John 1:41,42

“ Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's words and followed Jesus. 42. As the first, he findeth his own brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messiah (which means: the Christ).”

At this point of the narrative, the author names his companion Andrew. It is because the moment has come to point out his relationship to Simon Peter, a relationship which exercised so decisive an influence on the latter and on the work which is beginning. The designation of Andrew as Simon Peter's brother, is so much the more remarkable, since Simon Peter has not as yet figured in the narrative, and since the surname Peter did not as yet belong to him. This future apostle, is, therefore, treated from the first as the most important personage of this history. Let us remark, also, that this manner of designating Andrew assumes a full acquaintance already on the part of the readers with the Gospel history. Did Peter's visit to Jesus take place on the same evening? Weiss and Keil declare that this is impossible, because of the expression that day (John 1:40), which leaves no place for this new visit. Westcott, on the contrary says: “All this evidently happened on the same day.” This second view, which is that of Meyer and Bruckner, seems to me the only admissible one. It follows, by a kind of necessity, from the exact enumeration of the days in this passage. See: the next day, John 1:29; John 1:35; John 1:44, and also John 2:1. Towards evening, the two disciples left Jesus for some moments, and Peter was brought by Andrew to Him while it was not yet night.

How are we to explain the expressions “ first ” (or in the first-place) and “ his own brother”? These words have always presented a difficulty to interpreters. They contain, in fact, one of those small mysteries with which John's narrative, at once so subtle and so simple, is full. The Mjj. which read the adverb or the accusative πρῶτον, are six in number, among them the Vatican: “He finds his own brother first (or in the first-place).” But with what brother would he be contrasted by this first? With the disciples who were found later, Philip and Nathanael? But it was not Andrew who found these; Jesus found Philip, and Philip Nathanael. And yet this would be the only possible sense of the accusative or the adverb πρῶτον. The nominative πρῶτος, therefore, must necessarily be read, with the Sinaitic MS. and the majority of the Mjj.: “As the first, Andrew finds his own brother.” This might strictly mean that they both set about seeking for Simon, and that Andrew was the first to find him, because, Simon being his brother, he knew better where to seek him; this would in a manner explain the τὸν ἴδιον, his own, but in a manner very far-fetched. As it is impossible to make this very emphatic expression a mere periphrasis of the possessive pronoun his, the author's thought must be acknowledged to have been as follows: “On leaving, each one of them seeks his own brother: Andrew seeks Simon, and John his brother James; and it is Andrew who first succeeds in finding his own. ” The πρῶτον may have been substituted for πρῶτος under the influence of the four following words in ον.

The term Messiah, that is, the Anointed, from maschach, to anoint, was very popular; it was used even in Samaria (John 4:25). The Greek translation of this title, Χριστός, again implies Greek readers. John had twice employed the Greek term in the preceding narrative (John 1:20; John 1:25); but here, in this scene of so personal a character, he likes to reproduce the Hebrew title (as he had done at John 1:39, as he is to do again in John 4:25), in order to preserve for his narrative its dramatic character. If we have properly explained this verse, we must conclude from it that James, the brother of John, was also among the young Galilean disciples of John the Baptist, and that John is not willing to name him any more than he is to name himself, or afterwards to name his mother, John 19:25.