NATHANAEL (⅛3Γ>J, “he whom God gave,” equivalent to Nethaniah or the Greek Theodore), a common name in later Old Testament times. It appears in the Gospel of John (i. 45 sq., xxi. 2) as the name of a man of Cana of Galilee, one of the first disciples of Jesus. He is not named in the synoptical Gospels, and the fathers (Chrysostom, Augustine, &c.) do not number him among the apostles; but his position in the Fourth Gospel has given rise to a prevalent conjecture that Nathanael is the true name of the apostle whose patronymic was Bartholomew (son of Ptolemy). This indeed is mere conjecture, and recent writers have advanced rival hypotheses, e.y., that the name is another form for Mattaniah or Matthew (Hilgenfeld), or that Nathanael is identical with the beloved disciple of the Fourth Gospel (Späth) or even a mere symbol of Paulinism (Holtzmann).

a disciple of our Lord. He appears to have been a pious Jew who waited for the Messiah: and upon Jesus saying to him, Before Philip called thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,” Nathanael, convinced, by some circumstance not explained, of his omniscience, exclaimed, Master, thou art the Son of God, and the King of Israel.” Many have thought that Nathanael was the same as Bartholomew. The evangelists, who mention Bartholomew, say nothing of Nathanael; and St. John, who mentions Nathanael, takes no notice of Bartholomew. We read at the end of St. John’s Gospel, that our Saviour, after his resurrection, manifested himself to Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, and the sons of Zebedee, as they were fishing in the lake of Gennesareth. We know no other circumstances of the life of this holy man.