St. Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew

Meaning of the name: To begin with I need to share that the opinion I am holding is not a unanimous one. Yet, majority agrees that Nathaniel from the Gospel of John (1:45-51; 21:2) and Bartholomew of Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts (Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13) are the persons. We are going to treat it this way. Therefore, we need to talk about both names, starting with Bartholomew.

The name is Aramaic: Bar-Tholmai – son of furrows. The agricultural allusion, the one who relies on God, hoping that the crop will grow strong and there will be ability to harvest the grains or fruits. It actually goes together with Nathaniel. Hebrew: Nathani-El – God given (given by God or given to God). One of the most trusting God vocation is a sower – because at some point one understands that he can't do anything. The seed grows without his input.

Life story: We know that he was born at Cana of Galilee (John 21:2). Which makes his presence at the wedding, where Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine even more significant. More to be said about it.

Jesus calls him after Philip's invitation (John 1:43-51). Noteworthy, the story begins with Philip being called, who in return found Nathaniel (v. 45). Why did Philip invested his time and emotional efforts to look for him? I think the answer becomes obvious when we connect the immediate recognition of Jesus as the Messiah together with the Nathaniel's question: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” there are three main interpretation of this statement. First, it is a sarcastic remark, based on insignificance of Nazareth. These days the villages were about 300+ people.

Second, there could be a neighboring villages rivalry – one born in Cana had a personal beef with anyone who would come from Nazareth.

Third, Jesus later describes him as a person of no deceit – Philip comes to him, because he knows that Nathaniel is serious about the expected Messiah. So, since he haven't heard about a messianic figure based on Scriptural prophecies from the neighboring village before, most likely it a fake news. In addition, “good” here can mean “something awaited or hoped for” (Weinrich, p. 269). Or resemble a meaning of Hebrew word for good as “fitting.” He simply didn't see Nazareth as a fitting place for Messiah to come from (John 7:41-42,52). But Jesus was not from Nazareth – He was born in Bethlehem, as prophets foretold, Micah 5:2.

Philip's response: “come and see” should've been translated as “if you come, then you will see.” Bartholomew is interested and goes to meet with Jesus. And the Lord recognizes him as the honest witness (Proverbs 14:5). As a true Israelite – a true descendant of Israel. Being the descendant of Israel, he gets a blessing of Jacob: seeing angels ascending and descending – a part of Jacob's vision of Ladder to Heaven (Genesis 28:12).

From the moment of call and personal meeting with Jesus, he sticks to him to the very end. He was selected as one of the Twelve. As all of Twelve he preached, healed, and released people of demonic oppression. As the Twelve he runs away from the Garden of Gethsemane. Together with the rest of the disciples, he was sent to absolve sins (John 20:19-23). And we find him at the Galilean Sea during the post-resurrection fish and chips breakfast (John 21:2).

Tradition: Eusebius in “The History of the Church” says that Bartholomew went to India carrying with him the Gospel of Matthew (5:10). About 200 hundred years later another preacher came from Alexandria, finding the people faithfully taught to worship, startinf from the days of Bartholomew's visitation.

His memory is celebrated on August 24 – somewhere in the middle of the Church's part of the liturgical year.

Prayer: Almighty God, Your Son, Jesus Christ, chose Bartholomew to be an apostle to preach the blessed Gospel. Grant that Your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.