100.  The disciples who heard these testimonies from John understood them to be Messianic (John i. 30-34), though their later consternation, when the cross seemed to shatter their hopes (John xx. 9, 10, 24, 25), shows that they did not comprehend their deeper meaning.  Two of these disciples at once attached themselves to Jesus, and one of them, Andrew of Bethsaida, was so impressed by the new master that, having sought out his brother Simon, he declared that they had found the Messiah.  The other of these earliest followers was John the son of Zebedee, and it is possible that he also found his brother and introduced James from the very first into the circle of the disciples.  Jesus was about to take his departure for Galilee, and on the next day, as he was leaving, added Philip of Bethsaida to the little company of followers.  Philip, impressed as Andrew had been, brought Nathanael of Cana to Jesus.  The undefined something about Jesus which drew noble hearts irresistibly to himself, and his marvellous knowledge of this new comer, produced the same effect in Nathanael, as was seen earlier in Andrew and Philip, and he acknowledged the new master as “Son of God, King of Israel” (John i. 49).

101.  These early confessions in the fourth gospel present a difficulty in view of Jesus’ warm approval of Peter’s acknowledgment of him at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13-20).  Jesus saw in that confession a distinct advance in the disciples’ thought and faith.  Yet the religious feeling which early questioned whether the Baptist even were not the Messiah (Luke iii. 15) would almost certainly have concluded that John’s greater successor must be God’s anointed.  The very fact that men’s thoughts about the Messiah were varied and complex made them ready for some modifications of their preconceptions.  One with such subtle personal power as Jesus had exercised was almost sure to be hailed by some with enthusiasm as the looked-for representative of God.  In fact, it is probable that at any time in the early days of his ministry Jesus could have been proclaimed Messiah, provided he had accepted the people’s terms.  Such a confession would have been merely the outcome of enthusiasm.  The people, even the disciples, did not know Jesus.  They all had high hopes and somewhat fixed ideas about the Messiah, nearly every one of which was destined to rude shock.  How little they knew him Jesus realized (John i. 51), and his self-mastery is manifest in his attitude to this early enthusiasm.  He was no visionary; he had a great work to do and a long lesson to teach, and he was patient enough to teach it little by little.  He did not rebuke the ill-informed faith of a Nathanael, but sought gradually to supplant the old thought of the Messiah and of the kingdom by new truth, and to bind men’s affections to himself for his own sake and the truth’s sake, not simply for the idea which he impersonated to them.