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could not have been Jews. Not only is "Rabbi" interpreted, but so also is "Cephas"
(1: 42); "Messias" (1: 41); "Siloam" (9: 7) and "Rabboni" (20: 16).
Possibly the question "Where dwellest Thou?" covered deeper feelings, but, whatever
their degree, the Lord is not One who quenches smoking flax, and He replied by the
invitation, "Come and see". No description is given of the humble abode of the
Son of God, but one cannot refrain from thinking of the wonder of those few hours spent
beneath that roof with such a teacher. From that abode these two disciples went forth
with the conviction that they had found the Messiah. "One of the two which heard John
speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother" (John 1: 40). Who was the
other, unnamed, disciple? John never names himself in this Gospel: in the ordinary way
he would almost certainly have given the names of both disciples. So also we read later
in the epistle:--
"And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple; that disciple was
known unto the high priest" (John 18: 15).
"When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved,
He saith unto His mother, Woman behold thy son. Then saith He to the disciple, Behold
thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home" (John 19: 26,
27).
Again, in John 20: 2, 3, 4, 8 and 21: 7, 20, 23, 24, we have references to "that
disciple". The last reference, however, leaves no room for doubt: "This is the disciple
which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things" (John 21: 24).
The statement in verse 41, "He first findeth his own brother Simon", seems to demand
the sequel, "and John then found his own brother James". However, it is to Andrew's
testimony that attention must now be given.
"We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ" (John 1: 41).
The express object of John's Gospel is that we may believe that "Jesus is the Christ
the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through His name" (John 20: 31).
Andrew's testimony, therefore, is timely, and if we need to be informed on the point, we
may learn from the parenthesis that "the Christ" is the Greek interpretation of the Hebrew
"Messiah". We may then discover that the "Messiah" is "the Anointed", Mashiach
(Psa. 2: 2), and that this anointing applies to the Prophet (I Kings 19: 16), the Priest
(Exod. 29: 7), and the King (II Sam. 2: 4). The choice of every theme in John's
Gospel, the production of every witness, and the omission of much that is found in other
Gospels is made with the view of demonstrating this glorious fact. Andrew's testimony
therefore is directly to the point. Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. The Lord
confirms the faith of the disciples in His Messiahship, by the re-naming of Simon. The
name Cephas means "a stone", and re-naming proved to be prophetic (Matt. 16: 18).
We must now turn to Philip's testimony. We do not know how Philip became
acquainted with the Lord; whether he also had heard John the Baptist; or whether his
was a personal call, but we are informed that Philip was of the same city as Andrew and
Peter, a circumstance of itself likely to form a bond between them. However that may be,