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Joh_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 Joh_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. à **) 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 (Mar_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. Joh_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 (Joh_1:36) on the countenance of Simon pierces his inner soul. Jesus, as the Searcher of hearts (Joh_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 Mat_16:18, as Luthardt thinks). A rock is the emblem of firmness as early as Homer (Od. xvii. 463); comp. Eze_3:9. There is no contradiction here with Mat_16:18 (it is otherwise with Mar_3:16), as if John had transferred the giving of the name to this place (Hilgenfeld, comp. Baur and Scholten), for in Mat_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. Gen_32:28; Gen_35:10; Gen_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 (Mat_4:18 and parallels); the personal recollection of John, however, must take precedence of these. See especially the note following Joh_1:51.
[122] John’s use here and in Joh_4:25 of τὸν Μεσσίαν ( îùéä ) is accounted for by the depicting of the scene exactly as it occurred; whereas in Joh_1:20; Joh_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 Mat_16:17.