John 1:46

And Nathaniel said unto him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Dummelow said that "Nazareth was an obscure place and not even mentioned in the Old Testament";[52] but it does not follow that Nazareth was extraordinarily wicked. Nathaniel's question does not mean that Nazareth was any more sinful than other similar places; but it indicates that Nazareth simply did not fit the preconceived notions that people had about where to look for the Messiah. The popular proverb regarding Nazareth, as many popular proverbs are, was quite inaccurate and unfair. Gath-hepher, an adjoining village, was the home of Jonah, first of the Old Testament prophets and a conspicuous type of Jesus (2 Kings 14:25), but there is no evidence that anyone in that generation even knew it.

It was true, of course, that prophecy had named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born, but nothing was said about his continued residence there. Perhaps the obscurity and insignificance of Nazareth, more than other things, accounted for Nathaniel's incredulity that so ordinary a village should be the home of the Messiah. If that is not the explanation of Nathaniel's remark, then, as Adam Clarke suggested:

We may suppose that Nazareth at this time was so abandoned that no good could be expected from those who dwelt in it, and that its wickedness had passed into a proverb: can any good thing come out of Nazareth?[53]

The passing centuries have not allayed the wonder that the Saviour of all people should have spent thirty years in a place like Nazareth. Horatius Bonar was impressed with the fact that many of the most distinguished places mentioned in the New Testament were unknown in the Old Testament, and that apparently Christ avoided the places like Hebron, Bethel, Shiloh, and even Jerusalem in the sense that he never spent a night there, except as a prisoner, retiring each night to Bethany. Regarding this, Bonar said:

In choosing these unknown places for his Son, God showed that it was not former privilege, nor ancient sanctity, nor a venerable name that could avail anything with him, or attract his favor. Christ was sent to new places, where, so far as we know, the foot of patriarch, judge, prophet, or king had never been; showing that no city was so favored as to exclude others, and that all cities, as well as all souls, had a share in his divine regards.[54]

Come and see ... Nothing dispels prejudice and clears away misunderstanding like personal investigation; and, of all the challenges ever addressed to prejudiced or skeptical men, none was ever any more effective than this, "Come and see!" It is true now, as always, that the only unbelievers are those who have not made a fair and personal search of the evidence. Clarke's profound statement on this theme is:

He who candidly examines the evidence of the religion of Christ will infallibly become a believer. No history ever published among men has so many external and internal proofs of authenticity as this has. A man should judge of nothing by first appearances, or human prejudices. Who are they who cry out, "The Bible is a fable"? Those who have never read it, or read it only with the fixed purpose to gainsay it.[55]

[52] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 777.

[53] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible (London: Mason and Lane, 1837), Vol. V, p. 521.

[54] Horatius Bonar, Family Sermons (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1863), p. 49.

[55] Adam Clarke, op. cit., Vol. V, p. 520.