Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?
Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael
John 1:45-46
45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
In the above text, we see that Nathanael’s response to Philip wasn’t very positive
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
Not even having met Jesus, it’s clear that Nathanael already had a preconceived mindset about anyone coming from the region of Galilee, and it isn’t very complimentary!
But why is this?
Additional insight into Nathaniel’s question “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” may be found by looking outside the Bible to the wider rabbinic literary sources from the period. The Mishnah (the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions or Oral Torah) reveals some interesting distinctions between Judean and Galilean customs, language, and way of life that may help.
“Geza Vermes” (a fellow of the British Academy and Prof Emeritus of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford) in his book “Jesus the Jew,” writes;
“Josephus’s image of the Galilean as an indomitable fighter has little in common with the rabbinic portrait of the Northerner as a figure of fun, an ignoramus” (A Northerner is a Galilean)
In addition, he writes:
One of the commonest jibes directed against the Galileans is that they did not speak correct Aramaic: U-Aramaic in other words. According to a well-known anecdote preserved in the Talmud, a Galilean went to the marketplace in Jerusalem to purchase something which he called amar. The merchant ridiculed him
You stupid Galilean, do you want something to ride on (a donkey= hamar)? Or something to drink (wine=hamar)? Or something for clothing (wool=’amar)? Or something for a sacrifice (lamb=immar)? (Note: the Aramaic transliterations do not show some accents)
Vermes states that the distinctions between the various gutturals almost completely disappear in Galilean Aramaic; and the weaker guttural sounds, in fact, ceased even to be audible. Put differently in careless everyday conversation the Galileans dropped their “aitches”.[1]
What’s in an accent?
All of us have regional accents that can reveal where we live and even our class. Who hasn’t heard someone speak with "marbles in their mouth"? We don’t need to travel very far from home before our ears pick up subtle differences or nuances in each other’s speech. Some people find many regional accents quaint and attractive, yet others unpleasant and distasteful. Might this be a reason behind Nathaniel’s question?
In Matthew’s account of Peter’s rejection of Jesus, we read that it is his Galilean accent that gives away who he is to the Judean Jews in the Temple courtyard
Matthew 26:60-75
69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said.
70 But he denied it before them all. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said.
71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant-girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’
72 He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’
73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.’
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’
Immediately a cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.
A man despised and rejected
The Bible tells us that Jesus was Born in Bethlem Judea, but when Herod began killing all the baby boys under the age of two, Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus and fled to Egypt to keep him safe. Then after Herod died they returned to Nazareth.
Matt 2:19-23
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
It appears that being called a Nazarene in itself meant to be deemed as something lesser, looked down upon, and rejected. But note in verse 23, Matthew didn’t refer to just one prophet, but said
“so was fulfilled what was said through the prophets”, (plural).
Many Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah foretold of a man of lowly life and a man of rejection. It’s therefore likely that Matthew had these prophecies in mind when he wrote that “he would be called a Nazarene”. A man despised and rejected by the people. We see these prophecies in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53: 2-3,
Followers of Jesus “The Nazarenes”
After Jesus’ ascension, we’re told that his followers became known as the “Nazarenes”. Here again we see this term used as one of reproach by those from Judea, as it literally means rejected ones!
We see this in Acts 24: 5 when Ananias the high priest, brings charges against Paul in Caesarea
Acts 24:5
5 “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect
When Jesus entered our world as Emmanuel, he disrobed himself of all his heavenly glory in order to reveal to us who God is. He took on our mortal flesh and humbled himself by becoming a servant, with no airs or graces. Jesus is the God who serves his people. Isaiah wrote in 53:3
"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering."
This is our God, this is Jesus, and this is whom we aspire to be like, so that we may be transformed into his righteous image. A man of no visual appeal, and vocally a man with a thick accent who spoke in the venechular.
But what is that draws us to him? In short, it is who he was, and the things that he did. The things revealed through perfect humility as our servant king.
Our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose Holy Spirit works to transform each of us into his likeness as he transforms us and our understanding of our creator God.
That’s what is to be a follower of the Nazarene.
And as they say in parts of Belfast,
“ats us nai” (Translation: we have concluded this blog)
Have a great day, and God bless.
Trev.
[1]Jesus the Jew, Geza Vermes (SCM Press) P34-35