^1:43On the next day Jesus¹⁰⁵ wanted to set out for Galilee.¹⁰⁶ He¹⁰⁷ found Philip and said¹⁰⁸ to him, “Follow me.” ^1:44(Now Philip was from Bethsaida,¹⁰⁹ the town of¹¹⁰ Andrew and Peter.) ^1:45Philip found Nathanael¹¹¹ and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also¹¹² wrote about—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ^1:46Nathanael¹¹³ replied,¹¹⁴ “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”¹¹⁵ Philip replied,¹¹⁶ “Come and see.”

^1:47Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed,¹¹⁷ “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”¹¹⁸^1:48Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied,¹¹⁹ “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree,¹²⁰ I saw you.” ^1:49Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king¹²¹ of Israel!”¹²²^1:50Jesus said to him,¹²³ “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”¹²⁴^1:51He continued,¹²⁵ “I tell all of you the solemn truth¹²⁶—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”¹²⁷

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Footnotes

105 Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Jesus is best taken as the subject of εὑρίσκει (heuriskei), since Peter would scarcely have wanted to go to Galilee.
106 No explanation is given for why Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee, but probably he wanted to go to the wedding at Cana (about a two day trip).
107 Grk “and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
108 Grk “and Jesus said.”
109 Although the author thought of the town as in Galilee (12:21), Bethsaida technically was in Gaulanitis (Philip the Tetrarch’s territory) across from Herod’s Galilee. There may have been two places called Bethsaida, or this may merely reflect popular imprecision—locally it was considered part of Galilee, even though it was just east of the Jordan river. This territory was heavily Gentile (which may explain why Andrew and Philip both have Gentile names).
110 Probably ἀπό (apo) indicates “originally from” in the sense of birthplace rather than current residence; Mark 1:21, 29 seems to locate the home of Andrew and Peter at Capernaum. The entire remark (v. 44) amounts to a parenthetical comment by the author.
111 Nathanael is traditionally identified with Bartholomew (although John never describes him as such). He appears here after Philip, while in all lists of the twelve except in Acts 1:13, Bartholomew follows Philip. Also, the Aramaic Bar-tolmai means “son of Tolmai,” the surname; the man almost certainly had another name.
112 “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.
113 Grk “And Nathanael.”
114 Grk “said to him.”
115 Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns. For location see ; ; ; ; .
116 Grk “And Philip said to him.”
117 Grk “said about him.”
118 Or “treachery.” An allusion to Ps 32:2.
119 Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”
120 Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)
121 Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See .
122 Nathanael’s confession—You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel—is best understood as a confession of Jesus’ messiahship. It has strong allusions to Ps 2:6–7, a well-known messianic psalm. What Nathanael’s exact understanding was at this point is hard to determine, but “son of God” was a designation for the Davidic king in the OT, and Nathanael parallels it with King of Israel here.
123 Grk “answered and said to him.” This has been simplified in the translation to “said to him.”
124 What are the greater things Jesus had in mind? In the narrative this forms an excellent foreshadowing of the miraculous signs which began at Cana of Galilee.
125 Grk “and he said to him.”
126 Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
127 The title Son of Man appears 13 times in John’s Gospel. It is associated especially with the themes of crucifixion (3:14; 8:28), revelation (6:27; 6:53), and eschatological authority (5:27; 9:35). The title as used in John’s Gospel has for its background the son of man figure who appears in Dan 7:13–14 and is granted universal regal authority. Thus for the author, the emphasis in this title is not on Jesus’ humanity, but on his heavenly origin and divine authority.