The narration for today's text attempts to establish a seamless connection with what has been recorded in chapter 20. "After these things" (v.1) provides a transition statement which allows the action to continue, although the setting has shifted from the environs in and around Jerusalem to the Sea of Tiberias some 65 miles north. The group has reconvened on their home turf. Thomas is noted as being back where he belongs.

At Simon Peter's suggestion, they agree to go fishing. If they intended to return to their former occupation, it was an inauspicious resumption of a career. They toiled throughout the night and "caught" not a single fish (v.3). (The word "caught" is only rarely used to describe the capture of animals, and is used by John at least six times to describe the arrest of Jesus.…