John 1 Footnotes

1:36,41,45,49 In a short span of time Jesus was called the “Lamb of God,” “Messiah,” the “one Moses wrote about,” the “Son of God,” and the “King of Israel.” How could Jesus’s first followers know so much about him so quickly, especially when the other Gospels do not include such understanding until much later in his ministry? Actually, all these titles carried with them the common Jewish expectation of a kingly, militaristic deliverer who would overthrow Rome. A full understanding of who Jesus was came slowly.

1:45 Jesus’s being called “son of Joseph” does not contradict the traditions of a virginal conception. Joseph would have legally adopted Jesus and become his stepfather. Nathanael is probably the same person as Bartholomew (Mk 3:18).

1:46 It is sometimes claimed that we have no evidence of Nazareth existing as a town in Jesus’s day. Yet artifacts show evidence of a settlement even before Roman times, as well as during the early Roman period, while a first-century inscription contains the name of Nazareth in Hebrew. But Nazareth was a small, out-of-the-way place that no one later wanting to honor Jesus would likely have made up. It is mentioned because that is where he really lived.