Wednesday Bible Study: N is for Nathanael

There is a lot in a little bit about Nathanael, the apostle known in the Synoptics by his surname Bar-Tolemai, or Bartholomew.   First of all, is he really the same guy as Bartholomew?  Never was one mentioned in three Gospels, and never was the other mentioned in the other Gospel; both were always linked with Phillip, and it was fairly common for these men to be known by name and surname- such as when Jesus called Peter Simon Bar-Jonah in Matthew 16:17- so yeah, it's the same guy.

Now that we have the annoying first thing taken care of, let's actually learn something.  The one story that he features in is late in John 1, and seemingly starts when his friend Phillip, of Bethsaida in Galilee, was 'found' by Jesus and called.  He then went to his buddy Nathanael from nearby Cana. 

Joh 1:45  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 
Joh 1:46  Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 

Two things of note here.  First, Phillip, in the course of a day, has been convinced that Jesus is the Messiah.  Most likely, he was convinced by John and Andrew, Peter's brother, who had been disciples of John the Baptist, who testified of Jesus at His Baptism.   Secondly, Nathanael's reaction to the mention of Nazareth, which was not only a neighboring podunk to Nathanael's home in Cana, but was a Roman 'barracks suburb', with all the panache and style of a red-light district.  In addition, as we will see, Nathanael was not unaware of the prophecy that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem.  Of course, Phillip did not yet know Jesus's full backstory, and as a commentator said, many souls have been turned away by a preacher's ignorance.  This preacher, though, knew his own knowledge was limited, and told Nathanael, "Come and see (for yourself)".  And so Nathanael did.

When Jesus and Nathanael met, an interesting conversation ensues, which I will attempt to break down for you.

Joh 1:47  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile! 

Two phrases need to be looked at here.  The first is, "an Israelite indeed...", which has more meaning than first glance.  Jesus was just beginning a ministry in which He would be opposed by many "sons of Abraham" that would claim that title by lineage and not by faith.  Jesus was indicating the character of faith already in this young man.  More on that next.

The second is, "..in whom there is no guile!"  This is going to sound prejudicial, but it isn't.  As I have studied through these Wednesday posts, using Rabbinical sources as well as the Bible, many times I have found that the differences SEEM to rise when the Rabbi teaching is trying to turn the story in a bend that glorifies his own lineage, or the 'innate righteousness' of Israel.  Thus, if you remember the Ruth 3:16 story, I also found that they were turning Ruth and Orpah into daughters of the Moabite King, even though the timeline was hopelessly corrupt, to inject some nobility and royalty into two young ladies who were actually poor foreigners.  So in saying this, Jesus is showing that Nathanael is of a different mindset; he seeks the truth, wherever it leads.  And someone like that is a true Israelite, in contrast to the Pharisees of the day who manipulate the Word to secure their own positions.

But what is guile?  The easy answer is "deceit", and it works, but I dug a little more.  The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge connected the term to 5 verses scattered through the Bible, which give us a better picture of just what Jesus was talking about.

In Psalms 32:2, David connects it with the hiding of sin, and how that rotted him.

In Psalms 73.1, he adds in envy of his enemies.

In 1 Peter 2:1, it is grouped with malice, hypocrisy, envy (again), and slander.  Thus we see it as not only deceitful action, but deceitful ATTITUDE.

Later in that same chapter, in v 22 Peter mentions that Jesus's example included not reviling when reviled, nor threatening when threatened.  Thus, vengeance falls under the header.

And finally, in Revelation 14:5, the 144,000 witnesses are mentioned as never having lied.

So the whole picture is Jesus, unlike Diogenes, has found his honest man- as one commentator put it, a true Christian.

But this honesty involves testing everything, so Nathanael needs to know how...

Joh 1:48  Nathanael said to Him, From where do You know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. 

Now here is the crux of our story and the thing that points us onto that true character of Nathanael.  Jesus said, "BEFORE Phillip called you..."  If you are just a casual reader, like I used to be, you might just read the whole thing as Jesus 'overhearing the conversation' between Phillip and Nathanael 'under the fig tree.'  But nowhere does it say Phillip found him under the fig tree.  This whole fig tree thing- which we don't DIRECTLY know what it is- was BEFORE, when Nathanael was alone, and not a living soul knew about it.  Now, it is just probable that Jesus spotted him under a fig tree before seeing Phillip go up to him- but then, why Nathanael's reaction:

Joh 1:49  Nathanael answered and said to Him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel! 

Joh 1:50  Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these. 

No, there HAD to be something that happened when he was alone, under the fig tree, that made this significant.  And just maybe we get a clue in Jesus's next words:

Joh 1:51  And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. 

If you don't know your Bible, this is a throwaway verse.  But if you do, your mind goes to where, perhaps, Nathanael's had been...

Gen 28:10  And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 

Gen 28:11  And he came on a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took of the stones of that place, and placed them at his head. And he lay down in that place to sleep. 

Gen 28:12  And he dreamed. And behold! A ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven! And behold! The angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 

Gen 28:13  And behold! Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac! The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your seed. 

Gen 28:14  And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in you and in your Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 

Gen 28:15  And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in every place where you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you. 

Gen 28:16  And Jacob awakened from his sleep. And he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know. 

Gen 28:17  And he was afraid, and said, How fearful is this place! This is nothing but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven! 

Gen 28:18  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put at his head, and set it as a memorial pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. 

Gen 28:19  And he called the name of that place The House of God (Bethel). But the name of that city was Luz at first. 

It would seem that, under the fig tree, Nathanael had been studying and musing over this very story.  But let me go just a little farther...

Gen 28:20  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 

Gen 28:21  and I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall Jehovah be my God. 

Gen 28:22  And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that You shall give me, I will surely give the tenth to You. 

Nathanael had come to a crisis of faith under the fig tree.  He had, it seems, prayed a prayer much like this.  He was seeing in God's Word the chasm between what God said and what the Teachers of the Law were saying.  And he was looking for a sign to make that step.  His seemingly easy conversion was born of a prayer of crisis, that Jesus answered.

True?  God knows, I do not.  And the reason I do not is, we none of us can know the depth of the pit our brother had to fall into before reaching for the hand of salvation.  It is between Jesus and them.  And that is enough.