Jesus Calls Philip and Nathaniel: "Greater things. . .": 1:43-51

COMMENT: thanks of the Email from William,

----- Forwarded Message -----From: William ...
To: Donald... 
Sent: Wednesday, 26 August 2015, 6:53
Subject: Nathaniel (Bartholmew)

Dear Father Donald,

Thank you - the commentary by Brendan Byrne is so sensitive to the nuances and is so well written that, as it flows, it draws one into the encounter / scene. The development of the personal relationship between Our Lord and Nathaniel is now to be a favourite lectio text for me. I shall add "Life Abounding" to my 'wish list' - we have our 42nd wedding anniversary coming up next month, and we have a tradition for each to obtain a gift to mark the day (rather than go out for a meal as so many do!). 

I am so pleased to read Theophanes Cerameus' interpretation of the meaning of the fig tree, linking Nathaniel's fig tree  to the otherwise puzzling barren tree incident: from his interpretation into a fine explanation - goodness, how one has to keep one's eyes open to the hidden connections and meanings!  

Francis Thompson's poem "In no strange land" is delightful, with its reaching up to the heavens and then coming so charmingly 'down to earth'!

You have such a wide angled lens before so vast a horizon of spiritual writings - thank you for raising my eyes from the footpath!

With my love in Our Lord,

William    

Cover: Icon by
Marie Paul OSB Jerusalem 

Fr. Peter Edmonds SJ, at the Retreat, during the talks used commentary from the book;

Brendan  Byrne, Life Abounding, A Reading of John’s Gospel.

Later we got an Amazon copy.

Before are the pages are not about Nicodemus but about (Bartholmew) Nathaniel – gloriously on the personal relation with Jesus.

Page Pages 47-51

Day   \\ 4: Jesus Calls Philip and Nathaniel: "Greater things. . .": 1:43-51

With John the Baptist entirely receded from the scene, Jesus himself, prior to setting out for Galilee, recruits two more disciples, Phi lip and Nathanael. Whereas Jesus "finds" Philip and directly calls him to discipleship ("Follow me" [v. 43]), Philip himself finds Nathanael, just as Andrew had recruited Simon Peter. The detail (v. 44) that Philip is from the same town, Bethsaida, as the other two, along with the plural formulation "we have found" (v. 45), suggests that Philip sees himself as part of a community formed by the three already called. The roundabout formulation, "the One whom Moses wrote about in the law and the prophets (spoke of) too, we have found: Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth" (v. 45b), again (cf. v.41) locates the discovery within the aura of messianic hope. The "law" (= Pen­tateuch) and "the prophets" indicate Scripture in a global sense. 19 No specific messianic text is in view-just the sense, widespread in Judaism at the time, that Scripture points to what will Occur in the messianic age. Philip's statement, then, repeats the balder formulation of Andrew: "We have found the Messiah" (v. 41b).

Ignoring Philip's claim to have found the Messiah, Nathanael fastens solely upon the mention of Nazareth (v. 46a). The expostulation: "From Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" introduces a note of irony that will recur again and again throughout the gospel. At a surface level Nathanael simply gives voice to the kind of small town prejudice common in all human societies. By the same token, Nathanael's exclamation raises the issue of Jesus' origins: where has he come from? On a human level, he has come from Nazareth; on a divine level, we know from the Prologue that he has come from an eternal life with God. The double level of allusion once again instances the sacramentality that pervades the story. That Jesus should come from such an ordinary, unremarkable town as Nazareth of Galilee is part of the incarnation, the disclosure of the divine in the human. Very soon in fact the Son will display "his glory" in another small town in Galilee­ Cana-which just happens to be (though we only learn this toward the close of the gospel [21:2]) the hometown of Nathanael!

Philip does not argue with Nathanael but simply repeats the earlier invitation: "Come-and see" (v. 46b). Like the others, Nathanael is invited to enter upon a life of discipleship ("come") where he will "see" the divine presence ("glory") disclosed in the humanity of Jesus. He will learn that out of Nazareth can come very great "good" indeed.

Seeing Nathanael coming toward him," Jesus ignores his cynical com­ment and instead makes an entirely positive pronouncement: "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile" (v. 47b). "Israelite" is an honourable title." Nathanael's lack of "guile" (dolos) sets him favourably off against the arche­typal biblical "trickster" Jacob (Gen 27:35-36), to whose dream at Bethel (Gen 28:12) Jesus will shortly allude (v. 51). In contrast to Jacob, the epony­mous ancestor of old Israel, Nathanael will model what being an "Israelite" will mean in the era now dawning with the presence of Jesus.

That is a promise for the future. For the present, surprised by Jesus' comment and the claim to supernatural knowledge that it implies, Nathanael exclaims: "Whence (pothen) do you know me?" [v. 48a]).22 Jesus, again,

20 "Coming to Jesus" is a more or less technical expression in the Fourth Gospel for entering upon a life of faith and discipleship: 3:26; 4:30; 5:40; 6:35, 37, 44, 65; 7:37; 19:39.

21 Occurring only here in the gospel, "Israelite" carries none of the ambiguity that attaches to "Jew"; cf. Gail O'Day, "The Gospel of John," 532.

22 The interrogative pronoun "whence" (pothen), rather than-as we might have expected­"how" (pti.l') keeps alive the issue of Jesus' origins. Jesus' supernatural knowledge about Nlllhllllll('1 SlllllIS i'IOnJ his origin with the Father.

does not answer directly but gives yet a further example of special knowl­edge: "Before Philip called you I saw you under the fig tree" (v. 48b). Proof of ability to see beyond the ordinary limits of space and time guarantees the truth of his previous pronouncement. Whether any significance is to be attached to Nathanael's being "under a fig tree" is unclear. In Micah 4:4 and Zechariah 3: 10 sitting under the fig tree is a symbolic expression of messianic peace and prosperity; later Jewish traditions pictured rabbis under fig trees teaching or studying the Torah." The suggestion could be that before Philip called Nathanael, Jesus already knew him as one who was searching the Jaw for signs that the age of the Messiah had arrived (cf. v. 45b). Nathanael, though at first having difficulty with Jesus' origins (Nazareth), would then represent all Israelites cherishing messianic hopes who are promised the sight of "greater things" (v. 51) if only they can expand those hopes beyond what they now imagine.

This is to wring a lot out of the simple phrase "under a fig tree." It does, however, account well for Nathanael's enthusiastic response: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel" (v. 49). As in the case of the testimony of John (v. 34), "Son of God" here lacks the transcendent, more­than-human sense that will emerge as the narrative unfolds (and of which we who have read the Prologue are already aware [1: 18]).24 On the basis of Jesus' more than human knowledge, Nathanael hails him as Israel's long­awaited Messiah-King. But his faith will have to go on a long journey to be adequate to the full mystery of Jesus.

More than a hint of this is contained in Jesus' final response, which is also a promise (vv. 50-51). Nathanael has Come to believe in Jesus on the basis of his seemingly miraculous know ledge. 25 He is now promised "sight" of "greater things" than wonders such as this (v. 50). In a solemn pronounce­ment ("Amen, Amen, I say to you" [v. 51a),26 Jesus promises a "seeing" of "heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (v. 5ab). As has long been recognized, there is an echo here of Jacob's dream at Bethel:

23 Cf. Raymond E. Brown, John I-XII, 83.

24 Cf. also Martha's confession of Jesus in 11 :27; also 20:31; see further, Francis J. Moloney, John 56, 61 62.

2.l His Icwl of lidlh III IhlS Jltlllll ,'lIlll'sponds to those who believe on the evidence of "signs" (iuirucles) n kV!'11i1l fI'" IIHI~I PIIII 11111 11I1('cI highly in the gospel: 2:23; 4:48.

III II('I(~ 1111I1111I1I11f,(1I1I11 IhlN 1111111111111111 Y IIISI' lil(.' 1IIOl'e Iiterul "Amen, Amen" translauon IlIlhlll Ihllllllll' NHSV'N "VII \. 11111\,"

And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reach­ing to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Gen 28:12)

While allusion to this text is clear, there are also differences. In Jesus' promise "heaven lies open" and the angels of God ascend and descend, not upon the ladder (as in Gen 28: 12) but upon the Son of Man-that is, upon Jesus here designated for the first time in the gospel in this enigmatic way.27

Jesus, in other words, is the vehicle of the "commerce" between heaven and earth. For Nathanael-and all who will share his journey of faith²⁸-the barrier between heaven and earth will fall away; heaven will "remain open" 29 in a constant revelation of God. Like Jacob awaking from his dream, believ­ers will exclaim, "Surely the Lord is in this place-and I did not know it!" (Gen 28: 16); "this is. . . the house (temple) of God" (Gen 28: 17c; cf. John 2:19-21); "this is the gate of heaven" (Gen 28:17d; cf. John 10:7-10).

The distinction between a correct but inadequate level of faith and a mature faith that sees "greater things" is one that will recur throughout the gospel. The lesser level is prompted by and rests upon the miraculous, the marvellous: in this case Jesus' accurate knowledge of Nathanael's situation before actually meeting him. Mature faith, paradoxically, moves "back," so to speak, from the marvellous to the ordinary and everyday. It pierces the barrier between heaven and earth to find the divine depth in the "Nazareth" of one's own life. The pervasive sacramentality of the Fourth Gospel-the disclosure of the divine in the earthly and physical-begins and ends around his person: the open "gate" of Heaven.³⁰

Earlier (v. 31) John had described the purpose of his coming and bap­tizing with water so that he (Jesus) might be revealed to Israel. In the revelation of Jesus to Nathanael, the "Israelite without guile" (v. 47), this task has been discharged." Nathanael, in contrast to the trickster Jacob, is the

27 The origin, meaning, and use of the phrase "Son of Man" in the gospel tradition are matters of long-standing controversy. The phrase represents not so much a title as a role. For the present it will suffice to say that Jesus refers to himself in this way in connection with his mysterious role and destiny in which both suffering and exaltation are entwined.

28 In the transition from v. 50 to v. 51, there is change of subject from singular (opsei) to plural (opsesthe) in "you will see."

29 The sense of remaining open is conveyed by the use here of the Greek perfect participle: aneoigota.

30 The poem "In No Strange Land" by the nineteenth-century British poet Francis Thornp­son gives~ IIdlllllllhl\- expression to this sense of the divine presence h(lhilld 1111' I,,!!hlllly find furu 1 11111

31 Cf. Raymond E. Brown. John i-xii.

model Israelite who overcomes his initial prejudice ("Nazareth!") to accept Jesus as the fulfilment of his search for the Messiah (v. 49), even if his journey of faith is at this point far from complete (1:51). We will not hear of Nathanael again until we find him included among the seven disciples who join Peter in a fruitless fishing expedition prior to an encounter with the risen Lord (21:2-3). But the presentation of this "true Israelite" at the beginning and end of the narrative should blunt something of the force of the Fourth Gospel's negative characterization of "the Jews" in generaP2 Though the narrative does not draw attention to the fact, it is significant that it is at Nathanael's hometown, Cana in Galilee (cf. 21:2), that Jesus will begin his ministry and for the first time display his "glory" (2: 11), an initial fulfilment of the pledge regarding the "greater things" that Nathanael and all the disciples will "see" (1:51).33

Reflection. In the person of the disciples, a number of idealistic individuals, each in their own way cherishing hopes for the renewal and freedom of their people, have attached themselves to a genuinely prophetic figure: John the Baptist. John knows who he is and who he is not. He plays a classic mentor role, not holding on to his disciples but pointing them toward Jesus. The disciples approach Jesus through the lens of their messianic hopes and expectations. He does not impose himself but asks them first to examine and state their desires: "What do you want?" "What are you really looking for in your life?" In answer to their halting question, "Where do you live?" he invites them into his "home," so to speak, to "come and see" where he lives, which is in the world laid open to the presence of the Father (l :51). Disciples today have to put aside preconceived categories and prejudices ("Nazareth!") to begin to enter into the knowledge of his person. Like Nathanael, they learn that he already "knows" them with mysterious insight and has a future for them ("Cephas"!). Jesus' invitation, "Come and see," draws them into an ever-widening web of discovery and witness.

32 Cf. R. AJan Culpepper, Anatomy, 123.

33 If it is correct to see Nathanael played off as "true Israelite" over against the "trickster Jacob," then it is possible that lying behind the "seeing" promise in 1:51 is a postbiblical Jewish trndition of Jacob-Isracl liS "1I1l' 1111111 who secs God." The tradition is based upon a linllllislil'lIlly i'll/se but populnr l'IYIIIUIIl.,y 1111111' J khll'W of "lsracl"; cf. Brcndan Byrne, 'Sons 1'./' (;"rI.' ~./, 11. 27 •.•.

     

William Blake “Jacob’s Ladder”
c. 1800 Watercolor British Museum

      

“In No Strange Land” by Francis Thompson

Posted on February 5, 2012by Victoria Emily Jones

“The Kingdom of God is within you.”

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air—
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!—
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places—
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry—and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry—clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!