Book of Common Prayer

Philip and Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee, where he found Philip.

“Follow me,” he said to him.

⁴⁴ Philip came from Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter hailed from. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael.

“We’ve found him!” he said. “The one Moses wrote about in the law! And the prophets, too! We’ve found him! It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth!”

⁴⁶ “Really?” replied Nathanael. “Are you telling me that something good can come out of Nazareth?”

“Come and see,” replied Philip.

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him.

“Here he comes,” he said. “Look at him! He’s a real Israelite. Genuine through and through.”

⁴⁸ “How did you get to know me?” asked Nathanael.

“Oh,” replied Jesus, “I saw you under the fig tree, before Philip spoke to you.”

⁴⁹ “Rabbi,” replied Nathanael, “you’re the son of God! You’re the king of Israel!”

⁵⁰ “Wait a minute,” said Jesus. “Are you telling me that you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You’ll see a lot more than that!

⁵¹ “In fact,” he went on, “I’m telling you the solemn truth. You’ll see heaven opened, and God’s angels going up and down upon the son of man.”

The seed must die

²⁰ Some Greeks had come up with all the others to worship at the festival. ²¹ They went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

“Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”

²² Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went together to tell Jesus.

²³ “The time has come,” said Jesus in reply. “This is the moment for the son of man to be glorified. ²⁴ I’m telling you the solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. ²⁵ If you love your life, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age.

²⁶ “If anyone serves me, they must follow me. Where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the father will honor them.”