the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Nazareth
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Nazareth (năz'a-rĕth), separated? Matthew 2:23. A city of Galilee, famous as the home of Jesus during his childhood and youth until he began his public ministry. It was about 14 miles from the Sea of Galilee, and 66 miles north of Jerusalem in a straight line. It is one of the most beautiful sites in the Holy Land. Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, nor by any classical author, nor by any writer before the time of Christ. It was for some unknown reason held in disrepute among the Jews of Judæa. John 1:46. It was situated in a mountain, Luke 4:29, within the province of Galilee, Mark 1:9, and near Cana, as John 2:1-2; John 2:11 seems to imply. There was a precipice near the town, down which the people proposed to cast Jesus. Luke 4:29. It is mentioned 29 times in the New Testament. At Nazareth the angel appeared to Mary: the home of Joseph, Luke 1:26; Luke 2:39, and to that place Joseph and Mary returned after their flight into Egypt. Matthew 2:23. The hills and places about the town possess a deep and hallowed interest to the Christian as the home of Jesus during his childhood and youth, until he entered upon his ministry, and had preached in the synagogue, and was rejected by his own townspeople. Even after Capernaum became "his own city" he was known as "Jesus of Nazareth," Matthew 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6; Acts 2:22; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:10; Acts 6:14, and his disciples were called "Nazarenes." The town is now called En-Nâsirah, or Nasrah, and has from 6000 to 7000 population, though the Turkish officials estimate it at 10,000. The brow of the hill over which the enraged Nazarenes threatened to cast Jesus is probably near the Maronite church, though tradition places it at the "Mount of Precipitation," two or three miles south of the town.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Nazareth'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/n/nazareth.html. 1893.
