Jesus turned and saw John the Baptist’s two disciples following him. A study of the original language of John's Gospel suggests that Jesus did not just “see” the two disciples following. Of course, if he turned and found two men behind him, he must have seen them. John would not have noted such an obvious fact. In general, we may assume that nothing in John’s Gospel is a record of mere fact: all have a profound theological and revelatory function.

Every language has different words to express a great variety of ways of using our gift of sight: see, look, glance, stare, gaze etc. In this passage John uses a special word, one which he uses in six other passages in his Gospel. In almost every case, it will add great significance to our understanding of John's Gospel and, more importantly, our understanding and appreciation of Jesus himself and his way of dealing with people if we translate the word as “contemplate”. Jesus turned and contemplated the two disciples following him. That is to say, he turned and looked at them with love and acceptance and it was out of this love and acceptance that he asked them “What do you want?”