1 He went away from there and came to his own country; and his disciples followed him.
Jesus returns native home of Nazareth from his ministry base of Capernaum. This is about a one day walk. From Capernaum to Jerusalem his fame has spread wide and he is surrounded by many hundreds of people but he is not well known (beyond his immediate identity) to his home town. He is returning with his disciples which considering he left Nazareth alone, this is like a miniature triumphant return.
2 And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands!
As he has done in the other towns and villages, Jesus teaches as rabbi’s do in the Synagogue. For Mark’s narrative, as well as Matthew’s, this placement of Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth as a teacher is placed later in his ministry. It is important to note that Matthew and Mark’s operate under thematic purposes for the teachings and sayings for Jesus, for example, here we are given the taste of Nazarene disbelief juxtaposed to the Capernaum belief.
Luke’s account which gives much more attention to a detailed chronological format places this moment at the beginning. Luke himself at the start of his Gospel explains that he is essentially writing a history. Ancient Greek biographies were more typically like the narratives of Matthew and Mark whereas what Luke did was kind of a new concept. It may seem odd to us in world recorded with cameras, transcripts and timestamps but the ancients did not record history the same way we do in the 21st century.
Teaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath as was the custom of a rabbi, his audience, people that know him personally, Nazareth only has a population of around 300 people, are correctly astonished at this young man who they saw grow up in a completely normal way. I’ve noted before about the “secret years of Jesus” these are from age 12 at the finding in the Temple, to age 30 when Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist. This span of years although not recorded, by the evidence before and after imply that he has done nothing but be a normal son to Mary and Joseph. He didn’t live an adventurous life as some people like to assume. He was modest and obedient to his earthly parents.
Since his fellow Nazarenes are such a small community, they would have eyes on experience of his upbringing, Jesus was not being trained by the Rabbi’s to teach, nor was he taken under the wing of a Scribe. His appearance in Nazareth as wise teacher is a massive shock and is reasonably confusing to them. We should also note that to be astonished is not necessarily a positive thing, historically it actually carries more negative connotations of shock than positive.
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
They Nazarenes, Jesus’ audience in the synagogue speak among themselves. Asking if he is not a “carpenter.” The Greek word here is actually tektōn which does not mean carpenter specifically. It means “builder” or “craftsmen.” This translation choice is an example of how editors have essentially created devotional mind imagery that, although nourishing to the soul, is not explicitly in the text. Considering the typical structures of this time period and the specific wording for particular crafted items, you could deduce that Jesus was a carpenter or at least had the general training as one since that was a vital building material.
The following lines cause much controversy amongst readers, especially outside of the Catholic Church “the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, are are not his sisters here with us?” The typical focus by apologists is that these men James, Joses or Joseph, Judas and Simon are all explicitly identified as the sons of another Mary and considering the term from brother adelphos had a broad meaning this simply means cousins. I’d like to focus on the primary particle kai translated as “and”.
It implies their brotherly connection to Jesus being separate to who his mother is. If connected you would use the definite article “the” in Greek ho which is used previously in the passage relating to him being a carpenter. The fact it does not use the definite article implies that he is a brother to them in some other respect than immediate family, i.e. they are cousins. Why would they say any of this? In my observation the Nazarenes are pointing out that his immediate family, do not have wise rabbi’s and neither are the siblings his parents from families with rabbis. It’s not in his immediate family (a tekton family) or extended. The same extends to his sisters as well, they are simply extended female family members of the same generation.
The preconceived ideas of Jesus become a stumbling block, to being able to receive him as a teacher. For this they take offense at him. Their pride is essentially blinding them.
4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
Jesus now tells the rigid truth of what every prophet in Israel’s history has gone through. Rejection and that rejection is strongest from their closest relations. Israel has a long history of being desperate to listen to and imitate the nations and kill their own prophets, something that Jesus will elaborate on later in his ministry, especially in Jerusalem. He is admitting to being a prophet sent by God and as proof, he is rejected by those closest to him and as most of the other prophets, he will be put to death for his mission.
5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them.
Now our little insight into the divine machinations of miracles, we should make it clear that Jesus’ power is not limited but our free will can never be “turned off” as we need it to choose to accept him but because we have that we can choose to not have faith, we can choose to reject him instead of accepting him and this channel of faith is the primary link for miracles to take place in a person. Since the Nazarenes have such little faith he does no mighty works there except healing a few sick people. These were people probably so desperate in their illness that they could swallow their pride and embrace faith in Jesus as opposed to the other Nazarenes who were too puffed up to see someone they considered an equal to actually be above them to their perception.
6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.
Contrasting with the faith filled gentiles and Jews of other towns and villages Jesus is amazed at the lack of faith in his own town. Since nothing else can be done there, he goes among the other villages near Nazareth to continue his teaching custom in the Synagogues.
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