John knows that he is going to become a priest early in the story. To be specific, John knows that he will become a priest in paragraph number three of "By the Waters of Babylon."
My father is a priest; I am the son of a priest. . . He gave me the metal to hold—I took it and did not die. So he knew that I was truly his son and would be a priest in my time.
The first step to becoming a priest is to be born into the priesthood. John is the son of a priest, so he has that prerequisite taken care of. But being the son of a priest doesn't guarantee him becoming a priest. John has brothers, and none of them have been chosen to be a priest. Why? Well, they weren't brave enough to grab a piece of metal.
. . . my brothers would not have done it, though they are good hunters.
John knows that he has the chance to become a priest, because he is the son of a priest. But he must pass two tests in order to complete priesthood selection. He must be brave enough to hold the metal piece offered to him by his father, and John must not die from holding the metal. Likely nobody would die from holding the metal, but everybody is afraid of holding the metal. That's likely because the metal used to be irradiated from the nuclear disaster that devastated all of humanity. John's society has become superstitious about holding metal, so only priests and brave enough sons of priests are allowed to touch metal. John is one of those people; therefore, he will become a priest.
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