28 

28:16 With the soldier - To whom he was chained, as the Roman custom was.

28:17 And after three days - Given to rest and prayer, Paul called the chief of the Jews together - He always sought the Jews first; but being now bound, he could not so conveniently go round to them. Though I have done nothing - Seeing him chained, they might have suspected he had. Therefore he first obviates this suspicion.

28:19 When the Jews opposed it - He speaks tenderly of them, not mentioning their repeated attempts to murder him. Not that I had any thing to accuse my nation of - Not that I had any design to accuse others, but merely to defend myself.

28:20 The hope of Israel - What Israel hopes for, namely, the Messiah and the resurrection.

21 

21:20 Peter turning - As he was walking after Christ. Seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following him - There is a peculiar spirit and tenderness in this plain passage. Christ orders St. Peter to follow him in token of his readiness to be crucified in his cause. St. John stays not for the call; he rises and follows him too; but says not one word of his own love or zeal. He chose that the action only should speak this; and even when he records the circumstance, he tells us not what that action meant, but with great simplicity relates the fact only. If here and there a generous heart sees and emulates it, be it so; but he is not solicitous that men should admire it.It was addressed to his beloved Master, and it was enough that he understood it.

21:22 If I will that he tarry - Without dying, till I come - To judgment.Certainly he did tarry, till Christ came to destroy Jerusalem.And who can tell, when or how he died? What is that to thee? - Who art to follow me long before.

21:23 The brethren - That is, the Christians. Our Lord himself taught them that appellation, Joh 20:17.Yet Jesus did not say to him, that he should not die - Not expressly.And St. John himself, at the time of writing his Gospel, seems not to have known clearly, whether he should die or not.

21:24 This is the disciple who testifieth - Being still alive after he had wrote. And we know that his testimony is true - The Church added these words to St. John's, Gospel, as Tertius did those to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Rom 16:22.

21:25 If they were to be written particularly - Every fact, and all the circumstances of it. I suppose - This expression, which softens the hyperbole, shows that St. John wrote this verse.