John 1:36-37

1:36 Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ¹  1:37 When John’s ²  two disciples heard him say this, ³  they followed Jesus. ⁴ 

John 1:45

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ⁵  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ⁶  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

¹ sn This section (1:35-51) is joined to the preceding by the literary expedient of repeating the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus being the Lamb of God (1:36, cf. 1:29). This repeated testimony (1:36) no longer has revelatory value in itself, since it has been given before; its purpose, instead, is to institute a chain reaction which will bring John the Baptist’s disciples to Jesus and make them Jesus’ own disciples.

² tn Grk “his”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “And the two disciples heard him speaking.”

⁴ sn The expression followed Jesus pictures discipleship, which means that to learn from Jesus is to follow him as the guiding priority of one’s life.

⁵ sn Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.

⁶ tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.