NATHANAEL (t:911), given of God; N. T.
Naliam7)X), a person of Cana in Galilee, who when informed by Philip that the Messiah had ap peared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, asked, ' Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?' But he nevertheless accepted Philip's laconic in vitation, Come and see When Jesus saw him coming, he said, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' Astonished to hear this from a man to whom he supposed himself altogether unknown, he asked, Whence knowest thou me ?' And the answer, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee, wrought such conviction on his mind that he at once exclaimed, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the king of Israel ( John i. 45-51). It is clear, from the effect, that Nathanael knew by this that Jesus was supernaturally acquainted with his disposition and character, as the answer had reference to the private acts of devotion, or to the meditations which filled his mind, when under the fig-tree in his garden. It is questioned whether Jesus had actually seen Nathanael or not with his bodily eyes. It matters not to the result ; but the
form of the words employed seems to suggest that he had actually noticed him when under the fig tree, and had then cast a look through his inward being. Passages from the Rabbinical books might be multiplied to show that the Jews were in the habit of studying the law and meditating on re ligious subjects under shady trees (comp. Tholuck, Commentar zum y alum. i. 49). It is believed that Nathanael is the same as the apostle Bar tholomew. All the disciples of John the Baptist named in the first chapter of St. John became apostles ; and St. John does not name Bartho lomew, nor the other evangelists Nathanael, in the lists of the apostles (Matt. x. 3 ; Mark iii. i8 ; Luke vi. 14) ; besides, the name of Bartholomew always follows that of Philip ; and it would appear that Bartholomew (son of Tholmai) is no more than a surname [BARTHOLOMEW].-J. K.