<p>1:51 <em>And he said to him: Truly, truly, I say to you. You shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man</em>- See on :47 for the connections with Jacob, and Nathanael being a Jacob-ite.</p><p>The allusion to Jacob's vision of Gen. 28:18 is clear. That vision was to show Jacob the extent of Angelic care of Him- and this was&nbsp;repeated for Jesus. However, the context of v. 50 is that Nathanael marvelled at Jesus' knowledge. Jesus seems to be saying that they would see even greater spiritual revelation (&quot;Heaven open&quot;) because of the ministry&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Angels&nbsp;to Him, ministering spiritual knowledge to Jesus to communicate to His disciples. This would imply that apart from directly ministering spiritual revelation to Jesus, the Angels also imparted specific 'physical' knowledge to Jesus- e. g. about Nathanael under the fig tree.</p><p>Nathaniel thought he really believed in the Lord Jesus. The Lord commented: &quot;You shall see (usually used in John concerning faith and spiritual perception) greater things than these... you will see heaven opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man&quot; (Jn. 1:51 RSV). It was Jacob who saw Heaven opened and the Angels ascending and descending. And Christ's comment that Nathaniel was &quot;an Israelite (Jacob-ite) indeed, in whom is no guile&quot; (i.e. Jacob without his guileful side) is a reference to Jacob's name change. It confirms that Nathaniel was to follow Jacob's path of spiritual growth; he thought he believed, he thought he saw Christ clearly; but like Jacob, he was to comprehend far greater things. &nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man&quot; was a prophecy of what was to happen &ldquo;hereafter&quot;, and it seems relevant to the cross. Heaven, in the sense of the Most Holy place, was opened by the veil being torn down at the Lord&rsquo;s death. By the blood-shedding of Jesus, the way into the Holiest was made manifest. There is evident allusion to Jacob&rsquo;s vision of the ladder reaching to Heaven; and surely the Lord is saying that He is going to become the ladder to Heaven, linking Heaven and earth, when Heaven is opened by Him in the future. And that point was surely the crucifixion. Significantly, He says: &ldquo;You will see...&quot;, another hint that the disciples, especially John, saw the crucifixion. They may well have &ldquo;seen&quot; in the Johannine sense of perceiving that there, unseen, Angels were ascending and descending in ministration. John also records how the Lord saw Himself as the gate / door (10:9), just as Jacob described what he had seen as &ldquo;the gate of heaven&quot;. The stone upon which he slept, lifted up and anointed with oil to become the corner-stone of the house of God, Beth-el, was all prophetic of the Lord&rsquo;s death and rising up again (Eph. 2:20-22).</p><p>The theme of the Spirit is never far away in John's writings. &quot;Greater things&quot; is the language of what would happen when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was given (Jn. 14:12). The Lord foreknew Nathanael, but after His death the Spirit would be released Angels ascending and descending and under His command upon the Son of Man would be involved even more powerfully in the lives of God's children like Nathanael.</p>