How does testimony to the Word lead into personal encounters?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The prologue identifies the Word and light, while John’s testimony and invitations connect Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathanael with Jesus.

Chapter breakdown

The Word is with God in the beginning and is God. Everything made is made through him; nothing made exists apart from him. His life is humanity’s light, shining in darkness that does not comprehend it. John is sent from God to testify to the light so that all might believe through him; he is not himself the light. The true light enlightens every person coming into the world. The world made through him does not know him, and his own do not receive him. Those receiving him and believing in his name receive power to become God’s sons, born of God rather than blood or human will. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among the witnesses, who see glory as of the Father’s only begotten, full of grace and truth. John testifies that the one coming after him is preferred because he was before him. All receive from his fullness, grace for grace. Moses gives the law; grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God; the only begotten Son in the Father’s bosom declares him.

Priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem ask John who he is. He denies being Christ, Elias or the prophet. Asked what answer they can bring to their senders, he identifies himself through Isaias as the wilderness voice calling for the Lord’s straight way. The delegates are of the Pharisees. They ask why he baptizes without those identities. He answers that he baptizes with water, while one unknown to them stands among them, coming after him but preferred before him; John is unworthy to loosen his shoe strap. This occurs at Bethania beyond the Jordan, where he baptizes.

The next day John sees Jesus approaching and calls him God’s Lamb who takes away the world’s sin. He repeats the preference of the one coming after him, because that one was before him. He says he did not know him, but came baptizing to manifest him to Israel. John testifies that he saw the Spirit descend like a dove from heaven and remain upon Jesus. His sender had identified the one on whom the descending Spirit remains as the baptizer with the Holy Ghost. John testifies that he saw and that this is God’s Son.

The next day John again stands with two disciples and calls the walking Jesus God’s Lamb. They hear and follow. Jesus asks what they seek; calling him Rabbi, explained as Master, they ask where he lives. He invites them to come and see; they see his lodging and stay that day, about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, is one of the two. He first finds Simon, announces they have found the Messias, explained as Christ, and brings him to Jesus. Jesus calls Simon son of Jona and says he will be called Cephas, interpreted Peter.

On the following day Jesus intends to go into Galilee and calls Philip to follow. Philip comes from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. He tells Nathanael they have found the one Moses and the prophets wrote of, naming Jesus as Joseph’s son from Nazareth. Nathanael asks whether good can come from Nazareth; Philip invites him to come and see. Jesus sees him approaching and calls him an Israelite without guile. Asked how he knows him, Jesus says he saw him under the fig tree before Philip called. Nathanael calls him Rabbi, God’s Son and Israel’s king. Jesus connects his belief to the fig-tree statement and promises greater things: opened heaven and God’s angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

The story inside

Philip names the one found as Jesus, Joseph’s son from Nazareth, and Nathanael questions that town’s capacity to produce good. Philip offers an encounter rather than supplying a further argument. Nathanael comes; Jesus’s statement about seeing him under the fig tree precedes his confession. The story gives neither what Nathanael was doing under the tree nor his town or private reasoning beyond the stated exchange.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The prologue distinguishes John from the light he witnesses to; it does not say John rejoices here or that the light’s darkness is explicitly a fallen-world diagnosis.
2
John repeats that he did not know Jesus and describes his sender’s identifying sign; the testimony must retain those limits and sequence.
3
Invitations to come and see lead to encounters; the second disciple remains unnamed and Cephas is explained here as Peter.

Test your recall

What identifying sign had John’s sender given for the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 120618–120629
1:1. In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God. 1:2. The same was in the beginning with God. 1:3. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. 1:4. In him was life: and the life was the light of men. 1:5. And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Lines 120646–120654
1:12. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. 1:13. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 1:14. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
Lines 120697–120713
1:29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him; and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. 1:30. This is he of whom I said: After me there cometh a man, who is preferred before me: because he was before me. 1:31. And I knew him not: but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 1:32. And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven; and he remained upon him. 1:33. And I knew him not: but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 1:34. And I saw: and I gave testimony that this is the Son of God.