Abstract
In John 21:14, two verbs are, from the viewpoint of syntax, in the passive voice. Do we face here a divine passive—the action of God in raising and revealing the dead Jesus but not explicitly stated as such? Or is this passive voice to be understood as ‘middle’ voice? Jesus inasmuch as he is divine performs the action (resurrection) and ‘receives’ the results of his action, the new risen life in which he appears. By ignoring the possibilities of middle voice, some translations miss the significance of ending John’s Gospel by proclaiming the active involvement of Jesus (as divine) in his own resurrection from the dead and appearance to the disciples—a belief already presented by the Fourth Gospel.
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