Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageJesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, "Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false!"
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GYeshua saw Natan'el coming toward Him and said about him, "Look—a true son of Yisra'el, in whom there is no guile!"
KJV
King James VersionJesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
BSB
Berean Standard BibleWhen Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”
Footnotes
δόλος means deceit, guile, cunning—and its use here is a studied intertextual contrast with the patriarch Ya'akov (Jacob), who was renamed Yisra'el (Gen 32:28) yet whose earlier life was defined by trickery and cunning (עָקֹב, Gen 27:36; cf. the wordplay on his very name). Yeshua is declaring that Natan'el embodies what Israel was always meant to be: a person who walks in integrity before Elohim, not stratagem. The echo would have been immediately audible to any Jew—here at last is an Israelite who does not need to wrestle his blessing by cunning; it comes to him freely. The F.O.G preserves "guile" to carry the covenantal-ancestral echo; the F.O.G Message uses "nothing false" for immediate clarity.
