Comprehensive John Chapter 1 Summary: In the Beginning Was the Word

The Gospel of John opens in a way no other book in the Bible does. This John Chapter 1 summary walks you through 51 verses that move from eternity into time, from the Word who existed before creation to five ordinary men who walked away from everything they knew because of a single afternoon with Jesus. No other Gospel begins before Genesis. No other chapter in Scripture packs so much of who God is into a single opening paragraph. John 1 does not ease you in gently. It opens the door to the deepest waters of the Christian faith and invites you to step in.

The chapter spans 51 verses and covers four distinct movements: the prologue that reveals who Jesus truly is, John the Baptist’s interrogation by the religious leaders, the declaration of Jesus as the Lamb of God, and the calling of the first disciples. Every section drives toward one central claim, and it is the most important claim ever made in human language.

Setting the Stage

The Gospel of John was written after the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it takes a different approach from all of them. Where Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham and Luke back to Adam, John traces Him back to before creation itself. This chapter is both the opening of a Gospel and the introduction to a person, and John wants readers to understand exactly who that person is before they read a single miracle or parable. Everything in the rest of this Gospel flows from what John establishes in chapter one.

John wrote his Gospel likely between AD 85 and 95, to a community of believers facing two threats at once: Jewish opposition that denied Jesus was the Messiah and early Gnostic teaching that denied Jesus had truly come in the flesh. Chapter 1 answers both directly. It declares that Jesus is fully God and fully man, that He existed before creation and entered history as a real human being.

The Big Idea

John Chapter 1 is the most concentrated declaration of who Jesus Christ is in all of Scripture, establishing His eternal nature, His humanity, His mission, and His invitation before the story of His ministry has even begun.

John opens with theology before he opens with biography. He does not start with Bethlehem or a manger. He starts with eternity, with the Word who was with God and who was God, and then shows how that same Word walked into history, stood at the Jordan River, and called five men by name. Every title given to Jesus in this chapter, the Word, the Light, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of Man, is a piece of that declaration. John is not building suspense. He is laying a foundation.

Concise John 1 Summary

One Word Summary

• Revelation
• Incarnation
• Light
• Witness
• Call

In One Sentence

John Chapter 1 introduces Jesus as the eternal Word of God who became flesh, fulfills every Old Testament hope, and personally calls His first followers to come and see.

Theme of John 1

The central theme of John 1 is the identity of Jesus Christ. From the very first verse, John is answering the question the entire Gospel keeps asking: Who is this man? The answer comes from every direction at once, through theology, through prophecy, through testimony, and through personal encounter. Jesus is not introduced as a teacher who arrives with good ideas. He is introduced as the God who created all things, who entered His own creation, and who opens His arms to everyone who will receive Him.

Comprehensive John Chapter 1 Summary

John Chapter 1 divides naturally into four movements, each one deepening the portrait of Jesus begun in the opening verse.

The Prologue: The Word Revealed (John 1:1–18)

John begins before time. “In the beginning was the Word.” These words sounds like Genesis 1:1 deliberately. The same God who said “Let there be light” and creation appeared is the same Word John is writing about. In Greek, this Word is called the Logos, a term that carried meaning for both Jewish and Gentile readers. For a Jewish reader, the Word of God was God’s active speech in creation, the instrument by which He spoke the universe into existence and revealed Himself to Israel. For a Greek reader, logos meant the rational principle holding the cosmos together. John uses both backgrounds to introduce Jesus: He is the divine speech of God and the reason behind the universe, now come in human form.

Three claims stand together in the very first verse. The Word existed before creation began. The Word was in distinct fellowship with God the Father. The Word was fully God. These are not three separate ideas. They are three angles on the same eternal reality.

In verse 3, John adds that all things were made through this Word. Nothing in creation exists apart from Him. This is not a minor point. It is the foundation on which everything else in this chapter rests. Colossians 1:16 confirms it: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth.”

Verses 4 and 5 introduce two of the most important words in this Gospel: life and light. In Jesus was life, and that life became the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot overpower it. That word “comprehended” in the KJV carries two meanings together: the darkness did not understand the light, and the darkness could not overcome it. Both are true. The power of sin and death has never been able to extinguish the light of Christ.

Verses 6 through 8 introduce a man named John, this John is not the author of this Gospel but John the Baptist, the forerunner. He came as a witness. His entire purpose was to point to the Light. John the Baptist was the greatest prophet born of woman, according to Jesus Himself in Matthew 11:11, and yet his greatest act was to diminish himself so that people would see Jesus instead.

Verses 9 through 11 carry one of the most sorrowful lines in all of Scripture: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” The Creator entered His own creation. The God of Israel came to His own covenant people, the ones who had the Law, the temple, the sacrificial system, the prophets, every signpost pointing to Him. They turned away. Isaiah 53:3 had predicted this 700 years before: “He is despised and rejected of men.” The rejection of Jesus was not a failure of God’s plan. It was the fulfillment of it.

But verse 12 turns everything. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” The door closed on no one. “As many as” is the widest net in the New Testament. Receiving Christ and believing on His name are the same act described from two directions: one is the heart’s embrace, the other is the mind’s assent. To be born of God is the result, and verse 13 makes clear this birth comes entirely from God, not from human bloodline, human will, or human effort.

Verse 14 is the summit of the prologue and one of the greatest single verses in the Bible: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The Greek word translated “dwelt” is eskenosen, which means to pitch a tent or tabernacle. John is drawing directly on Exodus 40, where the glory of God filled the tabernacle so completely that Moses could not enter. That same glory now lives in a human body. The Incarnation is the tabernacle fulfilled.

Verses 16 through 18 close the prologue with two contrasts. Grace upon grace has come from the fullness of Christ. The law came through Moses, a good and holy gift, but it was always pointing forward. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And where Moses could only see God’s back (Exodus 33:23), Jesus has declared the Father in full. The word “declared” in verse 18 is the Greek exegeomai, the same root as our word “exegesis.” Jesus is the exegesis of God.

John the Baptist’s Testimony: The Voice in the Wilderness (John 1:19–34)

When the religious leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to question John the Baptist, they wanted to know who he was claiming to be. His answer came in three denials. He was not the Christ. He was not Elijah. He was not “that prophet,” the one Moses had promised in Deuteronomy 18:15. He was only a voice, quoting Isaiah 40:3: “Make straight the way of the Lord.”

The next day, Jesus appeared, and John gave the greatest testimony of his ministry: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” That title carried the weight of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system behind it. The Passover lamb in Exodus 12 whose blood protected Israel from judgment. The daily burnt offerings of two lambs morning and evening, as commanded in Exodus 29:38–39. The ram God provided in place of Isaac in Genesis 22. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, “brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” All of those lambs were shadows. Jesus is the one Lamb they were all pointing to, and where those lambs could only cover sin temporarily, this Lamb takes it away completely and for the whole world.

John also testified that he saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and remain on Jesus at His baptism. This fulfilled the sign God had given him: the One on whom the Spirit rests and remains is the One who baptizes with the Holy Ghost. Isaiah 11:2 had promised that the Spirit of the LORD would rest on the coming Messiah. With that testimony, John’s role was complete. He had pointed to the Lamb.

The First Disciples: Come and See (John 1:35–51)

The following day, John stood again with two of his disciples and said once more, “Behold the Lamb of God.” This time, the two disciples left John and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, He asked a question that is the first recorded speech of Jesus in this Gospel: “What seek ye?” Those two disciples replied not with theology but with a practical request: “Rabbi, where dwellest thou?” And Jesus gave the simplest and most personal of invitations: “Come and see.”

One of those two disciples was Andrew. He spent a day with Jesus and immediately found his brother Simon with the news: “We have found the Messias.” One afternoon with Jesus was enough to know. When Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, Jesus looked at him and gave him a new name: Cephas, which is Peter, meaning a stone or rock. Jesus did not see what Simon was in that moment. He saw what Simon would become.

The next day, Jesus found Philip directly and said two words: “Follow me.” Philip went and found Nathanael with the same excitement Andrew had shown: “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write.” Nathanael’s skepticism was honest: “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip did not argue. He gave the same answer Jesus had given: “Come and see.”

When Nathanael came to Jesus, Jesus greeted him before Nathanael had said a word: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” Nathanael asked how Jesus knew him, and Jesus answered: “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” In Jewish tradition the fig tree was associated with private prayer and Scripture meditation, and Jesus knew where Nathanael had been, knew his character, and had seen him before any human introduction had taken place. Nathanael’s responded: “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” Jesus replied that greater things were coming: heaven would open, and the disciples would see angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This was the promise of Jacob’s ladder from Genesis 28 fulfilled. Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth.

Christ Connection

John 1 is saturated with the Old Testament, and every connection points to Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s entire story.

The most foundational connection is John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1. John opens with the same words in Greek that the Septuagint uses to open Genesis: “In the beginning.” This is deliberate. The same Word through whom God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 is now walking in human flesh. John is announcing a new creation, and Jesus is at its center. Where the first creation brought physical life and light into the world, this new creation brings eternal life and spiritual light to every person who receives the Word.

When John the Baptist declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God in verse 29, he is drawing on a river of Old Testament imagery that runs from Genesis to Malachi. God promised Abraham “God will provide himself a lamb” (Genesis 22:8) and then provided a ram in place of Isaac on Mount Moriah. The Passover lamb in Exodus 12 was slain and its blood applied so that death would pass over Israel. The prophet Isaiah described the suffering servant as one “brought as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). All of those lambs were types, shadows pointing forward. Jesus is the Lamb all those sacrifices had anticipated, and unlike those lambs He does not merely cover sin but removes it completely.

The description of Jesus in verse 14 as dwelling among men echoes Exodus 40:34–35, where the glory of God filled the tabernacle. The word eskenosen (tabernacled) is a direct callback to the mishkan, the Hebrew word for the dwelling place of God. God’s presence that once filled a tent of meeting now lives in a human body. And the attributes John names, “full of grace and truth,” are the very attributes God declared about Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6: “The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” Jesus is not displaying new attributes. He is displaying the character God has always had.

When Jesus closes the chapter by telling Nathanael that he will see heaven open and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, He is pointing directly to Genesis 28:12, where Jacob saw a ladder set up between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. Jacob had that dream at the lowest point of his life, fleeing from a brother he had wronged, and God showed him a connection between heaven and earth. Jesus tells Nathanael: I am that connection. The ladder Jacob saw was a picture. I am the reality.

When, Where, and Why

When

These events take place at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, around AD 26 to 28. John’s Gospel was written later than the other three Gospels, most likely between AD 85 and 95, to a community of believers who needed a robust account of who Jesus truly is. The early church was facing challenges from two directions: Jewish opposition that denied Jesus was the Messiah, and early Gnostic teaching that denied Jesus had truly come in the flesh. John 1 answers both directly.

Where

The prologue exists outside of any geography, set in eternity before the first moment of creation. When the narrative begins, the action takes place at the Jordan River, at a place called Bethabara beyond Jordan (John 1:28), where John the Baptist was carrying out his ministry of baptism. This is the wilderness region east of the Jordan, the same general territory where Elijah had ministered and where Israel had crossed into the Promised Land centuries before. Jesus enters the chapter in that same landscape of covenant history.

Why

No other chapter in the Bible introduces the person and work of Jesus Christ at this depth before the ministry begins. Without John 1, readers of the Gospel could misunderstand every miracle that follows, every conversation, every confrontation, every claim Jesus makes about Himself. John 1 is the lens through which the entire Gospel is meant to be read. It answers the foundational question before it is even asked: Who is this man? He is the eternal Word of God. He is the Creator. He is the Lamb. He is the Light. And He is calling you by name.

Key Verses

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

This verse establishes three truths about Jesus simultaneously: He is eternal, He is a distinct person within the Godhead, and He is fully God. Every major doctrine of Christ flows from these three claims, and John places them at the very beginning so that every reader understands who they are dealing with.

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:5)

The darkness of sin and death has never overcome the light of Christ, and it never will. This verse is both a declaration of fact and a source of deep comfort for every believer walking through dark seasons.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)

This is the personal application of everything the prologue has declared. The door is open to everyone. Receiving Christ and believing on His name is the same act, and the result is adoption into the family of God.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The Incarnation in one verse. God became a man, not as a disguise or a temporary visit, but as a permanent, embodied dwelling among us. The glory that once filled the tabernacle now has a face and a name.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

This is the greatest single-sentence testimony in the New Testament. John the Baptist summarizes the entire purpose of Christ’s coming in fourteen words. Every sin, from every person, from every nation, addressed completely by the one Lamb God provided.

Key Lessons from John 1

Jesus Was Present Before the World Began

John 1 opens not with a birth but with eternity. The Word who became flesh in Bethlehem was already there when the first atom of creation sprang into being at God’s command. This means that faith in Jesus is not embracing a religious figure who appeared in history and then disappeared. It is trusting in the One who holds all of history in His hands and stands outside of time itself. Hebrews 1:2 confirms it: God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”

Personal Rejection Does Not Close the Door for Others

Israel as a nation rejected the Messiah, and John states it plainly: “his own received him not.” Yet the very next verse opens the door to the whole world. The most painful rejection in history became the very mechanism by which salvation came to the Gentiles. Romans 11:11 says that through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God’s purposes are not frustrated by human unbelief, and the hardness of one group never seals the door against another.

The Incarnation Means God Knows What It Is to Be Human

When the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, He entered the full experience of human life with its hunger, weariness, grief, and temptation, and He did so without sin (Hebrews 4:15). This means that when you bring your weakness and suffering to Jesus, you bring it to someone who has lived in a human body and understands from the inside. The God you pray to is not distant or unmoved. He came and lived here.

One Afternoon With Jesus Is Enough to Change Everything

Andrew spent a single afternoon with Jesus and went immediately to find his brother with the news: “We have found the Messias.” Philip heard two words from Jesus, “Follow me,” and spent the rest of his life following. The disciples in John 1 did not wait for a long process of theological certification. They encountered the living God and could not keep it to themselves. That pattern of immediate witness belongs to every generation of believers.

Jesus Sees Who You Will Become

When Simon came to Jesus, Jesus looked at him and gave him a new name: Peter, a rock. Simon was impulsive and unsteady, as the rest of the Gospels make clear. But Jesus named him for what he would become, not what he was at that moment. This is how Jesus relates to every person who comes to Him. He does not see only your past or your present. He sees the person He is making you into, and He speaks that future over you from the first day you come.

Bible Study Questions

1. John begins his Gospel differently from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. What does his choice to begin with “In the beginning was the Word” tell you about what John most wanted his readers to understand about Jesus?
2. The prologue says “he came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). How do you respond to the reality that the people who had every advantage, the Law, the prophets, the temple, still rejected Jesus? What does this warn you about in your own life?
3. John the Baptist’s entire identity was wrapped up in pointing to Someone else. He refused to take any title or honor for himself. What does his example say about how Christians should think about their own role in the lives of others?
4. “What seek ye?” is the first thing Jesus says in this Gospel. If Jesus asked you that question today, what would be your honest answer?
5. Jesus knew Nathanael under the fig tree before they had ever spoken. How does the reality of Christ’s complete knowledge of you, your private moments, your unspoken thoughts, affect how you come to Him in prayer?
6. In this chapter, every disciple who found Jesus immediately went to bring someone else. Andrew brought Peter. Philip brought Nathanael. What does this pattern say about how personal evangelism is meant to work?

John 1 Paraphrased

Before anything existed, the Word was already there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God at the very beginning. God made all things through Him, and nothing that exists came into being apart from Him. He held life in Himself, and that life was the light that shines for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.

God sent a man named John. He came to bear witness and to tell people about the Light, so that through his testimony everyone might believe. John was not the Light himself. He was simply a messenger pointing to the Light.

The true Light, the one who gives light to every person, was coming into the world. He was already in the world, the very world He had made, but the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own people, the people of Israel who had known God’s promises for generations, and they would not receive Him. But to everyone who did receive Him, to all who believed in who He is, He gave the right to become children of God. These people were not born into God’s family by natural descent or by any human decision. They were born of God.

The Word became a human being. He moved in among us and lived here with us. Those of us who were there saw His glory, the kind of glory that only belongs to the Father’s one and only Son, full of grace and truth. John bore witness and declared: this is the One I told you about when I said someone is coming after me who ranks far above me, because He existed long before I did. We have all received one blessing after another from His fullness. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No human being has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who lives in closest fellowship with the Father, has made Him fully known.

This was the testimony John gave when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was. He told them plainly: he was not the Messiah. They asked if he was Elijah. He said no. They asked if he was the prophet the Scriptures had spoken of. He said no. Then who are you, they pressed, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? He told them he was a voice calling out in the wilderness, saying prepare the way of the Lord, just as Isaiah the prophet had written.

These messengers had been sent by the Pharisees. They asked why he was baptizing if he was not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet. John told them he baptized with water, but there was someone standing among them whom they did not recognize, someone who was coming after him but who far surpassed him, and John said he was not even worthy to untie that person’s sandals. These things happened at Bethabara on the other side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.

The next day, John saw Jesus walking toward him and said to everyone present: look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I was talking about, the man who is greater than me because He existed before me. I did not know who He was when I began baptizing, but I came baptizing with water so that He would be revealed to Israel. Then John told them what he had seen: the Spirit of God came down from heaven like a dove and rested on Jesus and stayed there. The one who sent John to baptize had told him that when he saw the Spirit descending and remaining on someone, that would be the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John had seen it with his own eyes, and he declared that this is the Son of God.

The following day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and when he saw Jesus walking by, he said again: there is the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. Jesus turned around, saw them following, and asked what they were looking for. They called Him Rabbi and asked where He was staying. He said simply: come and see. They went with Him and stayed the rest of that day, which began around four in the afternoon.

One of those two disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. After spending the day with Jesus, the first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him: we have found the Messiah. He brought Simon to Jesus, and when Jesus looked at him, He said: you are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Peter, which means a rock.

The next day, Jesus decided to travel to Galilee. He found a man named Philip and said two words to him: follow me. Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip went and found Nathanael and told him they had found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael was skeptical and asked whether anything good could come out of Nazareth. Philip said: come and see.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, He said: here is a genuine Israelite, a man in whom there is no deception. Nathanael was astonished and asked how Jesus knew him. Jesus told him that before Philip had even called him, while he was still sitting under the fig tree, Jesus had already seen him. Nathanael answered and said: Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Jesus replied: you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see far greater things than that. Then He said: I tell you the truth, you will see heaven standing open and the angels of God going up and coming down on the Son of Man.

John 1 — The Full Text (KJV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?

20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.

40 One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

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

42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Frequently Asked Questions