John 21:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

After these things, &c. Grotius thinks this whole chapter was written by some of the elders of the church of Ephesus, and added to the rest of the book by the approbation of that society, as agreeable to the relations which they had heard from the mouth of St. John: and Le Clerc follows him in this conjecture; but Dr. Mill has taken pains to invalidate it; (Prolegom., p. 249;) and the beginning of John 21:24, destroys the force of Grotius's arguments from the latter part of it. Jesus showed himself again to the disciples, &c. Our Lord having first by the angels, and then in person, ordered his disciples to go home to Galilee, with a promise that they should see him there, it is reasonable to think that they would depart as soon as possible. Wherefore when they were come to their respective homes, and were employed in their former occupation of fishing, Jesus showed himself to them, as is related in the following verses.