Previously, we had seen the fruit of the Baptist’s preaching, for when John had pointed out the Lamb of God to his disciples, two of them began to follow Christ (vv. 35-37). Then we saw the fruit of his disciple’s preaching, as Andrew led his brother Simon to the Lord (vv. 41-42). Now we shall discuss the fruit of Christ preaching, as He called Philip to follow Him (vv. 43-44), and then we shall see how Philip brought Nathanael to the Lord (vv. 45-51), even as Andrew had led Simon Peter to Christ.

The Evangelist first describes the setting: “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee” (Jn 1:43a). There are three reasons why Jesus left Judea for Galilee after having been baptized by John. First, He left the area where John was preaching so that His presence might not overshadow the Baptist. By quieting slipping away, Christ paid honor to the Baptist. Along these lines, St. Paul admonished the Romans: “love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom 12:10). Second, the Pharisees claimed that “no prophet is to rise from Galilee” (Jn 7:52). To demonstrate the greatness of His power, Christ deliberately went into Galilee, and in doing so, proved the Pharisees wrong. In that spiritual desert where no prophet had ever spoken a word, the greatest of all the prophets, the Word of God, would speak the most sublime words of wisdom and grace, for “He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water” (Ps 107:35). Third, according to the spiritual sense, Galilee means “passage,” for Christ passed from Judea to Galilee on “the next day,” that is, on the day of grace, on the day of salvation, to show that salvation belongs, not to Jews alone, but to Gentiles as well. Several months later, when Jesus said He would be going away, the Jews asked themselves, “Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?” (Jn 7:35), for they understood that His going into Galilee was part of His ministry to seek out and to ave those who were lost.

“And he found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me’” (Jn 1:43b). We note two things here. First, a disciple’s vocation is to follow his master. When Christ said to Philip, “Follow me,” He called him to discipleship. Second, sometimes man finds God, as is written, “he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord” (Prv 8:35); and sometimes God finds man, as when He said, “I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him” (Ps 89:20). While Andrew and Simon Peter found Christ, Christ found Philip, calling him to a life of faith and grace. Christ did not call every one of His disciples, but waited for some to be led to Him by other disciples, for men are more readily moved to action by the example of others than by words alone.

Andrew followed Christ after the Baptist pointed Him out, and Peter followed Christ after Andrew introduced him to our Lord, but Philip followed Christ immediately, on nothing more than Christ’s invitation to follow Him, to have faith in Him. One might ask why Philip followed Christ so readily. We can give three possible explanations. First, perhaps Philip was in fact the other disciple of the Baptist who followed Christ along with Andrew. Second, perhaps Christ’s words had a special effect upon Philip, speaking directly to his heart, drawing him near, as the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah, “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer 23:29) A teacher persuades by appealing to a student’s intellect with profound arguments, but the Teacher has the power to persuade, not only by addressing the human intellect, but by speaking directly to the human heart. Third, since the Evangelist said, “Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter” (Jn 1:44), one may assume that Andrew and Peter told Philip about Christ. Bethsaida, which means “house of the fisherman” or “house of the hunter,” is located on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, near where the Jordan River flows into the sea. It is significant that Simon Peter and the others came from this small fishing village, for Christ said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). When the Lord delivered His people from Egypt and gathered together those He had dispersed, He declared, “I will bring them back to their own land which I gave to their fathers. Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.” (Jer 16:15-16)

Now that we have seen how Christ’s preaching has born fruit in Philip, we shall see how Philip bore fruit in leading Nathanael to Christ. First, we hear the invitation of Philip, and then the response of Nathanael.

“Philip found Nathanael” (Jn 1:45). Just as Andrew was eager to lead his brother Simon to Christ, so too was Philip eager to lead his friend Nathanael to our Lord. The fact that Philip was moved to lead another soul to Christ proves that his conversion was perfect, as was Andrew’s. Nathanael means “gift of God.” It is a fitting name, for anyone converted to the faith is a gift of God to the Church. Because the name Nathanael is conspicuously absent from the other gospels and from acts, some have identified him with one of the other apostles–perhaps Bartholomew. It was not uncommon for people to go by two names, nor was it uncommon for a name to be changed to signify an important event in one’s life.

Then Philip said to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (Jn 1:45). The fact that Philip chose a scriptural argument to persuade Nathanael suggests that Nathanael was a learned man who knew the scriptures. In order to lead Nathanael to Christ, Philip identified Christ as the Messiah, for he knew that Nathanael was well acquainted with the messianic prophecies. Philip used his firsthand knowledge of Christ to lead his friend to encounter the object of his scriptural studies face to face. Christ is the object of the law and the prophets, which is to say that He is the object of the Jewish scriptures. Regarding the law, we may say that it was given by the Word of God to Moses, as Christ said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me” (Jn 5:46). Regarding the prophets, we read: “To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43).

Philip said three things about Christ that are in accord with scripture. First, concerning His name, Philip said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth.” The name, Jesus means “savior.” This agrees with the prophecy given to Isaiah, that the Lord “will send them a savior” (Is 19:20). Second, concerning His family, Philip called Him the “Son of Joseph,” for it was customary that a son be known by his father. Although Christ derived His divine nature from His Father Who is in heaven, He derived His human nature from the Virgin Mary, though not from Joseph, for He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Both Mary and Joseph were of the house of David; so, Christ, insofar as His human origin is concerned, is from the house of David through Mary. Philip called Christ “the son of Joseph,” because he knew that the husband of Mary was of the house of David and that the messiah would arise from that same line, as God had promised through the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Messiah: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” (Is 11:1-2) Jesse was from Ephrathah, which is the region where Bethlehem is located. Jesse was the father of King David; David was his youngest son. The Lord also spoke through Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.” (Jer 23:5-6) Third, concerning His homeland, Philip said that Christ was from Nazareth, which was a small village in hill country of Lower Galilee, near the heavily-traveled Via Maris trade route. Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is five miles south of Jerusalem, He was raised in Nazareth. Philip identified Him as “Jesus of Nazareth,” rather than “Jesus of Bethlehem,” because few people knew of His birth, while many knew of the place where He had been raised and lived for some thirty years.

“Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’” (Jn 1:46a) This can be interpreted either as an assertion or as a question. First, St. Augustine understood it as an assertion, meaning that indeed some good came out of Nazareth. From the root of Jesse came Christ, in Whom was seen the flowering of virtue and the purity of holiness. Second, St. John Chrysostom interpreted Nathanael’s remark as a question, suggesting incredulity. Although Jesus’ name means “savior,” and although He is of the line of David, from whence the messiah was expected to arise, it perhaps seemed unlikely to Nathanael that Jesus could be the messiah, for the anointed one was expected to come, not from Nazareth in the northern hill country, but from Bethlehem, David’s city. After the wise men had visited King Herod the Great (40-4 B.C.), the king inquired of his advisors in Jerusalem about the messianic prophecies. The chief priests and learned scribes told him that the messiah was to be born “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel’” (Mt 2:5-6). Evidently, Nathanael did not know that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, thereby fulfilling this messianic prophecy.

“Philip said to him, ‘Come and see’” (Jn 1:46b). This is a suitable reply, whether one takes Nathanael’s remark as an assertion or as a question. First, if it is an assertion, then Philip is saying that the good news he announced to Nathanael is too marvelous to express in words. Therefore, Nathanael must “come and see” for himself, as the Psalmist urged: “O taste and see that the Lord is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Ps 34:8) Second, if we take Nathanael’s remark to be a question, then Philip is saying that once Nathanael meets Jesus face to face and hears Him speak, then he will come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Philip was not discouraged by Nathanael’s reluctance, but persisted, so that he might share the treasure, Who is Christ, with his friend. He was confident that Nathanael would become a believer.

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him” (Jn 1:47). There are two ways in which people are converted. One is by external signs, that is, by experiencing miracles either in themselves or in others. The other is by internal insights, through prophecy and foreknowledge of the future. The second way is more efficacious, for while magicians and devils can simulate miraculous external signs, true internal enlightenment comes only from God, for those who know the future with certainty speak the mind of God: “Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods” (Is 41:23). Those who believe, based upon hearing a prophecy, are to be commended more than those who believe because they witnessed a miracle. Nathanael’s conversion is most commendable, because Christ drew Nathanael to the faith, not by miracles, but by making known to him hidden things of the present, of the past, and of the future.

1. Concerning hidden things of the present. When Christ read what was in Nathanael’s heart, saying, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (Jn 1:47), He revealed something hidden in the present. We can make three points here. First, the name Israel, from the Hebrew yishra (he strives) and el (God), was given to Jacob after his successful struggle with a divine being at Peniel on the banks of the Jabbok (Gn 32:23-32). Since the twelve tribes descended from Jacob, the Jewish nation is collectively known as Israel. To say that Nathanael is an Israelite without guile is to praise him for his simplicity and purity of heart. Because of his purity, he was privileged to have seen God in the person of Jesus Christ, as our Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). Second, Christ said, “Behold an Israelite,” not after He had met Nathanael, but while the latter was still approaching. Third, our Lord added, “in whom there is no guile,” lest we think that Nathanael said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth” out of malice. Christ’s assessment of his heart and mind tells us that Nathanael said what he said in order to understand, not to belittle. St. Augustine interpreted this differently. He pointed out that the guileful are sinners who outwardly pretend to be just. Christ praised Nathanael because the latter admitted his sinfulness and looked to Christ to heal his soul.

2. Concerning hidden things of the past. Christ knew that Nathanael was simple and pure of heart before Nathanael revealed himself to Christ in word and in deed. Only God knows the secrets of the heart, as He said to Jeremiah, “I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer 17:10). Thus, the Psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” (Ps 139:23) The fact that Christ could reach into the depths of Nathanael’s soul, troubled the young man, for he knew that only God could read the mind and heart. He wanted to know how Jesus obtained such intimate knowledge of him. And so, “Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’” (Jn 1:48a) The answer lies in what the Lord once said to Samuel: “the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sm 16:7). Thus, Nathanael must have suspected that Jesus was the Lord.

Notice Nathanael’s humility. He did not savor the Lord’s compliment concerning his purity. He did not take it as flattery. He pressed on to understand the nature of this man from Galilee.

Jesus revealed something of the past when he replied to Nathanael, saying, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you” (Jn 1:48b). Nathanael might have thought that Christ learned about him from someone who knew Nathanael intimately. To remove his suspicion, Christ mentioned the incident at the fig tree, which was know only to Philip, to Nathanael, and to God. This incident can be interpreted in three ways, First, according to the literal sense, Nathanael was actually sitting under a fig tree when Philip found him. This was known to Christ, for “the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun; they look upon all the ways of men, and perceive even the hidden places” (Sir 23:19). Second, according to the spiritual sense, the fig tree signifies sin, for Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves after they had sinned (Gn 3:7), and Christ cursed the fig tree, for it bore large showy leaves, but no fruit (Mt 21:19). Christ is saying this: while Nathanael was sitting under the fig tree, that is, in the shadow of sin and death, He called him to a life of grace in fellowship with Him. When Christ said, “I saw you,” He meant “I saw you from all eternity, sitting there in your sinful condition.” The great mercy of God is seen in the fact that, even though He knew that we would be sinners, He nonetheless predestined us to be His adopted children in Christ, as St. Paul said to the Ephesians: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph 1:4-5) Third, another spiritual interpretation is that the shadow of the fig tree is the shadow of the Old Law, for “the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities” (Heb 10:1). Christ makes possible the greatest blessings for us: eternal life in union with God.

Having witnessed Christ’s power to reveal secrets of the past, Nathanael’s doubts melted away. At that moment he began to believe and broke into a song of praise: “Nathanael answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’” (Jn 1:49) In this confession of faith, he said three things about Christ. First, he confessed the fullness of Christ’s knowledge when he addressed Him as “Rabbi,” Teacher. He is the perfect Teacher, as Christ later told the apostles, “you have one master, the Christ” (Mt 23:10). Second, Nathanael confessed the excellence of Christ’s grace when he said, “you are the Son of God!” We become sons and daughters of God by adoption through grace, which God freely gives. The union of the divine and human natures in the divine Person of the Son, which is the hypostatic union, is also a grace, for it was freely given. The Incarnation was a gift because it was given without any preceding merits (STh III, 2, 10), for since Christ did not live a human life before the Incarnation, He had no opportunity to merit the Incarnation (STh III, 2, 11). The grace of union is not natural to Christ according to His human nature, for if the Incarnation were caused by some property of human nature, then we all would be Incarnate. Rather, the grace of union is natural to Christ, inasmuch as He possesses the divine nature, which is the active principle of grace (STh III, 2, 12, ad 3). Third, Nathanael confessed the greatness of Christ’s power when he said, “You are the King of Israel!” Daniel the prophet spoke of the Messiah in a vision: “to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dn 7:14).

“Jesus answered him, ‘Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?’” (Jn 1:50a) The reason Jesus asked Nathanael why he made this confession of faith was so that the young man might better understand the motivation for his belief. Many months later, Simon Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” to which Christ responded, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona!” (Mt 16:16-17). The reason why Peter merited a blessing, but Nathanael did not, is because Peter acknowledged that Christ is the Son of God by nature; that is, He is man, yet truly God, for Christ possesses both the divine nature and a human nature. Nathanael, on the other hand, simply confessed that He is the Son of God, which could mean that he is either a natural son or an adopted son. If He were merely an adopted son, then he would be a god in the sense of Ps 82:6: “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.” But He is more; He is the Only Begotten Son of God, the only natural Son of the Father. Because Peter’s confession was complete, Christ immediately promised that He would build the Church upon him (Mt 16:18), whereas because Nathanael’s confession was incomplete, He first needed to raise Nathanael to greater things, to a knowledge of His divinity, so that his faith might be perfected.

3. Concerning hidden things of the future. In order to reveal His divinity more deeply to Nathanael, Christ promised to show him still greater things, saying, “You shall see greater things than these” (Jn 1:50b). Because what Christ said of past events was true, it was easier now for Nathanael to believe what He would say of future things. In response to Christ’s revelation of the past, Nathanael confessed Him as the adopted Son of God. Now Christ promises to reveal hidden things of the future, so that Nathanael will believe that He is the natural Son of God: “And he said to him, ‘[Amen, amen], I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man’” (Jn 1:51). We can make three points regarding Christ’s statement. First, Christ said that angels minister to Him in order that Nathanael might believe that He is divine, for the Psalmist said that angels minister to God: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word” (Ps 103:20). Here Christ is teaching Nathanael, who was well acquainted with Sacred Scripture, that the Son of God is more than an adopted Son, that He is the natural Son of God, that He is divine according to His nature. The Letter to the Hebrews says of the Only Begotten Son: “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Heb 1:6). When we read that angels were “ascending and descending” upon Him, we should understand that this refers to Christ as Man, for in His human flesh, He was a little less than the angels (Ps 8:5), but in His divinity, He is above all angels. Second, St. Augustine noted that the angels’ movement calls to mind Jacob’s vision at Bethel, in which “the angels of God were ascending and descending” upon a ladder between heaven and earth (Gn 28:12). When Jacob awoke from the vision, he marked the stone upon which he lay his head and anointed it with oil (Gn 28:18). Upon this stone a cultic shrine was erected. Christ is the “stone which the builders rejected” (Ps 118:22), the stone which has been anointed by the Holy Spirit and has become the cornerstone of the Church (Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17). Christ is the only cornerstone, the only foundation for His Church: “For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). Since Nathanael is a true Israelite, that is, an Israelite “in whom is no guile” (Jn 1:47), he should confess that the stone anointed by Jacob truly signified Christ, Who is the foundation of the Church, the people of God. Third, St. Augustine also suggested that the “angels” of this verse are really preachers of the Word of God, for God has sent angels to us as messengers: “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation” (Is 18:2). The preacher ascends by contemplation, as St. Paul recounted, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven–whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows” (2 Cor 12:2), and the preacher descends by teaching others about Christ. Heaven is “opened” to him because he needs the grace of God to ascend and to descend.

We have already mentioned that because the name Nathanael is not found outside the Gospel of St. John, some have identified him with one of the other apostles. Another explanation might be that, although Christ called him to be a disciple, He did not choose him to be an apostle, as He said, “many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14). The reason, perhaps, Nathanael was not chosen was because he was quite learned in the scriptures, whereas Christ rather liked to choose simple men and uneducated men to spread the gospel. St. Paul noted that God chose the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, and the lowly to bring down the mighty, so that no one might boast of himself, but rather, boast only of the Lord (1 Cor 1:26-31).