Jesus · c. AD 27
Chapter 12
Come and See
Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
was baptizing across the . The Jews had sent and from to ask him who he was, and he had told them plainly that he was not the . “I people in water,” he had said, “but someone you don’t know is standing among you. He is the one who comes after me, and he is put ahead of me. I am not worthy to untie his sandal strap.”
The next day John saw coming to him. “Look,” he said, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! I was speaking about him when I said, ‘After me comes a man who is put ahead of me, because he was before me.’ I didn’t know him. But this is why I came to baptize people in water: so that he would be made known to .”
Then John told what he had seen. “I saw the Spirit coming down like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. I didn’t recognize him. But the one who sent me to baptize people in water told me, ‘When you see the Spirit come down on a man and remain on him, he is the one who baptizes people in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen it, and I have declared that this is the Son of God.”
The next day John stood there again with two of his . He looked at Jesus, who was walking by, and said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following. “What are you looking for?” he asked them.
They said, “, where are you staying?” (Rabbi means Teacher.)
“Come and see,” he said. They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour, around four in the afternoon.
One of the two who had heard John and followed Jesus was , the brother of .
Andrew first found his own brother, Simon. “We have found the Messiah!” he told him. (Messiah means the Christ, the Anointed One.)
Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You will be called Cephas.” Cephas and Peter are the same name in two languages, and both mean “Rock.”
The next day, he made up his mind to go out into , and he found . Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip was from , the same town as Andrew and Peter.
Philip found . “We have found the man wrote about in the law,” he said, “the one the wrote about too: Jesus of , the son of .”
“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Look, a true Israelite, with nothing false in him!”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked him.
Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!”
Jesus answered him, “Because I told you I saw you underneath the fig tree, you believe? You will see greater things than these!”
Then he said to him, “I tell all of you for certain: from now on you will see heaven opened, and the of God going up and coming down upon the .”