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John Segment 3

All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
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Let me remind you that the sentence structure of this verse is more easily understood this way: "The next day John was standing with his disciples again..." The two disciples were Andrew (v. 40) and John who wrote this Gospel. Note that they immediately followed Jesus as soon as John the Baptist pointed Him out to them. 

This makes it obvious that John had told of them his mission and had told them the story of Jesus' baptism and the descending of the Spirit. They had evidently believed John when he said that Jesus was preferred before him and was greater than he was. John probably said to them what he said to the Jews in John 3:30, that Christ must increase and he, John, must decrease. Whatever he had told Andrew and John, it caused them to immediately break company with John, the one making the paths straight for the Messiah, and immediately follow the Messiah. Do you blame them? John told them that the Messiah was greater than he was. It is easily comprehended.

(John 1:38) Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

Jesus asked them what they wanted to help them to understand what they were doing. He knew that they were to be His disciples, but He wanted them to understand. By asking them what they wanted, He made them tell Him in their own words. They wanted to go with Him.

Rabbi is from the Hebrew words rab, meaning "abundant in rank", and bi, meaning "my". It means my master or my teacher. Here the word master is didaskale, which is instructor or teacher.

They asked where he stayed or abode. The word, meno, means to stay, but it has many shadings of meaning. At this time, during His ministry, Jesus had no real place to stay. He abode on the road, if you will. His abode was with the people, teaching them about Himself and about the Kingdom of Heaven. They really wanted to see what he was about. They would become His disciples. But it is obvious that Jesus had a place to stay at that time. Perhaps it was with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany, very near the spot where John was baptizing.

(John 1:39) He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.

By Jewish reckoning, it was about 4:00 PM when they arrived at His abode. By Jewish reckoning, the first hour is 6 AM or PM, therefore the tenth hour is 4 AM or PM. The context tells us it was 4 PM, instead of AM.

But the Romans began counting their hours at midnight, just as we do. By that reckoning, it would have been ten AM. That would have given them all day to learn form Jesus that He was indeed the Messiah. The fact that the verse says "they abode with Him that day" indicated that the Roman reckoning is probably correct. Four PM would have allowed only an hour or two before sunset and that would have been a very short day. The long day would have given Jesus all day to begin to teach them.

They stayed with Him from that day until His crucifixion, actually until the ends of their lives. They followed him and became his disciples, and that was their intent from the beginning of this narrative.

John never directly mentions himself in this Gospel. He is one of the two who heard John the Baptist say, "Behold, the Lamb of God." The other he mentions by name. Andrew means manly. Simon is the Greek word for Simeon, which means hearing. Andrew and Peter were the sons of Jonah (Mat 16:17). Peter is petros, or a rock that is moveable. Jesus gave him that name (v. 42).

Messias is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word, mashiyach, meaning Messiah or anointed. The Greek for anointed is christos, Christ. Andrew (and John) knew Jesus was the Christ because John had told them and because they had spent the day with Jesus learning it. Jesus Christ means "Anointed Savior".

(John 1:42) And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

Simon or Simeon means "hearing". Jona, yona, means "dove". Simon son of Jona means hearing, son of the dove, which is emblematic of the Holy Spirit, or one who hears the Holy Spirit. Compare Mat. 16:15-18 where barjona means son of the dove.

Cephas (pronounced Kefas) is the Hebrew word for a hollow rock. The phrase, "A stone" is the translation of the Greek word, petros, from which we get Peter. Most translations simply transliterate petros to Peter. Petros means a piece of a rock, or a little rock, as opposed to a large boulder, an outcropping, or bedrock.

 (John 1:43) The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

The phrase "would go forth" actually means "decided to go". So a better rendering is, "The next day Jesus decided to go into Galilee. There He found Philip..."

Either Philip knew who Jesus was, or Jesus' commanding presence made Philip want to follow Him.

Let's do some more translating. Philip means lover of horses. Bethsaida means house of fish. Of Course, Andrew and Peter were fishermen from the house of fish. It is likely that Philip was also a fisherman since fishing was the main industry of Bethsaida. This is not Philip the deacon in Acts who led the Ethiopian Eunuch to Christ. They are two different people. Some say they are the same man. Yet if they were that same, then the idea of appointing seven men to wait tables so the Apostles could do their work of evangelism would be moot. If Philip was an Apostle, how could he wait on tables and preach as well? That would defeat the purpose of deacons. No, Philip the deacon is a different person than Philip the Apostle.

According to Eusebius, Philip was married and had several children. According to Clement of Alexandria, one of the ante-Nicene church fathers, Philip is the one mentioned in Matthew 8:21- 23 as the one who wanted to go and bury his father: "And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him."

It is obvious from this statement that Philip was not in Jesus' presence when he found Nathanael. If Jesus had been there would not Philip have simply introduced Nathanael to Jesus instead of treating Jesus as a person outside of his conversation? Jesus had not met Nathanael. This is an important bit of information to remember.

Nathanael is not mentioned in all of the lists of the Twelve. Neither is Bartholomew. When Nathanael is mentioned, Bartholomew is not and vice versa. It is a safe assumption that Nathanael and Bartholomew are one and the same person. Nathanael means "given of God" and is therefore a given name. Bartholomew means son of Ptolemy, which is a patronym, or family name. So this could have been Nathanael son of Ptolemy or Nathanael bar Tolmai.

Nazareth is either from the Hebrew word nester, meaning branch or shoot (Isa 11.1), or nazar, meaning separated. Smith's Bible Dictionary renders it "the guarded one". Dr. Strong tells us it is from an unknown derivation. It is unsure what it actually means, but the words "branch" and "separated" both apply to Jesus.

The entire Bible is about Jesus Christ, so Moses and the prophets mention him many times in many different ways.

Nathanael (gift of God) was from Galilee, a place scorned by the Jews closer to Jerusalem because of their accent and their close proximity to the heathen. Galileans were already scorned, but Nathanael, a Galilean, looked down on Nazareth (itself a city of Galilee). Remember the Jews asking, "Shall Christ come out of Galilee?" (John 7:41) Nothing is known about how or why Nazareth came to be scorned by the scorned, but we have this passage to tell us it was. The prophets predicted humble beginnings for Messiah (e.g. Isaiah 53:2), and Galilee was a humble place. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would indeed come out of Galilee in Isaiah 9:1-2. It appears that Nazareth was a humble town in a humble district. It appears that no one expected any good to come from anyone from Nazareth, not even other Galileans.

(John 1:47) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

How did Jesus know about Nathanael?

(John 1:48-49) Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. {49} Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

Most commentaries will tell you that Jesus saw Nathanael sitting under a fig tree at some point when Nathanael did not see Him. If that is so, how did such an incident prove to Nathanael that Jesus was the Son of God? There must something more to this verse than strikes the eye. I like the way the literal translation by J.P. Green puts it: "Before Philip called you, being under the fig tree, I saw you." In other words, Jesus knew him even before Philip got to him. In my personal opinion (you must decide for yourself), Jesus knew him supernaturally, and had never been to the spot where Nathanael was; and I think that Nathanael knew it. That is why he called Jesus the Son of God and King of Israel.

Sitting under a fig tree is a euphemism for being studious. Scholars often sought out the shade of a tree like the fig in which to study. Jesus said Nathanael was an Israelite in whom there was no guile just because he was sitting in the shade of a fig tree as scholars did. The Greek here is emphatic. Jesus said He saw Nathanael sitting not under any fig tree, but under the fig tree. The Greek is upo thn sukhn, or hupo ten suken, under the (emphatic) fig tree. It would seem that this was the particular fig tree in Bethsaida under which scholars sat. Since Nathanael was sitting under that particular fig tree, he was probably studying, meditating, or praying, showing him to be indeed "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."

Because Jesus knew him without ever having met him and saw him under the fig tree without ever having been present at that fig tree, Nathanael believed He was supernatural and therefore that He was indeed the Son of God.

(John 1:50) Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

Because of his faith, Jesus blessed him and gave him a glimpse of the future. Nathanael would witness the miracles, the death and resurrection and the ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Then he would see other Apostles do miracles and he himself would perform miracles.

 (John 1:51) And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

"Verily, verily I say unto you" in the Greek is: Amen, amen, lego humin. (Amen amen lego umin). Amen is an English, Greek, and Hebrew (as well as many other languages) word. In all three languages (and others) it means truly, verily, so be it, etc.

Let's discuss you, thee, thou, thy, thine and, ye in King James English. You, thee, thou, thy, and thine are addressed to a single person, that is, you. Ye (and sometimes you) is addressed to more than one person, that is, all of you. You, thee, thou, thy, and thine are singular pronouns, and ye (and sometimes you) is plural. You is normally used for the plural objective. You would not, for example, say, "I give this to ye." On the contrary, you would say, "I give this to you." Normally when you is used as the subject, it is singular. The context will usually tell you when you as an object is plural. Ye as the subject is always plural. These distinctions are very evident in the original tongues, but are lost in the modern translations. This is not addressed specifically to Nathanael but to all of those present. Jesus is telling those with him, John, Peter, Andrew, and Nathanael that they would see these things. He was specifically addressing Peter and John, who (with James, John's brother) would be with Him at the mount of transfiguration (Mat.17:2, Mark 9:2). Of course all of them would ultimately experience this in Heaven with Jesus.

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