Of those who understand them metaphorically, some take the sense to be: You shall see numerous miracles, such as are usually attributed to angels (or, in the performance of which angels shall minister to Me) wrought by Me, the Son of Man, during My public life. So Beelen, Maier, &c. We cannot accept this view, for it seems highly improbable that our Lord would speak in language so obscure to the guileless Nathanael and his companions on an occasion like the present, when Nathanael had only just believed. Others understand of the spiritual glories of the whole period from the commencement of Christ’s public mission till the end of the world. Alford, explaining this view (which, by the way, he calmly claims to have been “the interpretation of all commentators of any depth in all times”!) says: “It is not the outward visible opening of the material heavens nor ascent or descent of angels in the sight of men, which the Lord here announces, but the series of glories which was about to be unfolded in His Person and work, from that time forward.” Our difficulty in regard to this view is the same as in regard to the preceding. St. Augustine is generally supposed to have understood this text in reference to the preachers of the New Testament, “ascending” when they preach the more sublime, “descending,” when they preach the more elementary doctrines of religion. If St. Augustine meant this as a _literal_ interpretation of the passage, as he certainly seems to do in Tract vii. on this Gospel, we cannot accept it. Surely, something stranger and more striking is promised here, after the opening of the heavens, than the sight of preachers! Others hold that we must interpret this passage entirely in the light of Jacob’s dream, Gen. xxviii. 12. Jacob saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. That vision meant in his regard that God would make him the object of His special protection (see Gen. xxviii. 13‐15). And now Nathanael, who is _an Israelite indeed_, a true son of Jacob (v. 47), is told that he and others shall see that Divine favour and protection which Jacob’s vision signified, extended in such an extraordinary manner to Christ, during His life, that it will be most manifest He is the Son of God. This view we regard as probable. The Fathers tell us that Nathanael was particularly well versed in the Scriptures, and our Lord’s words might readily recall to his mind Jacob’s dream, with all its significance of Divine favour and protection.