?
Lord? Jesus answered.
If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter
to you? You are to follow me.
The room event Went Out Among the brothers that this disciple
would not die. Yes.
Jesus had not said to Peter, he will not die.
(01:19):
But rather, if I want him to stay behind till I come.
This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has
written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.
There were many other things that Jesus did, if all were
written down the world itself. I suppose would not hold.
(01:41):
All the books. That would have to be written.
So that is today's passage. It's a really interesting one
because the author kind of goes sort of out of the scene and
then back into the scene and it tells us a lot about the
authorship of this particular Passage.
One thing that's important to say, upfront is a lot of
(02:03):
Scholars. Even conservative Catholic
scores. Do think that there's something
different about the last chapterof the Gospel of John.
It does appear. That it was either written later
or written by G by John's followers later on.
I think my view is I can imagineJohn working in a room with the
disciples with him. So we're sort of a group effort.
(02:25):
This last chapter. Perhaps John was quite old.
At this point. Maybe he was dictating it.
Some of his followers who wrote it down, but I suspect that what
was going on in this last chapter is that it was written
by John and a group of his disciples with him in the room.
That would make the best sense of the language that's used
here. So, let's have a look at it.
This is the very last part of the Gospel of John, right at the
(02:47):
end of the Gospel of John. So it's appropriate way to
finish our journey through the Gospel of John, through this
Easter season, for the last about four weeks of Easter.
We have been looking at parts ofthe Gospel of John.
And you've done really well to get through these weeks looking
at the Gospel of John can be quite deep and complex but also
quite rewarding. So we're finishing that
(03:10):
exploration of the Gospel of John with the very last part of
the Gospel of John. It's also fitting in another way
because this passage is largely about the person himself the The
author of The Gospel of John, which appears to be John.
So, the context at the start of chapter 21, Jesus has appeared
(03:31):
to the apostles by the Sea of Galilee and if you were
following yesterday's podcast, he has said, Peter, do you love
me? That was the conversation that
has happened. The famous reinstatement of
Peter to that being the leader of the Apostles.
So Jesus then went on to tell Peter how he's going to die our
text today finishes off that conversation.
(03:53):
So it's that same conversation which is going on.
So Jesus has just told Peter howhe's going to die verse 20.
Disciple whom Jesus loved. Now.
Let's talk a bit about this. This disciple whom Jesus loved
is never given a name in The Gospel of John, but all evidence
seems to point to it. Being John himself, the Apostle.
(04:15):
John, the biggest piece of evidence that would help us
identify the disciple whom Jesusloved with John.
The son of Zebedee is that the Apostle, John is never
mentioned. His never named in this gospel,
but he's named in all the other gospels.
Whereas this interesting person called the disciple, whom Jesus
loved is named in the John, but he's not named in the other
(04:37):
gospels and this disciple whom Jesus.
Loved only shows up at times when the apostles are present.
So, all of that strongly suggests that the disciple whom
Jesus loved is John himself, theApostle John.
And we talked more about that inthe bonus episode.
We did on the introduction to the Gospel of John.
(04:58):
So if you want to hear more about that, it would be worth
looking at that episode, the introduction to the Gospel of
John. So this is John's way of
referring. Fearing to himself by John
calling himself the disciple whom Jesus loved.
He sort of gets to downplay his own role in the events by not
naming himself or not drawing attention to himself, but also
in a way it kind of elevates himas someone special without
(05:21):
saying, this is definitely me. So it's an interesting kind of
stylistic way of referring to himself throughout the story
Peter turned, and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved
following them. So Jesus and Peter have gone for
a walk along this. Sea of Galilee and he turns
around. And he says that John is
following them, or the Beloved disciple is following them.
(05:43):
This is the one who had leaned on his breast at the supper and
had said to him, Lord. Who is it?
That will betray you. So, the author here is referring
back to the scene at the Last Supper, when the disciple whom
Jesus, loved leaned on Jesus breast.
And that was in Chapter 13. If you think about it, the fact
that this disciple sat next to Jesus, at the last supper, and
(06:05):
then leaned on his breast, that does indicate that he really is
loved by Jesus. There's an interesting kind of
role reversal going on here. Every other time.
The Beloved disciple seems to have some insight.
That Peter doesn't have. We see they're quite a few times
in the Gospel of John but this time Peter gets the inside scoop
(06:25):
and John doesn't apparently verse 21 seeing him.
Peter said to Jesus. What about him?
Lord? So, remember, Jesus has just
revealed to Peter. What Peter's fate is, how he's
going to die. Now, Peter wants to know, what
the fate of the Beloved disciple.
Is. What about him?
Lord? How is he going to die?
(06:46):
Why would Peter be interested inthat?
Probably? Because he knows how close the
relationship is between the Beloved disciple and Jesus and
Peter reasons. Well, if I Peter I'm going to
die by crucifixion, then it's natural for Peter to wonder how
the Love a disciple who died as well verse 22.
(07:07):
Jesus answered if I want him to stay behind till I come what
does that matter to you? So in other words, what Jesus
says here is if my plan is for John, not to die, and go to
heaven, but rather to stay on Earth, until I return that is
none of your business. So many have taken this, there's
(07:30):
interesting interpretations of this saying here of Jesus.
If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does that
matter to you? So many have taken that to mean,
the Jesus is saying that his plan is indeed for John to stay
behind until he returns. As in Jesus is implying.
Yes. I am planning on getting John to
(07:50):
stay behind until I return. Now that could be true.
We don't know if that's what Jesus meant because John.
Doesn't necessarily tell us thatthat could be what Jesus meant
because Jesus did come back in areal sense in 70 AD when the
temple is destroyed in 70 AD Scholars, often recognize that
(08:10):
this is in fact one of Jesus Cummings and it's often called
the middle coming of Jesus. So the first coming of Jesus was
during his ministry, his second coming will be at the end of
time and there was kind of a middle coming of Jesus in 70 AD.
Now the Apostle John was still alive in 7th.
Day, although most of the other Apostles had died by then.
So this interpretation would make sense.
(08:32):
Jesus plan. Maybe was for John to be alive
when Jesus returned in 70 AD. So so that John could witness
the middle coming. Maybe that's what Jesus means,
and that would make sense. But not necessarily, we're not
committed to that interpretation.
Jesus could really just be usinga hypothetical to tell Peter
(08:53):
that. It's none of his business.
He could mean something like, well, hypothetically, John could
stay behind till I return, but what does that matter to you?
So he's mainly just trying to tell Peter a lesson that it's
none of his business. So he says to him here.
What does that matter to you? You are to follow me.
So, Jesus tells Peter that. He's not concerned himself with
(09:15):
the plans that Jesus has for theother Apostles rather Peters.
Command is to focus on followingJesus, which, of course, means
following his Commandments and promptings.
Verse 23, John now tells us in the author here.
John tells us the rumor then went out among the brothers that
this disciple would not die and more, literally there.
(09:38):
What it says is the rumor was spread abroad.
So the rumor spreads throughout the Christian Community, all
across the world apparently manyChristians in later years.
Heard about this particular saying of Jesus.
They heard that Jesus had said this about the Beloved disciple.
Maybe they heard that from the preaching of Peter.
Tell all the preaching of John perhaps, and they assumed.
(09:59):
The what that meant. Is that John would not die.
And when it says here among the brothers or among the Brethren,
that's probably referring particularly to the community,
which knew the Apostle John and consider themselves Disciples of
the Apostle, John. And we do know that there was
such a community. If you look later in the New
Testament, at the letters of 1, John 3, John clearly, there were
(10:22):
some Disciples of the Apostle. John that's probably who is in
view here. So, this community of John's
followers here, that Jesus said this, About the Beloved Apostle,
beloved disciple, and they say, oh, that must mean that he's not
going to die. That's not what Jesus said
though. However, that assumption would
make sense. If we consider what most Jews
(10:45):
believed about the end times, wemight look at this and say, how
did they possibly infer that? That means John is not going to
die at all the clue to this? And this is why exegesis is
helpful is thinking about what Jews believed at that time about
the coming of the Messiah. So, the Jews believe that when
the Day of the Lord comes. And that was the day.
(11:05):
When the Messiah would set up his kingdom.
At the parousia. The Jews.
Believe the, Eternal order wouldbe set up straight away.
And anyone alive at that time would be taken straight into the
Eternal Kingdom without ever dying.
So Christians, in this time period around at the end of the
first century were expecting Jesus to come back and there's
(11:28):
soon as he comes back, he sets up the Eternal Kingdom
straightaway and anyone who's alive.
Most of that time doesn't die. They just go straight into the
Eternal Kingdom. That was there.
The Jewish view. Now, later Christians would
eventually realize that the establishment of the Messianic
Kingdom or the kingdom of God would, in fact, be a gradual
process, but they didn't realizethis straight away and they
(11:51):
realize that Jesus. In fact, has a middle coming
which helps establish his kingdom on Earth in 70 AD, but
that's not the final establishment of the Kingdom.
It's not the Final day of the Lord.
We know that now is as 21st century Christians, but the
earliest Jews did not fully perceive that So the middle
(12:14):
coming helps, establish his kingdom on Earth, but the
Eternal order did not come immediately in 70 AD.
Although the Christians at this time thought that it would.
So rather as Christians now, we understand that the old order
and the Eternal order would continue side by side.
And in fact, that's the time period we're in.
Now the Eternal order and the old order are continuing
(12:34):
together until Jesus final coming at which point the old
order will pass away. Then John continues here.
He says, yet. Jesus had not said to Peter, he
will not die. But if I want him to stay behind
till I come. So here the Apostle John
includes this to quell rumors amongst his hearers that he
(12:57):
himself. John.
The Beloved disciple is not going to die.
He wants his hearers to understand and to get rid of
this idea that Jesus taught thathe isn't going to die.
Or at least that he's definitelynot going to die.
He wants his readers to know. That that's not necessarily what
Jesus was saying? John wants his readers to know
(13:18):
that there are other ways of interpreting Jesus words, so
that tells us that John himself isn't sure what Jesus words
meant so we can't be sure either.
This is where it gets interesting in terms of
authorship. So some critical Scholars who
believe the Gospel of John was written later.
Maybe even not by John, they would say, the gospel was
(13:39):
written by John's followers. And therefore the hypothesis is
John's followers. Included this particular passage
to encourage. The rest of John's followers,
who had become disheartened whenJohn had died something like
that. So, this interpretation of why
the passage was included by the author's that is possible.
(14:00):
You could believe that as a Catholic, we can say that maybe
this was written later by John'sfollowers to help.
John's followers understand whatJohn's death meant provided that
we as Catholics don't assume that the authors are putting
words in Jesus mouth. We cannot assume that the gospel
authors are making up words of Jesus.
(14:20):
That would not be a permitted Catholic View.
So why then would John let's sayJohn has written this passage.
And I think he has why would John include this particular
conversation in his gospel? It seems like a strange thing to
talk about probably it was written for his own followers.
John may be quite Advanced when he's writing this gospel.
(14:43):
Maybe he's the last Apostle leftand he knows that he's the last
Apostle left. John's disciples might be
wondering why or how he's going to die.
Because he's quite old and the other Apostles have died and so
they might be wondering, well, how is John our house John L L
going to die. And John's answer is basically,
(15:04):
well. This is what Jesus had to say
about it. And so there's John is not
giving a definitive interpretation.
He's just telling his hearers, while here at least is what
Jesus had to say about it. Now, that's one explanation.
It depends on when you think thegospel was written and who the
authors were? You can see how I can get a
little bit complicated. And scholarly here.
It's worth pointing these thingsout.
(15:27):
Verse 24. This is John continuing to
speak. This disciple is the one who
vouches for these things and haswritten them down.
So, here, the author, John tellshis readers, that the Beloved
disciple. The one who's mentioned in this
story. Can confirm the contents of this
book and has written them down. Indeed, the Beloved disciple if
(15:49):
you read the Gospel of John wasn't eyewitness of both the
crucifixion and the resurrectionhere, John, the author tells us
that the Beloved disciple has written down many of the events
that he witnessed. So think about it, this verse is
either teaching that the Beloveddisciple is, in fact, John
himself, the author of The Gospel of John or his at least,
(16:15):
saying that the Beloved discipleis a primary Source for the
Gospel of John, you could take the words here.
This disciple is the one you could translate.
As this is the disciple. As in John, the author is
talking about himself. Certainly the verse is teaching
at a minimum that the Beloved disciple was an eyewitness and
(16:35):
that he is a primary source for the Gospel of John, John
continues, and we know that his testimony is true.
Now, the second person verb is used.
Here, we we know that his testimony is true.
So that indicates that there maybe a community of people
responsible for writing. At least this last part of the
(16:55):
Gospel of John as I said earlier.
I think the best explanation of this is John is writing it but
there's some of his followers inthe room at the time.
So in that sense, it's a we it'sfrom John's Community to John's
community. The fact that this line is
included in the gospel, indicates that the audience were
quite familiar with the Beloved disciple because it says we know
(17:17):
that his testimony is true. The beloved's disciples
testimony is true. So it means that the audience of
the Gospel of John knew that theBeloved disciple was an
eyewitness and they trust him. So John here is kind of saying
something like this, that beloved disciple guy, that, you
know, will, he's the one who hastold us these things.
(17:40):
Verse 25, this is quite a beautiful.
Last verse here. There were many other things
that Jesus did. So, this is interesting.
John was the last of the gospelsto be written.
Most likely even the last gospel.
Author knew that there were manyother things which Jesus did
that none of the gospels had recorded.
If you think about it, even Johnhimself.
(18:01):
Had been a witness to many of those events.
So we need to be careful as Christians today.
We should never say that. We know everything Jesus said
and did that's actually not true.
Here John the author teaches theexact opposite.
He says there are many other things Jesus did.
There were not written down. It's likely that there were many
people who encountered, Jesus and had healing encounters with
(18:24):
him. During his ministry that we will
never learn about there were notrecorded, but did happen, and we
will only get to hear about themin heaven, and that's quite an
exciting thought that we will get to find out more about
people who met Jesus during his lifetime when we get to heaven.
So John says, there were many other things Jesus did, if all
of them were written down the world itself.
(18:46):
I suppose would not hold, all the books that would have to be
written. So this is probably a hyperbole,
an exaggeration. When John says, all the world's
books could not possibly containit.
That's probably an exaggeration,but it does tell us that Jesus
did many other things that were not written down.
If you think about it, why didn't John write down
(19:08):
everything that he could write down about Jesus?
We need to think about economicsat that time.
At that particular time period. It was very expensive to write
Scrolls or books. It cost.
It would have cost around $1000 of today's money, to produce one
copy of the Gospel of Matthew. So it's quite expensive.
You couldn't write infinitely, long manuscripts.
(19:30):
It was just too expensive which meant the gospel authors.
Include everything they knew about Jesus, even if they wanted
to, they had to be selective about what they included.
So Matthew included, certain passages that he thought would
help his audience. The most Mark did that with his
audience, looted that with his. And John did that with his
audience. John actually tells us elsewhere
(19:53):
what his criteria was for choosing, which things made it
into his gospel. He chose certain episodes that
he believes will. Most help people believe in
Jesus. This is what he says in chapter
20 verse 31, these events are recorded So that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing
this, you may have life through his name.
(20:16):
The genre of the gospels is whatwe would call an ancient
biography. And basically, ancient
biographies were written with the primary purpose of helping
the audience, get to know the person, and that's what the
gospels are. There are documents that are
written to help. People get to know the person
Jesus, even if it doesn't Tell everything that Jesus said,
(20:37):
exactly word for word, and even if it doesn't tell everything
that Jesus did, it's just the best way of helping the
audience, get to know the personof Jesus and that's John's goal.
In fact, that's John's goal for us as well.
It's his purpose that when he wrote his gospel that we might
receive the Divine word in faithand remain in his love.
(20:59):
If we can do that, we can becomethe children of God.
That's in chapter 1, John says that's his purpose.
Is that more people would becomethe children of God and that we
would have life in his name. We see that in chapter 20.
So we're invited to read the Gospel of John with that same
purpose, that we might enter into the Divine communion with
(21:19):
the Trinity that John constantlytalks about.
So that ends the Gospel of John.It's been a long journey through
the Easter season. Hopefully you've enjoyed it.
Now. When else are you likely to hear
the Gospel of John? Sometimes, you hear it on
weekends in here be on Sundays in that year.
And also, you'll hear some chapters read during Lent as
(21:42):
well, just prior to Easter. And then there's a couple around
the Advent and Christmas season 2, but the bulk of it is red
during the Easter season, which we have just finished doing So
that ends weekday exploration ofthe Gospel of John.
Now, in the next couple of days,we have two more feast days and
(22:03):
both of those fees days happen to be from the Gospel of John.
So you've got two more days in the Gospel of John, and then
after that, we're going to go back to moving continuously
through the synoptic gospel, so,there will be a bit more
regularity there after the next to feast days.
So let's finish by looking at a couple of short catechism
(22:23):
paragraphs, which make links to what we've heard today in John
21 paragraph, 8 7 8. Finally, it belongs to the
sacramental nature of a clay seal Ministry that it have a
personal character. Although Christ's ministers act
in communion with one another. They also act in a personal way.
Each one is called personally you follow me in order to be a
(22:48):
personal witness within the common mission, to be a personal
responsibility before him, who gives the mission acting in his
person and for other persons. So here, that that's the
Catholic teaching that Is Jesus says to Peter here?
Don't worry about other people, you follow me.
Jesus calls. Today's priests and Bishops to
(23:09):
do exactly the same. He individually calls them to
follow him above all else and then in paragraph 5 15, this is
about Christ's whole life. It says the gospels were written
by men who were among the first to have the faith and wanted to
share it with others. Having known in faith.
Who Jesus is. They could see and make others.
(23:31):
See See the traces of his mystery in all his Earthly wife.
And that of course, is a nice link towards John says, at the
end here about his purpose, in writing the gospel.
So that finishes today's podcast.
Thank you for listening and for sticking with us through the
Easter season, please tune in again tomorrow.
When we look at something a little different and continue to
(23:53):
share this podcast around.
Hi everyone, welcome, once again, to daily gospel exegesis,
where we do just that, we do an exegesis of the Gospel reading
from today's Catholic mass. So really giving you the tools
to dig into the text. And what it probably meant in
its original context, which is something we need to do more of
As Catholics, so let's have a look at today's passage, which
(00:34):
is the very end of the Gospel ofJohn, John chapter 21 verses 20
to 25. Peter turned and saw the
disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned on
his breast at the supper and hadsaid to him, Lord.
Who is it? That will betray you seeing him.
(00:56):
Peter said to Jesus. What about him?
Lord? Jesus answered.
If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter
to you? You are to follow me.
The room event Went Out Among the brothers that this disciple
would not die. Yes.
Jesus had not said to Peter, he will not die.
(01:19):
But rather, if I want him to stay behind till I come.
This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has
written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.
There were many other things that Jesus did, if all were
written down the world itself. I suppose would not hold.
(01:41):
All the books. That would have to be written.
So that is today's passage. It's a really interesting one
because the author kind of goes sort of out of the scene and
then back into the scene and it tells us a lot about the
authorship of this particular Passage.
One thing that's important to say, upfront is a lot of
(02:03):
Scholars. Even conservative Catholic
scores. Do think that there's something
different about the last chapterof the Gospel of John.
It does appear. That it was either written later
or written by G by John's followers later on.
I think my view is I can imagineJohn working in a room with the
disciples with him. So we're sort of a group effort.
(02:25):
This last chapter. Perhaps John was quite old.
At this point. Maybe he was dictating it.
Some of his followers who wrote it down, but I suspect that what
was going on in this last chapter is that it was written
by John and a group of his disciples with him in the room.
That would make the best sense of the language that's used
here. So, let's have a look at it.
This is the very last part of the Gospel of John, right at the
(02:47):
end of the Gospel of John. So it's appropriate way to
finish our journey through the Gospel of John, through this
Easter season, for the last about four weeks of Easter.
We have been looking at parts ofthe Gospel of John.
And you've done really well to get through these weeks looking
at the Gospel of John can be quite deep and complex but also
quite rewarding. So we're finishing that
(03:10):
exploration of the Gospel of John with the very last part of
the Gospel of John. It's also fitting in another way
because this passage is largely about the person himself the The
author of The Gospel of John, which appears to be John.
So, the context at the start of chapter 21, Jesus has appeared
(03:31):
to the apostles by the Sea of Galilee and if you were
following yesterday's podcast, he has said, Peter, do you love
me? That was the conversation that
has happened. The famous reinstatement of
Peter to that being the leader of the Apostles.
So Jesus then went on to tell Peter how he's going to die our
text today finishes off that conversation.
(03:53):
So it's that same conversation which is going on.
So Jesus has just told Peter howhe's going to die verse 20.
Disciple whom Jesus loved. Now.
Let's talk a bit about this. This disciple whom Jesus loved
is never given a name in The Gospel of John, but all evidence
seems to point to it. Being John himself, the Apostle.
(04:15):
John, the biggest piece of evidence that would help us
identify the disciple whom Jesusloved with John.
The son of Zebedee is that the Apostle, John is never
mentioned. His never named in this gospel,
but he's named in all the other gospels.
Whereas this interesting person called the disciple, whom Jesus
loved is named in the John, but he's not named in the other
(04:37):
gospels and this disciple whom Jesus.
Loved only shows up at times when the apostles are present.
So, all of that strongly suggests that the disciple whom
Jesus loved is John himself, theApostle John.
And we talked more about that inthe bonus episode.
We did on the introduction to the Gospel of John.
(04:58):
So if you want to hear more about that, it would be worth
looking at that episode, the introduction to the Gospel of
John. So this is John's way of
referring. Fearing to himself by John
calling himself the disciple whom Jesus loved.
He sort of gets to downplay his own role in the events by not
naming himself or not drawing attention to himself, but also
in a way it kind of elevates himas someone special without
(05:21):
saying, this is definitely me. So it's an interesting kind of
stylistic way of referring to himself throughout the story
Peter turned, and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved
following them. So Jesus and Peter have gone for
a walk along this. Sea of Galilee and he turns
around. And he says that John is
following them, or the Beloved disciple is following them.
(05:43):
This is the one who had leaned on his breast at the supper and
had said to him, Lord. Who is it?
That will betray you. So, the author here is referring
back to the scene at the Last Supper, when the disciple whom
Jesus, loved leaned on Jesus breast.
And that was in Chapter 13. If you think about it, the fact
that this disciple sat next to Jesus, at the last supper, and
(06:05):
then leaned on his breast, that does indicate that he really is
loved by Jesus. There's an interesting kind of
role reversal going on here. Every other time.
The Beloved disciple seems to have some insight.
That Peter doesn't have. We see they're quite a few times
in the Gospel of John but this time Peter gets the inside scoop
(06:25):
and John doesn't apparently verse 21 seeing him.
Peter said to Jesus. What about him?
Lord? So, remember, Jesus has just
revealed to Peter. What Peter's fate is, how he's
going to die. Now, Peter wants to know, what
the fate of the Beloved disciple.
Is. What about him?
Lord? How is he going to die?
(06:46):
Why would Peter be interested inthat?
Probably? Because he knows how close the
relationship is between the Beloved disciple and Jesus and
Peter reasons. Well, if I Peter I'm going to
die by crucifixion, then it's natural for Peter to wonder how
the Love a disciple who died as well verse 22.
(07:07):
Jesus answered if I want him to stay behind till I come what
does that matter to you? So in other words, what Jesus
says here is if my plan is for John, not to die, and go to
heaven, but rather to stay on Earth, until I return that is
none of your business. So many have taken this, there's
(07:30):
interesting interpretations of this saying here of Jesus.
If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does that
matter to you? So many have taken that to mean,
the Jesus is saying that his plan is indeed for John to stay
behind until he returns. As in Jesus is implying.
Yes. I am planning on getting John to
(07:50):
stay behind until I return. Now that could be true.
We don't know if that's what Jesus meant because John.
Doesn't necessarily tell us thatthat could be what Jesus meant
because Jesus did come back in areal sense in 70 AD when the
temple is destroyed in 70 AD Scholars, often recognize that
(08:10):
this is in fact one of Jesus Cummings and it's often called
the middle coming of Jesus. So the first coming of Jesus was
during his ministry, his second coming will be at the end of
time and there was kind of a middle coming of Jesus in 70 AD.
Now the Apostle John was still alive in 7th.
Day, although most of the other Apostles had died by then.
So this interpretation would make sense.
(08:32):
Jesus plan. Maybe was for John to be alive
when Jesus returned in 70 AD. So so that John could witness
the middle coming. Maybe that's what Jesus means,
and that would make sense. But not necessarily, we're not
committed to that interpretation.
Jesus could really just be usinga hypothetical to tell Peter
(08:53):
that. It's none of his business.
He could mean something like, well, hypothetically, John could
stay behind till I return, but what does that matter to you?
So he's mainly just trying to tell Peter a lesson that it's
none of his business. So he says to him here.
What does that matter to you? You are to follow me.
So, Jesus tells Peter that. He's not concerned himself with
(09:15):
the plans that Jesus has for theother Apostles rather Peters.
Command is to focus on followingJesus, which, of course, means
following his Commandments and promptings.
Verse 23, John now tells us in the author here.
John tells us the rumor then went out among the brothers that
this disciple would not die and more, literally there.
(09:38):
What it says is the rumor was spread abroad.
So the rumor spreads throughout the Christian Community, all
across the world apparently manyChristians in later years.
Heard about this particular saying of Jesus.
They heard that Jesus had said this about the Beloved disciple.
Maybe they heard that from the preaching of Peter.
Tell all the preaching of John perhaps, and they assumed.
(09:59):
The what that meant. Is that John would not die.
And when it says here among the brothers or among the Brethren,
that's probably referring particularly to the community,
which knew the Apostle John and consider themselves Disciples of
the Apostle, John. And we do know that there was
such a community. If you look later in the New
Testament, at the letters of 1, John 3, John clearly, there were
(10:22):
some Disciples of the Apostle. John that's probably who is in
view here. So, this community of John's
followers here, that Jesus said this, About the Beloved Apostle,
beloved disciple, and they say, oh, that must mean that he's not
going to die. That's not what Jesus said
though. However, that assumption would
make sense. If we consider what most Jews
(10:45):
believed about the end times, wemight look at this and say, how
did they possibly infer that? That means John is not going to
die at all the clue to this? And this is why exegesis is
helpful is thinking about what Jews believed at that time about
the coming of the Messiah. So, the Jews believe that when
the Day of the Lord comes. And that was the day.
(11:05):
When the Messiah would set up his kingdom.
At the parousia. The Jews.
Believe the, Eternal order wouldbe set up straight away.
And anyone alive at that time would be taken straight into the
Eternal Kingdom without ever dying.
So Christians, in this time period around at the end of the
first century were expecting Jesus to come back and there's
(11:28):
soon as he comes back, he sets up the Eternal Kingdom
straightaway and anyone who's alive.
Most of that time doesn't die. They just go straight into the
Eternal Kingdom. That was there.
The Jewish view. Now, later Christians would
eventually realize that the establishment of the Messianic
Kingdom or the kingdom of God would, in fact, be a gradual
process, but they didn't realizethis straight away and they
(11:51):
realize that Jesus. In fact, has a middle coming
which helps establish his kingdom on Earth in 70 AD, but
that's not the final establishment of the Kingdom.
It's not the Final day of the Lord.
We know that now is as 21st century Christians, but the
earliest Jews did not fully perceive that So the middle
(12:14):
coming helps, establish his kingdom on Earth, but the
Eternal order did not come immediately in 70 AD.
Although the Christians at this time thought that it would.
So rather as Christians now, we understand that the old order
and the Eternal order would continue side by side.
And in fact, that's the time period we're in.
Now the Eternal order and the old order are continuing
(12:34):
together until Jesus final coming at which point the old
order will pass away. Then John continues here.
He says, yet. Jesus had not said to Peter, he
will not die. But if I want him to stay behind
till I come. So here the Apostle John
includes this to quell rumors amongst his hearers that he
(12:57):
himself. John.
The Beloved disciple is not going to die.
He wants his hearers to understand and to get rid of
this idea that Jesus taught thathe isn't going to die.
Or at least that he's definitelynot going to die.
He wants his readers to know. That that's not necessarily what
Jesus was saying? John wants his readers to know
(13:18):
that there are other ways of interpreting Jesus words, so
that tells us that John himself isn't sure what Jesus words
meant so we can't be sure either.
This is where it gets interesting in terms of
authorship. So some critical Scholars who
believe the Gospel of John was written later.
Maybe even not by John, they would say, the gospel was
(13:39):
written by John's followers. And therefore the hypothesis is
John's followers. Included this particular passage
to encourage. The rest of John's followers,
who had become disheartened whenJohn had died something like
that. So, this interpretation of why
the passage was included by the author's that is possible.
(14:00):
You could believe that as a Catholic, we can say that maybe
this was written later by John'sfollowers to help.
John's followers understand whatJohn's death meant provided that
we as Catholics don't assume that the authors are putting
words in Jesus mouth. We cannot assume that the gospel
authors are making up words of Jesus.
(14:20):
That would not be a permitted Catholic View.
So why then would John let's sayJohn has written this passage.
And I think he has why would John include this particular
conversation in his gospel? It seems like a strange thing to
talk about probably it was written for his own followers.
John may be quite Advanced when he's writing this gospel.
(14:43):
Maybe he's the last Apostle leftand he knows that he's the last
Apostle left. John's disciples might be
wondering why or how he's going to die.
Because he's quite old and the other Apostles have died and so
they might be wondering, well, how is John our house John L L
going to die. And John's answer is basically,
(15:04):
well. This is what Jesus had to say
about it. And so there's John is not
giving a definitive interpretation.
He's just telling his hearers, while here at least is what
Jesus had to say about it. Now, that's one explanation.
It depends on when you think thegospel was written and who the
authors were? You can see how I can get a
little bit complicated. And scholarly here.
It's worth pointing these thingsout.
(15:27):
Verse 24. This is John continuing to
speak. This disciple is the one who
vouches for these things and haswritten them down.
So, here, the author, John tellshis readers, that the Beloved
disciple. The one who's mentioned in this
story. Can confirm the contents of this
book and has written them down. Indeed, the Beloved disciple if
(15:49):
you read the Gospel of John wasn't eyewitness of both the
crucifixion and the resurrectionhere, John, the author tells us
that the Beloved disciple has written down many of the events
that he witnessed. So think about it, this verse is
either teaching that the Beloveddisciple is, in fact, John
himself, the author of The Gospel of John or his at least,
(16:15):
saying that the Beloved discipleis a primary Source for the
Gospel of John, you could take the words here.
This disciple is the one you could translate.
As this is the disciple. As in John, the author is
talking about himself. Certainly the verse is teaching
at a minimum that the Beloved disciple was an eyewitness and
(16:35):
that he is a primary source for the Gospel of John, John
continues, and we know that his testimony is true.
Now, the second person verb is used.
Here, we we know that his testimony is true.
So that indicates that there maybe a community of people
responsible for writing. At least this last part of the
(16:55):
Gospel of John as I said earlier.
I think the best explanation of this is John is writing it but
there's some of his followers inthe room at the time.
So in that sense, it's a we it'sfrom John's Community to John's
community. The fact that this line is
included in the gospel, indicates that the audience were
quite familiar with the Beloved disciple because it says we know
(17:17):
that his testimony is true. The beloved's disciples
testimony is true. So it means that the audience of
the Gospel of John knew that theBeloved disciple was an
eyewitness and they trust him. So John here is kind of saying
something like this, that beloved disciple guy, that, you
know, will, he's the one who hastold us these things.
(17:40):
Verse 25, this is quite a beautiful.
Last verse here. There were many other things
that Jesus did. So, this is interesting.
John was the last of the gospelsto be written.
Most likely even the last gospel.
Author knew that there were manyother things which Jesus did
that none of the gospels had recorded.
If you think about it, even Johnhimself.
(18:01):
Had been a witness to many of those events.
So we need to be careful as Christians today.
We should never say that. We know everything Jesus said
and did that's actually not true.
Here John the author teaches theexact opposite.
He says there are many other things Jesus did.
There were not written down. It's likely that there were many
people who encountered, Jesus and had healing encounters with
(18:24):
him. During his ministry that we will
never learn about there were notrecorded, but did happen, and we
will only get to hear about themin heaven, and that's quite an
exciting thought that we will get to find out more about
people who met Jesus during his lifetime when we get to heaven.
So John says, there were many other things Jesus did, if all
of them were written down the world itself.
(18:46):
I suppose would not hold, all the books that would have to be
written. So this is probably a hyperbole,
an exaggeration. When John says, all the world's
books could not possibly containit.
That's probably an exaggeration,but it does tell us that Jesus
did many other things that were not written down.
If you think about it, why didn't John write down
(19:08):
everything that he could write down about Jesus?
We need to think about economicsat that time.
At that particular time period. It was very expensive to write
Scrolls or books. It cost.
It would have cost around $1000 of today's money, to produce one
copy of the Gospel of Matthew. So it's quite expensive.
You couldn't write infinitely, long manuscripts.
(19:30):
It was just too expensive which meant the gospel authors.
Include everything they knew about Jesus, even if they wanted
to, they had to be selective about what they included.
So Matthew included, certain passages that he thought would
help his audience. The most Mark did that with his
audience, looted that with his. And John did that with his
audience. John actually tells us elsewhere
(19:53):
what his criteria was for choosing, which things made it
into his gospel. He chose certain episodes that
he believes will. Most help people believe in
Jesus. This is what he says in chapter
20 verse 31, these events are recorded So that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing
this, you may have life through his name.
(20:16):
The genre of the gospels is whatwe would call an ancient
biography. And basically, ancient
biographies were written with the primary purpose of helping
the audience, get to know the person, and that's what the
gospels are. There are documents that are
written to help. People get to know the person
Jesus, even if it doesn't Tell everything that Jesus said,
(20:37):
exactly word for word, and even if it doesn't tell everything
that Jesus did, it's just the best way of helping the
audience, get to know the personof Jesus and that's John's goal.
In fact, that's John's goal for us as well.
It's his purpose that when he wrote his gospel that we might
receive the Divine word in faithand remain in his love.
(20:59):
If we can do that, we can becomethe children of God.
That's in chapter 1, John says that's his purpose.
Is that more people would becomethe children of God and that we
would have life in his name. We see that in chapter 20.
So we're invited to read the Gospel of John with that same
purpose, that we might enter into the Divine communion with
(21:19):
the Trinity that John constantlytalks about.
So that ends the Gospel of John.It's been a long journey through
the Easter season. Hopefully you've enjoyed it.
Now. When else are you likely to hear
the Gospel of John? Sometimes, you hear it on
weekends in here be on Sundays in that year.
And also, you'll hear some chapters read during Lent as
(21:42):
well, just prior to Easter. And then there's a couple around
the Advent and Christmas season 2, but the bulk of it is red
during the Easter season, which we have just finished doing So
that ends weekday exploration ofthe Gospel of John.
Now, in the next couple of days,we have two more feast days and
(22:03):
both of those fees days happen to be from the Gospel of John.
So you've got two more days in the Gospel of John, and then
after that, we're going to go back to moving continuously
through the synoptic gospel, so,there will be a bit more
regularity there after the next to feast days.
So let's finish by looking at a couple of short catechism
(22:23):
paragraphs, which make links to what we've heard today in John
21 paragraph, 8 7 8. Finally, it belongs to the
sacramental nature of a clay seal Ministry that it have a
personal character. Although Christ's ministers act
in communion with one another. They also act in a personal way.
Each one is called personally you follow me in order to be a
(22:48):
personal witness within the common mission, to be a personal
responsibility before him, who gives the mission acting in his
person and for other persons. So here, that that's the
Catholic teaching that Is Jesus says to Peter here?
Don't worry about other people, you follow me.
Jesus calls. Today's priests and Bishops to
(23:09):
do exactly the same. He individually calls them to
follow him above all else and then in paragraph 5 15, this is
about Christ's whole life. It says the gospels were written
by men who were among the first to have the faith and wanted to
share it with others. Having known in faith.
Who Jesus is. They could see and make others.
(23:31):
See See the traces of his mystery in all his Earthly wife.
And that of course, is a nice link towards John says, at the
end here about his purpose, in writing the gospel.
So that finishes today's podcast.
Thank you for listening and for sticking with us through the
Easter season, please tune in again tomorrow.
When we look at something a little different and continue to
(23:53):
share this podcast around.
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