John 1:49 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Rabbi’, he calls him, and it was the last time that Nathanael would call him Rabbi. You knew about that? Nathanael thinks, and he understands that the one standing before him has not only seen where he was, but read his innermost hopes and desires and heard his most intimate prayers. ‘You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel’, he says, and he uses titles which could only belong to the Messiah. Nathanael knows the Scripture and he is thinking of Psalm 2, which speaks of the Son of God, the one who will redeem Israel. You are divine. You are the Son of the living God; you are the King of Israel, the great descendant of David.