John 21:1-17

Contemporary English Version

Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples

21 Jesus later appeared to his disciples along the shore of Lake Tiberias. ²Simon Peter, Thomas the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, and the brothers James and John,^[a] were there, together with two other disciples. ³^(A) Simon Peter said, “I'm going fishing!”

The others said, “We will go with you.” They went out in their boat. But they didn't catch a thing that night.

⁴Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize who he was. ⁵Jesus shouted, “Friends, have you caught anything?”

“No!” they answered.

⁶^(B) So he told them, “Let your net down on the right side of your boat, and you will catch some fish.”

They did, and the net was so full of fish that they could not drag it up into the boat.

⁷Jesus' favorite disciple told Peter, “It's the Lord!” When Simon heard it was the Lord, he put on the clothes he had taken off while he was working. Then he jumped into the water. ⁸The boat was only about 100 meters from shore. So the other disciples stayed in the boat and dragged in the net full of fish.

⁹When the disciples got out of the boat, they saw some bread and a charcoal fire with fish on it. ¹⁰Jesus told his disciples, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” ¹¹Simon Peter got back into the boat and dragged the net to shore. In it were 153 large fish, but still the net did not rip.

¹²Jesus said, “Come and eat!” But none of the disciples dared ask who he was. They knew he was the Lord. ¹³Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave some of it to his disciples. He did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from death.