Prior to this John the Baptist has been preaching and baptising. He proclaims that the one who is to come has arrived, Jesus. He points him out from the crowd saying he is the lamb of God and the spirit of God rests on Jesus in the form of a dove. So far two days have gone by since the introduction of John’s ministry.
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples;
“The next day” so this would be the third day since the start of the narrative. This is important to John’s Gospel framework as he orients everything around days/weeks. The Baptist is standing with two of his disciples. A disciple is a student and John the Baptist appeared to have many based on his influence but the text only tells us about these particular two as they are instrumental in the story as it pertains to Jesus.
36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
The Baptist looks at Jesus as he walked by and proclaims again that he is the Lamb of God. Lambs were used for the Passover meal and for sin offerings in the sacrificial liturgies of the Temple but the Baptist is positioning Jesus as this Lamb.
37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
The two disciples hear John the Baptist say this and decide they will follow Jesus. One of these disciples will be named in a few verses, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter but the other disciple is not named and never is. This would be the Beloved disciple who is John, the Gospel author himself.
This unnamed disciple being John would make a lot of sense as that would explain how he had so much more dialogue of the Baptist’s ministry, because he was literally there. It would also explain his deeper sense of theology than the other accounts, as John the Evangelist’s younger mind was formed by his discipleship of the Prophet John the Baptist, then going on to be a disciple of Jesus whereas the other Apostle Matthew and the other Gospel authors did not have the same depth of philosophical or theological formation.
38 Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
Jesus, realising that he is being followed, asks the disciples “What do you seek?” these are the first words of Jesus’ in John’s Gospel. Considering his divinity, Jesus already knows the answer to this question, he is inviting them in to explain for themselves. It is probably important from a theological standpoint for this to be the first words that John relays of Jesus. The first thing he asks us is “What do you seek?” A question for all of us, not just the two disciples.
The two disciples respond by calling Jesus “Rabbi” and John narrates for us the meaning of the term “Teacher”. The fact that John translates this term for his audience suggests he expects his readers to not be familiar with Jewish terminology. So he perceives his audience to be mostly Gentile. The question they propose to Jesus is “Where are you staying?” they want to spend time with Jesus beyond their immediate encounter.
39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
Jesus responds to their question with an invitation. He tells them to “come and see”. Instead of just telling them the location he invites them to come with him in order to see the answer to their question. The disciples came,they saw where he was staying and they remained with him for the rest of that third day of John’s narrative. John tells his audience it was “about the tenth hour”. This would not be 10AM or 10PM as this what not their structure of time. Hours were counted from sunup which would be around 6AM. So the tenth hour would be approximately 4PM. They spent the rest of the evening with Jesus.
40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
Now John the Evangelist introduces one of the disciples who heard the Baptist speak and followed Jesus. He introduces him as the Apostle Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Andrew is one of the peculiarly named Apostles because “Andreas” does not have an easy to ascertain Hebrew equivalent name unlike his brother “Simon” whose Jewish name was Shimon. Andreas is actually a Greek name, Andrew probably just used it because of his interactions with Greek society more than his fellow Jews, he would be the interpreter between his fellow Jews and Greeks later in their lives.
41 He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
The first thing Andrew does is find his brother Simon and he does so in order to tell him that they have found the “Messiah” and again John narrates for us the translation as “Christ”. This is because Messiah actually comes from the Hebrew meshiah which means “Anointed One” The Greek equivalent is “Christos” from which we get Christ.
42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
Now Andrew brings his brother, Simon, to Jesus. Jesus then looks at Simon and after acknowledging him by his real name “Simon the Son of John” tell foretells the name that he will be called in the future, Jesus tells him “You shall be called Cephas”. Just like with the other Jewish or Aramaic terminologies that would be confusing to a Gentile audience, John the Evangelist translates this for us. He tells us that Cephas means Peter.
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