John the Baptist repeats his testimony to Jesus as Lamb of God in the presence of two of his disciples (v. 36). This is how he makes Jesus known to “Israel.” In effect, he delivers his own disciples over to Jesus. One of the two is said to be Andrew (v. 40), but the other is not identified. It is widely assumed that the second disciple is the Gospel writer himself, the “beloved disciple” mentioned five times in the latter half of the Gospel. But not all anonymous disciples have to be the same. More likely, the second disciple is Philip (cf. 1:43), who appears alongside Andrew on two other occasions (6:5–9; 12:21–22) and who, like Andrew, brings someone else to Jesus (1:43–51). The two disciples in verses 35–39 thus anticipate verses 40–42 and 43–51 respectively: Jesus calls Andrew and Phil…