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THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT

That evening, Jesus materializes in the room in which the disciples are hiding from the Jews and announces his presence with a traditional greeting: “Peace be with you” (20:19; cf. Tob. 12:17). He identifies himself by showing his hands and side, commissions them to carry on his work (20:21), and, emulating God’s act of creating Adam (Gen. 2:7), he breathes the Holy Spirit onto them. One disciple, who has come to be known as “Doubting” Thomas because of this scene, was absent and refuses to believe, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side” (2:25). The following week, Jesus reappears. Whereas Mary was forbidden from touching Jesus, Thomas is now invited to do so, raising the question of Jesus’ postcrucifixion corporeality. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus’ crucifixion has been described as an exaltation (e.g., 3:14), suggesting that his death is simultaneously his return to the Father. If the ascension is a return to the same preexistent state that the Word had before it (or he) was made flesh (1:14), then it is reasonable to think that it also marks a return to a noncorporeal existence. His ability to enter the room despite the locked doors also implies incorporeality. And yet, he invites Thomas to touch him. The inconsistency with regard to the status of Jesus’ body has suggested to some scholars that the Thomas story is a secondary addition (R. E. Brown 1970, 1032). This is certainly plausible, particularly in light of 20:29, which is obviously addressed to the Gospel’s audiences. The narrative is silent as to whether Thomas does touch Jesus, but he immediately confesses his faith: “My Lord and my God!” (20:28). Jesus gently chides him: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (20:29). This passage brings to fruition the pattern that began with the call of the first disciples: the emphasis on believing through the testimony of others. In chiding Thomas, Jesus is addressing later readers who cannot see Jesus directly but who have access to the reliable testimony of the Gospel (see 19:35) as a basis for faith. The story therefore reinforces the authority of the Gospel as a source for its readers’ christological understanding and therefore also their salvation.

THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT

Although it is followed by a final chapter, John 20:30–31 is the conclusion and statement of purpose of the Gospel as a whole. The passage acknowledges that the Gospel presents only a selection of Jesus’ many acts and directs our attention to the disciples as the primary witnesses. Like 4:48, the passage is aimed directly at the readers or listeners. What is remarkable about this passage is the important role that it envisages for “this book” in the lives of its audiences.

On the surface, the intent of these verses is clear: to persuade “you” that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and thereby to lead “you” to eternal life. But the meaning is murkier than one might suppose, due to a textual variant in 20:31: “so that you may [come to] believe” (NRSV). The conjunction “so that” requires a verb in the subjunctive mood (English: “may” or “might”). The oldest manuscripts have the verb “believe” in the present subjunctive form, meaning “that you may continue to believe.” This variant implies that the Gospel was written in order to deepen the faith of an audience that already professes belief in Christ. Other manuscripts, however, have the verb in the aorist subjunctive, meaning “that you may come to believe.” This variant suggests that the Gospel was written in order to persuade nonbelievers to become believers; in other words, for missionary purposes. Although the New Revised Standard Version has chosen the latter reading in its translation, the scholarly consensus is that the Gospel is not a missionary document, because its language and concepts are better understood as addressing insiders rather than outsiders.

THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT

On the basis of its content and literary style, this chapter has sometimes been viewed as a later, non-Johannine addition. Unlike 7:53–8:11, however, the manuscript evidence does not show that it circulated separately from the rest of the Gospel or that the Gospel originally ended with chapter 20. Nevertheless, it presents a somewhat different image of the disciples than the rest of the Gospel.

The chapter recounts Jesus’ third and final postresurrection appearance, during the disciples’ fishing expedition by the Sea of Galilee. Until Jesus appears, the fish are not biting, but when he instructs them about where to cast the net, their haul is huge: 153 large fish. They cook and eat some with bread, in a scene that recalls the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (John 6).

After breakfast, Jesus asks Peter three times whether Peter loves him, and instructs him to tend the flock (20:15–17). In doing so, Jesus erases the shame of the threefold denial, and installs Peter as the shepherd who will lead them in Jesus’ absence. The reemergence of the shepherd and sheep metaphor clashes with the fishing symbolism, though both sets of images are used in the Gospel to refer to the gathering of believers and followers. Also jarring is the elevation of Peter over the Beloved Disciple, who has been Jesus’ closest follower to this point. Jesus concludes his charge to Peter with an enigmatic prophecy: “when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go” (21:18). The narrator attempts to clarify that Jesus “said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God” (21:19).

Peter then asks: what about the Beloved Disciple (21:20)? This question elicits an even more opaque response: “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” (21:22). The narrator carefully explains that Jesus has used a conditional formulation (“If it is my will …”) that does not necessarily promise that the disciple will live, but neither does it declare his death. Many have speculated that the Beloved Disciple, while portrayed in an idealized fashion, was the founder and leader of the Johannine community (R. E. Brown 1979). If so, the story suggests that by the time of writing (or perhaps the time of the final redaction), the disciple had already died. Nevertheless, the narrator asserts that “this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true” (21:24).

While some have suggested that John 21 was a later addition to the Gospel, the majority opinion views it as original to the final version of the Gospel (for discussion see Köstenberger, 582–86). Even if it was written or redacted by the same person or group that is responsible for the rest of the Gospel, the ending may serve to bring this Gospel closer to the Synoptics, in which Peter is the disciple closest to Jesus.