And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25)
In this final verse John breaks forth in impassioned declaration concerning the many remarkable things his Master had said and done. He composed his Gospel with certain spiritual objectives in mind and related those events and recorded those sayings that would contribute to these objectives (see p. 892). The other gospel writers did likewise. Consequently many of Jesus’ deeds and acts were left unrecorded.
Could not contain.
The language here is hyperbolic, but effectively serves to emphasize the vastness of the words and works of Jesus. A similar hyperbole from about the period in which John wrote has come to us from Rabban Jochanan ben Zakkai. He is reported to have said, “If the entire heaven were parchment and all the trees writing reeds, and the entire sea ink, that would not be sufficient to write down the wisdom I have learned from my teachers” (see Strack and Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, Vol. 2 p. 587). This Jewish figure has since been popularized in the gospel song “The Love of God,” by F. M. Lehman. In writing of these concluding words of John, Calvin observes, “If the Evangelist, casting his eyes on the mightiness of the majesty of Christ, exclaims in astonishment, that even the whole world could not contain a full narrative of it, ought we to wonder?”