John 21:23

23. That that disciple should not die Many in the apostolic Church put upon Jesus’s words the first meaning, namely, his living to the Second Advent; which was the true and yet the mistaken meaning. True, because it truly was not Peter’s concern if that result really took place; and mistaken, because that result did not take place. Thus John’s contemporaries are left by him to interpret the words upon their own responsibilities. They inferred that for John to live to the Advent was to escape death completely. But John, as if to disclaim all false pretensions, and dissipate all false conceptions, publishes the words just as they were uttered, and declines all interpretation. He gives the text and refuses to give any commentary. And that there may be no responsibility on his shoulder, he takes care to repeat the very identical words, and leave the matter with the reader. Did John know? His inspiration is no proof that he did know; for inspiration is as truly, though not as narrowly, limited as natural knowledge. Inspiration only knows so far as is revealed; and who knows that the meaning of these words was revealed to John? Whatever he expected, he lived peacefully at Ephesus until about the close of the first century, nearly if not quite a century old. He was buried in that city, and some of the Fathers profess to have seen his tomb. Many in Augustine’s day fancied that John lived in his own tomb, and that the earth above him heaved with his respiration. Stier tells us that the celebrated Lavater professed to have revelation of the fact, that John still lives on earth!