1:47,48
Jesus gives Nathanael a very warm welcome, calling him a “true Israelite” (according to NIV), and one “in whom there is no deceit”. The NIV translation is probably not the best, and ESV is better with “Behold an Israelite”. The emphasis is on the fact that there is no “guile” or “deceit” in Nathanael.
Nathanael is surprised, wondering how Jesus could possibly know him. Jesus had piqued Nathanael’s interest by His assessment of his character. Nathanael was a straightforward man, rather than a man like Jacob who was quite the opposite. Jesus replied that he had seen Nathanael under the fig tree, though this hardly explains how He could assess his character.
1:49
Based on this knowledge Nathanael made an amazing declaration, “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel”. Now the term “son of ...” can be used in a variety of ways in Hebrew literature, partly because Hebrew has far fewer adjectives than other languages (no, I am not an expert in Hebrew, I got this information from Carson). So we find terms like “son of wickedness”, “son of perdition”. The Bible has “Son of God”, now this is true, but at this point Nathanael probably just meant “son of God”. In popular parlance “king of Israel” had strong political overtones. He was truly a liberator, but not in the terms that people commonly thought of.
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