Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel - the one denoting His Personal, the other His Official dignity. How much loftier this than anything Philip had said to him! But just as the earth's vital powers, the longer they are frost-bound, take the greater spring when at length set free, so souls, like Nathanael and Thomas (see the note at John 20:28), the outgoings of whose faith are hindered for a time, take the start of their more easy-going brethren when once loosed and let go. It may, indeed, be asked how Nathanael came so far ahead of the current views of his day as these words of his express. For though "The King of Israel" was a phrase familiar enough to the Jews, in their own sense of it, the phrase "Son of God" was so far from being familiar to them as a title of their promised Messiah, that they never took up stones to stone our Lord until He called Himself, and claimed the prerogatives of, God's own Son. We think there can be no doubt that Nathanael got this from the Baptist's teaching-not his popular teaching, recorded in detail, but his inner teaching to the circle of his own select disciples, whom he taught to recognize in the Messiah not only "the Lamb of God," but "the Son of God" (see the notes at John 3:27-36).