about their family, rank, residence, and occupation, which are desirable for the illustration of the lives and characters of both. So too, throughout the whole of the sacred narrative, everything that could concern Andrew has been abundantly expressed and commented on, in the life of Peter. The occasions on which the name of this apostle is mentioned in the New Testament, indeed, except in the bare enumeration of the twelve, are only three,—his first introduction to Jesus,—his actual call,—and the circumstance of his being present with his brother and the sons of Zebedee, at the scene on the mount of Olives, when Christ foretold the utter ruin of the temple. Of these three scenes, in the first only did he perform such a part, as to receive any other than a bare mention in the gospel history; nor even in that solitary circumstance does his conduct seem to have been of much importance, except as leading his brother to the knowledge of Jesus. From this circumstance, however, of his being specified as the first of all the twelve who had a personal acquaintance with Jesus, he has been honored by many writers with the distinguishing title of "THE FIRST CALLED," although others have claimed the dignity of this appellation for another apostle, in whose life the particular reasons for such a claim will be mentioned.
The first called.—In Greek [Greek: prôtoklêtos], (protokletos,) by which name he is called
by Nicephorus Callistus, (E. H. II. 39,) and by several of the Greek Fathers, as
quoted by Cangius, (Gloss. in voc.) Suicer, however, makes no reference whatever
to this term.
From the minute narrative of the circumstances of the call,
given by John in the first chapter of his gospel, it appears, that
Andrew, excited by the fame of the great Baptizer, had left his
home at Bethsaida, and gone to Bethabara, (on the same side of the
Jordan, but farther south,) where the solemn and ardent appeals of
the bold herald of inspiration so far equalled the expectation awakened
by rumor, that, along with vast multitudes who seem to have
made but an indifferent progress in religious knowledge, though
brought to the repentance and confession of their sins, he was
baptized in the Jordan, and was also attached to the person of the
great preacher in a peculiar manner, as it would seem, aiming at a
still more advanced state of indoctrination, than ordinary converts
could be expected to attain. While in this diligent personal
attendance on his new Master, he was one day standing with him
upon the banks of the Jordan, the great scene of the mystic sacrament,
listening to the incidental instructions which fell from the
lips of the holy man, in company with another disciple, his coun-
