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Joh_21:23. Hence there went forth (comp. Mat_9:26), in consequence of this answer of Jesus, the following legend[291] among the brethren (Christians): that disciple dies not (but remains in life until the Parousia, whereupon he experiences, not death, but change, 1Th_4:17; 1Co_15:51-52).
The legend, which correctly took ἔρχομαι in the solemn sense of Maranatha (1Co_16:22), would with reason have inferred its οὐκ ἀποθνήσκει from the word of Christ, had the latter run categorically: ΘΈΛΩ ΑὐΤῸΝ ΜΈΝΕΙΝ ἝΩς ἜΡΧ . From the manner, however, in which Jesus expressed Himself, a categorical judgment was derived from the conditional sentence, and consequently the case supposed by Jesus, the occurrence of which is to be left to the judgment of experience ( ἐάν , not ΕἸ ), was proclaimed as an actually existing relation. This John exposes as an overstepping of the words of Jesus, and hence his observation intimates, that it was straightway asserted, but without reason, on the ground of that saying: this disciple dies not,—that rather the possible occurrence of the case supposed by ἘᾺΝ ΘΈΛΩ must be left over to the experience of the future, without asserting by way of anticipation either the ΟὐΚ ἈΠΟΘΝΉΣΚΕΙ or the opposite. Considering the expected nearness of the Parousia, it is conceivable enough how John himself does not in a general way declare the saying, which was in circulation about him, to be incorrect, and does not refute it (it might in truth be verified through the impending Parousia), but only refers to its conditional character (“leaves it therefore to hang in doubt,” Luther), and places it merely in its historical light, with verbally exact repetition of its source. According to others (see especially Heumann, B. Crusius, Hengstenberg), John would indicate that there is yet another coming of Jesus than that which is to take place at the close of history. But this other the expositors have here first invented, see on Joh_21:22.
After the death of the apostle, the legend was further expanded, to the effect that he slumbered in the grave, and by his breath moved the earth. See Introd. § 1, and generally Ittig, sel. capita hist. eccl. sec. I. p. 441 ff.
[291] Which therefore did not originate from the Apocalypse (Baur, Hilgenfeld).