| Epiphany +2 | | Date Created: Jan 13, 2006, 04:12 PM |
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The Gospel reading for this coming Sunday is John 1:43-51.
So Jesus saw Nathaneal under a fig tree (v. 48); so what? Something must have been going on under that fig tree -- something secret -- to elicit the surprise of verse 49. Much revolves around whether Jesus is being sarcastic in verse 47. Is he possibly saying "Oh, great. You've picked a real winner of a guy here, Philip"? That would be a fun reply to Nathanael's earlier "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" If so, Nathanael's rejoinder to Jesus may have meant "How do you know I'm not an Israelite in which there is nothing false?" and what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree may have been something wrong or traitorous that he thought he was doing in secret. The fact that Jesus saw him might then be impressive and frightening.
Given Jesus' willingness to talk in riddles and hyperbole, I think we have to consider such interpretations. How could we know -- shouldn't the gospel author have signalled to the reader that this was sarcasm? How could he do so? One way would be through the wording of the question, either closely paralleling Nathanael's own "Can anything good come from there?" or using a formulation that was exaggerated or one that linguistically expected a negative answer. Another would have been the reply of Nathanael which could have been more clearly a reply to an accusation, as my paraphrase above: "Oh, yeah, how do you know I'm not?" I don't see anything in the wording either place that would lean me toward that direction. (Although the word for 'truly' just might be sarcastic in 7:26 as well.)
So in this passage I think it much more likely that Nathanael was doing something good under that fig tree. The scene could parallel the second chapter of Luke's gospel, where Simeon and Anna (Lk. 2:25-38) are taken with the infant Jesus precisely because they have been praying and thinking about the redemption of Jerusalem and the Consolation of Israel. If Nathanael had similarly been praying hard under that tree for the coming of a messiah, then the passage would make perfect sense. But in such a case, why would John not have said so, as Luke does? I don't know. Yet. Is Philip's little speech in verse 45 meant to imply that this was a subject near to both their hearts? It would fit, but it's not clear enough in the text for me to be sure.
One more thing of interest, though not necessarily of significance in the original intent either. It's about coming to a decision about other people. Nathanael judges the background first and the individual, Jesus, on the basis of that background: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Jesus does the opposite: he judges Nathanael as an individual against his background: "An Israelite in whom there is nothing false." But I think 20th century biblical anthropologists have probably made me over-react to any passage where I might read in a group-identity vs. individual-identity theme. |
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