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Luke 4:16 |
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And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Note 1 at Lk. 4:16: Nazareth (verdant place or offshoot)--was not mentioned in the Old Testament or the Apocrypha, but it is prominent in the New Testament as the hometown of Jesus and was also the scene of some of His best known ministry. The town of Nazareth still exists today and is called en- Nasirah, located about 15 miles west-southwest of Tiberias and 20 miles southwest of Tell Hum, which some scholars think to be Capernaum.
The synagogue in Nazareth is where Jesus first proclaimed Himself as the Christ (vv. 18-21). He was twice rejected by the townspeople of Nazareth because they had known Him from a child and had also known His family (Mt. 13:53-58; Lk. 4:22,28-30). This is also where He spoke of a prophet having no honor in his hometown (Mt. 13:57; Mk. 6:4). Nazareth, not Bethlehem, was the place where the wise men found Jesus (see note 2 at Mt. 2:16, p. 26).
