John 21:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Christ rose and lays aside the garments with which Adam clothed himself. He was naked and did not appear naked. And mark the difference. After the Resurrection Christ appeared naked, and Peter was naked. Yet the One possessed immortality, while the other was still mortal. John recognizes the Lord and says to Peter, "It is the Lord." O wonder! They did not recognize Him by His voice, but they recognized Him by His works. And, it says, Peter took his garment, "for he was naked." The mortal body is ashamed, but the immortal is not ashamed. But let us fall down before Him who clothed us with glory, who clothed the universe with immortality. Let us beseech Him to clothe us with faith, the hope of salvation, and the glory of Christ. For to the Father is glory, with the Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Everywhere we see Peter more zealous than the others, and going before the others into dangers. Thus, when the Lord appeared to the disciples on the shore, while the others were hurrying to the shore in the boat, he could not wait until the boat came to land.

In the first case, when the Lord passed by the fishermen whom He had not seen before, they too had caught nothing by night. They had labored earnestly, but in vain. He ordered them to cast the nets, saying neither “on the right” nor “on the left.” He said, “Launch out your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:4).

Thus, before the Resurrection, the nets are simply cast. After the Resurrection, they are cast on the right side. Further, in the first catch the boats were overloaded and the nets were breaking; see Lk 5:6.

Now, in the catch after the Resurrection, neither is the boat overloaded nor is the net torn. When they fished the first time, the number of fish caught was not mentioned. Now, when they fish after the Resurrection, the exact number of fish is given; compare Lk 5:6 and Jn 21:11.

Let us consider the first catch, so that we may come to the second. In the first case we have nets, the nets of the word, the nets of preaching. Nets, then. Let the Psalm say: “I would declare and speak of them, but they are more than can be numbered” (Ps 39:6).

What happens is clear as day. The Gospel is preached, and the number of Christians exceeds measure. If they all lived uprightly, the boat would not be overloaded. If they were not divided by heresies and schisms, the net would not have been torn.

The last catch pertains to the holy Church, which now exists as a small number of strugglers amid a multitude of wicked men. It will remain within a fixed and limited number, where there will be no place for a sinner.

They will be great fish; see Jn 21:11. All will become immortal, appointed for life without end. What can be greater than that which has no end?

The Evangelist wished that first catch of fish to remain in your memory. Otherwise, why did he add after everything: “And although there were so many, the net was not torn” (Jn 21:11)? It is as though he said, “Remember that first catch, when the net was torn.”

Such will be the Kingdom of Heaven. No heretic will bark there, and no schismatic will depart. All will be together, and all will have peace.

Yet that was a parable in word, not in deed. Here, however, through a deed, the Lord indicated how it will be at the end of the age. So too, in that other catch of fish, He indicated what the Church is like now.

What He did there at the beginning of His preaching, He did here after His Resurrection. There He showed that the catch of fish signifies the good and the evil, whom the Church now has. This catch signifies only the good, whom she will possess forever.

This will be after the resurrection of the dead has taken place at the end of this age. Finally, there Jesus did not stand on the shore, as He does here, when He called them to fish.

Instead, He entered one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Sitting down, He taught the people from the boat. When He had finished teaching, He said to Simon: “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:3-4).

There the fish that were caught lay in the boats, and the net was not drawn to land as it is here. These signs, and others if they can be found, there prefigure the Church in this age. Here they prefigure the Church at the end of the age.

That took place before, and this after the Lord’s Resurrection, because there Christ indicated us as called, and here as raised. There the nets were not cast only on the right side, which would have signified only the good.

Nor were they cast only on the left side, which would have signified only the evil. They were cast on different sides. “Let down,” He said, “your nets for a catch,” so that we might understand good and evil mingled together.

Here, however, He said: “Cast the net on the right side of the boat.” By this He indicated those who will stand at the right hand, that is, only the good.

There the net was torn, to indicate schisms. Here, since in that higher world of the saints there will no longer be any schisms, He allowed the Evangelist to say: “And with such fish, that is, with such great ones, the net was not torn.”

It is as though He indicated that the net had been torn then, and here established the good in opposition to that evil.

Blessed Augustine is referring to Roman finger-counting. The Romans counted units and tens on the fingers of the left hand, and hundreds on the fingers of the right hand. In the Latin text of the Gospel, the pronoun tanti can express both quantity, “so many,” and quality, “so great.”

When Blessed Augustine adds the explanation cum tanti essent, id est tam magni, he shows that both senses are joined in this pronoun. This is fitting, since the Evangelist had already said that the fish were large and that their number was one hundred fifty-three.

Toward morning someone from the shore asked whether they had anything edible, not bread, but what is added to bread at table, here fish. The disciples answered, "No." Then the One standing on the shore advised them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and promised success. The success was extraordinary. Seven men could not draw in the nets because of the multitude of fish. Later they counted twenty-two large fish for each brother, except one. This success in fishing probably reminded John of their former miraculous catch. He guessed that the Lord Himself was on the shore and immediately told the others of this thought. As soon as Simon Peter heard it, he threw himself into the water, so as to draw nearer to Jesus more quickly, or so that He might not withdraw from them. The others also arrived there at once. On the shore, it was no longer they who offered Him refreshment or a meal from their catch, but He Himself. He distributes bread and fish to them. If the fishing foretold to the disciples the action of their preaching, then the drawing of the catch to the feet of Jesus was a foreshadowing. It showed how their action in this ministry must end, and what successes they were to expect. The meal of Jesus signified the reward from Him in His kingdom, or the supper in the kingdom of heaven. Thus this supper recalled the Last Supper in Jerusalem before the Passion. But it also had a further special relation to those events.

Already among the disciples of Jesus Christ this conditional expression was understood to mean that this disciple would not die. When the Evangelist John wrote his Gospel, and at that time he was about ninety years old, it could well be that some Christians remembered those words of Jesus Christ about His beloved disciple and thought he truly would not die. Therefore the Evangelist John explains with particular care that those words of the Lord must be understood conditionally (21:22-23). Moreover, in the prediction to Peter of the destiny awaiting him as preacher and confessor of Christ, the destiny of all Christ's followers is also foreshadowed. It shows their relation to the unbelieving world, in the midst of which the Gospel of the kingdom of God will be preached. The time of this appearance cannot be precisely determined. In general, it belongs to the time when the apostles, by the command of Jesus Christ, returned from Jerusalem to Galilee. It was the third appearance among the appearances to many disciples, the first being 20:19 and the second 20:26. The purpose of this appearance was the restoration of the Apostle Peter, who had denied Christ three times, to his apostolic dignity. Therefore the Risen One appears not just anywhere, but precisely on the Sea of Galilee. He appears precisely while the apostles are fishing, and after a miraculous catch at Christ's word. All this was meant to remind Peter and his companions of the history of their calling to follow Jesus. Then they had been promised that one day they would become fishers of men (Lk 5:1ff.). As the fishing figuratively pointed the apostles to their preaching labors, which would succeed with Christ's help, so the meal afterward arranged by Christ could point its participants to the enjoyment of the blessings of eternal life. This would be their reward for faithful and zealous service to the Gospel. It may also have had significance that the Lord prepared this meal by means of fire. This fire was to remind Peter of the fire in the high priest's courtyard, near which he had denied Christ.

On the shore they all, it seems, saw not without amazement a fire, fish on the fire, that is, on the coals, and bread awaiting them for the satisfaction of their bodily needs. There is no need to ask how the fire, bread, and fish appeared when the Lord was there. Food was offered on the shore by the Lord to His disciples, just as thousands of people had been fed with five loaves and two fish. The food offered to the disciples was ordinary food, their daily food. For "the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom 14:17). The Lord offers food to fleshly men to sustain their strength. Thus the demands of the flesh would not cloud their minds or draw them away from higher things, from the spiritual table which the Lord would set before them, "speaking with them concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).