John 1.43-51.
You recall
Nathanael appears twice in John, and therefore twice in the bible. He’s from Cana, Galilee;
Because Nathanael is obviously a regular Jesus-follower, and because Christians are under some weird misconception that Jesus had only 12 regular followers (when he so obviously had more, including two guys who were just as qualified
All we know about Nathanael is what Jesus testified about him: He’s Israeli, and he’s really honest.
John 1.43-51 KWL - 43 The next day Jesus wants to go to the Galilee,
- and finds Philip and tells him, “Follow me.”
- 44 Philip is from Bethsaida,
- from the city of Andrew and Peter.
- 45 Philip finds Nathanael and tells him,
- “I found the man
- of whom Moses writes about in the Law,
- and the Prophets write about:
- Jesus bar Joseph,
- the man from Nazareth.”
- 46 Nathanael tells him, “Out of Nazareth?
- Can anything good be from there?”
- Philip tells him, “Come and see.”
- 47 Jesus sees Nathanael coming to him,
- and says about him, “Look!
- Truly an Israeli in whom there’s no deceit.”
- 48 Nathanael tells him, “From where do you know me?”
- In reply Jesus tells him, “Before Philip called you,
- when you were being under the fig tree,
- I saw you.”
- 49 Nathanael replies, “Rabbi, you’re God’s son.
- You’re king of Israel.”
- 50 In reply Jesus tells him,
- “Because I tell you I saw you under the fig tree,
- you trust me?
- You’ll see bigger things than this.”
- 51 Jesus told him, “Amen amen, I promise you all:
- You’ll see the sky has opened up,
- and God’s angels are going up and coming down
- upon the Son of Man.”
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
I’ve heard preachers claim Nathanael’s criticism about Nazareth—“Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
I don’t know that this was a popular saying, but Christians have historically taught that Nazareth sucked. Here’s Bishop Theodore 2 of Mopsuetia [350–428]
In fact, among the Jews the name of that village was much despised, because a great number of its inhabitants were pagans, and it seemed impossible that anything good might come out from there. Therefore also the Pharisees said to Nicodemus, “Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”
Jn 7.52 And so it is only right that Philip says to Nathanael, “Come and see.” Since there is now a contrast to that old opinion, [he seems to be saying], I promise to show you the real facts.Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Gospel of John
I mean, Jesus tried teaching in the Nazareth synagogue, which led them to try to stone him to death,
Now, some preachers claim Nathanael was being a snob here, mocking Nazareth because it was some unimportant little village: Nathanael’s objection wasn’t that Nazareth was immoral, but small. There’s no evidence in the scriptures for what Nathanael’s attitude was. The preachers may very well have been right, and Nathanael was a superficial twit… but since Jesus compliments Nathanael’s character, I’m guessing that wasn’t part of Nathanael’s character. More likely it’s a character flaw in the preachers: They’re not impressed by small sizes. They’re not impressed by small churches and congregations; they’re not impressed by small towns; they’re projecting their avarice upon Nathanael.
I suspect some of Nathanael’s question comes from the fact Messiah’s meant to come from Bethlehem,
Jesus blows Nathanael’s mind.
When Jesus sees Nathanael coming, he identified him thisaway: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
Bait? Yep. Jesus is doing some wordplay here. The other three followers he now has—Philip, Andrew, and Simon—are all from Bethsaida, a fishing village; and are fishermen in their day jobs. Nathanael is not. Finally, a follower who doesn’t smell like bait!
But at the same time—and this is why translators tend to render it this way—Nathanael is not trying to bait Jesus. Unlike Pharisee students, he’s not trying to trick Jesus into a logical fallacy, nor a sinful and self-serving interpretation of the scriptures, nor trying to get him in trouble with the Romans. He’s not coming to Jesus with the bad attitude of, “Oh this guy can’t possibly be Messiah,” and plotting to undermine him or slip him up; he’s actually approaching the Master with an open mind, ’cause who knows—he might actually be Messiah.
It’s quite likely Nathanael prided himself on not being sneaky or deceptive; he liked to think of himself as an honest young man. Jesus calling him that, immediately resonated with him. This guy knows him? How does he know him?
Well, Jesus saw him under the fig tree. Nathanael’s response: “Okay, this is totally Messiah.” His doubts were gone. Obviously something’s going on in both their heads, and they never bothered to share it with John, and John never bothered to share it with us. “Fig tree” was somehow personally significant to Nathanael, and Jesus knew it.
Scholars figure people back then, in that climate, would hang out under trees when the day got hot; when you didn’t feel like working and getting yourself heatstroke. They’d pray and
So it’s an easy guess that at some point in his life, Nathanael would be under a fig tree, and something significant might happen to him. But uncharacteristically, Jesus bringing up the fig tree hit Nathanael like a ton of bricks. This was knowledge which Nathanael somehow didn’t expect Jesus to know; couldn’t fathom Jesus knowing it; and yet he did.
This is what we Pentecostals call a “word of knowledge”—when the Holy Spirit tells us something we can’t possibly know unless the info came directly from God. In my experience, whenever the Spirit gives me such info and I share it, it freaks people out. After a minute of shock and surprise—“How can you possibly know that?”—they very quickly believe I heard from God. I mean, where else would the info come from?
And in more than one case, it was actually a test on the other person’s part. Before I, or anyone else, came to talk to them, they asked God, “Lord, give me a sign; have someone bring up… um… a fig tree. Yeah, nobody’s gonna randomly talk about a fig tree.” Then the Spirit tells me, “Hey, ask them about the fig tree,” and (unless I stupidly and faithlessly respond to the Spirit, “No, that’s ridiculous; I’m not gonna embarrass myself like that”) when I bring up a fig tree, their minds are blown; wow, God actually heard them!
Maybe that’s what happened here; Nathanael wanted God to prove Jesus was Messiah, and told God, “Okay, if he’s legit, have him bring up this very fig tree I’m praying under.” And Jesus did, and Nathanael believed. But maybe it’s some other profound thing which happened under a fig tree; we really have no idea. Christians throughout the centuries have made some mighty wild guesses about what Jesus saw, and how he saw it. But pretty much all of us are agreed: Jesus had supernatural knowledge, and Nathanael realized he had supernatural knowledge, and this meant he’s Messiah.
The sky has opened up.
Jesus’s promise to Nathanael—and the other three guys who joined his team—was they were gonna see even greater things than words of knowledge. They were gonna see
John 1.51 KWL - Jesus told him, “Amen amen, I promise you all:
- You’ll see the sky has opened up,
- and God’s angels are going up and coming down
- upon the Son of Man.”
Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t a prophecy about
Arguably they always have been. More than one Christian has read this verse and been reminded of Jacob’s dream of the stairway to heaven. (Or “ladder,” as the
Genesis 28.10-17 NLT - 10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.
- 13 At the top of the stairway stood the L
ORD , and he said, “I am the LORD , the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” - 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the L
ORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
This was a dream after all; let’s not presume this is a literal stairway, which is open directly above the site Jacob was sleeping, which became the city of Bethel, now in ruins. (The west bank Israeli settlement nearby is not the same place.) But dream or not, there’s no indication in the scriptures this stairway, or any other connection between God’s throne and earth, was ever closed, or ever will be. God’s always kept contact with humanity.
The difference is, at the coming of the Son of Man, everybody will see this. Everybody will see the Son of Man in the clouds, with billions of angels and resurrected Christians with him. But this is not that. That’s in our future. Jesus used perfect-tense words: This open sky existed. And still exists. And his followers would, at some point, see it themselves.
Hopefully at some point we see it, or at least recognize in a very real sense it exists. The followers of the Son of Man have access to God and his power; we need to stop acting like we don’t, and need to stop pursuing vastly inferior (and vastly corrupting) political power in its place.
