Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 1:35-51, Come and see
Two of John's disciples follow Jesus and spend the day with him. Andrew brings his brother Simon, Philip brings Nathanael, and Jesus promises they will see heaven opened and angels going up and down on the Son of Man.
John 1:35-51, in every translation this tool compares.
Two of John's disciples start following Jesus, and the news spreads person to person: Andrew brings his brother Simon, and Philip brings Nathanael. Each step adds a title for Jesus, from Messiah to Son of God and King of Israel. Jesus gives Simon a new name and promises Nathanael a sight like Jacob's dream, with heaven open and angels moving between it and the Son of Man.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hospitality\/","n":"Hospitality to travelers","s":"Taking in travelers was one of the great virtues of the ancient Mediterranean, above all among Jews. Messengers could travel light because they expected to be housed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/judeans-and-galileans\/","n":"Galilee and the Galileans","s":"Small farming and fishing villages, ringed by Greek cities, with two new royal towns that the Gospels never say Jesus entered. Most of Jesus' story happens in places of a few hundred to a few thousand people.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/son-of-man\/","n":"The Son of Man","s":"Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.","r":""}
Teachers trained their own disciples, so sending them on to a greater teacher was rare and showed great humility (Keener and his notes). Asking where Jesus was staying was a polite, indirect way of asking to visit, and the tenth hour, about four in the afternoon, may have been too late to walk far home before dark, so a hospitable host would invite them for the night (Keener and his notes). Nathanael's scorn may reflect village rivalry or the idea that great people came from famous places (the cultural backgrounds notes); Keener's background commentary puts Nazareth at sixteen hundred to two thousand people, while his notes cite recent estimates below five hundred. The closing promise recalls Jacob's dream at Bethel, where angels went up and down a ladder between heaven and earth (Genesis 28:12-19): Jesus becomes the meeting place of heaven and earth (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). The site of Bethsaida, home of Philip, Andrew and Peter (1:44), is disputed: et-Tell is now commonly identified as Bethsaida, while excavations at el-Araj since 2016 have revived its claim (Price and House, in the Zondervan archaeology handbook).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:35-37, 1:38-39, 1:43, 1:46 and 1:50-51
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 1:38, 1:39, 1:43, 1:46 and 1:51
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 1:51
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 1:51
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, ch. 12, John 1:44 The Town of Bethsaida
