Week 3 - John 1:35-51 - The First Disciples

John the Baptist continued to point away from himself and to Jesus as the Messiah.  Two of his own disciples who were nearby heard him.

John 1:29

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

But oddly only one of them was named.

John 1:40

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

The second disciple is not named but it is generally understood (by both the early church fathers and current scholarship) that it was John, this Gospel’s author, for he never mentions himself (John 18:15; John 20:2–8).

If true, the prior section comes into sharper focus as the recording of the testimony of John the Baptist, by his disciple at the time, John.  In the narration, he did not assert his own witness out of respect for his Rabbi (Matthew 10:24; Luke 6:40).

Again, John's purpose in his gospel is to prove the divinity of Jesus.  He then records the miraculous exchange between Jesus and Nathanael.  When Jesus identifies as "an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!", Nathanael recoils and asks "How do you know me?".  Jesus' response demonstrates his omnipresence.

John 1:48b

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Jesus spoke of Nathanael’s private moment, possibly studying scripture before Phillip arrived.  Speculation points to the use of “deceit” in Psalms 32:1-5 so he may have been shocked to hear the passage recited back to him!

In a you-think-that-was-great moment, Jesus tells them not of the miracles to come that of healing or raising the dead, but rather the blessing they will all receive if they follow Him.  

John 1:50-51

Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,[a] you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

That is the blessing that Jacob received (Genesis 28; Genesis 32) as he was transformed from the trickster (yaʿăqōḇ) in Genesis 25:26 to the tenacious Israel (yiśrā'ēl) in Genesis 32:28.

So, this was not an event they would see, but rather a blessing they would receive, the Emanuel, God-with-us (Matthew 1:23, John 1:14), if they too prevailed.