An Ordinary Discriminator Named Nathanael

Prejudice exists. Some of the earliest examples of it came in the O.T., when Moses led the he had to teach the people to not show favoritism or partiality towards one another (Deuteronomy 10:17). It continued all throughout the O.T. as Jews and Gentiles showed animosity towards each other. It was present in the heart of one of God’s chosen prophets – Jonah, who didn’t want to preach to the enemies from Assyria, even though God said He would save some.

And the sin of prejudice existed in the N.T., as well, between Jews and Samaritans, the religious leaders and the common people, and in the heart of at least 1 disciple – Nathanael (aka Bartholomew).

The name Bartholomew has an interesting history in the Bible. The 1^st part of his name “bar” means “son of” and the rest of the letters mean “Tolmai.” Literally, his name would be Nathanael, son of Tolmai. Now, who is Tolmai? In II Samuel 3:3, there was a King of Geshur (modern-day Jordan) named Tolmai. That king had a daughter named Maacah. Maacah was the mother of Absalom, brother of David. Some have suggested that Bartholomew/Nathanael could have been from royal lineage.

Nathanael came to learn about Jesus through his friend Philip (John 1:43-45). Nathanael was a man on a mission – and the mission was to find the Messiah. And, according to Philip, the Messiah had been found.

And it is in that context in John 1 where we witness Nathanael’s discriminatory heart. Nathanael’s prejudicial heart is unmasked when he heard the town reference of Nazareth.

Nazareth was a small town, probably less than 1,000 people. It was known for having citizens that were uneducated. Religiously, one might even wonder why the Messiah would grow up in such a place! I mean, why not Jerusalem?

Nathanael didn’t ask, “Can the Messiah come from Nazareth?” He says, “Can ANYTHING (KJV, NAS – “any good thing”) good come from Nazareth?” Instead of asking, “Why Nazareth,”, he showed his prejudice by saying, “Nazareth is rotten. The Messiah can’t possibly come from there. Nothing good exists there or can come from there.”

In short, Nathanael was saying this to his friend Philip, “My experience is that the citizens of Nazareth are ordinary simpletons, and I don’t see anywhere in the Old Testament that says the Messiah is a simpleton. This can’t be the Messiah. That would mean He isn’t special either.”

Nathanael’s thinking represented the common way of thinking in Israel. The Messiah was even rejected by many because He was not like them in many ways. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). Others told Nicodemus that no prophet should ever come from Galilee (John 7:52).

One of the dangers of prejudice is that it can prohibit people from hearing the Gospel. When you are prejudicial, you are assuming something wrong about that person, and that person will not likely listen to anything else you have to say if you are already getting some things wrong.

But, even though God doesn’t condone prejudice, He isn’t limited by prejudicial saints. He still uses them! Just ask Jonah. God can take a prejudicial prophet like Jonah and a prejudicial disciple like Nathanael anyway.

Like most of these disciples, the Bible does not tell us about the end of Nathanael’s life. Church tradition holds that when he left Judea, the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) that he traveled to was India.

One anecdote that sheds light on this possibility comes from the life of a famous Greek philosopher named Pantaenus who died about 100 years after the Apostle John preached in remote parts of India. He made an interesting discovery in a plethora of villages. These native Indians had copies of the Gospel of Matthew with Hebrew Bibles translated into their native language, and they said they got it from a man named Nathanael Bartholomew!

Church historians say that Nathanael was martyred in India by Christian antagonists who decided to tie him up in a sick and then drown him in a sea.Seems like he got over that sin of discrimination.