John 1:41

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

[(2) JESUS MANIFESTS HIMSELF TO INDIVIDUALS (John John 1:41 to John 2:11):

(a)To the first disciples—the witness of man (John 1:41-51);

(b)At Cana of Galilee—the witness of nature (John 1:1-11).]

(41) He first findeth his own brother.—The probable explanation of this verse, and the only one which gives an adequate meaning to “first” and “his own,” is that each of the two disciples in the fulness of his fresh joy went to seek his own brother, that Andrew found Peter first, and that John records this, and by the form in which he does so implies, but does not state, that he himself found James. To have stated this would have been to break through the personal reserve which he imposed upon himself. (Comp. Matthew 4:18-21; Mark 1:16-19; Luke 5:1-10.)

We have found.—Implying a previous seeking, and that both were under the impulse of the general movement leading men to expect the Messiah. It is implied, too, that Simon was near, and therefore probably a hearer of the Baptist.

Messias.—The Hebrew form of the name occurs in the New Testament only here and in John 4:25, in both cases in a vivid picture of events fixed in the memory. Elsewhere, John, as the other sacred writers, uses the LXX. translation, “Christ,” and even here he adds it (comp., e.g., in this John John 1:20; John 1:25). Both words mean “anointed” (see margin, and comp. Psalm 45:8).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:37-42 The strongest and most prevailing argument with an awakened soul to follow Christ, is, that it is he only who takes away sin. Whatever communion there is between our souls and Christ, it is he who begins the discourse. He asked, What seek ye? The question Jesus put to them, we should all put to ourselves when we begin to follow Him, What do we design and desire? In following Christ, do we seek the favour of God and eternal life? He invites them to come without delay. Now is the accepted time, 2Co 6:2. It is good for us to be where Christ is, wherever it be. We ought to labour for the spiritual welfare of those related to us, and seek to bring them to Him. Those who come to Christ, must come with a fixed resolution to be firm and constant to him, like a stone, solid and stedfast; and it is by his grace that they are so.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He first findeth - He found him and "told him about Jesus" before he brought him to Jesus.

We have found the Messias - They had learned from the testimony of John, and now had been more fully convinced from conversation with Jesus, that he was the Messiah. The word "Messiah," or "Messias," is Hebrew, and means the same as the Greek word "Christ," "anointed." See the notes at Matthew 1:1. From the conduct of Andrew we may learn that it is the nature of religion to desire that others may possess it. It does not lead us to monopolize it or to hide it under a bushel, but it seeks that others also may be brought to the Saviour. It does not "wait" for them to come, but it goes "for" them; it seeks them out, and tells them that a Saviour is found. Young converts should "seek" their friends and neighbors, and tell them of a Saviour; and not only their relatives, but all others as far as possible, that all may come to Jesus and be saved.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

41. have found the Messias—The previous preparation of their simple hearts under the Baptist's ministry, made quick work of this blessed conviction, while others hesitated till doubt settled into obduracy. So it is still.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It should seem that both the disciples (after their converse with Christ at the place where he lodged) went together to look for Peter, Andrew’s brother. Andrew first found him, and tells him (with great joy) that he and that other disciple had found the Messiah, prophesied of by Daniel, and in the expectation of whom the disciples and the Jews lived. The term Messiah in Hebrew is the same with Christ in Greek, and both signify the same with Anointed in English. The article in this place is emphatic, not merely prepositive, as in other places, but signifying, that Anointed; for other kings, and priests, and prophets were also anointed, and God’s people are called anointed; but he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, having the Spirit not given him by measure.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He first findeth his own brother Simon,.... Either before the other disciple, or before he found any other person: after he and the other disciple departed from Christ, being affected with the grace bestowed upon him, and his heart warm with the conversation he had had with him, and transported with joy at finding the Messiah, goes in all haste in search of his relations, friends, and acquaintance, to communicate what he had seen and heard, in order to bring them to the knowledge of the same; for such is the nature of grace, it is very communicative, and those that have it, are very desirous that all others should be partakers of it: and the first person he lighted on was Simon, who was afterwards called Peter, who was his own brother; not a brother-in-law, but his own brother, by father and mother's side, and so dear unto him by the ties of nature and blood:

and saith unto him; with all eagerness imaginable, and in a rapture of joy:

we have found the Messias; I, and a fellow disciple have had the Messiah, so often foretold by the prophets, and so long expected by our fathers, pointed out to us; and we have followed him, and have had conversation with him, and are well assured he is that illustrious person:

which is, being interpreted, the Christ; which, as in John 1:38, are the words of the evangelist, and not Andrew, and are therefore left out in the Syriac version; the word Messiah needing no interpretation in that language, and which was the language in which Andrew spoke. This name, Messiah, was well known among the Jews, for that who was promised, and they expected as a Saviour and Redeemer; though it is not very often mentioned in the books of the Old Testament, chiefly in the following places, Psalm 2:2; but is very much used in the Chaldee paraphrases: Elias Levita (g) says, he found it in more than fifty verses; and Buxtorf (h) has added others to them, and the word appears in "seventy one" places, which he takes notice of, and are worthy of regard; for they show the sense of the ancient synagogue, concerning the passages of the Old Testament, respecting the Messiah: this Hebrew word is interpreted by the Greek word, "Christ"; and both signify "anointed", and well agree with the person to whom they belong, to which there is an allusion in Sol 1:3, "thy name is as ointment poured forth": he is so called, because he was anointed from everlasting, to be prophet, priest, and king; see Psalm 2:6 Proverbs 8:22, and he was anointed as man, with the oil of gladness, with the graces of the Spirit, without measure, Psalm 45:7. And it is from him the saints receive the anointing, or grace in measure; and are from him called Christians, and are really anointed ones; see 1 John 2:27, hence it is a name precious to the saints, and savoury to them. These words were delivered by Andrew, in a very exulting strain, expressing great joy; as indeed what can be greater joy to a sensible soul, than to find Christ? which in a spiritual sense, is to have a clear sight of him by faith, to go unto him, and lay hold on him, as the only Saviour and Redeemer: who is to be found in the Scriptures of truth, which testify of him; in the promises of grace, which are full of him and in the Gospel, of which he is the sum and substance; and in the ordinances of it, where he shows himself; for he is not to be found by the light of nature, or by carnal reason, nor by the law of Moses, but by means of the Gospel, and the Spirit of God attending that, as a spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him: and happy are those souls that find Christ under his direction; for they find life, spiritual and eternal, in him; a justifying righteousness; free and full pardon of their sins; spiritual food for their souls; and peace, comfort, joy, and rest, and eternal glory: wherefore this must needs be matter of joy unto them, since such a finding is a rich one, a pearl of great price, riches durable and unsearchable; and which a man that has found, would not part with for all the world; but parts with all he has for it; and is what can never be lost again; and, particularly to two sorts of persons, finding Christ must give a peculiar pleasure, and an inexpressible joy; to such as are under a sense of sin and damnation, and to such who have been under desertion. The phrase of "finding" a person, twice used in this text, and hereafter in some following verses, is frequent in Talmudic and Rabbinic writings; as

“he went, , "and found him with Rab" (i).

(g) Prefat ad Methurgemen, & in voce (h) Lexicon Talmud p. 1268. (i) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 108. 1. Zohar in Lev. fol. 15. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the {u} Christ.

(u) That is, anointed, and king after the manner of the Jewish people.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 1:41-43. Still on the same day (not on the following, as, after the early expositors, De Wette, Baur, Luthardt, Ewald, and most others suppose; see, on the contrary, the ἐπαύριον which again appears, but not till John 1:44), Andrew first meets his brother Simon.

πρῶτος] We must understand the matter thus: Both disciples go out from the lodging-place (at the same time, or perhaps Andrew first), still in the first fresh glow of joy at having found the Messias,[122] in order that each of them may seek his own brother (we must assume that both brothers were known to be in the neighbourhood), in order to inform him of the new joy, and to bring him to Christ. Andrew is the first (ΠΡῶΤΟς, not ΠΡῶΤΟΝ, an inelegant change adopted by Lachmann, after A. B. M. X. א **) who finds his brother. John, however, does not say that he also sought his brother James, found him, and brought him to Jesus; and this is in keeping with the delicate reserve which prevents him from naming either himself or those belonging to him (even the name of James does not occur in the Gospel). Still this may be clearly seen from the ΠΡῶΤΟς, and is confirmed by the narrative of the Synoptics, in so far that both James and John are represented as being called at the same time by Jesus (Mark 1:19 and parallels). Bengel, Tholuck, De Wette, Hengstenberg, wrongly say that Andrew and John had both sought out Simon. The ΤῸΝ ἼΔΙΟΝ is against this; as it neither here nor elsewhere (comp. John 5:18) occurs as a mere possessive (against Lücke, Maier, De Wette, and others), but in opposition to that which is foreign. Any antithetic relation to the spiritual brotherhood in which John as well as Andrew stood to Simon (Hengstenberg), is quite remote from the passage.

εὑρήκαμεν] placed emphatically at the beginning of the clause, and presupposing the feeling of anxious desire excited by the Baptist. The plural is used because Andrew had in mind the other disciple also.

ἐμβλέψας, κ.τ.λ.] This fixed look (John 1:36) on the countenance of Simon pierces his inner soul. Jesus, as the Searcher of hearts (John 2:25; Weiss, Lehrbegr. p. 263), sees in him one who should hereafter be called to be the rock of the church, and calls him by the name which he was henceforth to bear as His disciple (not first in Matthew 16:18, as Luthardt thinks). A rock is the emblem of firmness as early as Homer (Od. xvii. 463); comp. Ezekiel 3:9. There is no contradiction here with Matthew 16:18 (it is otherwise with Mark 3:16), as if John had transferred the giving of the name to this place (Hilgenfeld, comp. Baur and Scholten), for in Matthew 16:18 the earlier giving of the name is really presupposed, confirmed, and applied. See on Matt.

σὺ εἶ Σίμων, κ.τ.λ.] This belongs to the circumstantiality of the solemn ceremony of the name-giving; it is first said who he is, and what in future he should be called. Comp. Genesis 32:28; Genesis 35:10; Genesis 17:5. Σὺ εἶ Σίμων is not, as Ewald thinks, a question; and there is no ground whatever for supposing that Jesus immediately recognised him (Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Aretius, Maldonatus, Cornelius a Lapide, Bengel, Luthardt, and many, comp. Strauss), for Andrew introduced his brother to Jesus. Grotius and Paulus[123] give arbitrary explanations of the reading Ἰωνᾶ, but see the critical notes. For the rest, we must not say, with Hilgenfeld, “Peter here attains the pre-eminence of the first called disciple;” but Peter is first given this pre-eminence in the synoptical accounts (Matthew 4:18 and parallels); the personal recollection of John, however, must take precedence of these. See especially the note following John 1:51.

[122] John’s use here and in John 4:25 of τὸν Μεσσίαν (משיה) is accounted for by the depicting of the scene exactly as it occurred; whereas in John 1:20; John 1:25, when he simply writes historically, he uses the ordinary translation Χριστός. The genre picture is specially minute; so here. According to Baur, N. T. Theol. p. 393, the author has given an antiquarian notice, as it were, of this Hebrew name which occurs nowhere else in the N. T.

[123] The fantastic play upon the words in Lange’s L. J. II. 469, is of this sort. He renders: “Now thou art the son of the timid dove of the rock; in future shalt thou be called the sheltering rock of the dove (the church).” According to the true reading of the passage, the name of Peter’s father contained in Βαριωνά which occurs in Matthew, must be regarded as an abbreviation for John, and has nothing whatever to do with dove. See on Matthew 16:17.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 1:41. ἦν Ἀνδρέας … Σίμωνος. One of the two who thus first followed Christ was Andrew, known not so much in his own name as being the brother of Simon—Πέτρου is here proleptic. We are left to infer that the other disciple was the evangelist.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

41. He first findeth, &c.] The meaning of ‘first’ becomes almost certain when we remember S. John’s characteristic reserve about himself. Both disciples hurry to tell their own brothers the good tidings, that the Messiah has been found: S. Andrew finds his brother first, and afterwards S. John finds his; but we are left to infer the latter point.

S. Andrew thrice brings others to Christ; Peter, the lad with the loaves (John 6:8), and certain Greeks (John 12:22); and excepting Mark 13:3 we know scarcely anything else about him. Thus it would seem as if in these three incidents S. John had given us the key to his character. And here we have another characteristic of this Gospel—the lifelike way in which the less prominent figures are sketched. Besides Andrew we have Philip, John 1:44, John 6:5, John 12:21, John 14:8; Thomas, John 11:16, John 14:5; John 20:24-29; Nathanael, John 1:45-51; Nicodemus, John 3:1-12, John 7:50-52, John 19:39; Martha and Mary, 11, John 12:1-3.

We have found] This does not prove that S. John is still with him, only that they were together when their common desire and expectation were fulfilled.

Messias] The Hebrew form of this name is used by S. John only, here and John 4:25. Elsewhere the LXX. translation, ‘the Christ,’ is used. Here ‘the’ before ‘Christ’ should be omitted.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 1:41. Εὑρίσκει, findeth) With the festival-like [joyous] freshness of those days beautifully corresponds the word findeth, which is used here more frequently [than elsewhere].—πρῶτος, first) It is to be presumed, that both of them sought Simon by different roads.[40]—τὸν ἀδελφὸν, his brother) He afterwards became superior to Andrew, who, it is probable, was the elder born; John 1:44 [the order there is, “Andrew and Peter”].—εὑρήκαμεν, we have found) John 1:45, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write” [Philip to Nathanael]. A great and joyful εὓρημα, treasure-found, expected by the world for about forty centuries. They had learned from John, that He was close at hand.—ὅ, which) This is an addition of the Evangelist, as at John 1:42.

[40] Rather, as Andrew first of the two disciples found his own brother and brought him to Jesus; so the other disciple, who was probably John, did the same, and brought his brother, James, to the Saviour.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 41. -

(a) The Messiah. He (Andrew) first findeth his own brother Simon. Dr. Plummer here observes, "In Church history St. Peter is everything, and St. Andrew nothing: but would there have been an Apostle Peter but for Andrew?" Hengstenberg, De Wette, and others have explained the curious word "first," as though both the unnamed disciple and Andrew had gone together to search out Simon, and that Andrew had been the first of the two to be successful. This would leave the ἴδιον less satisfactorily accounted for than the simple supposition that each of the disciples started in different directions to find "his own" brother, and that Andrew was more fortunate than his companion. The two pairs of brothers are frequently mentioned as being together. James and John, Andrew and Simon, are partners on the lake of Galilee in their fishing business, and are finally called into full discipleship and apostolate after the visit to Jerusalem (see Mark 1:19, 11). The four are specially mentioned as being together (Mark 13:3), so that it is not unreasonable to suggest that when Andrew first sought "his own" brother Simon, John also sought for "his own" brother James. It is worthy of note that the evangelist never mentions his own name, nor that of James, nor that of their mother Salome, although he does imply their presence. Andrew saith to him (Simon), We have found the Messias - the article is omitted, as Ξριστός is merely the translation of" Messiah" - (which, adds the evangelist, is, being interpreted, Christ). Andrew is described on two additional occasions as bringing others to Jesus (John 6:8; John 12:22). Here the rapidity and depth of his convictions are noted. The writer's own impression is implied rather than given. He hides his own faith under the bolder and more explicit utterance of his friend. This was the result upon the mind of two disciples of the first conference with Jesus. Marvellous enough that such a thought should have possessed them, however imperfect their ideas were as yet concerning the Christ! The εὑρήκαμεν implies that they had long been waiting for the Consolation of Israel, looking for his coming, seeking his appearing. "We have sought," they say, "and we have found." A more wonderful Αὔρηκα than that of Archimedes. The plural does not necessitate the presence of John, though it does suggest the agreement of Andrew and his friend in the same august conclusion. What sense of Divine things must have come from the words and looks of Jesus! He who produced such impression on the Baptist as that which the four evangelists report, had done even more with the susceptible spirits of his two disciples. The Baptist never actually called Jesus "the Christ." But when he had testified to the pre-existing glory, the heavenly origin, the sublime functions of the great ἐρχόμενος, and by special revelation on his forewarned spirit had declared that he was the Son of God, the Lamb of God, and the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost and fire: what must not the inference be when his two disciples came into yet closer and more intimate relations with Jesus? The Jewish idea of "Messiah" (Μεσσίας, only occurring here and John 4:25), equivalent to מְשִׁיחָא, Aramaized form, the stat. emphat, of מְשִׁיחַ (Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ); cf. Ἰεσσαί for יִשַׁי (Kautzsch, 'Gram. des Bib. Aram.,' p. 10), was the term used among all classes to denote One who should, as anointed by God, fulfil the functions of Prophet, Priest and King, who should realize the splendid visions of the ancient prophecies, and combine in himself a wonderful exhibition of Divine majesty and even of awful suffering. We see that the Baptist understood what was meant by the title, but denied its applicability to himself. The Samaritans believe in a coming Prophet and Saviour (John 4:25, 29). The people believe that Messiah will work miracles, that he will be born in Bethlehem, that he will abide forever, that he would prove to be the Son of God. The King Messiah is a pre-existing power and presence in their past history. He will come in the clouds, and reign forever and ever (see John 7:26, 31 and John 7:42; John 12:34). According to Wünsche ('Neue Beitrage zurerlauterung der Ev., aus Talmud und Midrasch,' pp. 499, 500), the Talmud ('Pesachim,' 54, and 'Nedavim,' 39) declares that Messias, or his Name, was one of the seven things created before the world; and Midrasch ('Schemoth,' par. 19) on Exodus 4:22 declares that the King Messias was the Firstborn of God. The more spiritual ideas of John the Baptist have prepared the two disciples to see, even in the travel-stained, lowly Man, "the Messiah." Of course, their idea of Messiah and their idea of Jesus would suffer wonderful development, and be harmonized and blended into a sublime unity by later instructions; but they had made this great discovery, and hastened to impart it. John 1:41

Vincent's Word Studies

He first findeth (εὑρίσκαι οὗτος πρῶτος)

Rev., findeth first. He is the demonstrative pronoun, this one, which, with first, seems to point to the later finding of his brother by the other disciple, i.e., of James by John. Bengel says: "With the festival freshness of those days beautifully corresponds the word findeth, which is frequently used here."

His own (τὸν ἴδιον)

See on Matthew 22:5; see on Matthew 25:15; see on Acts 1:7; see on 1 Peter 1:3.

We have found (εὑρήκαμεν)

This has been called the chapter of the Eurekas.

The Messias

Peculiar to this Gospel, and only here and John 4:25.

Christ

See on Matthew 1:1.