John 1:38

στραφεὶς δὲ … τί ζητεῖτε; Jesus, hearing their steps behind Him, turns. To all who follow He gives their opportunity. Having turned and perceived that they were following Him, He asks τί ζητεῖτε; the obvious first inquiry, but perhaps with a breath in it of that Fan which the Baptist had warned them to expect in the Messiah; as if, Are you seeking what I can give? They reply Ῥαββεί … μένεις; Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.) tells us that “Rabbi” was a new title which had not been used long before the Christian era, and possibly arose during the rivalries of the schools of Hillel and Shammai. “The word means “my greatness”. Cf. His Majesty, etc., and for the absorption of the pronoun cf. monsieur or madame. See Lampe. As it occurs here for the first time John translates it, and renders by διδάσκαλε, Teacher; so that as yet they were scarcely prepared to give Him the greater title Lord, or Messiah. Unready with are answer to His question they put another which may stand for an answer, ποῦ μένεις; where are you staying, where are you dwelling? So used in N.T., Luke 19:5, and in later Greek, Polybius, 30, 4, 10, and 34, 9, 9, of dwelling for a short time in a place; not so much implying, as Holtzmann suggests, that they wished to go to His lodging that they might have more uninterrupted talk with Him; for that scarcely fits Oriental habits; but rather implying that they were shy of prolonging intercourse and wished to know where they might find Him another time. From this unsatisfactory issue they are saved by His frank invitation (John 1:40) ἔρχεσθε καὶ ὄψεσθε. “Come and ye shall see.” Use the opportunity you now have. Christ's door is ever on the latch: He is always accessible. ἦλθαν οὖν … ὡς δεκάτη. The two men remained in conversation with Jesus during the remainder of the day [but Grotius gives the sense as “ibidem pernoctarunt, quia jam serum erat”], a day so memorable to John that he recalls the very hour when they first approached Jesus, four o'clock in the afternoon. It seems that at this time throughout the Græco-Roman world one system of reckoning the hours prevailed. There is indisputable evidence that while the Romans calculated their civil day, by which leases and contracts were dated, as extending from midnight to midnight, the hours of each day were reckoned from sunrise to sunset. Thus on the Roman sun-dials noon is marked VI. (see Becker's Gallus, p. 319). Martial's description of the manner in which each hour was spent (Ep., iv., 8) leads to the same couclusion; and for proof that no different method was followed in the provinces, see Prof. Ramsay's paper “On the Sixth Hour” in the Expositor, 1893. Cf. also paper by Mr. Cross in Classical Review, June, 1891.