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8. The first
Disciples of Jesus.
John saw Jesus coming
to him again and said to those standing with him, ‘Behold, this is the
Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said:
After me comes a man who was before me, for he was before me.’ - Another
time, when he saw Jesus again, he also said to his disciples: ‘Behold,
this is the Lamb of God!’ Two of them accompanied Jesus to his home and
stayed with him that day. One of the two, named Andrew, met his brother
Simon afterwards and said to him with joy, ‘We have found the Messiah.’
He led him to Jesus, and Jesus gave him a new name, Cephas or Peter.
Cephas and Peter are one. When Jesus wanted to return to Galilee, he met
a man called Philip and said to him: ‘Follow me!’ Philip comes to
Nathanael and tells him: ‘We have found the one Moses and the prophets
wrote about. He is Jesus, Joseph's son from Nazareth.’
Nazareth must otherwise have been a despised place. For when Nathanael
heard his name, he said, ‘What good can come from Nazareth?’ Philip
replied, ‘Come and see for yourself.’ Shortly or long before, Nathanael
had been sitting alone under a fig tree. Whether it was that he had
prayed a devout prayer there, or that he had thought or done something
else good, when Jesus saw him coming towards him, he said of him,
‘Behold, a righteous Israelite, in whom is no guile.’ Nathanael was
astonished at this speech and said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus
answered him: ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig
tree, I saw you.’ Nathanael was even more astonished and said, ‘Rabbi,
you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Rabbi, however, is
a name of honour and means about as much as saying Lord today. Jesus
said to him, ‘Now you believe, because I told you that I saw you under
the fig tree. But you will see greater things than this.’ These later
became his disciples, devout men whom he chose to be witnesses of his
teachings and deeds and to learn from him. But when John saw how many
people were turning away from him to Jesus, the humble man said: ‘My joy
is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who is of the
earth is of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.’
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