John 21:12-14

“ Jesus says to them, Come, and breakfast. But none of the disciples dared to ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13. Jesus comes near and takes the bread and gives it to them, and the fish likewise. 14. This was now the third time that Jesus manifested himself to his disciples after he had risen from the dead. ”

Jesus takes the part of host. He was standing at a little distance, but now He comes forward. A feeling of respectful fear prevents the disciples from approaching this mysterious person. Jesus invites them to eat; but even then they do not dare to address Him. It is no longer the familiar relation of former days. Nothing is more natural than the apparent contradiction between know (to surmise) and not dare to interrogate. The terms τολμᾶν and ἐξετάζειν are not used elsewhere in John.

The indication given at John 21:14 divides the narrative into two parts. The beginning of John 21:15, however: When therefore they had breakfasted, connects the following conversation with the scene of the meal, John 21:13. The author desired to separate what in this appearance had an ordinary character and was related to the work of evangelization represented by the disciples in general who were present, from that which specially concerned the part and the destiny in the future of the two principal apostles, Peter and John.

The expression τοῦτο ἤδη τρίτον, this was already the third time, contains one of those niceties which we have noticed in several instances in the course of this Gospel. It recalls the forms already explained in John 2:11: ταύτην ἐποίησε τὴν ἀρχήν, and John 4:54: τοῦτο πάλιν δεύτερον σημεῖον ἐποίησεν. Like these, it has as its aim to correct tacitly the Synoptic narrative. According to Matthew (and Mark?) the first appearance of Jesus to the disciples seemed to have taken place in Galilee, not in Judea. By no means, says our author: when He appeared to them in Galilee, it was already the third time that He showed Himself to them as having risen from the dead. The two preceding appearances to which he alludes are evidently the last two of ch. John 20:19 ff., vv. John 20:26 ff. He does not count the one to Mary Magdalene, because, as he expressly says, it is of appearances to the disciples that he wishes to speak. Reuss objects that the disciples present were only seven in number. What matter? It was a considerable group of them, and it was led by Peter. In the appearance John 20:19 ff. they were not, any more than here, all together.

As to the appearances to the two from Emmaus and to Peter (Luke, Paul), they belong to another category; they are appearances to certain individuals, not to the disciples. The word already allows us to suppose other subsequent appearances; they are those of Matthew 28, and of 1 Corinthians 15:7, and Acts 1.