 |  |
asked for His address. "Come", He replied, "and you will see". So they went where He
was staying and spent the remainder of the day with Him. One of them was Andrew and
the other was possibly John the Apostle. Andrew, keen to share the great discovery, goes
to find his brother Simon in order to tell him. He said "we have found the Messiah (that
is the Christ)". The Evangelist translates the Aramaic Messiah into Greek, as he does
with other Jewish words, such as Cephas (1: 42), Siloam (9: 7), Rabboni (20: 16) and
Rabbi (1: 38), and this was for the benefit of his Gentile readers, for no Jew needed to be
told the meaning of these words for they were his own language.
Andrew and John had made the greatest discovery of the ages, their Messiah, Saviour
and King! And wisely they sought to pass the tremendous news to others. What an
example to all of us! When Simon came to Christ He looked at him and said, "You are
Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, being interpreted, is Peter).
Cephas is Aramaic (meaning rock). The word is Kepha, to which a final `s' is added to
adopt it to the Greek tongue. This name is applied to Peter only by this Gospel and the
apostle Paul (I Cor. 1: 12; Gal. 1: 18, etc.).
We then read in 1: 43 "The next day (the fourth) Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.
Finding Philip, He said to him, `Follow Me'.". Where did Philip come from? Most
likely from the activity of Andrew who had already brought his brother to the Lord.
Philip, in his turn, passes on the thrilling message to Nathanael. One after another shares
the news with someone else. This is the finest way of making disciples and spreading the
truth! Nathanael means "God has given". The earthly disciples mentioned in these
verses occur in the lists of the Twelve Apostles given by the Synoptic Evangelists.
Nathanael appears there under the alternative name of Bartholomew (the son of Tholomai
or Ptolemy), and is linked with Philip in Matt. 10: 3, Mark 3: 18 and Luke 6: 14.
Instead of referring to Christ as the Messiah, Philip describes Him as the One of
Whom Moses wrote and the prophets too; Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth. For
some reason unknown to us, Nazareth had a bad reputation. "Can any good thing come
out of Nazareth?" Nathanael asked. He was a Galilean from Cana (John 21: 2) and
therefore knew something about Nazareth; which was an unimportant place anyway.
Philip wisely said "Come and see (for yourself)". First hand knowledge is better than
guesswork.
When the Lord saw Nathanael, He recognized straight away his sound character, and
said, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false" (1: 47); a fine testimony
indeed. Nathanael was amazed at Christ's words. He had obviously not seen the Lord
before this. The Lord Jesus, as this Gospel testifies, knows infallibly what is in the mind
of every person and He demonstrated this by saying to Nathanael, "I saw you while you
were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you". Doubtless the large fig leaves hid
him from view, but not from the all-seeing eyes of Christ. Nathanael's response was
immediate. He said "Rabbi (Teacher), you are the Son of God; you are the King of
Israel" (1: 49). His was a quick conversation, but nevertheless it was the real thing.
Christ assured him that he would see greater things. "Verily, verily", He said, "you shall
see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man".