The village of Nazareth, located in the lower regions of Galilee, is arguably one of the most important cities in the entire New Testament. However, the fame of Nazareth has very little to do with its actual significance in the first century. In those days, Nazareth was nothing more than a tiny, obscure village located 112 kilometers north of Jerusalem. In the eyes of most Jews in Judea, including some in Galilee, Nazareth was also a town of low regard and disrepute. The only remarkable thing about Nazareth was how unremarkable it was then.
So what put Nazareth on the map and made its name so famous throughout history?
The answer to that question is found not in the what but rather in the who, as Nazareth was the childhood home of Jesus Christ. There, the son of a carpenter and his wife grew to manhood; and nestled against the backdrop of Galilee’s olive trees, vineyards, sloping plateaus, small farms, and rural villages, Jesus began His public ministry and performed some of His greatest miracles.
The first mention of Nazareth in the Bible is found in the early chapters of the New Testament in the story of Jesus’ birth. The Old Testament does not reference Nazareth by name in any of its thirty-nine books. Neither does the historian Josephus. There could be several explanations for this.
- The village of Nazareth wasn’t established until closer to the first century AD.
- The town went by a different name.
- Nazareth was not noteworthy enough to be included in any stories or Old Testament references.
In any case, the gospel writers were the first writers in the Bible to mention Nazareth, because of its connection to Jesus.
In Luke’s gospel, the author writes of Elizabeth becoming pregnant in her later years. In the sixth month of her pregnancy, “the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth, a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.” (Luke 1:26-27, emphasis added).
Mary, Elizabeth’s cousin, would learn from this encounter that she had found favor with God and would soon conceive by the Holy Spirit, giving birth to a son, and His name would be called Jesus.
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” (Luke 1:32-33)
As the time approached for Mary to give birth, the Roman Emperor Augustus issued a decree to take a census of the entire Roman world. Luke then writes that “Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was pregnant.” (Luke 2:4-5, emphasis added). In Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to a son and gave Him the name Jesus.
Regardless of their faith, most people know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of what the prophet Micah spoke about, the birthplace of the Messiah. The Christmas songs help with that. However, Jesus and His parents would not remain in the city of David for long.
When Herod the Great, the appointed Roman overseer of Palestine, learned from the magi from the east that the Messiah had been born in Israel, he ordered the slaughter of all male boys under the age of two living in Judea (Matthew 2:16). This was an attempt to prevent any legitimate Jewish heir from reclaiming the throne of David.
Of course, Herod’s barbaric move to eradicate the Messiah ultimately failed, as Joseph was warned in a dream to flee Judea and escape to Egypt with his family, far from Herod’s reach (Matthew 2:14). There, Jesus and His family would remain until the death of Herod and an angel of the Lord told them it was safe to return to Israel. How long they sojourned in Egypt, we do not know. Most scholars believe it could not have been more than a few years.
However, after Herod’s death, the order of succession was hotly contested. Ultimately, the region he controlled was divided among his surviving sons. Archelaus was given regional control over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; Philip II was made tetrarch over the regions north of Galilee; and Antipas was put in charge of Galilee and Perea. (Matthew 2:22-23).
We know from history that Archelaus, in particular, was renowned for his cruelty and authoritarian rule. For this reason, Joseph decided to bypass Judea altogether and settle his family instead in Galilee, beyond Archelaus’ jurisdiction.
“Then after being warned by God in a dream, he (Joseph) left for the regions of Galilee, and came and settled in a city called Nazareth. This happened so that what was spoken through the prophets would be fulfilled: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” (Matthew 2:22-23, emphasis added)
In Nazareth, Jesus would spend the remainder of his childhood until He grew to manhood and was ready to begin His public ministry (Luke 4:16). When He did, many identified Him as “Jesus of Nazareth.” In a practical sense, this title would have distinguished Him from others with the same name, a common name amongst first-century Jews.
Furthermore, it was common for individuals to be linked to their fathers or hometowns. For this reason, Jesus is sometimes referred to as the “son of Joseph” (Luke 4:22; John 1:45; 6:42), “Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 10:38), or “Jesus the Nazarene” (Mark 1:24; Luke 24:19).
Shortly after Jesus completed His temptation in the wilderness, “He began teaching in the synagogues and was praised by all” (Luke 4:14-15). Having returned to Nazareth, Jesus began His public ministry by entering the synagogue on the Sabbath and reading from the scroll of Isaiah the prophet, proclaiming that He had come to fulfill the prophet’s words.
Initially, Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth, many who had known Him since he was a boy, admired His words and teaching. However, they took a different response when Jesus began to affirm His divinity and assert Himself as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
“All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went on His way.” (Luke 4:28-30)
In many ways, this was to fulfill what was written of the Messiah, that He would be despised, scorned, and abandoned by even His hometown and neighbors (Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Matthew 13:57). Such was the case with Jesus when it came to the people of Nazareth. For this reason, Jesus would eventually leave Nazareth and settle in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, ministering in the towns and villages throughout Galilee (Matthew 4:13).
His popularity grew as news of Jesus’ teaching and miracles spread throughout Galilee and beyond. However, many Jews were surprised to learn of Jesus’ humble upbringing. As the son of a carpenter growing up in a place like Nazareth, Jesus was not the kind of teacher who possessed the education, upbringing, or credentials that would support the kind of ministry He had, let alone explain the authority by which He taught, healed the sick and cast out demons.
At one point, Jesus returned to His hometown in Nazareth, at which time His neighbors asked themselves, “where did this man acquire this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is His mother not called Mary, and His brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man acquire all these things?” (Matthew 13:54-57, emphasis added)
Regularly the people of Israel marveled at all that Jesus said and did (Matthew 7:28, 9:8, 12:23, 22:33; Mark 2:12, 11:18; Luke 13:17, 23:48). However, the fact that this man, their Messiah, had come from a place as obscure and unremarkable as Nazareth was that much more astonishing.
Even Nathanael, an eventual disciple of Jesus, first remarked upon hearing that his friend Philip had found the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth, “can anything good be from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)
But why was Nazareth, like the rest of Galilee, held in such low regard by the rest of Israel? Several contextual explanations can be provided.
Because of the Greek and Roman influence in the northern parts of Palestine, the region of Galilee was often seen as less cultured than the rest of Judea. In the eyes of the Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea, the religious piety of the Galileans had been corrupted by their Gentile neighbors. Furthermore, the language and dialect of the Galileans were seen as less refined.
Even Peter, a disciple of Jesus who was born in Bethsaida on the north shore of Galilee and who lived in Capernaum with his brother Andrew, was recognized in the courtyard of the high priest during the mock trial of Jesus for his Galilean accent (Matthew 26:69-74).
Furthermore, several years before Jesus’ birth, a Galilean named Judas led a violent revolt against the Roman occupation. Though the far superior Roman army eventually put it down, this early revolution gave birth to the Zealot movement, whose red-hot embers still burned in the background of Jesus’ ministry. As a result, the Romans would have been wary of any potential uprising, emerging leader, or populist movement coming out of Galilee.
Nazareth, which derives its name from either the Greek form of the Hebrew word for “sprout” or the Hebrew word for “watchtower,” was settled in the lower region of Galilee, five kilometers south of the Roman city of Sepphoris and roughly twenty-five to thirty kilometers from the Sea of Galilee to the east. Situated in the hills above the Jezreel Valley, Nazareth was mostly populated by Jewish locals. However, given its proximity to cities like Sepphoris and other Roman outposts, a decent Gentile population may have also resided in or around Nazareth, influencing the Galileans’ language, religion, and economy.
Today, the remnants of the biblical Nazareth still exist in the modern village en-Nazirah, home to Jews, Arabs, and Christians. Like many locations referenced in the Bible, Nazareth is a popular tourist destination and pilgrimage site for people of many faiths, even those who want to walk where Jesus walked and explore the history of this iconic landscape.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, there was nothing famous or remarkable about the village of Nazareth. At best, it was a rural suburb on the fringes of the more urban Roman centers to the north. And yet, this small, obscure village, with little to boast of or offer the world, inevitably gave the world its greatest treasure, its Messiah. Thanks to Jesus, an obscure village became one of the most iconic cities in history. Of all places, God chose Nazareth as a home for His Son to live and play and grow to maturity, demonstrating, along with many things in Jesus’ life, how God often “uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Campwillowlake
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