1:47a

There is implied information here: Nathanael decided to go and see Jesus, and then set out. In some languages it may be natural to make this explicit:

⌊So Nathanael went to meet Jesus.⌋

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him: The pronoun He refers to Jesus and him refers to Nathanael. In some languages it may be natural to use one or both of these names. For example:

As Jesus saw Nathanael come toward him, Jesus spoke ⌊to the other disciples⌋ about Nathanael.

1:47b

Here is a true Israelite: When Jesus said the words Here is a true Israelite, he was saying something good about Nathanael. He was saying that Nathanael deserved to be called an Israelite.

Here are other ways to translate this statement:

Here is an Israelite who deserves the name
-or-
Now here is a true man of Israel (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
Here is a real Israelite. (Good News Translation)
-or-
How here is a genuine son of Israel. (New Living Translation (2004))

in whom there is no deceit: Jesus was saying that Nathaniel was not a liar or a hypocrite. Nathanael said what he believed and did not try to trick others. The word deceit refers to an act of deceiving or not telling the truth. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

There is no deceit in him. (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
And he isn’t deceitful. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
in whom there is nothing false (New International Version)

In some languages it may be natural to translate this using a positive statement. For example:

a man who is completely honest
-or-
who is sincere (God’s Word)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.