61. This, as it would seem, needless addition (if the narrative were fictitious) is of the
highest evidential value. In an Ep hesian Gospel of the end of the second century it would
have been well-nigh impossible.
And yet that painful path of slower learning to enduring conviction must still be trodden,
whether in the sufferings of the heart, or the struggle of the mind. This it is which seems
implied in the half-sad question of the Master,62 yet with full view of the final triumph
('thou shalt see greater things than these'), and of the true realisation in it of that glorious
symbol of Jacob's vision.63
62. v. 50 comp. the words to Peter in St. John xiii. 36 -38; and to the disciples, St. John
xvi. 31, 32.
63. v. 51.
And so Nathanael, 'the God-given' - or, as we know him in after- history, Bartholomew,
'the son of Telamyon'64 - was added to the disciples. Such was on that first S unday the
small beginning of the great Church Catholic; these the tiny springs that swelled into the
mighty river which, in its course, has enriched and fertilised the barrenness of the far-off
lands of the Gentiles.
64. So, at least, most probably. Comp. St. John xxi. 2, and the various commentaries.
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Alfred Edersheim
1883
Book III
THE ASCENT: FROM THE RIVER JORDAN TO THE MOUNT OF
TRANSFIGURATION
Chapter 4
THE MARRIAGE FEAST IN CANA OF GALILEE, THE MIRACLE THAT IS 'A
SIGN.'
(St. John 2:1-12.)
At the close of His Discourse to Nathanael - His first sermon - Jesus had made use of an
expression which received its symbolic fulfilment in His first deed. His first testimony
about Himself had been to call Himself the 'Son of Man.'1 2 We cannot but feel that this