John 1:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is also probable that the voice of Christ produced its effect in him. Christ knew who would be useful to Him. But the Evangelist passes all this over.

Philip knew that Christ was to come, but he did not know that the Christ was Jesus. I think he heard this either from Peter or from John. The Evangelist also names Philip's village to show how "God chose what is weak in the world" (1 Cor 1:27).

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Nathanael only thought that Philip had mistakenly named the place of His coming. Notice also how cautiously he expresses his doubt, in the form of a question.

He does not say, "Galilee produces nothing good." How does he speak? "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

But Philip too was very prudent. Meeting an objection, he is not vexed and does not take offense. He simply stands his ground, desiring to bring this man to Christ Himself. From the beginning he shows in himself the firmness of spirit proper to an Apostle.

We must believe that a certain divine and ineffable grace was poured forth in the Savior's words and captivated His hearers. It is written of this: "All marveled at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth" (Lk 4:22). His word possessed active power and was able to persuade (Mt 7:28-29).

The meaning of his words is this: Can anything good come from Nazareth, so despised and base? Since Galilee had a bad reputation among the Jews, and Nazareth was a city of Galilee, Nathanael said this because he was convinced that the expected Jesus Christ was not from Nazareth, but from Bethlehem.

"Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" Not knowing why Nathanael had spoken so, and supposing that he was simply disparaging Nazareth, Philip leads him to Jesus Christ. He thinks that Nathanael will immediately believe once he delights in His teaching and conversation.

When Philip heard Nathanael doubting his first good tidings, he offered him another and stronger persuasion: "Come," he says, "and see" Jesus Christ. This proof will be enough for you to believe what I have said.

But why did Philip know that if Nathanael merely came and saw Jesus Christ, he would believe in Him? The word of our Lord Jesus Christ had such grace and power that, as soon as it was spoken, it immediately persuaded and drew to itself all who were worthy to receive faith in Him.

"And all," writes the Evangelist Luke, "bore witness to Him, and marveled at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth" (Lk 4:22).

Philip had truly experienced this in himself. Hearing only one word from Jesus Christ, "Follow Me," he was inflamed with divine love, believed, and, leaving all, followed after Him.

Being filled with this faith, he therefore said to Nathanael, "Come and see." When Nathanael heard this, he went without delay to Jesus Christ.

Like all Jews, he expected the Messiah in the splendor of earthly majesty. Yet he followed Jesus without contradiction, though Jesus was a poor Man and outwardly quite unlike the conqueror who would subject all the nations of the earth to Israel, as the Jews of that time imagined in their blindness.

Philip's friend Nathanael strengthens us in this supposition. He had not heard John's testimony about Jesus, and therefore did not at once believe that Jesus of Nazareth could be the Messiah.

In any case, Philip followed Jesus, and after conversing with Him he came to full faith in Him. Meeting Nathanael, he joyfully told him that Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth, was the One of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote.

By calling Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth, Philip of course did not know that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem and was not the son of Joseph. In speaking this way, he repeated the generally accepted opinion about Jesus' origin.

Nathanael belonged to that class of men who first try to be convinced of the truth of what they are asked to believe. Knowing that the inhabitants of Nazareth did not have a good reputation, he doubted Philip's words and said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Philip did not begin to argue with him. He left him to be convinced for himself that Jesus of Nazareth truly was the promised Messiah. "Come and see," Philip said to him.

As for Galilee, the contemporaries of Jesus knew very well that the prophets Elijah, Jonah, and Nahum were from Galilee. Perhaps they only thought that in the time of those prophets Galilee had not yet been such an impious, pagan land as it seemed to them in their own time.

Yet it must be noted that Isaiah, who lived about thirty years after Jonah, already calls Galilee "of the Gentiles."

The name Nathanael is not found in the lists of the Apostles in the first three Evangelists. Compare Mt 10:2-4; Mk 3:16-19; Lk 6:14-16; Acts 1:13.

But it cannot be that this first follower of Jesus Christ, who so clearly confessed Him as the Son of God, was not called into the number of the Apostles.

Therefore interpreters consider him to be one and the same person as Bartholomew, whose calling is nowhere described. The name Bartholomew, indeed, always follows Philip's name in the lists of the Apostles.

Literally it is not a proper name, but means son of Tolmai or Ptolemy. Bar means son, and Tolmai may have been the father's name.

Therefore his personal name may have been Nathanael, and by his father he was Bar-Tolmai, son of Tolmai, as Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus (Mk 10:46).

After Jesus Christ rose from the dead, Nathanael again appears among the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and his homeland in Cana of Galilee is indicated (Jn 21:2).

The Evangelists speak only of the calling of seven Apostles: Andrew and Peter, James and John, Philip, Nathanael, and Matthew. Of the others nothing is mentioned, either because their calling presented nothing distinctive and resembled the calling of the above-mentioned disciples, or because there was no such calling.

The remaining five disciples of Christ, struck by His miracles and preaching, or drawn by the example of their countrymen and fellow craftsmen, could have followed the Prophet of Galilee among His other followers. Only later were they deemed worthy of election among the Apostles.

The example of Nicodemus directly shows the possibility of such following of Christ without a formal call, and this is not the only example.

After the Ascension of Jesus Christ, the Apostles chose two men from the constant followers of Christ, from the baptism of John until the Ascension (Acts 1:22), Barsabbas and Matthias. Yet they are nowhere mentioned in the Gospels.

Instead, he advises him to lay aside every prejudice, go to Jesus himself, see Him, speak with Him, form his own judgment from personal impression, and decide whether Philip is telling him the truth that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

The lofty teaching of Jesus, His holy life, His knowledge of hearts, and His miracles delighted Philip. This is the great Prophet of whom Moses spoke with the other prophets. So Philip thought, and so he spoke to Nathanael.

Philip considers Jesus the son of Joseph, coming from Nazareth. It is evident that the wondrous circumstances of the birth of Mary's Son in Bethlehem were unknown to him (Mt 1:18 and following; Lk 1:26 and following).

Following the voice of the people (Lk 3:25), he calls Jesus only the son of Joseph and a Nazarene. Many knew that Jesus was raised in Nazareth (Lk 4:16), and from there went with His parents to Jerusalem (Lk 2:41 and following).

Nazareth was considered Jesus' native city (Lk 4:24; Mt 13:57). This is how Philip thought about Jesus' origin.

Nathanael, Philip's friend and a knower of Scripture, must be recognized as one and the same person as the Apostle Bartholomew. John the Evangelist calls this Nathanael an Apostle in 21:2 and does not mention Bartholomew among the Apostles.

The other Evangelists, numbering Bartholomew among the Apostles (Mt 10:3; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:14), do not speak of Nathanael. They place Bartholomew after Philip, just as in John Nathanael is called after Philip.

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" says Nathanael. Nazareth was a small town not far from Cana of Galilee. According to the common opinion of the Jews, no prophet could come from Galilee (Jn 7:52).

Most of the inhabitants of Galilee were Gentiles, darkened men (Mt 4:13-16; Mt 26:7). The inhabitants of Cana of Galilee, rather wealthy and industrious, added something of their own to the general opinion about the neighboring town and spoke contemptuously of the poor inhabitants of Nazareth.

Philip, without entering into dispute with Nathanael about Nazareth, says, "Come and see." The teaching and works of Jesus can themselves say who Jesus is. Let Nathanael look upon them.