John 1
v.1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. 太 初 有 道 ， 道 與 神 同 在 ， 道 就 是 神
Just as Greek verbs are often more expressive than their English counterparts, so too are Greek prepositions. Here John uses the preposition πρὸς (pros). The term has a wide range of meanings, depending on the context in which it is found. In this particular instance, the term speaks to a personal relationship, in fact, to intimacy. It is the same term the apostle Paul uses when he speaks of how we presently have a knowledge comparable to seeing in a dim mirror, but someday, in eternity, we will have a clearer knowledge, an intimate knowledge, for we shall “face to (pros) face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). When you are face-to-face with someone, you have nowhere to hide. You have a relationship with that person, whether you like it or not.
v.14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
v.18
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
It is perilous to wish to investigate and apprehend the naked divinity by human reason without Christ the mediator, as the sophists and monks have done and taught others to do… There has been given to us the Word incarnate, that is placed in the manger and hung on the wood of the Cross. This Word is the Wisdom and Son of the Father, and He has declared unto us what is the will of the Father toward us. He that leaves this Son, to follow his own thoughts and speculations, is overwhelmed by the majesty of God.
v.40
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
v.45
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
v.46
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
v.47
When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
Jesus here makes a wordplay on the Old Testament Jacob, or “Israel,” who was a man of guile (Gen 27:35; 31:26); see Jn 1:51.
Jesus’ comment on Nathanael suggests that the latter had been reading of Jacob’s experience at Bethel (Ge 28:1-17). Jacob was filled with guile and had been forced to leave home because he had lied to his father and had swindled his brother. If under these circumstances Jacob was eligible for a revelation from God, would not Nathanael be even more worthy of such a blessing? Jesus said that Nathanael was free from “guile” (KJV) and then used the imagery of Jacob’s dream to describe the greater revelation he would give to Nathanael.
v.49
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
v.51
He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The opening of the heavens indicated a major revelation (e.g., Ezek 1:1). Jesus’ words allude to Genesis 28:12: Jesus is the new way between heaven and earth (Jacob’s ladder) on whom angels ascend and descend; like Jacob of old, this “genuine Israelite” Nathanael (Jn 1:47) would receive this new revelation.
Jesus implied that he himself would be the medium of that revelation, and his order of the angels’ procedure implies that they rose from earth to heaven with their inquiries and then returned to earth with the answers. His mission is to answer human need and to make sure that the answers are proclaimed. The term “Son of Man” is used here for the first time in John’s gospel (see comments on Mk 8:31).