in which this apostle was concerned, namely, the meeting on the lake of Gennesaret, after the resurrection, where his name is mentioned among those who went out on the fishing excursion with Peter. His friend Philip is not there mentioned, but may have been one of the "two disciples," who are included without their names being given. From this trifling circumstance, some have concluded that Nathanael was a fisherman by trade, as well as the other four who are mentioned with him; and certainly the conjecture is reasonable, and not improbable, except from the circumstance, that his residence was at Cana, which is commonly understood to have been an inland town, and too far from the water, for any of its inhabitants to follow fishing as a business. Other idle conjectures about his occupation and rank might be multiplied from most anciently and venerably foolish authorities; but let the dust of ages sleep on the prosy guesses of the Gregories, of Chrysostom, Augustin, and their reverential copyists in modern times. There is too much need of room in this book, for the detail and discussion of truth, to allow paper to be wasted on baseless conjectures, or impudent falsehoods.
HIS APOSTLESHIP.
There is a dim relic of a story, of quite ancient date, that after the dispersion of the apostles, he went to Arabia, and preached there till his death. This is highly probable, because it is well known that many of the Jews, more particularly after the destruction of Jerusalem, settled along the eastern coasts of the Red sea, where they were continued for centuries. Nothing can be more reasonable then, than to suppose that after the wasting fury of invasion had desolated the city and the land of their fathers, many of the Christian Jews too, went forth to seek a new home in the peaceful regions of Arabia Felix; and that with them also went forth this true Israelite without guile, to devote the rest of his life to apostolic labors, in that distant country, where those of his wandering brethren, who had believed in Christ, would so much need the support and counsel of one of the divinely commissioned ministers of the gospel. Those Israelites too, who still continued unbelievers, would present objects of importance, in the view of the apostle. All the visible glories of the ancient covenant had departed; and in that distant land, with so little of the chilling influence of the dogmatical teachers of the law around them, they would be the more readily led to the just appreciation of a spiritual faith, and a simple creed.
