Who were Philip and Nathanael ?
Although Philip is from Bathsaida his
name is greek – it means Horse Lover. He was probably a fisherman.
Little is known of what happened to him after the resurrection.
Some say he travelled in Asia Minor with his sister Marianne and
Nathanael. Clement says that he lived into old age (so was not
martyred), but all we know is that he is called Philip and is from
Bethsaida. He is not the same Philip that is found in Acts speaking
to the Ethiopean.
Nathanael is equally mysterious. He
is almost certainly known as Bartholomew in the other Gospels.
Bartholomew means son of the furrows, perhaps
indicating that he was a ploughman. In each gospel he is mentioned
with Philip.
Philip
We have no
information about why Philip responded to Jesus. After getting his
first two disciples from John (Andrew and Peter), Jesus decides to go
to Galilee. On the way he finds Philip, says “Follow me” and its
done. I can't believe that it was really that straight forward, its
simply that the full story is lost to us.
Nathanael
Nathanael,
on the other hand, is much more interesting. He was obviously
already good friends with Philip. After his calling by Jesus
Nathanael is the first one to be told. Philip has obviously had some
significant conversations with Jesus already. – even before the
first miracle that is recorded. Turning water into wine occurs in
the next chapter. Philip has already recognised who Jesus is. We
can tell this by the way he passes the news on to Nathanael: “We
have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the
prophets also wrote”. Philip means the Messiah.
Messiah expected soon
There
was a high level of expectation in Israel in the 1st
Century that the Messiah would be sent by God to free the Israelites
from Roman rule. Just as He had sent Moses to free the Israelites
from Egyptian rule hundreds of years before. The Jewish people were
looking out for someone who would fit the bill, and there were many
who appeared to and then failed. Philip had identified his candidate
and went to tell his friend.
Nazareth
His last
seven words though ruined it for Nathanael. “Jesus of Nazareth –
the son of Joseph”. Nazareth clearly did not have a good
reputation amongst Galileans, perhaps that explains why Joseph and
Mary were able to settle there. “Nazareth! Can anything good come
from there?” Philip is still full of enthusiasm “Come and See.”
Nathanael
As Jesus
sees Nathanael approaching he says “Here is a true Israelite, in
whom there is nothing false.” If I was greeted like that, I would
be taken aback. That appears to have been Nathanael's reaction.
“How
do you know me?”. Does his response suggest to you that he may
have thought he was being stalked? He certainly sounds defensive and
uncomfortable – but then who wouldn't be if their character was
summed up by a complete stranger.
Jesus'
answer “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before
Philip called you.” may sound simple to us. So Nathaniel was
sitting (presumably) under a fig tree and Jesus passed by. How would
Jesus draw the conclusion that there was “nothing false” in
Nathanael from that? And how would that explain any of the
conversation that follows?
Under a fig tree
Well
the phrase 'under a fig tree' was used in the 1st
Century to describe someone studying or meditating on scripture.
That helps explain it. Jesus had seen Nathanael studying and had
even seen what he was reading. Jesus may have meant it quite
literally, or He may have been given a word of knowledge. Either way
it impressed Nathanael.
Titles for Jesus
It
impressed him enough for him to respond “Rabbi, you are the Son of
God; you are the King of Israel.” “Son of God” is the
description that John the Baptist give of Jesus when he is describing
him to his own disciples. For John it was a revelation that God had
given him. “King of Israel” is a title that Jesus would be given
from time to time and which He seemed less pleased to accept.
Nathanaels
response is quite a turn around from his derogatory remarks about
Nazareth. I struggle to shake off the impression that Jesus is
laughing at him slightly in the next response.
Read Genesis 28:10-17
Before we
look at that it will be helpful if we too spend a minute under the
fig tree.
Please
turn to Genesis 28 verse 10.
I'm going
to read verses 10-17
Remember
that Jacob had lied and schemed and cheated his brother Easu out of
his inheritance. Here God speaks to him in a dream.
Ge 28:10
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a
certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set.
Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down
to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the
earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were
ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and
he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God
of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you
are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and
you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to
the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your
offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and
I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have
done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he
thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of
it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is
none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Let's assume that the passage I have
just read is the one, or at least part of the one that Nathanael was
reading.
Nathanael recognied Jesus
Remember, Nathanael has recognised
Jesus for who he is on the strength of either a careful piece of
observation of a simple word of knowledge. Jesus replies “You
believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall
see greater things than that.” Then goes on to add “I tell you
the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending
and descending on the Son of Man.”
I'd just love to hear the rest of the
conversation. Where did it go from there? What did Nathanael say
next? The narrative moves on, so we can never know, but we can get a
better understanding of Jesus' last statement.
Jesus' promise
Jesus picks up on the scripture that
Nathanael was reading and promises that he will see greater things.
Why shouldn't he – he has already been identified as a true
Israelite, a truthful Israelite. By comparison Jacob was anything
but truthful, yet God spoke to Jacob, and made a promise to be with
him.
Son of man
Jesus ends with the title 'Son of
Man' – a favourite title that Jesus gave himself, but how would
Nathanael have understood it.
The phrase 'son of man' in the Old
Testament (in our translation) appears in Psalms, Ezekiel, and
Daniel. Mostly it simply means human being. In Daniel 7:13 in the
dream of the four beasts, it clearly refers to the messiah, so it is
quite possible that Nathanael would have understood it as
confirmation of Philips statement 'We have found the one Moses wrote
about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote” - The
Messiah. If he did he may also have realised that Jesus is saying
that he is the way to heaven. An oblique reference perhaps to the
fact that he would die for our sins and therefore make it possible to
be once again connected to heaven.
Recognising Jesus
We don't have the luxury of a
face-to-face meeting with Jesus, so I wondered what it was that
triggered my belief. It certainly wasn't a simple word of knowledge,
for me it was a much longer process. I had been attending church for
a while and had been working through a number of things that might
prevent me from believing. Was the Christian faith rational – the
world I lived in was ordered and could be made sense of (at some
level) – if Christianity denied that, I was never going to join.
Those things over it was Jesus in the people I was friends with that
finally made the difference.
Think back – what were the
influences on your life that made you recognise that Jesus was the
son of God? What was the one thing – if there was just one thing
that first made you believe?
For Philip it may have been a
command.
For Nathaniel it was Jesus' words:
“Here is a true Israelite, in whom
there is nothing false.”
For Jacob
it was a dream.
Everyone
has something that triggered their belief, or will trigger their
belief.
All we can
do is introduce them to Jesus and let Him do the rest.
