Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there
is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said to him,
“Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”
Nathanael answered, “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!” But Jesus replied,
“You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that.
Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man.”
Reflection:
What was Nathanael (Bartholomew) doing under the fig tree? We do not know for sure. However,
there are hints in the Old Testament. When God establishes His kingdom of peace, people “shall
all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees” (Mic 4:4), indicating a time of peace and
trust, freedom from fear. It was not an unusual practice for the scholars to read and study the law
under fig trees, and rarely, even to pray. Scholar Al Garza points out that the Syriac dictionary carries
a mention of Nathanael’s mother laying him under a fig tree to save him when Herod was on a rampage
killing infants to get rid of baby Jesus. Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, knew the intimate link between
the fig tree and Nathanael, and no wonder the latter’s rigid stereotypes about anything good in
Bethlehem would immediately burst and he would recognize the Messiah in Jesus.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022