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Nathanael

The disciple Jesus greets as 'truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit' — a Jacob without Jacob's guile. Convinced by Jesus' sight of him 'under the fig tree,' he confesses him 'Son of God' and 'King of Israel.' ⚠ He never appears by this name in Matthew, Mark, or Luke; by long and near-universal tradition he is the same man those three Gospels call BARTHOLOMEW ('son of Tolmai', a patronymic rather than a given name — see Matthew's own list of the Twelve, 10:3), on the strength of the two names never once appearing together and each Gospel-writer favoring one exclusively. Neither name is stated to be an alias anywhere in the text; the identification is inference, old and widely held rather than proven.

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