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Joh 21:22. Λέγει, saith) The Divine counsels respecting believers are more concealed than respecting the ungodly. Comp. Joh 21:20, as to the traitor.-ἐὰν, if) Never did the Lord give an unmixed repulse to His friends, however unseasonable their question might be. For which reason, not even in this instance does He repress Peter with unmixed sternness, but intimates, under the exterior repulse, something of kindness: even as also the αὐτὸν, he or him, which is relative, is more gentle than if He had used τοῦτον, this person, which is demonstrative, in His reply to him. Therefore there is an ambiguity both weighty, and at the same time pleasing, in effect: For the conditional if does not affirm, if Jesus’ words are to be taken of the full completion of His second advent: His words hold good, even absolutely, if they are taken of the first beginnings of His advent. And, indeed, the brethren felt that the if was not altogether, in its rigid strictness, employed by the Lord: although they ought not to have set it aside wholly: Joh 21:23.-αὐτὸν, that He) So indicative of what was about to happen to Him is given to John, who was less forward to ask the question (for even on the former occasion he had not asked until he was prompted [by Peter] to do so [ch. Joh 13:24], Joh 21:20), but who, notwithstanding, wished to ask it. More is revealed to those who are less disposed to pry curiously.-θέλω, I will) Implying the power of Jesus as to the life or death of His people: Rom 14:9, “To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.-μένειν, remain, tarry) ‘remain’ on earth. 1Co 15:6, “The greater part remain unto this present.” On the contrary, the dead are termed ἀπελθόντες, those who have departed. Augustine interprets it expectare, “to await:” expectation or awaiting no doubt follows as the consequence of remaining: but the notion of remaining continues without sacrifice of truth.-ἕως ἔρχομαι, until I come) i.e. until I shall in very deed be coming in glory, and so John will be able to testify of Me in this Present, Behold He cometh [Rev 1:7]. The time of the Lord’s coming succeeds immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem: Mat 23:39; Mat 24:29, note: which advent John obtained the privilege of describing in the Apocalypse. The principal apostles of the twelve were the two, Peter and John: the former, laid the foundation; the latter, the crowning topstone: if a third is to be added, it is James, the first martyr of them, who, moreover, was present also at this feast, rather than at the conversation. The cross was promised in this place, to Peter; to John was promised in an enigmatical manner, that great Apocalypse. And as it were the middle point between this discourse of the Lord and the death of John, was the martyrdom of Peter: the years 30, 67, and 98 of the received era, claiming to themselves respectively these three important events. It is only in this point of view that the antithesis is more fully to be perceived: Peter by death follows Jesus in His departure out of the world: Joh 21:19, note: but John remains in the world, until He, the same, comes. In truth, the ministry of John, in writing and sending the Apocalypse, is equal [in point of patient suffering] to the cross endured by Peter, by reason of the very severe ordeal of trials to be endured by the former in the meanwhile: Rev 1:17; Rev 10:9-10. Nor was the writing of the Apocalypse less profitable to the Church, than Peter’s martyrdom. John, according to the prophecy, was about to remain in life, after having outlived all dangers, until the fit time should arrive, when, almost all his colleagues being long ago dead, the Jewish state overthrown, and the Christian Church established, he was to be the minister of the Apocalypse, the beginning and ending of which is that constantly recurring and solemn expression, He cometh, I come, Come, ch. Rev 1:7, Rev 22:20, etc. For it was becoming that the Apocalypse should not be published sooner, and yet that it should be published by an apostle. Wherefore the promise which was formerly given to John, in conjunction with others, Mat 16:28, (where see the note on the different succession steps of the coming), is now in this passage confined to John alone, in a remarkable, preeminent, and unprecedented manner. Often a thing is said then to come to pass, when it is vividly presented before us as about to be: see note on Act 13:33. [God said this at the time that the Psalm was composed, speaking of it as a thing then present, because it was then represented as about to be]: for which reason the Lord is said to come in that most vivid, prophetical, and apocalyptical representation. And not only in vision, but in the eyes and feeling of John, and thenceforward after that most solemn denunciation, and most especially at the actual time of John’s death, and subsequently, He is in actual fact rather coming, than about to come. For whilst John remained, the fulfilment began to come to pass, the trumpet having been given even to the seventh angel himself, Rev 11:15, note. And just as all the forty days after the Resurrection were days of Ascension (Joh 20:17, note), so at a very brief interval after the Ascension is the time of the Coming to judgment, inasmuch as no other step interposed between, Act 1:11 [wherein the second coming is joined immediately with the Ascension]: For the sitting at God’s right hand does not differ from the Ascension, except in so far as the actual state differs from the act. Therefore Christ expects, and is ready, Heb 10:13; 1Pe 4:5. In the mention of His coming, all the events on this side of it which the Apocalypse contains, are included. There is one last hour, upon which also the coming of Antichrist falls, 1Jn 2:18. Immediately after the Apocalypse, John departed and died (Comp. Luk 2:26; Luk 2:29, Simeon), after great afflictions, by a natural death; as Daniel did, ch. Joh 12:13; with whom John had much in common. In fine, that sentiment, until John shall write the Apocalypse, could be put forward in these words with as much truth and literal strictness as characterized John at the time when, in writing the Apocalypse, he wrote that the Lord comes. Thus both the forerunners and messengers of the coming of the Lord, His first and His second, were of the one name, John the Baptist and John the Apostle. The history of the Old Testament is arranged by the lives of the patriarchs and kings, and by the weeks of Daniel: whilst the Apocalypse has predicted the periods of the New Testament history, which was about to follow after. The whole of the golden chain is completed in the middle, first by the life of Jesus Christ, then next by the remaining of John, who also alone of the Evangelists has recorded all the Passovers and the years intervening between the baptism of Christ and the time of this discourse: He alone of all has acted the part of a chronologer of all the times of the New Testament. See how great was the dignity conferred on the beloved disciple.-τί πρός σε; what is that to thee?) This brings back the curiosity of Peter to order; but at the same time it much more intimates, that his course would be already ended, whilst John was still doing his work, and was subserving the advent of the Lord. The martyrdom of Peter was consummated several years before the destruction of Jerusalem: that destruction had the Lord’s advent subsequent to it.-σὺ, thou) A weighty and merciful command.-ἀκολούθει μοι, follow Me) The future is contained in the Imperative: Give all thy attention to that which belongs to thee: leave to him (that disciple) what belongs to him. Similarly the Lord’s words concerning John, intimated not only what the Lord wishes to be done, but what is about to be.