Luke 4:16-30

2. Jesus’ teaching in Nazareth 4:16-30

In contrast to most people, the inhabitants of Jesus’ hometown did not praise Him. When Jesus began to speak of God extending salvation to the Gentiles, a particular interest of Luke’s, the Jews there opposed Him violently. Perhaps Luke meant this incident to represent a classic case of rejection in which Nazareth symbolizes all Israel. [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 178.] If so, this is another instance of metonymy. He may also have intended that it become a paradigm of the church’s ministry as well as Jesus’ ministry. [Note: Bo Reicke, "Jesus in Nazareth - Lk 4, 14-30," in Das Wort und die Wörter, pp. 51-53.]

Many students of the Synoptics take this pericope as parallel to Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6. However, the differences between Luke’s account and that of Matthew and Mark seem to indicate two separate incidents. Luke’s incident probably occurred early in Jesus’ Galilean ministry whereas the one that Matthew and Mark recorded happened later.