John 1:35,36

III. Third Testimony: vv. 35-37.

Vv. 35, 36. “ On the next day, John was again standing there, and two of his disciples with him; 36, and fixing his eyes upon Jesus as he passed he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. ”

Holy impressions, great thoughts, an unutterable expectation doubtless filled, even on the following day, the hearts of those who had heard the words of the forerunner. The next day, John is at his post ready to continue his ministry as the Baptist. We are not at all authorized to suppose, with de Wette, that the two disciples who were with him had not been present at the scene of the preceding day. Far from favoring this idea, the brevity of the present testimony leads us rather to suppose that John confines himself to recalling that of the day before to persons who had heard it. The expression ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν, of his disciples, intimates that he had a very considerable number of them. Of these two disciples, one was Andrew (John 1:40); it is difficult to suppose that the other was not the author of the narrative which is to follow. All the subsequent details have no special importance except for the one to whom they recalled the most decisive and happiest hour of his life. The fact that his person remains anonymous, while the four others who play a part in the narrative are all named, confirms this conclusion (Introd. p. 203). We may notice a certain difference between this day and the day before in the relation of Jesus to John. The day before, Jesus came to John, as to the one who was to introduce Him to future believers. On this day, the testimony is officially given; He has only in a sense to receive from the hands of His forerunner the souls which His Father has prepared through him. Like the magnet which one moves through the sand to attract metallic particles, He simply approaches the group which surrounds the Baptist, for the purpose of deciding some of those who compose it to follow Him. The conduct of Jesus is, therefore, perfectly intelligible. It is regulated according to the natural course of the divine work. The Church is not torn, it is gathered, from the tree of the theocracy. This easiness in the course is the seal of God.

As Jesus enters into the plan of God, John the Baptist enters into the thought of Jesus. A tender and respectful scruple might detain the two disciples near their old master. John the Baptist himself frees them from this bond, and begins to realize that saying, which from this moment becomes his motto: “ He must increase, but I must decrease. ” The word ἐμβλέψας indicates a penetrating look which searches its object to its depths (see John 1:42). The practical meaning of this new declaration of John was evidently this: “Go to Him.” Otherwise, to what purpose this repetition which adds nothing to the testimony of the day before, which, on the contrary, abridges it? Only this invitation is expressed in an indirect form, that of an affirmation respecting the person of Jesus, because, as Luthardt says, attachment to Jesus was to be on their part an act of freedom based upon a personal impression, not a matter of obedience to their old master.