{Verily, Verily} (Am(886e), am(886e)). Hebrew word transliterated
into Greek and then into English, our "amen." John always repeats
it, not singly as in the Synoptics, and only in the words of
Jesus, an illustration of Christ's authoritative manner of
speaking as shown also by leg(9320)humin (I say unto you). Note
plural humin though aut(9369) just before is singular (to him).
Jesus addresses thus others besides Nathanael. {The heaven
opened} (	on ouranon ane(9369)gota). Second perfect active
participle of anoig(935c) with double reduplication, standing open.
The words remind one of what took place at the baptism of Jesus
( Mt 3:16  Lu 3:21 ), but the immediate reference is to the
opened heaven as the symbol of free intercourse between God and
man ( Isa 64:1 ) and as it was later illustrated in the death of
Stephen ( Ac 7:56 ). There is a quotation from  Ge 28:12f. ,
Jacob's vision at Bethel. That was a dream to Jacob, but Christ
is himself the bond of fellowship between heaven and earth,
between God and man, for Jesus is both "the Son of God" as
Nathanael said and "the Son of Man" (epi ton huion tou
anthr(9370)ou) as Jesus here calls himself. God and man meet in
Christ. He is the true Jacob's Ladder. "I am the Way," Jesus will
say. He is more than King of Israel, he is the Son of Man (the
race). So quickly has this Gospel brought out in the witness of
the Baptist, the faith of the first disciples, the claims of
Jesus Christ, the fully developed picture of the Logos who is
both God and man, moving among men and winning them to his
service. At the close of the ministry Christ will tell Caiaphas
that he will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of
power and coming with the clouds of heaven ( Mr 14:62 ). Here at
the start Jesus is conscious of the final culmination and in
apocalyptic eschatological language that we do not fully
understand he sets forth the dignity and majesty of his Person.