John 1:40

Ver. 40. “ He saith unto them: Come, and you shall see.They came and saw where he abode: and they remained with him that day; it was about the tenth hour. ”

The disciples made inquiries as to His dwelling, that they might afterwards visit Him there. Jesus invites them to follow Him at once: “Come immediately. ” This is, indeed, what the present ἔρχεσθε indicates: the continuance of the going. It has been said that this sense would require the aorist. This is an error. The aorist would signify: set about going. Is the reading of the Vatican MS.: “Come and you shall see,” preferable to that of the greater part of the other documents? We may suppose that the latter comes from John 1:47. Where was Jesus dwelling? Was it in a caravansary, or in a friend's house? We do not know. No more do we know what was the subject of their conversation. But we do know the result of it. Andrew's exclamation in John 1:42 is the enthusiastic expression of the effect produced on the two disciples. When we remember what the Messiah was to the thought of a Jew, we understand how powerful and profound must have been the impression produced upon them by Jesus, to the end that they should not hesitate to proclaim as Messiah this poor and unostentatious man. In the remark: “ And they remained with Him that day, ” all the sweetness of a recollection still living in the heart of the evangelist at the moment of his writing, finds expression. The tenth hour may be understood in two ways: either as four o'clock in the afternoon; John would thus reckon the hours as they were generally reckoned among the ancients, beginning from six o'clock in the morning, we shall see that this is the most natural interpretation in John 4:6; John 4:52, and also in John 19:14; or as ten o'clock in the morning; he would, thus, adopt the mode of reckoning of the Roman Forum, which has become that of modern nations, and according to which the reckoning is from midnight. Rettig, Ebrard, Westcott, etc., think that the author of our Gospel reckons throughout in this way. It would give a satisfactory account of the expression that day. But this expression is also very well explained, if the question is of four o'clock in the afternoon; and that by the contrast with the idea of the mere visit which the two youths had thought of making. Instead of continuing a few moments, the interview was prolonged until the end of the day. Comp. the remarks John 4:6; John 4:52; John 19:14. This indication of the tenth hour has sometimes been applied, not to the moment when the disciples arrived, but that when they left Jesus. In this case, however, John would undoubtedly have added a limiting expression, such as ὅτε ἀπῆλθον, when they departed. It is the hour when he found, not that when he left, that the author wished to indicate. Faith is no sooner born of testimony, than it extends itself by the same means: