John 1:35-51

Disciples Begin to Gather to Jesus (John 1:35).

The great teachers of Israel would often have bands of ‘disciples' who gathered round them to learn from them, and then to pass on their teaching. Here we learn that Jesus also began to attract disciples. This passage is a deliberate way of stressing that here is a greater than John, for some of John's disciples leave him in order to follow Jesus, (and that is how John wanted it). It is interesting in that the passage indicates almost casually the time when certain events took place (v. 39, 43) suggesting that they sprang readily to the writer's mind because he had been present, and thus shows that its source was close to the events when they occurred. Time references like this keep occurring in these passages, even when they have no obvious significance other than to give a time note.