John 1:45-49

1:45 Philip found Nathanael ¹  and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also ²  wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 1:46 Nathanael ³  replied, ⁴  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” ⁵  Philip replied, ⁶  “Come and see.”

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ⁷  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁸  1:48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ⁹  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ¹⁰  I saw you.” 1:49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king ¹¹  of Israel!” ¹² 

John 17:8

17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ¹³  accepted ¹⁴  them ¹⁵  and really ¹⁶  understand ¹⁷  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Acts 17:11-12

17:11 These Jews ¹⁸  were more open-minded ¹⁹  than those in Thessalonica, ²⁰  for they eagerly ²¹  received ²²  the message, examining ²³  the scriptures carefully every day ²⁴  to see if these things were so. 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few ²⁵  prominent ²⁶  Greek women and men.

[1:45]  ¹ sn 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.

[1:45]  ² tn “Also” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[1:46]  ³ tn Grk “And Nathanael.”

[1:46]  ⁴ tn Grk “said to him.”

[1:46]  ⁵ sn Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns.

[1:46]  ⁶ tn Grk “And Philip said to him.”

[1:47]  ⁷ tn Grk “said about him.”

[1:47]  ⁸ tn Or “treachery.”

[1:48]  ⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[1:48]  ¹⁰ sn 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.)

[1:49]  ¹¹ tn Although βασιλεύς (basileus) lacks the article it is definite due to contextual and syntactical considerations. See ExSyn 263.

[1:49]  ¹² sn 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.

[17:8]  ¹³ tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ¹⁵ tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[17:8]  ¹⁶ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ¹⁷ tn Or have come to know.”

[17:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

[17:11]  ²⁰ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  ²¹ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ²² tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

[17:11]  ²³ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “not a few”; this use of negation could be misleading to the modern English reader, however, and so has been translated as “quite a few” (which is the actual meaning of the expression).

[17:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “respected.”