Of the readings in the
Revised Common Lectionary for 19 January 2014 (Second Sunday after Epiphany), I chose to reflect on John 1:29-42.
The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon John 1:41a
We have in this reading one of the bible passages that to me refutes those who try to hold that the Bible is inerrant, literal, and without contradiction. Specifically, a contradiction arises in the calling of disciples, for John openly contradicts the Synoptic Gospels on that detail.
In the Synoptics, Jesus is walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and spots some fishermen. He there calls upon Simon Peter to leave being a fisher of fish and become a fisher of men.
But in John's gospel, Jesus gains his first two disciples not along the shores of Galilee where Peter was fishing with others. (Luke has a minor disagreement with Matthew and Mark over who Peter was fishing with, but this nothing compared to the disagreement the Synoptics have with John.) Instead while walking near the Jordan where John is baptizing, John remarks to two of his disciples that Jesus is the Lamb of God. This causes the two disciples to leave John and follow Jesus. One of those disciples is Andrew who goes and brings his brother Simon to Jesus.
Now apologists for the literalists try to argue that one of these two callings was only temporary, but there is nothing in the text to suggest that. Indeed, both the Synoptics and John portray their respective accounts as permanent callings.
It's a shame literalists spend so much time trying to defend such an indefensible position, particularly when it is not needed to accept that Jesus was the Christ. The ancient world did not have the abhorrence of myth that we tend to have today. That said, I think the Synoptic accounts are likely to be closer to the historical truth than John. John's gospel places a heavy emphasis upon the acceptance by John the Baptist of Jesus as the Messiah, likely for the purpose of converting those who believed in the Baptist but were uncertain of Jesus. Hence John has every reason to have Jesus' first disciples be not merely former disciples of the Baptist, but ones who were encouraged to leave the Baptist by the words of their former master. Yet clearly John has heard and respects the tradition that Simon was a fisherman before he entered the service of Jesus. That means that Peter cannot be the first called as he is in the Synoptics.
(The Synoptic accounts of the first calling of disciples are found in Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, and Luke 5:1-11, while John's quite different account is in John 1:35-51.)
