John 21

John 21
← chapter 20 Acts 1 →
John 16:14-22 on the recto side of Papyrus 5, written about AD 250.
Book	Gospel of John
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	4
Category	Gospel

John 21 is the twenty-first chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains an account of the post-Resurrection appearance in Galilee, which the text describes as the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples. In the course of this chapter, there is a miraculous catch of 153 fish, the confirmation of Peter's love for Jesus, a foretelling of Peter's death in old age, and a comment about John's future. Some New Testament historians assert that it was not part of the original text of the Gospel of John.

In the previous chapter of John's Gospel, the text summarizes the many signs which Jesus performed for his followers, not all of which could be recorded in the Gospel. John 21 begins with the Johannine transition, After these things... (Greek: Μετὰ ταῦτα, meta tauta) which is used frequently in the Fourth Gospel, leading some scholars to suggest that John 21 was appended in the same way as Mark 16:9-20. Peter's ecclesiastical role is emphasized, but this is similar to Peter's commissioning in John 1. The Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (27th ed.) as well as major translations of the New Testament (e.g. KJV, NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV) retain this chapter in their editions as original, and just one fragmentary manuscript has been discovered that may end at John 20 without John 21.