person
Nathanael
Ναθαναήλ
Nathanael, also known as Bartholomew, was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, who was initially skeptical but later confessed Jesus as the Son of God.
- verses
- 6
- first named
- John 1:45
- last named
- John 21:2
- period
- the New Testament
- role
- Man
Description
Who was Nathanael?
Nathanael, also identified as Bartholomew in the Synoptic Gospels, was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. He is introduced in the Gospel of John when Philip, who had just begun following Jesus, 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" (Jhn.1.45).
Initially skeptical, Nathanael questioned, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" (Jhn.1.46). However, when Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he declared, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit" (Jhn.1.47). Surprised, Nathanael asked how Jesus knew him, to which Jesus replied that he had seen him under the fig tree before Philip called him (Jhn.1.48).
This revelation prompted Nathanael to confess, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel" (Jhn.1.49). Jesus commended Nathanael's faith and promised that he would see even greater things, alluding to the miracles and divine revelations that would follow.
Nathanael is mentioned again in Jhn.21.2 as one of the disciples who went fishing with Peter after Jesus' resurrection. He was present when Jesus appeared to them on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and performed the miraculous catch of fish.
Although little is known about Nathanael's life beyond these brief mentions, his inclusion among the twelve disciples highlights his importance in Jesus' ministry. His initial skepticism and subsequent confession of faith demonstrate the transformative power of encountering Jesus and the depth of his commitment to following him.
Tradition holds that Nathanael, under the name Bartholomew, went on to preach the gospel in various regions, including India and Armenia, where he is said to have been martyred for his faith.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
The pattern
Where Nathanael is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
6 verses across 1 of 66 books; 65 write the name nowhere. Named in John (6).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 6, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources