Saint Bartholomew, Apostle – Readings

Commentary on Revelation 21:9-14; John 1:45-51

The Gospel reading speaks of the calling of Nathanael. Just before this, Jesus had invited Philip to be a disciple. Philip then went to find Nathanael and told him:

We have found him about whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.

Philip says “we”, which may indicate the two other disciples Jesus had called earlier, Andrew and an unnamed disciple. ‘We’ perhaps includes Peter as well, who was brought to Jesus by Andrew, his brother.

Nathanael rather dismissively comments:

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

He regarded it as a backwater, not likely to produce the Messiah, the expected King of Israel. But when he meets Jesus, Jesus immediately greets him with the words:

Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!

It is wonderful praise for anyone and it clearly takes Nathanael aback. Startled, Nathanael replied:

Where did you get to know me?

Jesus replies:

I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.

The fig tree is a symbol of messianic peace, but it is not clear how it applies to Nathanael. It is quite clear that Nathanael is completely won over and, in confirmation of Philip’s words earlier, he confesses:

Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!

The title ‘Son of God’ is probably being used in a messianic sense, but for the Evangelist, it is to be taken in the fullest sense.

Jesus then goes on to say that Nathanael, if he believes, will see even greater things:

Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

This, of course, is a reference to the dream that Jacob had of angels going up and down on a ladder between heaven and earth.

Applied to Jesus, it will mean that Nathanael will see God coming down to earth through the works of Jesus, and glory being given to God through these works. The final glory will be when Jesus is lifted up on the Cross and returns to be united with his Father.

Although the reading does not mention the name of Bartholomew, its content can be applied to him and indeed to any of the disciples. It is not possible to say whether Nathanael and Bartholomew were one and the same person.

The First Reading is from the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse). It is a description of the New Jerusalem, which is the Church both now and in the future. It is called the Bride of Christ and gleams with the splendour of God.

At the end of the reading we are told that the wall of the city had 12 courses of stones for its foundation. On these stones were inscribed the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Their teaching of all that they heard from Jesus formed the foundation of the Christian community. Among them, of course, was Bartholomew.

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Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus. The name in Aramaic, bar-Tôlmay (תולמי‎‎‎‎‎-בר‎‎), means ‘son of Tolmay’ (Ptolemy) or ‘son of the furrows’ (perhaps a ploughman). Hence it has been suggested that it is the family name and not his given name. Talmai or Tolmay was an ancient Hebrew name, borne, for example, by the King of Geshur whose daughter was a wife of David (see 2 Sam 3:3). It shows that Bartholomew was of Hebrew descent.

Apart from this, nothing is known of his origins. He is listed among the Twelve Apostles in the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14) and appears as a witness of the Ascension in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:13).

It was not until about the 9th century AD that Bartholomew began to be linked with Nathanael, a disciple of Jesus only mentioned in John’s Gospel, and it was suggested that they were one and the same person. In the Synoptic Gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned. In John’s Gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are mentioned together, but the name of Bartholomew does not appear. Still, many biblical commentators reject this hypothesis.

In the Gospel of John (1:45-51), Nathanael is introduced as a friend of Philip. He is described as initially being sceptical about Jesus as Messiah with the dismissive comment:

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46)

Nevertheless, he accepts Philip’s invitation and goes to see Jesus, who on seeing him, says:

Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!
(John 1:47)

This is a remark, which in view of what Nathanael has just said about Jesus, bowls him over. Jesus continues by saying cryptically that, before Philip had called him, Jesus had seen Nathanael “under the fig tree”. There is speculation among scholars on the exact meaning of this statement, but it causes Nathanael to address the man from Nazareth as “the Son of God” and “King of Israel”.

Nathanael reappears at the end of John’s Gospel (21:2) as one of seven disciples to whom the Risen Jesus appeared at the Sea of Tiberias. All in all, even if Bartholomew and Nathanael are one and the same, we are left with only a very small amount of information about this Apostle.

There are, of course, as with all the very early figures in the Church’s history, many legends about Bartholomew. According to a Syriac tradition, his original name was Jesus, which made him adopt another name.

Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History says that, after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions have him as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.

Then, along with his fellow Apostle Jude, he is said to have brought Christianity to Armenia. Both saints are now considered patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There is also a local tradition that he was martyred at the site of the Maiden Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan, by being skinned alive and then (like Peter) crucified head down.

His dead body is said to have been washed to Lipari, a small island off the coast of Sicily, where a large piece of his skin and many bones are kept in the Cathedral of St Bartholomew the Apostle. In 983, Holy Roman Emperor Otto II brought his relics to the basilica of San Bartolomeo all’Isola in Rome. Because this church later took over an old pagan medical centre, Bartholomew’s name came to be associated with medicine and hospitals.

Some of his skull was said to have been transferred to Frankfurt in Germany, while an arm is venerated in Canterbury Cathedral. In works of art he is often represented with a large knife, or, as in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, with his own skin hanging over his arm. His being skinned alive led to his being adopted as the patron saint of tanners and leather workers.

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