The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
3. Follow Me, in the pastoral care, that thou mayest feed the faithful both by word and example, and especially by super-abounding charity.
Listen to Theophylact : in that He saith, Follow Me, He made him the Prelate of all the faithful. Lastly, He manifested His affection towards him. For we wish those who are more strictly bound to us to follow us.
Admirably saith S. Irenaeus, “ To follow the Saviour is to partake of salvation : to follow the light is to partake of light : now they who are in the light do not themselves illuminate the light, but are enlightened by it.”
Vers. 20, 21. — Peter, turning, saw that disciple , &c. Peter, in obedience to Christ, was beginning to follow Him, — presently John also, and the rest of his companions followed. Peter then, being anxious about John and his companions, turned and looked back. Seeing them following, he omitted mention of the rest, and asked Christ what was to become of John, whether, namely, John was to follow Christ in the same way as himself, and to die upon a cross. Peter asked this, both because he loved John above the rest, and also because he knew that Christ loved him above the rest, and that he had reclined upon His breast at supper. He wondered that Christ should pass over this very dearly beloved John ; and so he calls him to His remembrance. As though he said, “ What will be the fate of Thy well-beloved John ? Surely, as Thou didst prefer him to me at the supper, Thou mightest now rightly prefer him in the pastoral office, and subject me to him as a pastor. But since it has seemed good to Thee to do otherwise, at least I would desire to know what is to be the history of his life and death.” Finally, the question was asked, because Peter here pays back, as it were, to John, the question which John at his instigation had asked at the last supper, when he asked Jesus who should betray Him ? Peter asked Jesus concerning John, thinking that John desired to know what was to be his future lot, and yet did not dare to ask Christ. Listen to S. Chrysostom. “ Because the Lord had foretold him great things, and had committed the whole world to him, and prophesied his martyrdom , and testified larger love, desiring also to receive John as his partner, he said, But this man, what (of him ?) For Peter dearly loved John, and thinking that he wished to ask a question concerning himself, but did not dare, he undertook to ask for him.”
From hence let prelates learn not to follow their own affections, nor indulge their love, but to follow reason in all things, and to appoint such pastors only as they deem most meet for the pastoral office. Even so here Christ did not appoint John, although he was His most dearly beloved kinsman, to be His Vicar, and successor, and the Pontiff of the Church, but Peter.
Ver. 22.—Jesus saith unto him, So I will him to tarry till I come, what to thee ? There is a threefold reading here. The first, the Greek, and from it the Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, If I will him to tarry . The second is, S. Jerome's (lib. 2, cont. Jovin.) and others, If so . The third is the Latin, and especially the Roman, codices, So I will him to tarry . This is the reading of S. Augustine, Bede, Rupert, the Gloss, S. Thomas, Lyra, and others. George Trapezuntius endeavours, although a Greek, to defend this reading by many arguments. Cardinal Bessarion refutes him, and defends the first reading. It is in favour of the first reading that the Latin si is easily changed into sic . But the Greek ἐάν could not easily be transformed into οὕτως. Again, the first reading gives a plain sense : thus, “ If I will that John should remain in life, and not be crucified as I will thee to be, what is it to thee ? Follow Me, and leave John to My care.” For Christ wishes only to repress Peter's curiosity, that, intent upon himself alone, he should leave the care of John to Christ. So S. Cyril, &c.
The arguments in favour of the third reading are, 1. That the Roman edition, corrected by order of the Pope, as well as many MSS. and Latin interpreters, have it. 2. That according to it Christ gives more satisfaction to Peter's question. 3. That from it the disciples would more readily take up the opinion about John, that he was not to die. 4. Because Trapezuntius, who was an excellent Greek scholar, shows that the Greek particle ἐάν and the Latin si have this force, that joined with the indicative mood they may be taken affirmatively, but with the subjunctive mood, hypothetically. For it is one thing to say, if I love thee , I do not injure thee : but another to say, if I loved thee , I will not injure thee. In the first proposition love is affirmed : in the second not, but the matter is put doubtfully. Since therefore the Evangelist here uses the indicative mood, the proposition is affirmative. Moreover, says Trapezuntius, the Fathers in this place translated sic, so, instead of si, if, lest persons but slenderly acquainted with the Greek and Latin tongues should misunderstand the meaning of si, because of its double force. The Latin si, if, therefore, both here and in some other places, is affirmative, not doubtful. Thus Virgil (Æn. vi.) says, If the fates call (vocant) thee, that is, when the fates call thee. And in the same book, If Orpheus could (potuit) call back the manes of his wife, he affirms that he could.
Observe from the words, So I will him to tarry till I come , many have thought that John is not dead, but will come with Elias and Enoch to contend with Antichrist. Indeed the angel seems to assert this in the Apocalypse, saying to John, “Thou must prophesy again before the Gentiles.” (Rev. x. 11.) So thought Hippolytus (Tract de Consummatione Sæculi), Dorotheus, and Metaphrastes (Life of S. John), Damascene (Orat. de Trans.) The latter supports his opinion by Luke ix. 27 : “There be some standing here which shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God.” So, too, S. Ambrose understands the passage (lib. vii. in Luc.) Theophylact, Salmeron, and Barradi are all inclined to take the same view.
Others, again, whom S. Augustine refutes, think that S. John is alive within the tomb, because the earth above his sepulchre is said to quiver; and think that this is occasioned by S. John’s
But I say it is far more like the truth, and to myself a matter of certainty, that S. John died a natural death.
This is the general tradition of the Fathers, as Irenaeus, Tertullian , Eusebius, SS. Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, Bede and others. From whom Baronius gathers that S. John died A.D. 101, in the ninth year of Pope Clement, the second year of Trajan’s reign, sixty-eight from Christ’s crucifixion, and of his age the ninety-third. I say he died at Ephesus, and was buried near that city, and was succeeded in the bishopric of Ephesus by Onesimus, the disciple of S. Paul. The tradition of the Church which celebrates the Feast of S. John as departed this life, and as now reigning with Christ in heaven, confirms this. For this is the lot of none except after death.
Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc, lib . i. c. 26) describes the way in which S. John died. “John the Evangelist, an old man and full of days, laid himself down in his tomb.” And in his first book on the glory of the Martyrs he says, “John went down alive into the tomb, and commanded it to be covered with earth. Now from his sepulchre there is an abundant supply of manna like fine meal, from which the blessed relics are carried all over the world, and afford healing to the sick.” Peter Damian says in his second Sermon on S. John, “Who is there whom the marvellous strangeness of this happy migration does not move ? Who does not wonder at the glory of this most happy consummation? For he who lived marvellously died also marvellously. And forasmuch as he did not lead the common life of men, he passed not hence by a common death. For as histories relate, he ordered a square chamber to be constructed in the church, and by and by descended into it. Then stretching forth his hands, he remained a long while in prayer, and so passed to eternity. In a short space so great a light shone upon him from heaven, that no one could bear to look at it. After that the chamber was found to contain only manna, which, as is said, it continues to produce abundantly until this very day. For so it seemed good that the disciple who was so dear to the Author of life should depart out of this world, and that he should be a stranger to the pangs of death who had been a stranger to the corruption of the flesh.”