John 1
The Gospel according to John opens not with a birth in Bethlehem but with eternity: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (v. 1). The other Gospels begin with a genealogy or a manger; John begins before the manger, before time, before there was a single created thing. And he makes the most far-reaching claim a sentence can hold: the Word was with God, and the Word was God - near to God and Himself divine, and through Him everything that exists came to be. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made (v. 3). In Him is life, and that life is the light of men (v. 4), shining in a darkness that has never managed to put it out.2
Into that long story comes a man with a single errand. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (v. 6) - sent not to be the Light but to bear witness of that Light. The tragedy and the wonder of the chapter sit side by side: the world that was made by Him knew him not, and he came unto his own, and his own received him not (vv. 10-11) - and yet as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God (v. 12), born not of human descent or human will but of God. Then the verse the whole Prologue has been climbing toward: 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 (v. 14). The law came by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (v. 17).
The rest of the chapter is the witness made visible and then the witness bearing fruit. Pressed by priests and Levites about who he is, John the Baptist refuses every title but the lowest: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness (v. 23). The next day he turns the spotlight entirely off himself and onto another: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (v. 29). He tells how he knew - the Spirit came down from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him (v. 32) - and gives his verdict: this is the Son of God (v. 34). From there the Gospel does what it will keep doing to the end: people come. Andrew finds his brother Simon - We have found the Messias (v. 41); Philip finds Nathanael; and a skeptic becomes a confessor, hearing the promise that he will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (v. 51).
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
John 1:1-18The Word Was Made Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
John opens his Gospel exactly where the Bible opens: In the beginning. Genesis begins, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; John begins, In the beginning was the Word - and the difference in verb is the whole point. Genesis says the world began; John says that when it began, the Word already was. Three short clauses set the foundation of everything that follows. In the beginning was the Word - before the first created thing, the Word already existed. And the Word was with God - face to face with God, in nearest fellowship, distinct enough to be with. And the Word was God - not merely near to God or sent from God, but Himself God. John holds these together without softening either side, and verse 2 underlines it: The same was in the beginning with God. The reader is not asked to solve the wonder, only to receive it. The One whose story this Gospel tells did not come into being at Bethlehem; He was, in the beginning, with God, and was God.
From who the Word is, John turns to what the Word does, and two great words carry it: life and light. In him was life; and the life was the light of men (v. 4). All things were made through Him; and life itself - not only the spark that animates a body but the deeper life a person is made for - is in Him, and from Him. And that life shows up among us as light: it makes things visible, it shows the way, it drives back what is dark. Then John strikes the note that the whole Gospel will sound again and again: And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (v. 5). Notice the present tense - the light shineth, keeps on shining; it is not a single flare that flickered out. And notice the word comprehended. It carries two senses at once, and both are true: the darkness did not understand the light, did not recognize it; and the darkness did not overcome it, could not put it out. Both have proved true. The world has failed again and again to grasp the light - and the light has never once gone dark. Whatever the darkness throws at it, the lamp keeps burning. That is the hope folded into the chapter's opening lines, before a single event of the story has been told.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Into the soaring opening drops a plain sentence about a particular man: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (v. 6). After verse upon verse of was - the Word was, eternal - here is a man who simply came to be, sent for one task. And John is careful, almost insistent, about what that task is and is not. John came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe (v. 7) - and then, lest anyone confuse the witness with the One witnessed to: He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light (v. 8). A witness has no light of his own; his whole job is to point at the light so others will see it. This is the shape of every faithful messenger - not to draw a crowd to himself, but to turn the crowd's eyes toward Christ. The verses that follow keep the contrast sharp: the Baptist is a man sent; the One he announces is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (v. 9) - the genuine, the original light, not a lamp lit from somewhere else but the source itself.
Now comes the heartbreak at the center of the Prologue, stated with terrible economy. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not (v. 10). Read it slowly: the One who made the world walked into the world He had made, and it did not recognize its own Maker. And nearer still: He came unto his own, and his own received him not (v. 11) - to the very people prepared for centuries to know Him, and they shut the door. This is the darkness of verse 5 turning from a figure of speech into history. But the sentence does not end in the dark. 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 (v. 12). Over against the many who refused stands a whosoever - not a nation, not a bloodline, but as many as received him. To receive Him is to believe on His name; and to those who do, He gives the right, the authority, to become the sons of God. And John guards the gift from every misunderstanding: this new family is entered by a birth that no human can arrange - not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (v. 13). It is not inherited, not achieved, not willed into being from below. It is given, from above. The same Word by whom we were first made is the Word through whom we are made sons of God.
14And 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. 15John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Everything in the Prologue has been climbing toward this verse, and when it comes it is almost shocking in its plainness: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (v. 14). The Word who was God, by whom all things were made, became flesh - not a phantom, not an appearance, but real human life, with a body and a face and a voice. The eternal entered time; the unseen became visible; the Maker took His place inside the made. And John, who says he was there, gives his eyewitness: we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. This is the wonder - that the coming-in-flesh did not hide the glory but revealed it. They looked at a man and saw the glory of God, full of grace and truth. Verse 18 closes the thought and ties it back to the beginning: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. The invisible God no one has ever seen is made known by the Son who has always been nearest to Him - in the bosom of the Father. The word for “declared” is the word from which we get “exegesis”: the Son has explained the Father, drawn Him out into the open where we can see. If you want to know what God is like, John says, look at Jesus. There the unseen God has stepped into view.
Between the wonder of verse 14 and the summary of verse 18, two verses press what the coming of the Word actually pours out on us. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace (v. 16). He came full - full of grace and truth - and out of that fulness we receive; the abundance is His, and it overflows to us. The phrase grace for grace has been turned over many ways, but at its simplest it pictures grace upon grace, one kindness replacing another in unbroken supply, like waves that keep coming in - you receive a grace, and behind it comes another, and the fulness never runs dry. Then verse 17 sets the gift in the sweep of the whole biblical story: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Notice John does not pit them against each other as enemies; the law was a true gift, given by Moses, good and from God. But it was never the last word. What the law pointed toward, grace and truth came by - and they came not as a code but as a Person, by Jesus Christ. Here, for the first time in the Gospel, John names the name. The eternal Word, the Light, the only begotten of the Father, the One full of grace and truth - His name is Jesus Christ, and through Him the grace and truth that the law could only foreshadow have at last arrived among us.
John 1:19-34Behold the Lamb of God
19And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 20And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 21And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. 22Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? 23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
A delegation comes from Jerusalem - priests and Levites, the official inquiry - with a single question: Who art thou? (v. 19). What follows is a small masterclass in humility. John's first recorded words are a denial of greatness: he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ (v. 20). They press through the grand titles one by one - Are you Elias? Are you that prophet? - and to each he answers shorter and shorter: I am not… No (v. 21). The crowds were streaming to him; he could have claimed almost anything. Instead he keeps subtracting himself. When they demand at last that he say something, he reaches for the lowest possible self-description: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord (v. 23), quoting Isaiah. Not I am the message - I am the voice. A voice is heard and then is gone; what matters is the One it announces and the road it clears. John knows exactly what he is - not the King, but the herald running ahead to cry that the King is coming. Make straight the way of the Lord: his whole life is a finger pointing down the road toward Someone else.
24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 25And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? 26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; 27He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. 28These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The questioners shift from who to why: Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? (v. 25). If you are nobody, by what right do you call Israel to repent and be washed? John's answer keeps his eyes off himself and on Another: I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not (v. 26). His baptism is only water, only preparation; the One who matters is already here - standeth among you - unrecognized, in the crowd, perhaps within earshot. There is something quietly haunting in the phrase: the long-awaited One is not far off in the future but present now, standing among them, and they do not know Him. Then John measures the distance between himself and that One in the humblest image he can find: He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose (v. 27). To loosen a man's sandal-strap was the work of the lowest household slave. John says he is not worthy even of that. The greatest man born of women (as Jesus would later call him) counts himself unfit to do a slave's task for the One coming after him. That is the true measure of John's greatness - how small he is willing to be so that Christ may be seen as great.
29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 31And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
The next day the herald becomes a witness, and gives the testimony his whole life was for: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (v. 29). Everything in his ministry narrows to this pointing finger. He does not say follow me; he says Behold - look away from me, look there. And the title he gives is staggering in its compression. He has watched a man walk toward him over the riverbank, and he names Him the Lamb of God, the sacrifice God Himself provides, the One who will take away - lift off and carry off - not merely his own sins, nor only Israel's, but the sin of the world. Then he repeats the strange thing he said before: This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me (v. 30). The One coming after John in time was before him in reality - an echo, here at the riverside, of the Word who was in the beginning. And John admits his own dependence on revelation: And I knew him not (v. 31). He did not recognize the Christ by instinct or cleverness; his task was simply to baptize and to wait, that he should be made manifest to Israel. The Light makes Himself known; the witness only points.
32And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33And 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. 34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
John now tells how the unrecognized One was made known to him - by a sign given from heaven. I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him (v. 32). He had been told what to watch for: the One on whom he saw the Spirit come down and remain would be the One who baptizes not with water but with the Holy Ghost (v. 33). The detail that matters is the word abode - the Spirit did not flutter down and away but came and stayed, settling and resting upon Him. Others in Scripture were touched by the Spirit for a time and a task; upon this One the Spirit comes to abide. The gentleness of the image is its own quiet sermon: not fire, not a whirlwind, but a dove - the Spirit resting on the Lamb. Here, at the Jordan, the Father's Spirit comes down upon the Son in the sight of the witness, the three named together in a single scene without a word of explanation; John simply reports what he saw. And on the strength of that sign he gives his verdict, the climax of his whole testimony: And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God (v. 34). He began the day by insisting I am not the Christ; he ends it by declaring who the Christ is. The voice has done its work: it has named the Lamb, and named Him the Son of God.
John 1:35-51We Have Found the Messias
35Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then 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? 39He 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.
Now the testimony begins to bear fruit, and it happens through the smallest of means. John is standing with two of his own disciples; he looks at Jesus walking by and repeats his great word - Behold the Lamb of God! (v. 36) - and that is enough. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus (v. 37). No argument, no spectacle; a faithful witness points, and two men leave to follow. Then Jesus turns and asks the first question He speaks in this Gospel, and it is a question that searches every reader: What seek ye? (v. 38). It is worth stopping on. Before they can ask anything of Him, He asks the thing beneath all their asking - what are you really looking for? They answer with a question of their own: Rabbi… where dwellest thou? They do not want a quick word in the road; they want to be where He is. And His reply is the open door of the whole Gospel: Come and see (v. 39). Not here is an argument, not here are my credentials - come and see. Faith in John's Gospel begins not with a proof but with an invitation to draw near and look. They came, and saw, and abode with him that day. Whatever they had been seeking, they had found where it dwelt.
40One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42And 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.
One of the two is named, and it is the quieter brother: Andrew, Simon Peter's brother (v. 40). Andrew will never be one of the famous names; he is identified here by his relation to someone more renowned. And the very first thing he does once he has found Jesus is the thing that makes him quietly one of the most important men in the Gospels: He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias (v. 41). He does not wait until he understands everything. He has spent a single afternoon with Jesus, and he goes straight to the person closest to him with the best news a person can carry: We have found the Messias - the long-promised Anointed One. The pattern of the whole chapter is here in miniature: someone is found by Christ, and immediately goes to find another. And look what Andrew's small errand brings about: he brought him to Jesus, and the brother he brings is Simon, who will become Peter. Jesus looks at him - when Jesus beheld him - and renames him on the spot: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas… A stone (v. 42). He sees not only who Simon is but who he will become, and gives him a new name to match the new man. Andrew never preached a famous sermon; he simply brought his brother. It was enough to change the world.
43The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. 44Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip 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. 46And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
The chain continues. The next day Jesus Himself takes the initiative - findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me (v. 43) - and Philip, found, immediately does what Andrew did: he goes to find someone else. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write (v. 45). Notice how Philip describes Jesus - not as a new teaching but as the One the whole of Scripture was about, of whom Moses… and the prophets, did write. But Nathanael meets the news with a sneer of regional prejudice: Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? (v. 46). Nazareth was an obscure, unimpressive village; nothing in the prophets had taught anyone to look there. Nathanael judges by what he already thinks he knows, and nearly misses the Messiah by it. And here is the wisdom of Philip's reply - he does not argue the point, does not marshal evidence, does not try to win the debate about Nazareth. He simply says what Jesus had said the day before: Come and see. It is the answer to almost every honest objection: do not settle the matter from a distance with your assumptions; come close enough to look at Him for yourself. The skeptic is not scolded; he is invited. And he comes.
47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48Nathanael 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. 49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
The skeptic comes, and before he can say a word Jesus reads him to the depths: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! (v. 47). It is high praise - here is a true son of Israel, honest, without deceit, the very opposite of the cunning that hides its motives. Nathanael, startled to be so described by a stranger, asks, Whence knowest thou me? (v. 48). And Jesus answers with a detail no one could have known: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. We are not told what happened under that fig tree - a place of quiet, of prayer, of being alone - but Nathanael knows, and the knowledge that Jesus had seen him there, unseen by any human eye, undoes him. The man who an hour before doubted that anything good could come from Nazareth now makes one of the fullest confessions in the chapter: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel (v. 49). It is a remarkable turn - from can any good thing come out of Nazareth? to thou art the Son of God in the space of a single conversation. And it began not with an argument that defeated his objection but with the discovery that he himself was already fully known. He came to see Jesus and found that Jesus had already seen him.
50Jesus 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. 51And 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.
Jesus does not let Nathanael's confession be the ceiling; He turns it into a doorway. Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these (v. 50). A flash of supernatural knowledge was enough to draw the confession out, but Jesus promises far more is coming. Then He speaks a word that reaches back into Israel's oldest dreams: 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 (v. 51). Anyone steeped in the Scriptures would hear the echo at once. Long before, the fugitive Jacob had lain down in a desolate place with a stone for a pillow and dreamed of a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it (Gen. 28:12). At the foot of that ladder Jacob woke and said, this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Now Jesus takes that ancient picture - the one point where heaven touches earth, where the traffic of God's messengers goes up and down - and says it is no longer a ladder of stone in a dream. It is a Person. The angels ascend and descend upon the Son of man. He Himself is the meeting place of heaven and earth, the open gate, the way between God and us. The chapter that began with the Word in the bosom of the Father ends with the promise that in this Son of man, heaven itself stands open.
Further study
- John 1 · Greek interlinear + lexiconBible HubThe Greek text of John 1 word by word, with parsing and lexical links - useful for logos (v. 1, the “Word”), eskenosen (v. 14, “dwelt” - literally “tented” or “tabernacled” among us), monogenes (vv. 14, 18, “only begotten”), and amnos (v. 29, the “Lamb” of God).
- John 1 ↔ Genesis 1 · Exodus 40 · Isaiah 40 · Genesis 28Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying John 1 to the rest of Scripture - In the beginning (v. 1) read against Genesis 1:1, the glory that dwelt among us (v. 14) against the glory filling the tabernacle (Exod. 40:34), the voice of one crying in the wilderness (v. 23) against Isaiah 40:3, and the angels on the Son of man (v. 51) against Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28:12).
- John 1 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on John 1 - the force of was and was with God in verse 1, the meaning of comprehended in verse 5 (grasp or overcome), the verb “tabernacled” behind dwelt among us in verse 14, and the much-discussed phrase grace for grace in verse 16.
Where this echoes in Scripture
The Word Was Made Flesh
- Genesis 1:1-3In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth... And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.The opening John deliberately echoes (v. 1) - creation by the word of God, and light spoken into the dark.
- Exodus 40:34Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.The glory dwelling in the tent - the picture behind “dwelt among us” and “we beheld his glory” (v. 14).
- Colossians 1:16-17by him were all things created... and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.The claim of verse 3 said again - all things made by Him, and He before all things.
- Hebrews 1:3the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power.The glory beheld in verse 14 and the unseen God declared in verse 18 - the Son who shows the Father.
- Philippians 2:6-7being in the form of God... made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.The Word made flesh (v. 14) - the One who was God taking the form of a servant.
Behold the Lamb of God
- Isaiah 40:3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.The prophecy John claims as his own identity (v. 23) - the voice that clears the road for the coming Lord.
- Isaiah 53:6-7the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all... he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.The suffering servant behind “the Lamb of God” (v. 29) - the one who bears the iniquity of all.
- Genesis 22:8My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.The promise answered in verse 29 - the Lamb that God Himself provides.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.The Passover lamb named as Christ - the sacrifice John points to in verse 29.
- Revelation 5:6-9a Lamb as it had been slain... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.The Lamb of verse 29 at the end of the story - slain, and worshiped for redeeming a world by His blood.
We Have Found the Messias
- Genesis 28:12a ladder set up on the earth... and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.Jacob’s dream that Jesus claims as fulfilled in Himself (v. 51) - the meeting place of heaven and earth.
- John 14:6I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.The open ladder of verse 51 named plainly - the one way between God and us.
- Psalm 2:7Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.The title Nathanael confesses in verse 49 - the Son of God, the anointed King.
- Isaiah 9:6-7the government shall be upon his shoulder... Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David.The King of Israel of verse 49 - the promised ruler on David’s throne.
- John 4:29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?The same “come and see” that draws people to Jesus (vv. 39, 46) - the invitation to meet Him for oneself.