John 21:14
This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples, after he was risen from the dead.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Hoc jam tertio manifestatus est Jesus discipulis suis cum resurrexisset a mortuis.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- τοῦτο ἤδη τρίτον ἐφανερώθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἐγερθεὶς ἐκ νεκρῶν.
Haydock's commentary
This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples. He had appeared to them more than thrice, even the very day of his resurrection. (Matthew xxviii. 16.) Here it is called the third time either because it was the third different day; or because it was the third time that he had then appeared to a considerable number together. After this, he appeared to them frequently, and conversed with them for forty days, till his ascension. See Acts i. 3. and 1 Corinthians xv. 5. (Witham)
This must be understood of the third day, or of the third time, that our Saviour appeared to his apostles assembled: the first day, being the day of his resurrection; the second, eight days after, when St. Thomas saw, and believed; and on this day of their fishing. (St. Augustine, tract. 122. in Joan.)
The evangelists relate ten different manifestations of our Saviour, after his resurrection. First, he was seen by the women at the sepulchre; 2ndly, he was again seen by the same holy women, returning from the sepulchre; 3rdly, by St. Peter; 4thly, by the two going to Emmaus; 5thly, by many at Jerusalem, when Thomas was not with them; 6thly, at the time when St. Thomas saw him; 7thly, at the sea of Tiberias; 8thly, by the eleven, on a mountain of Galilee, according to St. Matthew; 9thly, according to St. Mark, by the disciples, at their refreshment, because he was going to sup with them no more; and 10thly, on the day of his ascension, raised from the earth into heaven. (St. Augustine, de Concord. Ev. lib. iii. chap. 25.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
The fishing being over, our Lord invites them to dine: Jesus says to them, Come and dine.
St John Chrysostom Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
John does not say that He ate with them, but Luke does. He ate however not to satisfy the wants of nature, but to show the reality of His resurrection.
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
The bodies of the just, when they rise again, shall need neither the word of life that they die not of disease, or old age, nor any bodily nourishment to prevent hunger and thirst. For they shall be endowed with a sure and inviolable gift of immortality, that they shall not eat of necessity, but only be able to eat if they will. Not the power, but the need of eating and drinking shall be taken away from them; in like manner as our Savior after His resurrection took meat and drink with His disciples, with spiritual but still real flesh, not for the sake of nourishment, but in exercise of a power. And none of His disciples dare ask Him, who are you? knowing that it was the Lord.
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
No one dared to doubt that it was He, much less deny it; so evident was it. Had any one doubted, he would have asked.
St John Chrysostom Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
He means that they had not confidence to talk to Him, as before, but sat looking at Him in silence and awe, absorbed in regarding His altered and now supernatural form, and unwilling to ask any question. Knowing that it was the Lord, they were in fear, and only ate what, in exercise of His great power, He had created. He again does not look up to heaven, or do anything after a human sort, thus strewing that His former acts of that kind were done only in condescension: Jesus then comes, and takes bread, and gives them, and fish likewise.
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
Mystically, the fried fish is Christ Who suffered. And He is the bread that came down from heaven. To Him the Church is united to His body for participation of eternal bliss. Wherefore He says, Bring of the fishes which you have now caught; to signify that all of us who have this hope, and are in that septenary number of disciples, which represents the universal Church here, partake of this great sacrament, and are admitted to this bliss.
St Gregory the Great Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
By holding this last feast with seven disciples, he declares that they only who are full of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, shall be with Him in the eternal feast. Time also is reckoned by periods of seven days, and perfection is often designated by the number seven. They therefore feast upon the presence of the Truth in that last banquet, who now strive for perfection.
St John Chrysostom Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
Inasmuch, however, as He did not converse with them regularly, or in the same way as before, the Evangelist adds, This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead.
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
Which has reference not to manifestations, but to days; i.e. the first day after He had risen, eight days after that, when Thomas saw and believed, and this day at the draught of fishes; and thenceforward as often as He sew them, up to the time of His ascension.
St Augustine Catena Aurea on verses 12-14
We find in the four Evangelists then occasions mentioned; on which our Lord was seen after His resurrection: one at the sepulcher by the women; a second by the one omen returning from the sepulcher; a third by Peter; a fourth by the two going to Emmaus; a fifth in Jerusalem, when Thomas was not present; a sixth when Thomas saw Him; a seventh at the sea of Tiberias; an eighth by all the eleven on a mountain of Galilee, mentioned by Matthew; a ninth when for the last time He sat at meat with the disciples; a tenth when He was seen no longer upon earth, but high up on a cloud.
St Augustine The Harmony of the Gospels, Of Christ’s Subsequent Manifestations of Himself to the Disciples, and of the Question Whether a Thorough Harmony Can Be Established Between the Different Narratives When the Notices Given by the Four Several Evangelists, as Well as Those Presented by the Apostle Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles, are Compared Together
82. But another difficulty in the way of this settlement arises here. For, when John has recorded how the Lord was seen, not by the eleven on the mountain, but by seven of them when they were fishing in the sea of Tiberias, he appends the following statement: “This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead.” Now, if we accept the theory that the Lord was seen by the company of the eleven disciples within the period of these eight days, and previous to His being seen by Thomas, this scene by the sea of Tiberias will not be the third but the fourth time that He showed Himself. Here, indeed, we must take care not to let any one suppose that, in speaking of the third time, John meant that there were in all only three appearances of the Lord. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXVIII
But of what twelve apostles doth he here speak? For after He was received up, Matthias was taken into the number, not after the resurrection immediately. But it is likely that He appeared even after He was received up. At any rate, this our apostle himself after His ascension was both called, and saw Him. Therefore neither doth he set down the time, but simply and without defining recounts the appearance. For indeed it is probable that many took place; wherefore also John said, “This third time He was manifested.” ( John xxi. 14 .)
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 20.24,25
Ver. 14 . “This was the third time that Jesus appeared to them, after that He arose from the dead.”