The people ( ἄνθρωποι) therefore, when they saw the sign which he £ wrought—when they witnessed the marvel, admitted that it was a testimony to what was special and authoritative in the great Healer and Life-giver, a "sign" of his higher nature—said, This is verily the Prophet that is coming into the world.
This was probably in reference to the great prediction (Deuteronomy 18:18) to which such frequent and solemn reference was made. From John 1:21, John 1:25, we learn that the Sanhedrists distinguished between "the Christ," "the Elijah," and "that Prophet;" but these verses show how the two ideas were blended in the minds of the people.
As Jesus fulfilled one or more of the predictions of the Old Testament, and embodied the foreshadowings of his entire career which were given in the temple and the sabbath, in the ritual and the priest, in the prophet and the king, it was gradually revealed to the world that in him all fulness dwelt.
At all events, just as in the ease of Nathanael, the prophetic gifts of Jesus suggested to the guileless man that he was King of Israel, so here we find a similar connection of ideas.