Philip the Apostle – Some scriptural mentions: John 1:43 John 6:5-7 John 12:20
In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke), Philip is mentioned only in the lists of the apostles. We hear more about him in John, who tells us that he is one of the first to be called. After his call, he brings Nathanael to Jesus. This is the occasion when Nathanael asks, in some disbelief, whether anything good can come from Nazareth. Instead of arguing the issue, Philip simply invites him to come and see.
When Jesus was preaching to the multitude and the rest of the disciples were fussing about sending the crowds away to find food, it is Philip who comes forward with a boy who has five loaves and two fish to share.
There must have been something very approachable in Philip, for a number of “Greeks” also came to him to say that they wanted to meet Jesus.
The “Greeks” mentioned here might have been Jewish people who lived in Greece, although the word (in the original manuscripts) that identifies them would seem to indicate that they were Gentile Greeks. It was said that they were in Jerusalem for the festival. This tells us that they were could have been worshippers of God. If they were Gentiles doing this, they were God-fearers, who were Gentile who had been converted to worship of God.
God-fearers - The Israelites who lived outside of the area, then known more or less as Israel, were in population in far greater numbers than those who lived inside Israel. They are sometimes known as Hellenistic Jews or Jews of the Diaspora. They maintained their monotheistic faith, but were more liberal than those who lived in Israel. They were missionary-minded and had witnessed to their faith in God to the Gentiles. Many Gentiles had become convinced that there was only one God. They were attracted by the spiritual and moral nature of the Jewish faith. But they saw no point in the dietary laws and abhorred circumcision, so most could not be considered full converts. The Hellenistic Jews allowed these ‘God-fearers’ to worship with them in the synagogues. This would generally not have been allowed in Israel. It is possible that these Greeks were either Hellenistic Jewish people, or were God-fearers.
It may have helped that Philip is a Greek name. Many Jewish people of that time had two names, one Hebrew and one Greek or otherwise familiar to the Gentile world. If Philip did have a Hebrew name, at some point he obviously had chosen to be known primarily by his Greek name. This could have been a significant fact to the Greeks. Many orthodox Jewish people who lived in Israel would not associate with Gentiles, considering them unclean unless they were fully converted to Judaism, which entailed circumcision (abhorrent to the Roman world), and the dietary laws. Even then, the converts might find acceptance difficult to receive by the Orthodox. But since Philip commonly used his Greek name, they may have felt more comfortable coming to him.
After being approached by the Greeks, Philip brought the news to Andrew (Andrew is also a Greek name), and together they went to tell Jesus.
The fact that Philip was from Bethsaida (The location of this town is not known for certain) is specifically mentioned in connection with the Greeks approaching him.
The fact that the Greeks asked to see Jesus was likely a sign that they were interested in becoming his disciples. Jesus and Andrew were the first to receive the invitation to discipleship directly from Jesus and now they are the ones who are first to hear of non-Jewish interest in him. The response of Jesus was to lay out the difficulties of discipleship, as well as its fruitfulness. This is not a rejection of non-Jewish followers. He did the same on a few other occasions as well. Being a disciple could not be a casual hobby, a brief enthusiasm, or an intellectual pursuit. It takes much more than that, and because it does, it gives more back in fruitfulness and fullness of life.
The stories about Philip show a man who brings people to Jesus. He was approachable and obviously a person that people respected. Although we are not told this specifically, his actions and manner must have shown integrity and faith, or no one would have been interested in Philip as an introduction to Jesus. (It is reminiscent of the missionary who went to a small village in India. He handed out Bibles in their language and lived there a while. Finally he went to one of the village elder and asked whether the people were reading their Bibles. The elder said, ‘no, they are reading you first.’
Philip the Apostle is not the same Philip the Evangelist in the book of Acts. Yet Philip the Apostle is known for bringing people to Jesus, and in living a life that helped interest people in being disciples.
How can Christians today follow in the footsteps of Philip?
In today’s world, what qualities of living would make people more interested in Jesus?
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