Chapter XXI.
1-14. Appearance of Jesus to the disciples at the Sea of Galilee; the miraculous draught of fish, after which St. John first recognises Jesus, and St. Peter leaps from the boat into the water to come to Him. The breakfast miraculously prepared for the disciples by Jesus.
15-17. Peter's triple confession of his love for his master; he is constituted by Jesus visible head of the whole Church.
18-19. Jesus predicts the manner of Peter's death, as St. John explains.
20-23. He reproves Peter's curiosity regarding the end in store for St. John.
24-25. The conclusion.
The authenticity of this last chapter of our Gospel has been questioned (see [Introd. v].), and it has been contended that the chapter was not written by St. John, but by some disciple or disciples of his after his death. Even among those who admit its authenticity, some have held that it was not written at the same time as the rest of the Gospel, but at a later period, and added on as an appendix.[138] Both those who deny the authenticity of the chapter, and those who hold it to be an authentic appendix, written at a later date, argue from the last two verses of chapter xx., which, they say, prove that St. John intended to conclude at that point. In addition to this, those who deny the authenticity, contend that the style of this chapter is so different from that of the rest of the Gospel as to compel the belief that both cannot possibly be the work of the same hand.
We may begin by remarking that no Catholic is free to doubt the inspiration of the chapter, so that whoever wrote it must [pg 373] have been inspired. This follows from the decree of Trent, which defined the entire books of the Vulgate with all their parts (and this is certainly a part, not merely a “particula” of this Gospel) to be canonical Scripture. See above on iv. [3], [4].
Hence, the only questions remaining are: (a) whether St. John or some other inspired writer wrote the chapter; and (b) in case St. John wrote it, whether he wrote it at the same time as the rest of the Gospel, or later, and as an appendix.
With Catholic commentators generally, we hold that the chapter was written by St. John and at the same time as the rest of the Gospel. For, since it is read in all the MSS., and quoted by all the fathers, the natural inference is that it stood in the Gospel from the beginning. Against this unanimous testimony of tradition, the arguments for any other view have no weight. For, as to the argument drawn from the last two verses of chapter xx., we have already, with Mald., Tol., and Cornely, given the most probable explanation of those verses, from which it appears that they were not intended as a conclusion of the whole Gospel, but only of that portion of it which deals with the proofs of His Divinity afforded by Christ to the Apostles during His risen life.[139]