Nazareth lay close to the important trade routes of Palestine. It overlooked the Plain of Esdraelon through which caravans passed as they traveled from Gilead to the south and west. North of the city was the main road from Ptolemais to the Decapolis, a road over which the Roman legions frequently traveled. This fact may account for the possible source of the name Nazareth in the Aramaic word meaning 'watchtower.' However, Nazareth itself was situated in something of a basin, high valley about 366 meters above sea level overlooking the Esdraelon valley. To the north and east were steep hills, while on the west the hills rose to an impressive 488 meters. Nazareth, therefore, was somewhat secluded and isolated from nearby traffic.
This apparent isolation of Nazareth as a frontier town on the southern border of Zebulun contributed to the reputation that Nazareth was not an important part of the national and religious life of Israel. This, coupled with a rather bad reputation in morals and religion and a certain crudeness in the Galilean dialect, prompted Nathanael, when he first learned of Jesus of Nazareth, to ask, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.' 'From Nazareth?' said Nathanael 'Can anything good come from that place?' - John 1:45-46 -
Although it was not an important town before the New Testament era, Nazareth became immortal as the home town of Jesus the Messiah. It was here that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and informed her of the forthcoming birth of Christ. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But after the sojourn in Egypt to escape the ruthless murders of Herod the Great, Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to Nazareth where they had lived. Here Jesus was brought up as a boy and spent the greater part of His life. - Matt. 2:13-23; Mark 1:9; Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-52, 4:16 -
Apparently, Jesus was well received as a young man in Nazareth. But this changed after Jesus began His ministry, His own town peoples twice rejected Him. 'Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual.......Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.' - Luke 2:41-47 -
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read.......When they heard this everyone was enraged. They sprang their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.' - Luke 4:14-30 -
Going from that district, he went to his hometown [Nazareth] and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him...And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. - Mark 6:1-6 -
Because of Jesus close association with this city, Christ became known as "Jesus of Nazareth" - Luke 18:37, 24:19; John 1:45 - There is prophetic significance as well to His being known as a "Nazarene." The Gospel of Matthew records that Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth during the reign of Herod Archelaus.
After Herod's death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead. So Joseph got up and taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: "He will be called a Nazarene." - Matt. 2:19-23 -
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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