Nazareth

NAZARETH, a village in Galilee. Joseph and Mary dwell at, Matt. 2:23; Luke 1:26, 27, 56; 2:4, 39, 51. Jesus from, Matt. 21:11; Mark 1:24; 10:47; Luke 4:34; 18:37

1:46. Nathanael was from Cana (21:2), another town in Galilee. As Galileans were frequently despised by people from Judea, so it appears that even fellow Galileans despised Nazareth. Nathanel’s scathing question probably reflects more than local rivalry between villages. From John’s perspective, the fact that Jesus was reared in Nazareth not only obscured his origins in Bethlehem for those who did not search very far (7:41–42, 52), but also reflected the self-abasement of the man from heaven. He was known as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ or ‘Jesus the Nazarene’ (cf. Mt. 2:23), not ‘Jesus the Bethlehemite’, with all the royal, Davidic overtones that would have provided. Some years later, Christians could be contemptuously dismissed as the ‘Nazarene sect’ (Acts 24:5).

Philip responded with the only satisfactory response possible: Come and see. ‘Honest inquiry is a sovereign cure for prejudice. Nazareth might be all that Nathanael thought, but there is an exception to prove every rule; and what an exception these young men had found!’ (Bruce , p. 60). But as in v. 39, not only are these words a challenge to the person in the narrative, but an invitation to the reader.1

Bruce Bruce F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition and Notes (Pickering and Inglis, 1983).

1 Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 160). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.