Bible Study notes

Interesting thoughts from the notes given to me at my Thursday morning Bible study

Book of John written many years after the other gospels.

John was going against his current Jewish culture because the only people who were baptized were non-Jews who wished to become proselytes of the Jewish faith. Israelites were never baptized. They presumed they belonged to God already - they didn't need to be washed. John's words hit home, these people realized that to be an Israelite was not enough; they, too, needed cleansing from sin. One can imagine how water baptism offended the Pharisees.

Ezekiel 36:25"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean

" Zechariah 13:1 "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David ... to cleanse them from sin and impurity. -- Thus the people were wondering if this John was the Messiah.

John the Baptist was the son of a priest so he too was considered a priest by descent.

When John said he was not worthy to untie the straps on Jesus' sandal, he gave himself a very low position because in that time era a disciple could serve his master in anyway but to untie his sandals - that was a slave's work, too demeaning for even a disciple to do.

Andrew and John's response to Jesus, which seemed to take place so quietly and simply- but was in fact, the first trickle of the little stream that grew to the mighty river of Christianity destined to fill the whole earth.

On every occasion when Andrew is singled out in the Gospels, he is always seen bringing someone to Christ - his brother Simon, the boy with the loaves or the Greeks

Jesus looked at Simon. In the original language, this word describes a special, very concentrated and penetrating gaze that would pierce the core of Simon's soul.