Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things that this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
The Gospel of the Lord.
Palestine is a scorching hot country, and people often had a fig tree growing at the door of their house. Besides fruit it offered shade in the heat. It would be a place to sit and be quiet. It may be that Nathanael had been praying under the fig tree when Jesus spotted him earlier. “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile!” Jesus had said. Our faces, it may be, are never so transparent as when we are praying.
Today is the feast day of Bartholomew who appears in the first three Gospels with Philip but in John Philip's companion is Bartholomew.
How could Jesus have seen Nathanael under the fig tree? Maybe Nathanael was praying. Maybe Jesus as part of the Trinity observed Nathanael praying. How did Jesus know Nathanael was without guile? Maybe Nathanael was praying and Maybe "Our faces, it may be, are never so transparent as when we are praying." And maybe the above string of inferences was known to Nathanael and was why "Nathanael answered him, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.'"
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