Was Nathanael yanking on Jesus' chain?

Or was he the first to recognize the Son of God?

"Hey, Nate!" said Philip,

"We found the one that Moses and the prophets wrote about!

 It's Jesus of Nazareth!"

Nathanael, called Bartholomew [i.e. son of Tolmai] in the first three Gospels, blurts out the first thing that crosses his mind:

"Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Aside from the fact that Nazareth was a minor town of a couple hundred souls, Nathanael may have known that the Torah nowhere mentions a place called Nazareth, especially in regard to God's Anointed One (Messiah). But he follows Philip to meet Jesus anyway, where the following exchange takes place:

First let's deal with a small mistranslation in verse 51: the first "you" is singular, referring to Nathanael, but the second "you" is plural, referring to all Jesus' listeners, thus: "In very truth I tell you that all of you will see heaven standing open and angels ascending..."

Many writers and preachers extoll Nathanael's high praise when he meets Jesus. But Nathanael has already identified himself as a skeptic who does not hide his doubts, when he questioned the status of lowly Nazareth. In verse 48, he doubles down on his skepticism: "How do you know that about me?"

Here he has a stranger who claims to know stuff about him, a sign that he might be a prophet. (Another instance like this is at John 4:19 when Jesus meets a woman at a well, and reveals his knowledge of the five men in her past. She replies, "I see you are a prophet.")

Jesus responds to Nathanael in his trademark non sequitur fashion, "Hey, I saw you under the fig tree."

And here we come to the crux. For the majority of Bible teachers, this evokes Nathanael's awesome knowledge of the true identity of Jesus: the Son of God and the rightful King of Israel.

But this arises from a lack of appreciation for Hebrew and Aramaic humor. In actuality, here Nathanael is messing with Jesus because of the improbable response that he gave. Nathanael's joke says in effect, "Seriously? You saw me under the tree so you know all about me?"

Let's look at a couple instances of Hebrew humor, quite different from our modern forms:

Genesis 18:12-13. Sarah overheard the angel say she would bear a child at age 90+, and "laughed" spontaneously. This was no enjoyable belly-laugh, but a response to an improbable and unexpected prophecy--perhaps murmuring "humph" in disbelief. But in Hebrew terms, she "laughed," as confirmed by the angel. Abraham had the same reaction, at Genesis 17:17.

At Genesis 21:6, the improbable message of the angel came true, and Sarah says, "God has made laughter for me, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me!" Thus we see one form of Hebrew humor, where that which is unbelievable actually comes to pass.

Nathanael's response is in this same tenor: Jesus has mentioned the improbable conditions by which he learned Nathanael's disposition to never say anything which is false. But what was Jesus' response?

Jesus went along with Nathanael's joke!

He says, "So you believe the improbable? You're gonna see stuff a lot more improbable than that!"
Then Jesus leaves the humor behind and drops into a serious tone, teaching his disciples their very first lesson, to wit:

"You will all see that the Son of Man teaches not only earthly knowledge, but also knowledge which comes from heaven. Not only that, but heaven hears the entreaties of the Son of Man."

So was Nathanael the first to reveal the true nature of "the Son of Man?" In a sense, yes. Scripture has examples of even unbelievers speaking prophecy by the influence of the Holy Spirit. In spite of their unbelief (or emerging belief) the words they say are a testimony to the truth by which others may learn.

You can find and explore this entire exchange and more in John! Episode One: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B013NVWUT6