Jesus Christ

The Gospels provide some possible hints why Jesus left the village of his youth as he began his ministry. 1953 Jesus Christ was associated with Nazareth through his entire ministry. Even at the end, Pilate placed above his cross a sign, “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (John 19:19; emphasis added). He is associated with Nazareth at some point.  Joseph and Mary (Jesus’ mother) moved to Nazareth, a small village in Galilee a few years after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem in Judea (Matthew 2:19-23) where he apparently lived until he appeared on the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. Luke does indicate that Jesus Christ ventured beyond this village at least once, when he was twelve years old to travel with his parents, family, and friends to the Holy City of Jerusalem (Luke 2:42-51). The Gospels, as noted above, are silent on what happen next except that Jesus Christ “went down with [Joseph and Mary], and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. . . . And Jesus... Read the rest of this entry »

442 Why is Jesus Christ associated with Nazareth? Nazareth, a small village in Upper Galilee, was the boyhood home of Jesus. Joseph and Mary, according to the New Testament, returned there sometime after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, a small town in Judea in the south (Matthew 2:23). From Jesus’ youth until he was thirty years of age, Nazareth was his home. During this period it was not uncommon for a person to be identified with the town where he or she was born or lived (see for example Luke 8:2 where Mary of Magdala is mentioned). As a result, Jesus Christ is identified with Nazareth some seventeen times in the New Testament as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Even in his death, though he had left Nazareth nearly three years earlier, Jesus was identified with the small village off the main road in the hills of Galilee: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). A few years later,... Read the rest of this entry »