of the Messias. Jesus said to him: “Follow Me!”[1] Now Philip had a friend named Nathanael[2], an upright, God-fearing man. Philip hastened to him and told him: “We[3] have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”[4] Philip answered: “Come and see.”[5]
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, He said: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.”[6] Nathanael asked in surprise[7]: “Whence knowest Thou me?” Jesus answered and said to Him: “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.”
Then Nathanael, filled with wonder and respect, cried out: “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God[8]: Thou art the King of Israel.” Jesus spoke to him: “Because I said to thee: 'I saw thee under the fig-tree,’ thou believest; greater things[9] than these shalt thou see. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
COMMENTARY.
John's testimony of Jesus. 1. John testifies to the fact that our Lord will give Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, i. e. of all men; for he calls Him 'the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world’. The words of John further imply that our Lord
- ↑ Follow Me. Attach yourself to me; be my disciple.
- ↑ Nathanael. Philip was so happy at having found the Messias that he at once sought out his kinsman, Nathanael, to take him also to Jesus. Nathanael was a native of Cana of Galilee, a little town in communication with Nazareth.
- ↑ We. i. e. Andrew, John, Simon and I.
- ↑ From Nazareth. Nathanael understood at once that he meant the Messias. Nazareth being much despised by the Jews, Nathanael thought it very unlikely that the Messias should spring from such a town.
- ↑ See. He was convinced that Nathanael would believe as soon as he had seen and spoken with Jesus.
- ↑ No guile, i. e. he is no deceiver or hypocrite, as were the Pharisees.
- ↑ In surprise. He had heard the words just uttered by Jesus, and was astonished that He should know his heart, although He had never seen him before.
- ↑ The Son of God. Jesus knew, therefore, that Nathanael had been called by Philip, and that, before Philip had found him, he had been under a fig-tree. Jesus could not have known this by any natural means, and therefore Nathanael, full of holy awe, cried out: “Thou art the Son of God!”
- ↑ Greater things. Jesus praised his faith and encouraged him to believe, by promising him that he should see still greater wonders, which would confirm his faith.
