John 21

International Standard Version

Jesus Appears to Seven of His Disciples

21 Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. This is what happened: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin),^[a] Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two of his other disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter told them, “I’m going fishing.”

They all told him, “We’ll go with you, too.” So they went out and got into the boat but didn’t catch a thing that night.

⁴ Just as dawn was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. The disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus asked them, “Children, you don’t have any fish, do you?”

They answered him, “No.”

⁶ He told them, “Throw the net on the right hand side of the boat, and you’ll catch^[b] some.” So they threw it out and were unable to haul it in because it was so full of fish.

⁷ That disciple whom Jesus kept loving told Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his clothes back on, because he was practically naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸ But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. They were only about 200 cubits^[c] away from the shore.

⁹ When they arrived at the shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish lying on it, and some bread. ¹⁰ Jesus told them, “Bring me some of the fish you’ve just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish—153 of them. And although there were so many of them, the net was not torn.

¹² Then Jesus told them, “Come, have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”, because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus took the bread, gave it to them, and did^[d] the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after he had been raised from the dead.

Jesus Speaks with Peter

¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Peter^[e] told him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus^[f] told him, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Then he asked him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter^[g] told him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus^[h] told him, “Take care of my sheep.” ¹⁷ He asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was deeply hurt that he had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So he told him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!”

Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ “Truly, I tell you^[i] emphatically, when you were young, you would fasten your belt and go wherever you liked. But when you get old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten your belt and take you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ Now he said this to show by what kind of death he would glorify God.

After saying this, Jesus^[j] told him, “Keep following me.”

Jesus and the Beloved Disciple

²⁰ Peter turned around and noticed the disciple whom Jesus kept loving following them. He was the one who had put his head on Jesus’ chest at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is the one who is going to betray you?”

²¹ When Peter saw him, he said, “Lord, what about him?”

²² Jesus told him, “If it’s my will for him to remain until I come back, how does that concern you? You must keep following me!” ²³ So the rumor spread among the brothers^[k] that this disciple wasn’t going to die. Yet Jesus didn’t say to Peter^[l] that he wasn’t going to die, but, “If it’s my will for him to remain until I come back, how does that concern you?”

²⁴ This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them down. We know that his testimony is true.

²⁵ Of course, Jesus also did many other things, and I suppose that if every one of them were written down, the world couldn’t contain the books that would be written.