Man Jesus Loved. Theodore W. Jr. Jennings
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an erotic one makes the relationship between Peter and the beloved more intelligible. According to the text, each has particular reasons to seek out the other’s companionship. The beloved has witnessed the death of Jesus. He may be found here seeking consolation. Peter has denied one he followed and loved. Who else to turn to in order to unburden himself and seek forgiveness than the one who was the beloved of the one he had denied?
The race to the tomb tells us that the beloved is faster but that he waits for Peter before going in. One could suppose that he is faster because he is younger. One might suppose that he waits for Peter because here, as elsewhere, Peter is represented as the boldest (despite his cowardice at the trial).13 One may suppose that the loved one hesitates also because he is still traumatized by the sight of the mangled bleeding corpse of his lover only some hours before.
In any case, Peter enters first and sees the grave clothes. The beloved then also enters (seeing no disfigured body) and sees and believes.
Obviously the beloved is by no means the sole witness. Mary is the first, followed by Peter, and then the beloved. Thus the episode does not serve to establish the peculiar authority of the beloved, only his personal status as the beloved.
While the beloved believed, he is not necessarily exemplary of subsequent faith. Rather his status serves to make intelligible his reserve at the entrance to the tomb. The lover is dead, and nothing more was to be expected of him since “they did not yet know the writing that he must rise from the dead.” What then is the object of this “belief”? Thus far simply that the body is not in the tomb. Mary supposes that the body has been stolen or hidden (vv. 11–15).14
Even if, on the basis of the empty tomb, we supposed that the beloved “believed” that Jesus had risen from the dead, this status would not make him a paradigm for the faith of the church which is subsequently identified, in the episode with Thomas, as the believing that proceeds without having seen (20:29).
The episode at the tomb serves to confirm that the beloved is neither an independent source of authority in the church nor a representative of the church as such but is a particular disciple.15 The beloved disciple appears to have a noncompetitive relationship with Peter, the leader of the disciples. The final scene of the narrative confirms this.
Fishfry
We come now to the final episode of the Gospel of John. All of chapter 21 is concerned with a final resurrection appearance of Jesus.16 Peter and several of his friends, a group we later learn includes the beloved, go fishing. A mysterious stranger gives them instructions from the shore concerning the placement of their nets. When the tactic meets with overwhelming success, the beloved recognizes the stranger as Jesus (v. 7) and relays this information to Peter. Peter puts on his clothes in order to swim to the shore while the others follow with the boat, now loaded with fish.17
The scene is consistent with the picture of the beloved disciple and Peter from the preceding material. They are regularly paired and appear as companions, as was also true in the dinner scene of chapter 13 and the tomb scene of chapter 20. As in the tomb scene, Peter acts precipitously (although oddly; he puts on his clothes in order to swim, though it may be more the arrival at shore than the swimming that motivates the putting on of clothes). The beloved defers to Peter in this case—as also at the entrance to the tomb—despite the fact that the beloved is said to be the first to recognize Jesus, as he was the first to arrive at the tomb.
Here, as in all the resurrection appearance stories, something is quite odd about the recognition of Jesus. That is, Jesus is never immediately recognized either in this Gospel or in any of the others. Inferring the identity of the mysterious stranger is always necessary. In the case of this narrative, this inference has been based on the calling of a name (20:16), the demonstration of his wounds (20:20, 27), or, in this final episode, with the result of his instructions. Therefore, that the beloved as well should not recognize Jesus directly but only inferentially is not out of keeping with this feature of appearance narratives.
A long dialogue follows, or rather an interrogation of Peter by Jesus, consisting of a thrice-repeated question: “Peter, do you love me?” Each time Peter replies in the affirmative, and each time he is charged with the care and feeding of Jesus’ sheep. We subsequently consider the vocabulary of love that is used here and throughout the Gospel, but here we should notice that the question addressed to Peter concerns Peter’s love for Jesus. (The triple question may correspond to Peter’s triple negation of Jesus during the trial.) This approach contrasts with the designation of the beloved disciple, not as one who loved Jesus but as the one whom Jesus loved. In this final chapter, he is designated in this way twice (vv. 7, 20).
The dialogue between Jesus and Peter concludes with a proverb about growing old, which is reinterpreted by the narrator as foretelling the crucifixion of Peter. This death is the content of the final injunction to Peter: “Follow me.”
It is here that we again encounter the man Jesus loved:
Turning, Peter sees the disciple that Jesus loved following them, who also was the one who leaned on Jesus’ chest at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is the one betraying you?” Peter seeing this one says to Jesus, “Lord, and what of him?” Jesus says to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” The saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple is not to die. But Jesus didn’t say that he doesn’t die, but: “If I want him to stay until I come, what’s it to you?”
Compared to Peter, the beloved clearly plays a very minor role in this episode. Indeed he is utterly silent and passive save for the initial recognition of Jesus and his “hanging around” while Peter and Jesus talk.
The final appearance of the beloved recalls his first appearance in the Gospel and reminds the reader of his intimacy with Jesus, as indicated by physical proximity and affectionate stance. Thus the cycle of texts concerning the disciple Jesus loved comes to a kind of closure.
Once again we are reminded of the relationship between this disciple and Peter. The beloved disciple had told Peter of the identity of the mysterious stranger. Here Peter expresses solicitude for the beloved of Jesus. In this way we may say that Peter is, in a sense, beginning the task that Jesus had set for him: caring for those whom Jesus had cared for. In any case the close relationship between Peter and the beloved is a constant feature of these texts.
But Jesus here interdicts this care of Peter for the beloved, making it clear that though Peter is charged with responsibility for the others (the sheep) he does not have the same responsibility for the beloved (“what is that to you?”). Jesus makes himself responsible for the fate of the man he loves. Once again the beloved is distinguished from the others who are entrusted to Peter’s care. His special relationship to Jesus abides.
No commission is given to the beloved that would place him in competition with Peter, the beloved’s fate is simply Jesus’ concern.
“The brothers” thought it appropriate that the beloved, whatever might befall the rest, should remain alive until the return of Jesus—understood here as the consummation of Jesus’ mission in the reign of justice and joy on earth. The text disputes their interpretation, but for our purposes, that “the brothers” should have imagined that the beloved might very well be protected from harm so as to be the one to welcome Jesus on his return is significant.18
The story again is perfectly intelligible from the standpoint of a homoerotic interpretation of the relationship between Jesus and the beloved.
This personal relationship does not seem to be a relationship that entails any special mission or responsibility on the part of the beloved. The task of serving as Jesus’ stand-in falls to all the disciples who have been sent, just as Jesus was sent (20:21). If anyone has an “official” capacity, that disciple is Peter, who is to “tend my sheep” (21:15–17). The role of the beloved is in no way “official.” He is not