On the Call of the Disciple who Made Fun of Jesus' Hometown

March 4, 2021             John 1: 45-46

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ ⁵⁰Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ ⁵¹And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

            So these are not first-tier disciples in the Gospel narratives.  Philip and Nathanael are listed here, but not a whole lot else has been written about them.  Philip does come around again in the Book of Acts.  He is present at the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch and baptizes him in the name of Jesus.  But between this and that, there is not a lot of content about them in the Bible.

            Philip gives a very specific resume about Jesus when he comes to find Nathanael.  Jesus is the one that Moses wrote of in the law, and of whom the prophets also wrote.  That is an arc covering the Hebrew Bible (HEBREW BIBLE-see note) as the backing for this ‘candidate’, if you will.  Somewhere between the call of Philip and this declaration, Philip has been caught up to speed on who Jesus is.

            My guess is that Nathanael is his friend, because I cannot see Philip spilling his enthusiasm to a complete stranger.  Notice the ancestral identification, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth, closest thing to a family name that existed in that time.  Identify the father to identify the family, then tie them to their community.  If more specificity is needed, like, there is more than one Joseph, add a note about his career, Jesus, son of Joseph the carpenter.  There are other places in the gospel where Jesus is so identified (and how we know he was a carpenter before the Spirit came upon him).

            Nathanael’s reply is rather sharp, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Seems like that town was something of a backwater (NAZARETH-see note), a place to be made fun of.  Because that is how I take this comment.  It is pretty typical for humans, finding another place in the world to make fun of.  In Canada while I was growing up, there were joke books about Newfoundland.  Poland is another preferred target.  So is the West Coast (Left Coast) of the US when one lives on the East Coast.  This kind of humor can quickly take a biased or racist turn. 

            Is it appropriate for Nathanael to make this kind of comment?  Make fun of some place?  It is the Bible after all.  Well, perhaps not, but this is not the point of its being recorded for us.  One of the strengths of the Bible is that no punches are pulled when it comes to recording the humanity of its characters-even when they are people of faith.  Philip’s response is the same as Jesus’ when he spotted Andrew and Peter tailing him.

            Philip said, “Come and see.”  As in Jesus’ response, Philip is telling Nathanael, “Don’t take my word for it.”  There is something wonderful happening in the ministry of this Jesus, even if he is from Nazareth, and Nathanael is invited to be a part.

Notes:

HEBREW BIBLE-this is another designation for the Old Testament.  It is ‘the bible’ that Jesus and his disciples had.  I put ‘the bible’ in quotes, because they did not understand the idea of ‘canon of Scripture’ as we do in the Christian context.  The way that Philip refers to it, “…about whom Moses in the law and the prophets also wrote…” is how the Hebrew Bible was referred to.  The Law is the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the Prophets cover the named prophetic books, but also what we call the ‘historical books’.  1 and 2 Kings and so on are considered histories of the prophets, not of the monarchs.  That is a western convention. 

            What Philip is saying is that evidence for Jesus is found throughout their Holy Scriptures.  In some places, the Hebrew Bible is referred to as ‘the law, the prophets, and the writings’.  These writings include the Psalms and Proverbs-books that are not so directly tied to the history or writings of the prophets.  It is synonymous with the shorthand version of ‘the law and the prophets’.

NAZARETH-We know of the existence of Nazareth in the time of Jesus from the record of the Bible.  It does not show up in the other historic sources until, according to www.jesusneverexisted.com, the fourth century.  That sounds about right from memories of church history.  The reason this website picks up that bit of history is to prove that Jesus is some kind of conspiracy.

            The real reason is far more mundane I fear.  I believe Nazareth was a small, rather insignificant community, in other words, not worth writing about.  Which is why Nathanael makes fun of it, challenging if anything good can come from it.  In the sweep of history, there have been countless communities never named in any ‘official’ source.