Recently, I have come across some notes from when my brother and I started studying John together. I thought it might be appropriate to share them here on my Bible Studies blog:Dear Brother,
I’m glad we’re going to study John together! Here are some miscellaneous thoughts I had while reading the first chapter.
I’m in the middle of reading the first chapter and thought I’d ask: what version of the Bible are you reading? I’m reading the New American Standard that I’ve had since 1985 or so, and that Dad gave me the first time I went to church with him when visiting from Dallas. The New King James is my favorite because it is closest to the Majority of Manuscripts (and therefore more accurate), but my NAS is so marked up, I can’t change over!
Something I’ve begun doing recently while reading is to think about WHERE and WHEN what’s being written happened. When doing this, it is helpful to have a Bible with a map of the New Testament-era Israel. 1:28 says these things happened in Bethany beyond the Jordan. My map shows that as being on the east side of the Jordan River very close to the Dead Sea. So the priests and Levites must’ve walked about 10-12 miles to get to John the Baptist.
Going back to 1:12 – it’s way cool that when we become believers, we become God’s children. Since earthly fathers are damaged people (as are we all), it can be hard to think of that as a good thing – but He’s a perfect Father who provides perfectly and we usually don’t understand that whole construct. I don’t know if it’s a function of age or being more consistent in reading/prayer for the last couple of years, but my relationship to God has expanded from just Father/Son to also include a friendship element that’s exciting. I hope I don’t move away from that and Him!
1:43 Jesus decides to head back to Galilee – a 4-day walk (found in chapt 11) and 3 disciples are from Bethsaida which is on the NE corner of the Sea of Galilee.
