46 Take notice, that Philip speaks of Him as One who had been long known to himself and his friends, JESUs of the city of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me Philip?"-was accordingly the question which our LORD asked him at the Last Supper. "We have found:" that is, Andrew and Simon, James and John; the first named being his own especial friend. Consider the following passages, -St. John vi. 5 and 8: xii. 21 and 22. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Nathanael, (who is called Bartholomew by the other Evangelists,) was of Cana in Galilee,—as we read in ch. xxi. 2. The holy company had, therefore, by this time reached the scene of the miracle recorded in the next chapter. Arrived at Cana, Philip straightway hastened away in search of his friend; (these holy men are our examples at every step of the history!); and his announcement, when he has found him, clearly shews how full his heart was of one great subject. It shews, too, what studious readers of Scripture they both had been. When Nathanael hesitates, Philip answers him with a saying which he had perhaps already learned from the lips of his Master, CHRIST. See ver. 39. e St. John xiv. 9. JESUS Saw Nathanael coming to Him, and 47 saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Our LORD (had He chosen) could have greeted His servant with a complete solution of the difficulty he had recently expressed concerning the supposed place of CHRIST'S Nativity: but we find that He took a far diviner course. He convinced Nathanael that He knew him, by declaring to him his character: thus leading the Disciple at once to the belief that he had to do with the Searcher of hearts. By calling Nathanael "an Israelite indeed," and by the notice of his character which follows, our LORD's words seem to have respect to the character of Israel, (that is, Jacob,) as it is set down in Genesis xxv. 27. Now, to Jacob the discernment of Angels was especially granted: consider Genesis xxviii. 12: xxxii. 1, 2: also 24 to 30. This prepares us for the remarkable language of our LORD in ver. 51. Nathanael saith unto Him, Whence know- 48 est Thou me? JESUS answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Our SAVIOUR perceived the thought which was already springing up in His servant's heart. Nathanael suspected that surely it was Philip who 46 Take notice, that Philip speaks of Him as One who had been long known to himself and his friends, JESUS of the city of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me Philips?"-was accordingly the question which our LORD asked him at the Last Supper. "We have found:" that is, Andrew and Simon, James and John; the first named being his own especial friend. Consider the following passages, -St. John vi. 5 and 8: xii. 21 and 22. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Nathanael, (who is called Bartholomew by the other Evangelists,) was of Cana in Galilee,—as we read in ch. xxi. 2. The holy company had, therefore, by this time reached the scene of the miracle recorded in the next chapter. Arrived at Cana, Philip straightway hastened away in search of his friend; (these holy men are our examples at every step of the history!); and his announcement, when he has found him, clearly shews how full his heart was of one great subject. It shews, too, what studious readers of Scripture they both had been. When Nathanael hesitates, Philip answers him with a saying which he had perhaps already learned from the lips of his Master, CHRIST. See ver. 39. e St. John xiv. 9. JESUS Saw Nathanael coming to Him, and 47 saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Our LORD (had He chosen) could have greeted His servant with a complete solution of the difficulty he had recently expressed concerning the supposed place of CHRIST'S Nativity: but we find that He took a far diviner course. He convinced Nathanael that He knew him, by declaring to him his character: thus leading the Disciple at once to the belief that he had to do with the Searcher of hearts. By calling Nathanael "an Israelite indeed," and by the notice of his character which follows, our LORD's words seem to have respect to the character of Israel, (that is, Jacob,) as it is set down in Genesis xxv. 27. discernment of Angels was consider Genesis xxviii. 12: to 30. This prepares us for the remarkable language of our LORD in ver. 51. Now, to Jacob the especially granted: xxxii. 1, 2: also 24 Nathanael saith unto Him, Whence know- 48 est Thou me? JESUS answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Our SAVIOUR perceived the thought which was already springing up in His servant's heart. Nathanael suspected that surely it was Philip who 49 had been talking to our LORD concerning him. Hence the peculiarity of our LORD's reply; by which He convinced Nathanael that He derived His knowledge from no human source. Before the arrival of Philip, Nathanael, as if in literal fulfilment of the prophetic foreshadowings of the days of the Gospel, is found to have been "sitting under his fig-treed." He had been alone. He had thought himself unobserved also. The words of our Blessed LORD just now quoted, convinced him that he had been all along in the presence of one and the same Being,—even of Him whose "eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." What might the occupation of Nathanael have been, as he sat beneath his fig-tree? Doubt not but what there is some very exquisite circumstance alluded to here; though we know it not, and cannot know it. Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of GOD; Thou art the King of Israel. Such was his hearty confession,-produced by the discovery that he had to do with One who searcheth the heart and the reins. By the same evidence, the Woman of Samaria became a believer; and the Apostles were fully convinced that JESUS of Nazareth "came forth from GOD." d Compare Micah iv, 4 and Zech. iii. 10. Compare St. John xvi. 19 and 30. |