One of my favorite passages in John's gospel; an oldy but a goody. Of course, it's the New Testament... what isn't old but good?

I think, sometimes, the best Bible study can be done sans commentary; sometimes, as they say, the plain sense of the passage is enough, and specific deeper meaning may suggest itself to the individual.

The backstory: Jesus has been strung up, and has manifested himself as risen from the dead on a few occasions already, when this is recorded:

Simon [Peter] said, "I'm going fishing." They said to him, "We're coming with you." They went and got into the boat, but that night they didn't catch anything.

Just as the day was breaking, Jesus [Yeshua] stood on the shore, but the disciples [talmidim] didn't know it was him.

He said to them, "You don't have any fish, do you?"

"No," they answered him.

He said to them, "Throw in your net to starboard and you will catch some." So, they threw in their net, and there were so many fish in it that they couldn't haul it aboard. The disciple [talmid] Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" On hearing it was the Lord, Peter threw on his coat, because he was stripped for work, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they weren't far from shore — only about a hundred yards.

Peter, our great Everyman disciple, is here seen as so flustered that this professional fisherman puts on clothes and then jumps in the water to swim to shore, flying in the face of common sense.

When they stepped ashore, they saw a fire of burning coals with a fish on it, and some bread. ... Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." ...

This passage, John chapter 21, verses 1-23, contains this little perfect miniature of the fire on the beach with the fish and bread. This is one of the bits of the Bible that struck me when I finally, actually read it. It is the sort of thing one doesn't often encounter in general literature, let alone ancient literature. It's just not — your usual holy-book stuff.

After breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon Bar-Jochanan, do you love me more than these?"

There follows the famed passage where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him. mirroring the three-fold denial of Jesus by Peter during the Passover. I am pleased to think of Jesus eating a nice, leisurely, quiet repast with his disciples before asking Peter the Big Questions. Then:

"[Jesus says] Yes; indeed! I tell you ,when you were younger, you put on your clothes and went where you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." He said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would bring glory to God.

Then Jesus said to him, "Follow me!"

Peter turned and saw the disciple Jesus loved following behind... On seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, "What about him?"

I swear; the Bible doesn't get any better than this!

I cannot speak for other the other books of other religions, but mine speaks to me deeply when it relates the tale of a man, who is at that moment talking to the Incarnate Word of God by Which All Things Were Made, and the man, hearing something less than pleasant from that Word, turns, notices the other guy, and says to God: "Er — what about him?"