And he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto
you
Not only to Nathanael, but to the rest of the disciples that were
then with him; and to show himself to be the "Amen", and faithful
witness, as well as more strongly to asseverate what he was about
to say, he doubles the expression:
hereafter you shall see heaven open;
either in a literal sense, as it had been at his baptism; or, in
a mystical sense, that there should be a clearer manifestation of
heavenly truths made by his ministry; and that the way into the
holiest of all should be made more manifest; and a more familiar
intercourse he opened between God and his people; and also
between angels and saints:
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son
of man;
or to the son of man, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic
versions render it; meaning himself in human nature; the second
Adam, and seed of the woman; and is expressive both of the truth,
and infirmity of that nature. Reference may here be had to the
ladder Jacob dreamed of, in ( Genesis
28:12 ) , which was a representation of Christ, in his
person, as God-man; who, as God, was in heaven, whilst he, as
man, was on earth; and in his office, as Mediator between God and
man, making peace between them both; and in the ministration of
angels to him in person, and to his body the church. And it is
observable, that some of the Jewish writers F25
understand the ascent, and descent of the angels, in ( Genesis
28:12 ) , to be, not upon the ladder, but upon Jacob; which
makes the phrase there still more agreeable to this; and so they
render (wyle) , in (
Genesis
28:13 ) , not "above it", but "above him". Or the, sense is,
that there would be immediately made such clearer discoveries of
his person, and grace by his ministry, and such miracles would be
wrought by him in confirmation of it, that it would look as if
heaven was open, and the angels of God were continually going to
and fro, and bringing fresh messages, and performing miraculous
operations; as if the whole host of them were constantly employed
in such services: and this the rather seems to be the sense,
since the next account we have, is, of the beginning of Christ's
miracles to manifest forth his glory in Cana of Galilee, where
Nathanael lived; and since the word, rendered "hereafter",
signifies, "from henceforward"; or, as the Persic version renders
it, "from this hour"; though the word is left out in the Vulgate
Latin and Ethiopic versions.