depth of the garden under the fig tree had a secret, hidden from prying eyes shelter where he spent time during the afternoon heat, praying to God, being a secret prayer, ascetic. And it is this fact, which no one but God could know, Jesus saw through the Spirit. No one has seen Nathanael under the fig tree, except God, and this episode gives us hope that God accepts the prayers of even those who turn to him with all their hearts, even if they do not know the true God.
It is worth adding that the mention of Nathanael as a “true Israelite” is clearly added later, all with the same purpose. Nathanael was a gardener in Galilee, not in Judea.
This is the story of the “calling” of disciples by Jesus – it was not He who chose them, but they chose Him out of their own free will, the free will of people, which God never forces!
Conclusion: There was no Baptism of the Lord “from John” and the Spirit of God did not descend on Jesus in the “form of a dove”. And in general there was no need for Jesus the Son of God in all this absurd baptism-washing with water from the river “for the remission of sins” – the Son of God is already sinless. And the man-Jesus, born of earthly parents, does not need the “forgiveness of original sin”, because, being the Son of God, he knows that all these idle biblical tales are all the same traditional ancient Jewish paganism, and no “original sin” over humanity in reality gravitated, because it simply did not exist. Jesus Himself, as we will see below, never baptized neither with water nor the Spirit, Jesus was never a disciple of John the Baptist, He was not the performer of the prophecies “about the Mashiach,” and He was neither a Jew nor a Nazirite. Water baptism for the remission of sins is an ancient Mandean tradition of pre-Christian Gnosticism, and has nothing to do with Jesus and His Teachings, CHRESTIANISM.
Thus, the dry remainder of the first chapter of John:
1 No one has seen God at any time; Jesus, the Father’s beloved and only Son, spoke about Him. And to those who received Him, believing in His name, He gave the authority to be children of the Father, who were born neither of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but of the Father.
2 John sees Jesus walking towards him
3On the next day, John stood again and two of his disciples. And when he saw Jesus walking, he said
4Having heard these words from him, the two disciples followed Jesus.
5 And Jesus, turning and seeing them walking, saith to them: What do you want? They said to Him: Rabbi, which means teacher, where do you live?
6 He says to them: go and see. They went and saw where He lives; and stayed with him that day. It was about ten o’clock.
7One of the two who heard about Jesus from John and followed him was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.
8He first finds his brother Simon and saith to him, We have found;
9and brought him to Jesus. And Jesus, looking at him, said: You are Simon the son of Jonah; you will be called Cephas, which means: a stone (Peter).
10The next day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee
11Philip was from Bethsaida, from the same city with Andrew and Peter.
12 Philip finds Nathanael and says to him: We have found Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth.
13 But Nathanael said to him, Can anything good be out of Nazareth? Philip says to him: go and see.
14Jesus, seeing Nathanael coming to Him, says of him: Behold, indeed, in whom there is no guile.
15Nathanael saith to him, Why do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
16Nathanael answered him, Rabbi! You are the Son of God
17 Jesus answered and said to him: You believe, because I told you: I saw you under a fig tree; you will see more than this.
That’s all!
John, chapter 2
In this chapter, a very important event takes place – a miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Small everyday details, very vital and obviously not invented, convince in the reliability of the narrative.
“1 On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the Mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and His disciples were also called to the marriage” – what disciples could be “called to the marriage”, if they had just started to be with Him? Three – John, Andrew and Simon – on the second day counting from the meeting of Jesus with John; two more – Philip and Nataniel – on the very third day in question; there is also John’s brother James or Jacob (Zebedee), who is not mentioned here. Also, apparently, Thomas – we will meet with him later, but he comes from the same place, which follows from the list of the disciples who returned to Galilee from Jerusalem after the Passion of Jesus: (John 21,2) “and Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others from His disciples”– it is obvious that Thomas belongs to the same company. The mentioned ‘two others’ are, presumably, all the same Philip and someone else from the Galileans, not named. In total – eight. Jesus’ mother was invited to the wedding, and this is understandable – but what does Jesus and his disciples have to do with it? And another question – why is Mary invited alone, without her husband?
Apparently, the father of Jesus, conditionally – Joseph, since information about him is found only from records by the synoptics, who we have no faith in, by that time he had already died, Mary remained a widow, but it was indecent for the woman to appear alone at the wedding, and Jesus, as the eldest son, had to accompany her. And the disciples, as is typical of youth, simply followed him – it is more fun together. In the future, we will return to this assumption; there is confirmation of it in the text.
By the way, we note that it is the presence of Jesus at the wedding that destroys the pious legend about the origin of His brothers and sisters as step-siblings: as if Joseph had them from the first marriage and then married Mary after his first wife died; and that Mary gave birth without husband’s participation; and therefore Jesus was the “youngest” in Joseph’s family. No, he was precisely the eldest son, the duty to protect the honor of the mother passed to Him from the late father in seniority – and that is why He, the only one of Mary’s children, accompanies her at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. And he was born, like his younger siblings, from their father, Maria’s husband, in a legal marriage.
“3 And as there was a lack of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him: they have no wine. 4 Jesus said to her: what is to me and you, woman? My hour has not yet come. 5 His mother said to the attendants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
There are many meanings hidden in this small episode.
A wedding is an expensive and even ruinous business for a poor family – and then Jesus brings with him a whole bunch of guys who are not shy to eat and drink. And Mary feels awkward in front of the family of the newly-wed, feels guilty for the lack on the table that was not prepared for a whole group of extra strangers – and therefore she turns to Jesus with reproach, hinting that the lack happened because of them. Jesus answers her, as modern sons do to their mothers in a similar situation: “This is not our problem,” and adds that His “hour has not come,” that is, the time has
