Bible Trivia - 4/23/2008

Question: When Jesus saw Nathanael a second time, where did he say he had seen him previously?

Answer: Under a fig tree. (John 1:48)

Comments: When Jesus first meets Nathanael, he impresses him by mentioning Nathanel's previous presence under a fig tree. Jesus' reference to the fig tree in his encounter with Nathanael in John 1:48 has been the cause of much speculation amongst Johannine scholars.

Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." (John 1:48, NASB)

Many theories have been posited as to the significance of the fig tree. Here are some:

• The most common explanation is that Nathanael was studying Scripture. Beneath the shade of a fig tree was a traditional place for the study of the Torah. Rabbinic literature compares the law to the fig tree and the fig tree was sometimes considered a place for prayer and meditation. The fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Midrash Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 5:11, see also see John Lightfoot, Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, vol. 3, pp. 246-47). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (See Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10).
  
• J. Ramsey Michaels sees Nathanel as “representative of the true Israel” and the fig tree as an allusion to Hosea 9:10. (“Nathanael Under the Fig Tree”, Expository Times 78 (66-67), pp. 182-183.)
  
• Joachim Jeremias (1900-1979) saw the fig tree as a confession of sin and assurance of forgiveness. He incorporated Psalm 32 into his analysis. ("Die Berufng des Nathanael", Angelos 3 1928, pp. 2-5).
  
• Some have downplayed its signifiicance. For examples, see Robert Kysar’s John the Maverick Gospel (p. 41) and John Henry Bernard's commentary on St. John (p. 1:63).
  
• C.F.D Moule (1907-2007) introduces the less imaginative explanation that the fig tree presents Jesus' accurate knowledge of person’s movements in his article "A note on ‘Under the Fig Tree’ in John 1.48, 50" [Journal of Theological Studies 5 (1954): pp. 210-11].

Johannine guru Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) acknowledges, "We are far from exhausting the suggestions, all of which are pure speculation." (The Gospel According to John, vol. 1, p. 83).

In the end, Moule is certainly on the right track as his theory places the emphasis on Jesus. D. A. Carson (b. 1946) explains, "John’s chief point here is Jesus’ supernatural knowledge, not Nathanael’s activity" (The Gospel According to John, p. 161).