The angc4 Gabriel foretold that, the " Lord God would give unto Him the throne of His father David, and that He would lei n over the house of Jacob, and that of His kingdom there would be no end." (Luke i. 32, 33.) When the wise men came from the East, they inquired for him who was born " Kinir of th Jews." (Matt. ii. 2.) When our Lord was crucified, the title over His head was, " King of the Jews." All this shall yet be literally true. Christ shall yet be King in Zion, and reign over the gathered and restored tribes of Israel at His second coming. And then the words of Nathanael shall be seen completely ful- filled He shall be acknowledged by all ai the " Son of God, and King of Israel."
50. — [Believest thou ?] It admits of a question whether this ex- pression would not be bet'er rendered, as it might be with per- fect gramma* ical correctness, "thou believest." It would then be very like our Lord's words to Thomas, " Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed." (John xx. 29.) The sense would be, " Because I said I saw thee under the fig-tree thou believest. It is well. Great is thy faith. But I tell thee for thy comfort and encouragement, that thou shalt one day see far greater proofs of my divinity and Messiahship than these." Wycliffe's, Tyndale's, and Cranmer's versions, all render the expression as an atiirmation, and not as a question. Aretius maintains the same view.
61.— [Verily J verily I say.] This expression is peculiar to St. John's Gospel, and very remarkable. It is the word which is familiar to all Christians, " Amen," twice repeated. It is found twenty- five times in this G-ospe', always at the beginning of a sentence, and always used by Christ. In every place it implies a very solemn, emphatic assertion of some great truth, or heart-search- ing fact. No other writer in the New Testament, except St. John, ever gives the double "Amen."
[Hereafter... ye shall see.. .heaven.. .angels. ..Son of man.] This prediction is very remarkable. It should be carefully observed, that it is i.ot addressed to Nathanael alone. The preceding verse says, "thou shalt see." The present verse says, " ye shall see," — that is, " thou and all my other disciples."
About the true meaning of the prediction, commentators differ exceedingly. Arguing, as nearly all do, that the words plainly refer to Jacob's vision of the ladder reaching from heaven to earth, (Gen. xxviii. 12,) they disagree about the way in which the prediction is fulfilled.
Some think, as Stier, that the predicion must be interpreted figuratively, and that it was fulfilled when our Lord was upon earth. They think it only means that Nathanael and the other disciplots would see a still fuller revelation of Christ and t!:e
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Gospel by and bye. They would see a figurative fulfilment of Jacob's vision, and a way opened from earth to heaven for all true IsraeUtes or believers. They would see still greater proofs, in the shape of miracles and signs, that Jesus was the bon of God, Heaven, ir. a spiritual sense shut by the sin of the first Adam, would be opened by the obedience of the second Adam. " The heavenly ladder," says Bonaventura, quoted by Calovius, " was broken in Adam and repaired in Christ." — According to this view, '" the angels of Grod " in the text mean nothing in particular, which, to say the least, seems a very loose and un- sati factory explanation.
Others think, as Rollock, that the prediction must be inter- preted literally, and that it was fulfilled while our Lord was on earth. They think it was accomplished when our Lord was transfigured, — when an angel appeared in the garden of Geth- semane, — and when our Lord ascended on the Mount of Olives. Tills view also seems very unsatisfiictory. The transfiguration and the agony in the garden, were not seen by Nathanael at all. There is nothing whatever said about angels appearing, either at the transfiguration or the ascension. And as to "angels. as- cending and descending," there is nothing at any period of the Gospel history at all answering to the expression.
The only true and satisfactory view, I behove, is that which makes the whole prediction apply to events which are still future. Our Lord spoke of His second coming and kingdom. When He comes the second time to take His great power and reign, the words of this text shall be literally fulfilled. His believing peo- ple shall see heaven open, and a constant communication kept up between heaven and earth, — the tabernacle of God with men, and the angels visibly ministering to the King of Israel, and King of all the earth.
The context confirms me in this view of the text. Nathanael believed Jesus to be the Messiah, when he was lowly and poor. Jesus rewards his faith by assuring him that, lowly as He now seems. He shall one day come in the clouds of heaven and reign as a King,
I am further confirmed by the striking likeness between our Lord's words here, and those He addressed to the chief priests, in the day that He was arraigned as a prisoner before them. "Hereafter ye Aall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Matt, xxvi, 64.)
This view of the p'-ediction is maintained by Gomarus.
I am aware that son:e maintain, in opposition to the view I support, that the Greek word rendered " hereafter," must mean " from henceforth, i. e immediately after the present time, and