Gospel of Matthew: Nazareth is Not a Backwater

Nazareth, 1942

We all picture Jesus growing up in a burg, right? I know I did — until I was set straight by historical context.

It was in Nazareth that Joseph settled, and it was in Nazareth that Jesus was brought up. It must not be thought that Nazareth was a little quiet backwater, quite out of touch with life and with events.

Nazareth lay in a hollow in the hills in the south of Galilee. But a lad had only to climb the hills for half the world to be at his door. He could look west and the waters of the Mediterranean, blue in the distance, would meet his eyes; and he would see the ships going out to the ends of the earth. He had only to look at the plain which skirted the coast, and he would see, slipping round the foot of the very hill on which he stood, the road from Damascus to Egypt, the land bridge to Africa. It was one of the greatest caravan routes in the world.

It was the road by which centuries before Joseph had been sold down into Egypt as a slave. It was the road that, three hundred years before. Alexander the Great and his legions had followed. It was the road by which centuries later Napoleon was to march. ... Sometimes it was called The Way of the South, and sometimes the Road of the Sea. On it Jesus wou;d see all kinds of travelers from all kinds of nations on all kinds of errands, coming and going from the ends of the earth.

But there was another road. There was the road which left the sea coast at Acre or Ptolemais and went out to the East. It was the Road of the East. It went out to the eastern bounds and frontiers of the Roman Empire. Once again the cavalcade of the caravans the their silks and spices would be continually on it; and on it also the roman legions clanked out to the frontiers.

Nazareth indeed was no backwater. Jesus was brought up in a town where the ends of the earth passed the foot of that hilltop. From his boyhood days he was confronted with scenes which must have spoken to him of a world for God. ...

So now the stage is set; Matthew has brought Jesus to Nazareth and in a very real sense Nazareth was the gateway to the world.

Quote is from The Daily Study Bible Series. This Matthew study first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.