When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:47-51 NIV).
Was Nathanael anticipating the Messiah?
I think the answer is yes.
But he did not use the word Messiah or Christ. Now Nathanael did use terms which were popular alternatives. What was the origin of those terms? I am not certain.
Yet the wild fact is the angel Gabriel had a part in their application.
Let us examine each term, including Messiah, separately.
Anointed One:
(The word for anointed one in Hebrew is Messiah, and the word for anointed one in Greek is Christ.)
Messiah is the term which Andrew used.
The angel Gabriel gave an epic prophecy to Daniel, which involved foretelling about the coming of the “Anointed One,” as recorded in Daniel 9:25.
Now Gabriel was not introducing a new term. Solomon used that term for himself as recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:42. And that term is used in six Psalms, one of which was written by King David, Psalm 28. Since an Israelite king was anointed with olive oil to mark the beginning of his kingship, “anointed one” fit Solomon’s and David’s self-titled term.
Priests were also anointed! I have even found the anointing of a prophet recorded in the Old Testament.
Yet Gabriel was telling of a person to come who would have that title in a new and unique manner. In fact it would be a role which would encompass being anointed as a priest, prophet, and king.
Son of God:
This is the first term Nathanael used to identify Jesus.
The angel Gabriel, the same angel who gave that epic prophecy to Daniel, spoke to Mary! He did so just before she was pregnant. And Gabriel gave a revelation from God!
“So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35(b)).
Again, I do not think Gabriel was introducing a new term. There is a famous event recorded in Daniel where three Israelites were given the punishment of being put in a blazing furnace.
After that took place, there is the highlighted response by King Nebuchadnezzar:
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods” (Daniel 3:25).
Maybe the Hebrews picked up that expression in Babylon, and adapted it as “Son of God.”
Whether the term was revealed or developed, as with the term Anointed One, the angel Gabriel was giving the term a new and specific application. And that application involved the same position as the Anointed One.
Having become a popular term for the Messiah, this term was even used by the high priest when Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin:
But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63).
Son of David:
This was another phrase for the Messiah. For example:
All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:23).
Where did this term come from?
Back to when the angel Gabriel gave the prophecy to Daniel, Gabriel referred to the Anointed One as “a ruler.”
And back to when the angel Gabriel was talking to Mary, there was the foretelling of the kingship of Jesus:
“The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32(b)-33).
Plus, God promised David that his throne would be an everlasting throne, as was recorded in Hebrew Scripture. A connection had been made, and people understood that the Messiah would be a King.
Regarding Nathanael’s term “King of Israel,” that title really points to a future event.
Israelites lauded Jesus as He entered Jerusalem on a donkey on that day which Christians celebrate even today as “Palm Sunday.” They were doing a great thing in praising the Messianic King. What they needed to understand is expressed by the popular saying, “There had to be a cross before the crown.”
Indeed Jesus revealed an important fact when questioned by Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world…” (John 18:36).
Yet in the future, Jesus will reign over the whole world. God has revealed through the prophecy of Zechariah that in the end times, there will be a second stage of the “Second Coming of Christ” when Jesus will come from heaven and rescue the Jewish people from a conglomerate of armies of the world. And Jesus will reign! Zechariah said: “The LORD will be king over the whole earth…” (Zechariah 14:9).
Son of Man:
In this passage, Jesus used this term for Himself, just as He often used it when referring to Himself in an oriental style third person manner.
This term was used by God a boatload of times to address the prophet Ezekiel!
I will not get into any further description of this term, because discerning its origin involves a semantics issue within a vision Daniel had as recorded in Daniel 7:13-14, and semantics is not my area.
Yet it was an alternative title for the Messiah, and Jesus, who was both fully man and fully God, latched onto this term.
Applying these terms:
So my conclusion is that when Nathanael said: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel,” as recorded in John 1:49, he was identifying Jesus as the Christ. Nathanael believed.
I add I do not know when it was that Nathanael saw “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” as Jesus prophesied as recorded in John 1:51.
The Bible reveals key times when angels appeared in this world:
Angels were involved at several key times during the pregnancy of Mary and then the birth of Jesus.
Angels attended Jesus after the temptation by the devil in the wilderness.
Angels appeared after Jesus was resurrected.
And angels appeared at the ascension to heaven by Jesus.
Though not certain of when Nathanael saw what Jesus said he would see, I speculate it was an event around the time after Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
The apostle John had a purpose for writing this book. He wanted you and me to believe in Jesus.
John directly and clearly gave his purpose for writing near the conclusion of the book:
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
John utterly believed that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)!! John wanted his readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)!! John wanted people to have eternal life!! John’s purposeful inspired story telling was his gifted manner of illustrating his conviction that Jesus is the Christ. Thanks to John’s stories, a faith in Christ can blossom for any person, or the faith of any believer in Jesus can be strengthened.
Hunter Irvine
Scripture Love Blog
