John 1:47

John 1:47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Again, as at John 1:43, we are left to infer that the call thus addressed to Nathanael was obeyed; and in his obedience to it he illustrates the frame of mind for which he is immediately commended by Jesus. He is ingenuous, willing to be taught, ready to receive what is shown to him to be truth, however strongly it may conflict with his prepossessions. Jesus saw him as he drew near, and commended him as a genuine Israelite in whom there was no guile. The last words have been sometimes understood as if they were explanatory of the term Israelite, that term, again, being supposed, together with the word ‘guile,' to allude to the history of Jacob. As the name of Jacob (‘supplanter') was changed to Israel (‘prince of God'), the characteristic of this patriarch's true descendants will be absence of guile. The suggestion is ingenious, but for several reasons hardly tenable. (1) It is guile of an entirely different kind that is here referred to; (2) There is no special connection between the qualities displayed by Jacob on the occasion when he received the name Israel and those that here distinguish Nathanael; (3) The part of Jacob's history present to the mind of Jesus, in John 1:51, was the vision at Bethel, which belongs to a period much earlier than that in which his name was changed; (4) It is difficult to believe that ‘Israelite' is intended to convey no meaning beyond absence of guile. It is rather to be taken as denoting one who belongs to the true people of God (comp. John 1:31); and the words that follow are then added to bring out its special meaning upon this occasion. Nathanael, in short, is ‘of God,' is ‘of the truth,' has no selfish impure aims, and therefore he shall be fully taught.