Who Was Nathaniel ?

Apple Sky said:

Was he a disciple?

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Yes, he was one of the 12, and not only that, he had two names to boot, because unlike the Gospel of John (e.g. John 1:45-51) where he is known as Nathaneal, he is called Barthalomew in the Synoptics instead.

God bless you!!

--David
p.s. - here are a couple of short articles that you might enjoy.

St_Worm2 said:

Yes, he was one of the 12, and not only that, he had two names to boot, because unlike the Gospel of John (e.g. John 1:45-51) where he is known as Nathaneal, he is called Barthalomew in the Synoptics instead.

God bless you!!

--David
p.s. - here are a couple of short articles that you might enjoy.

~Who was Nathanael in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org​

~Who were the twelve (12) disciples / apostles of Jesus Christ? | GotQuestions.org​

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Something that isn't always obvious to us modern readers, but whenever see names that start with "Bar-" that means it's basically a surname of sorts. The Aramaic word "bar" serves the same purpose and has the same meaning as the Hebrew word "ben", meaning "son of". So, for example, Barnabas is literally something like bar-Naba, the "son of Naba", his given name was Joseph (Joses is also mentioned, which is a shortened form of Joseph).

As an aside, because I'm not comfortably leaving this out, there is some debate on the precise etymology of Barnabas.

And as a second aside: Less ambiguous, but also genuinely fascinating is the case of the figure of Barabbas, literally bar-Abba, "son of [the] father". In the Syriac biblical tradition his name is actually given as "Yeshu bar Abba" or "Jesus, son of the father"--and not a few commentators have been fascinated by the irony that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the bona fide Son of God the Father is the One who was condemned, while a violent insurrectionist by the name of [Jesus] Bar-Abba was let go.

All of this to say, that there are two names for the same Apostle isn't strange (that was pretty common); in this case it makes a lot of sense if his given name was Nathaniel, and his surname was Barthalomew, so his name would have been Nathaniel bar-Tolmai, Nathaniel the son of Tolmai.

-CryptoLutheran

ViaCrucis said:

Something that isn't always obvious to us modern readers, but whenever see names that start with "Bar-" that means it's basically a surname of sorts. The Aramaic word "bar" serves the same purpose and has the same meaning as the Hebrew word "ben", meaning "son of". So, for example, Barnabas is literally something like bar-Naba, the "son of Naba", his given name was Joseph (Joses is also mentioned, which is a shortened form of Joseph).

As an aside, because I'm not comfortably leaving this out, there is some debate on the precise etymology of Barnabas.

And as a second aside: Less ambiguous, but also genuinely fascinating is the case of the figure of Barabbas, literally bar-Abba, "son of [the] father". In the Syriac biblical tradition his name is actually given as "Yeshu bar Abba" or "Jesus, son of the father"--and not a few commentators have been fascinated by the irony that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the bona fide Son of God the Father is the One who was condemned, while a violent insurrectionist by the name of [Jesus] Bar-Abba was let go.

All of this to say, that there are two names for the same Apostle isn't strange (that was pretty common); in this case it makes a lot of sense if his given name was Nathaniel, and his surname was Barthalomew, so his name would have been Nathaniel bar-Tolmai, Nathaniel the son of Tolmai.

-CryptoLutheran

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Thanks for sharing this with us Brother, as it's not only interesting, but important to know!

God bless you!!

--David

ViaCrucis said:

And as a second aside: Less ambiguous, but also genuinely fascinating is the case of the figure of Barabbas, literally bar-Abba, "son of [the] father". In the Syriac biblical tradition his name is actually given as "Yeshu bar Abba" or "Jesus, son of the father"--and not a few commentators have been fascinated by the irony that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the bona fide Son of God the Father is the One who was condemned, while a violent insurrectionist by the name of [Jesus] Bar-Abba was let go.

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While it is probably best not to press the issue too much, it seems to me that there are at least partial parallels to the twin goats in the day of atonement rituals and Jesus/barabbas that I suspect aren't purely coincidental.

Fervent said:

While it is probably best not to press the issue too much, it seems to me that there are at least partial parallels to the twin goats in the day of atonement rituals and Jesus/barabbas that I suspect aren't purely coincidental.

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That's an interesting thought I don't think I've come across before. I agree, maybe not best to press too much--but that is a fascinating thought if nothing else.

-CryptoLutheran

ViaCrucis said:

That's an interesting thought I don't think I've come across before. I agree, maybe not best to press too much--but that is a fascinating thought if nothing else.

-CryptoLutheran

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Yeah, when it occurred to me I was a bit surprised I'd never heard anyone mention the idea. Then again, most of the time when Barabbas is being discussed it is the crowd's response that is the focus.

Hello again @Apple Sky, there is a pretty solid consensus that the beloved disciple, who is mentioned several times in the Gospel of John (but nowhere else in the Bible), is actually the Apostle John, not Nathaneal (take special note below of what John says in John 21:24).

~Who was the disciple whom Jesus loved? | GotQuestions.org

As far as what the Lord meant by...................


.....................I believe that the Lord says what He does to Peter in v22 to get his concern and focus back to where it needed to be, on the Lord, and on the extraordinarily important tasks and mission that He gave him to fulfill (e.g. John 21:15-17).

I also believe that Peter's question (v21) about John, the beloved disciple, was most likely in response to what the Lord had just said to him (in John 21:18-19) about his (Peter's) own future and death.

God bless you!!

--David
p.s. - here's an excerpt from one of my commentaries on John 21:22 (though all of my commentaries basically say the same, just FYI).