John 21:24 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

John 21:24 f. Conclusion of the Appendix. In John 21:24 the disciple to whom this saying was addressed is said to be the witness of the events recorded in the gospel, and its actual author. The content of the gospel is his, even if he did not actually hold the pen, any more than Pilate actually penned the title on the Cross. Perhaps the solution of the question as to the authorship of the Fourth Gospel which leaves fewest difficulties is that it is the Beloved Disciple, probably to be identified with the son of Zebedee, whose teaching is set out in this gospel, the actual writer, whose thought and style have been moulded by his master's teaching, being the author of the Appendix as of the epistles. The we of this verse may be the circle to which the writer belongs, or if he himself had seen the Lord on earth, it may correspond to the use of the plural in the Prologue, the natural interpretation of which is that the writer speaks in the name of his former companions, the eye-witnesses of the ministry. But we cannot get beyond conjecture. The question of authorship is still an unsolved problem (pp. 743 f.). The last verse, which is omitted by the first hand of one important MS., repeats the warning of the real ending of the gospel, that it contains only a selection from a whole too vast to be recorded.