September 26th, 2026

Things continue on, and the number of Sundays after Pentecost is now eighteen. And for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the Gospel Reading, like last week, jumps a significant distance from the previous Sunday’s reading. The text for this Sunday is Matthew 21:23-27, and there is also the option of adding verses 28-32. Jesus is getting closer to his end on the cross. But this is also a great beginning for his followers.

With the writings of this website, we have currently been going through the Gospel according to John, a section at a time, and we are almost at the end. John is a significantly different Gospel account at times when compared to the other three, but it is also one with Jesus on the cross, and we have recently looked at that amazing act of God. And certainly another amazing act of God is the resurrection.

Last week’s writing briefly mentioned some of the significant differences among the Gospel accounts when it comes to the resurrection appearances. The Gospel according to John has basically two chapters of appearances. And the previous writing of this website gave a significant amount of John 20. In that chapter, most of that text dealt with Jesus’ appearances on that first day he was raised from the dead. And the last few verses were also about the next Sunday, the day in which Thomas was with the disciples for that appearance of Jesus.

Last week’s writing also mentioned that the Gospel according to John may be seen as a modified Word of Exhortation. This may be seen as a Hebrew way of giving a sermon, and it is the type of sermon that is in Acts 13 and the entire Epistle to the Hebrews. It is not surprising that a Hebrew way of talking is picked, since there is the Hebrew liturgical year laid out within a significant amount of this Gospel account. (This has already been detailed in these writings.)

Two distinct parts may be seen within a Word of Exhortation. First, there is a “word” from a person of authority, and it is related with the phrase, “thus he has said”. The second part is an “exhortation”, a command to do something. And this is given as a negative command, “Therefore, do not….” More details of these two parts were also given in last week’s writing.

The point was made above that the Gospel according to John is a MODIFIED Word of Exhortation. What is the modification? Now that is very interesting. A description of it follows.

It is interesting that, if the commands of the post-resurrection Jesus to the people around him are numbered, there would be two sets of nine of them. There would be nine before and after the text that is below. What is the significance of nine? The number seven is one that everyone deals with, because that is the number of days in a week. It is seen as a Gentile number. The number eight is seen as a Jewish number. It may also be seen in last week’s text. It was a week later, the next Sunday, but is called “eight” days later.

The number nine is one more, and it is different from the non-Jewish number and the Jewish number. This may be seen to be about a Jesus that is for all people. And what is critical is that no command is given to the reader or the listener.

Although it is obvious, it will be clearly stated here that the section below is NOT a command. It is, instead, a blessing. Instead of the reader or listener being given a command, with the result that the focus is on the self, the reader or listener receives a blessing, and the focus is on the giver of the gift. That is a significant difference. In Lutheran terms, it may be seen as the difference between the Law and the Gospel.
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The comments made about the twenty-first chapter of the Gospel according to John are many. Some even see this as being added later. There is certainly no manuscript evidence of that. But this writer thinks that you as the reader would agree that the “blessing” text below seems like an ending. Some readers would not expect another entire chapter to follow.

This writer also thinks that such an expectation most likely comes from the fact that our twenty-first century minds are used to important things happening at the end. That is what television shows are like. That is what movies are like. We are used to big endings. We are certainly not used to big “middles”. But that is a good literary way to provide some structure; this is especially true since there were no chapter or verse divisions when the text was originally written.

To help see the structure of this part of the Gospel according to John, below are the nine commands of Jesus that are given before the text below. (Obviously the command of Mary to Jesus is not included in this list.) And after the “blessing translation” are the nine commands of Jesus that will appear in next week’s writing (God willing). As was indicated before, the normal word of exhortation is in the negative, but the commands of Jesus in these texts are both positive and negative. And the point was also made that all of the commands, both before and after the text, are not toward you, the reader; they are for the people around Jesus at that time.

As with last week’s writing, the commands are noted with capital letters and hyphens between each letter. And hopefully this is different enough so that the reader does not confuse the commands with the historical presents; these are frequent within the resurrection accounts.

So much for what is new. As always with these writings, it should also be mentioned that these writings have used a unique translation called an “EXTREMELY literal translation”. If you are familiar with this style of translation, you may wish to skip the next two paragraphs.

The first significant thing to mention regarding the description of this type of translation is that the chapter and verse numbers will not be included within the text itself. It has already been mentioned that both numbers were added quite later after the text was written, with the chapters added first and the verse numbers significantly later. Both chapters and verses are useful when someone is searching for a particular text, but the structure they imply is not always helpful. This pair of numerical designations makes the very beginning of the text important. There is always a first verse, and there is not always a thirtieth verse. With this structure, the focus tends to be on the beginning of the writing. The act of writing those verses is probably not the most important thing that the writer wants to get across to the reader. The biblical writers basically wanted the readers to focus on God and not on themselves. The words are much more important than the numbers, and often those words lead the reader near the middle and/or the end of the text in some way, to give to the reader some structure to all the words being read.

It should also be noted that the words with hyphens occur when more than one English word is used to describe a single word of the ancient Greek. And it should also be noted that some of the words chosen below are meant to point out the close connection that often occurs between the English and Greek languages. Now this happens a lot more often than we think. And there are a LOT of options when it comes to translation. It is also important to mention that the order of the words below is also the same order that is in the ancient Greek. This may help to show the important words, especially when another word besides the verb is first in the sentence or phrase. Sometimes this emphasis will be shown with a “(!)”. The exception to this translation order is that there are just a small number of words (like “therefore” and “now”) that are usually second in a sentence that are meant to be first when translated. And although it should be obvious, it should be said that repetition of words should be noted as another type of emphasis. One more thing to mention is that the verbs in capital letters are called HISTORICAL PRESENTS.  Historical presents are somewhat frequent within all the Gospel accounts, but as was mentioned above, they are especially frequent in the Gospel according to John, and they are especially frequent in the resurrection section. The historical present is when a verb in a past tense is expected, but a verb in the present tense is given. More details regarding the historical presents have been explained elsewhere in these writings, so it may be helpful to read some of the other writings of this website. With all of the above things to consider, it will probably be very helpful to have another translation or a study bible nearby as you read the text below.

What follows is an EXTREMELY literal translation of an EXTREMELY short text. Between the two sets of nine commands is the very last part of what has been called the twentieth chapter of the Gospel according to John (20:30-31). The chapter and verse references are given for the commands, to help find them if needed. [And sometimes the text references even have a letter that follows the verse number to break up a long verse into parts.] Hopefully all of that is not too distracting or difficult to understand. And hopefully it is helpful. It is certainly a significant thing for the Son of God to die and to rise to life again. If there were just one account of it, you might think of it as a history lesson. Having four accounts is significantly different. And it is EXTREMELY special. And how best to give that fourth and final account? Why not talk to the person who is reading or listening to it? Why not talk to YOU? That is much better than giving you an exhortation or lots of commands.
1.
HE-SAYS  to-her,  Jesus,  “Not  to-me  A-T-T-A-C-H,  for  not-yet  I-have-gone-up  toward  the  Father;…  [John 20:17a]
2.
…now  T-R-A-V-E-L  toward  the  brothers  of-me…  [John 20:17b]
3.
…and  S-A-Y  to-them,  ‘I-am-going-up  toward  the  Father  of-me  and  Father  of-you,  and  God  of-me  and  God  of-you.’”  [John 20:17c]
4.
And  this  having-said,  he-breathed-in,  and  HE-SAYS  to-them,  “R-E-C-E-I-V-E  Spirit,  Holy.  If  of-anyone  you-forgive  the  sins,  they-have-been-forgiven  to-them;  if  of-anyone  you-hold,  they-have-been-held.”  [John 20:22-23]
5.
Then  HE-SAYS  to-the  Thomas,  “C-A-R-R-Y  the  finger  of-you  here,…  [John 20:27a]
6.
… and  S-E-E  the  hands  of-me,…  [John 20:27b]
7.
…and  C-A-R-R-Y  the  hand  of-you,…  [John 20:27c]
8.
…and  T-H-R-O-W  into  the  side  of-me,…  [John 20:27d]
9.
…and  not  B-E  unbelieving,  but-on-the-contrary,  believing.”  [John 20:27e]
Therefore,  on-the-one-hand,  many  and  other  signs,  he-did,  the  Jesus,  in-front-of  the  disciples  of-him,  which  not  is  having-been-written  in  the  bible,  this;  on-the-other-hand,  these  have-been-written  in-order-that  you-may-believe  in-order-that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of-the  God,  and  in-order-that,  believing,  life(!)  you-may-have  in  the  name  of-him.
1.
Now  the-one  said  to-them,  “T-H-R-O-W  into  the  dexterous  part  of-the  boat,  the  net,  and  you-will-find.”  [John 21:6]
2.
HE-SAYS  to-them,  the  Jesus,  “B-R-I-N-G  from  the  whatever-eaten-with-bread  which  you-caught  presently.  [John 21:10]
3.
HE-SAYS  to-them,  the  Jesus,  “C-O-M-E. . .  you.”  [John 21:12a]
4.
HE-SAYS  to-them,  the  Jesus,  “. . . B-R-E-A-K-F-A-S-T  you.”  [John 21:12b]
5.
HE-SAYS  to-him,  “G-R-A-Z-E  the  lambs  of-me.”  [John 21:15b]
6.
HE-SAYS  to-him,  “S-H-E-P-H-E-R-D  the  sheep  of-me.”  [John 21:16b]
7.
HE-SAYS  to-him,  the  Jesus,  “G-R-A-Z-E  the  sheep  of-me.”  [John 21:17b]
8.
And  this  having-said,  HE-SAYS  to-him,  “F-O-L-L-O-W  me.”  [John 21:19b]
9.
HE-SAYS  to-him,  the  Jesus,  “If  him(!)  I-want  to-remain  until  I-come,  what  toward  you?  You,  me,  F-O-L-L-O-W.”  [John 21:22]
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Hopefully you were not put off by the different translations of “love” and “fish”. (There are usually more options of words for words that are important in the culture at that time.) At the heart (i.e., the middle) of the issue is both Jesus and blessing.
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