Yohanes 1:46

1:46 Nathanael ¹  replied, ²  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” ³  Philip replied, ⁴  “Come and see.”

Yohanes 19:19

19:19 Pilate also had a notice ⁵  written and fastened to the cross, ⁶  which read: ⁷  “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.”

Matius 2:23

2:23 He came to a town called Nazareth ⁸  and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus ⁹  would be called a Nazarene. ¹⁰ 

Matius 21:11

21:11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth ¹¹  in Galilee.”

[1:46]  ¹ tn Grk “And Nathanael.”

[1:46]  ² tn Grk “said to him.”

[1:46]  ³ sn Can anything good come out of Nazareth? may be a local proverb expressing jealousy among the towns.

[1:46]  map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.

[1:46]  ⁴ tn Grk “And Philip said to him.”

[19:19]  ⁵ tn Or “an inscription.”

[19:19]  sn Mention of the inscription is an important detail, because the inscription would normally give the reason for the execution. It shows that Jesus was executed for claiming to be a king. It was also probably written with irony from the executioners’ point of view.

[19:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “Pilate also wrote a notice and placed it on the cross.” The two verbs should be read as causatives, since it is highly unlikely that the Roman governor would perform either of these actions himself. He ordered them to be done.

[19:19]  sn John says simply that the notice was fastened to the cross. Luke 23:38 says the inscription was placed “over him” (Jesus), and Matt 27:37 that it was placed over Jesus’ head. On the basis of Matthew’s statement Jesus’ cross is usually depicted as the crux immissa, the cross which has the crossbeam set below the top of the upright beam. The other commonly used type of cross was the crux commissa, which had the crossbeam atop the upright beam. But Matthew’s statement is not conclusive, since with the crux commissa the body would have sagged downward enough to allow the placard to be placed above Jesus’ head. The placard with Pilate’s inscription is mentioned in all the gospels, but for John it was certainly ironic. Jesus really was the King of the Jews, although he was a king rejected by his own people (cf. 1:11). Pilate’s own motivation for placing the title over Jesus is considerably more obscure. He may have meant this as a final mockery of Jesus himself, but Pilate’s earlier mockery of Jesus seemed to be motivated by a desire to gain pity from the Jewish authorities in order to have him released. More likely Pilate saw this as a subtle way of getting back at the Jewish authorities who had pressured him into the execution of one he considered to be an innocent man.

[19:19]  ⁷ tn Grk “Now it was written.”

[2:23]  ⁸ sn Nazareth was a very small village in the region of Galilee (Galilee lay north of Samaria and Judea). The town was located about 15 mi (25 km) west of the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke 1:26, Mary was living in Nazareth when the birth of Jesus was announced to her.

[2:23]  map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.

[2:23]  ⁹ tn There is no expressed subject of the third person singular verb here; the pronoun “he” is implied. Instead of this pronoun the referent “Jesus” has been supplied in the text to clarify to whom this statement refers.

[2:23]  ¹⁰ tn The Greek could be indirect discourse (as in the text), or direct discourse (“he will be called a Nazarene”). Judging by the difficulty of finding OT quotations (as implied in the plural “prophets”) to match the wording here, it appears that the author was using a current expression of scorn that conceptually (but not verbally) found its roots in the OT.

[21:11]  ¹¹ map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.