Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel NarrativeHurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Religion
Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel Narrative
Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Jesus Christ -- Biography
He spoke in the Hebrew tongue, which was the language of his people. If
he had spoken in Greek, the tongue in which the New Testament was first
written, he would have said, "We have found the Christ;" that is, the
King. Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus; and as soon as Jesus
looked at him, before Andrew had spoken his name, he said:
"Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas. But I will give you a
new name. In the time to come you shall be called 'the Rock.'"
In the Hebrew language the word meaning "rock" is "Cephas" or "Kephas."
In Greek it is "Peter." After this Simon was sometimes called Cephas,
but more often Peter. He became a leader among the followers of Jesus,
and many years later wrote one, perhaps two, of the books in the New
Testament.
Jesus had now three followers who believed in him as their Lord and
King; and the next day he found a fourth. This man was named Philip, and
he came from a place called Bethsaida, on the northern shore of the Sea
of Galilee. Jesus said to Philip:
"Follow me."
And he too joined the little company of the disciples or followers of
Jesus. Philip at once thought of a friend of his own, a very good and
pure man, who he thought would be glad to join him as a follower of
Jesus. He went to look for him and found him standing under a fig tree.
He said:
"We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and of whom the
prophets spoke, the Christ. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph; and he
comes from the town of Nazareth."
Now Nathanael's home-town was Cana, only a few miles from Nazareth.
Nathanael thought of Nazareth as a mean place. He could not believe that
the great King of Israel, the Christ, should spring from such a village.
He looked for him to come from some great city, like Jerusalem, or from
Bethlehem, David's town. He did not know that Jesus had been born in
Bethlehem; in fact he had never heard of Jesus, and he said:
"Do you tell me that anything good can come out of Nazareth?"
Now, Philip was not wise enough to tell Nathanael the reasons why he
believed in Jesus. It is hard to put into words some of our deepest
thoughts. But he gave to Nathanael a very wise answer.
"Well," said Philip, "come and see Jesus for yourself."
Jesus had never seen Nathanael before, but as he drew near, Jesus said
to those who were standing by:
"Look! here comes a true Israelite, a man of God, one whose heart has in
it nothing evil."
Nathanael was greatly surprised at these words of Jesus. He said,
"How is it that you know me?"
"Before Philip spoke to you," answered Jesus, "while you were standing
under the fig tree, I saw you."
"Teacher," said Nathanael, "you are the Son of God; you are the King of
Israel."
Jesus said:
"Do you believe because I said, 'I saw you underneath the fig tree?' You
will yet see greater things than these. In truth, I say to you that you
shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God going up and coming
down upon the Son of Man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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