John Chapter 1 D

Quotes about the Gospel of John:

1. Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. – Genesis 22:8
2. “…like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7
3. “No sincere soul seeks or follows after Crist in vain. ‘Seek and ye shall find’ is His own blessed promise.” – A.W. Pink

Baptizer’s Testimony About Jesus

Read Isaiah 53. Prophesy of the ONE to come.

Read John 1:29 – Ask yourself -What significance is the lamb to Israel?

• Genesis 4:1-4 The sacrifice is offered for the individual.
• Exodus 12:1-3 The sacrifice is offered for the household.
• Leviticus 16:33-34 The sacrifice is offered for the nation of Israel.
• John 1:29 Behold the sacrifice from God for the entire world Jew as well as Gentile.

Read John 1:30-34 – Ask yourself – Who is John talk too and what is he saying?

• Vs. 30-34
  • John the Baptist is identifying to the crowd Jesus is the “prophet”, the “messiah”, the “God of Israel.”
    • The prophet b/c “After me comes a man who ranks before me” vs. 30. John was a prophet for Jesus; Jesus is THE prophet for the nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 18:18-19
    • The messiah b/c “He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” vs. 33.
    • The God b/c “He was before me” vs. 30, “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” vs. 34.  

Following the Rabbi

Read John 1:35-38 – Ask yourself – Why does Jesus ask them, “what do you seek”?

• Jesus asks the question from a spiritual perspective not from a physical perspective. He knows Andrew and the “Other disciple” standing there want to be His disciples, but why is what Jesus really wants them to figure out. Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism says, “What is the chief end of man?” Find the answer here. As Christians we should be seeking this first. Matt 6:33
• Jesus asked A LOT of questions. The reason is there was a Jewish Rabbinic technique where they would begin a debate or dialogue with a question. And the response from the group comes in the form of a question. The question that comes is first of all an answer to the first question, and it also extends into a deeper level.
  • Jesus asks many questions throughout the Gospels. Many times, He would respond to a question with another question and inside that question would be the answer. It made people think, not just about what Jesus was asking, but why was this question asked in the first place. Introspective is the term that comes to mind

Vs. 38 – Ask Yourself – What is a Rabbi?

• Rabbi was a title that meant more than just “a teacher”, though, that is what they were. Rabbi means “great one” or “my master”. It was used as a term of respect for one’s teacher. Calling someone Rabbi was giving them respect for what they knew. Full expose on Rabbis go here  
• As a boy Jesus grew up memorizing and studying the Old Testament scriptures. Most all young Jewish boys spent their youth studying and memorizing.
  • Professor and Rabbi Shmuel Safrai, professor emeritus of Jewish History of the Mishnaic and Talmudic Period at the Hebrew University, writes this: “The Scriptures were known almost by heart by everyone. From quite early in the Second Temple period, one could hardly find a little boy in the street who didn’t know the Scriptures. According to Jerome (A.D.342-420) who lived in Bethlehem and learned Hebrew from local Jewish residents in order to translate the Scriptures into Latin (producing the Vulgate Bible): “There doesn’t exist any Jewish child who doesn’t know by heart the history from Adam to Zerubbabel (i.e., from the beginning to the end of the OT Bible).” Perhaps this was a bit of an exaggeration on Jerome’s part, but in most cases his reports have proved reliable. (“Safrai,” lecture on June 5, 1985)
• When Jesus began His public ministry, He had not only received the rigorous religious training typical of the average Jewish man of His day, but He had also obviously spent time studying in the Temple with the most outstanding Rabbis’ in Galilee. Luke 2:41-52
•  In Jesus’ day there were two types of Rabbis. The first were called “Torah teachers” and there was a smaller group called “Rabbis with semikhah”. “Torah teachers” could not come up with new teachings, they could only teach what they had learned from their Rabbi. “Rabbis with semikhah”. “Semikhah” means authority and they could teach new concepts and go beyond their Rabbi’s teachings. That is why there were a lot less of these types of Rabbis than “Torah teachers”. Guess which one Jesus was?
• “Torah teachers”
  • The word Torah is used to speak of the first five books of the Bible. Torah teachers were people who were considered to be masters of the Torah, which meant they knew the first five books of the Bible by memory. Secondly, they were master teachers; they could use parables and alliteration. They were recognized by the community as teachers of God’s Word. A Torah teacher could only teach what the community believed was right. They could not come up with new teachings. A Torah teacher would teach in three parts like this:

1. It is written—he would quote the text by memory.

2. And that means—he would explain using parables or stories.

3. According to—and then he would quote one of their Rabbis as authority to the meaning he had given for the text.

• “Rabbis with semikhah” were masters of the Torah and the Haftorah. Haftorah is a Hebrew word that simply means: “the rest.” They were masters of the whole Tanakh. Tanakh is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. The acronym is based on the initial Hebrew letters of each of the text’s three parts: These Rabbis knew the entire Tanakh by memory.     
  • Torah, meaning: “Instruction”—”The five books of Moses,” also called the “Pentateuch.”
  • Nevi’im, meaning: “Prophets.”
  • Ketuvim, meaning: “Writings” or “Hagiographa.”
• Hillell, Shammai, Gamliel were all Rabbi’s that had semikhah. This was their teaching method: It was written… You have heard that that means this… But I tell you it means this… See the resemblance to Jesus’ teaching methods? Matt 5:27-28 is an example

Read John 1:39-42 Come and See and about the 10^th hour?

• Vs. 39 – Jesus said to them, “Come and you will see”
  • This was a rabbinic expression drawing attention to something new or something important. Andrew and the “other disciple” wanted to know where Jesus was staying, but Jesus wanted to do more than that and give them insight to spiritual things and open them up to a world they had never known
  • A disciple of a Rabbi studies under them because they want to be like their Rabbi. Andrew, the “other disciple” and soon to be Simon called Cephas were about to embark on something that would change their life forever
• The tenth hour – This was not based on Roman time keeping, but Hebrew time keeping. The Jews kept time from 6:00PM to 6:00PM as 1 full day. Roman time was 12:00AM to 12:00AM which we use today. The tenth hour was 4:00PM Jewish (Hebrew) time and to them that was getting late in the evening
• Why does the writer put this in the text? Who cares what time it was? I like what this commentator said. It was the time that the writer of the Gospel of John became a Christian and to him it was important to document. I agree.
• Vs. 42 – Andrew the brother of Simon named Peter bring Peter in and introduced him to the Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth. Here Jesus names him Cephas which is Aramaic for “rock”. Peter is the Greek translation. Simon the son of John, but in Matthew 16:17 Peter is identified as “son of Jonah”. Which is it? The Greek translates sometimes translates John and Jonah as the same name just like Simon and Simeon. There is no Biblical error or discrepancy.  For reference on Greek translations like this go here