John 4:43-44

John 4:43-44. And after the two days he went forth thence into Galilee. For Jesus himself bare witness, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. The connection between these two verses is a question on which the most different opinions have been held. The latter verse evidently assigns a reason why Jesus went into Galilee; and (we may add) John 4:45, which begins with ‘ When therefore,' must be understood as stating that the welcome He received in Galilee was in full accordance with the motive of His action as stated in John 4:44 . These two conditions of interpretation must evidently be observed, and yet in several solutions of the difficulty one or other of them is plainly set aside. Were we to judge only from what is before us, we should say that the words must mean: Jesus went into Galilee and not into His own country, for there He would be a prophet without honour; and so, when He came into Galilee, He was welcomed by the people. If such be the true sense, ‘His own country' must be Judea. This is certainly not the meaning of these words in the earlier Gospels, and hence the difficulty. A similar saying is recorded by every one of the three earlier Evangelists, and in each case it is introduced to explain the neglect of the claims of Jesus on the part of the inhabitants of Nazareth, the city of Galilee in which His early years were spent (Matthew 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24). In one case, Mark 6:4, the saying is enlarged so as to apply especially to kindred, and not to country alone. If then we have rightly given the sense of these verses of John, it must follow that, though the saying quoted is nearly the same here as elsewhere, the application is wholly different, ‘His own country being in the one case Galilee (or rather Nazareth), and in the other Judea. This is by many held to be impossible. But is it really so? Would not such a difference be in exact accord with the varied aims of the first three Evangelists and the fourth, as they respectively relate the Galilean and the Judean ministry of our Lord? The saying is one that may be used with various shades of meaning. Used in relation to Nazareth, the proverb brings before us the unwillingness with which the claims of a prophet are listened to by those who have grown up with him, have familiarly known him, have regarded him as one of themselves. Used in relation to Judea, the true home and fatherland of the prophets, the land which contained the city of Messiah's birth, the city associated with Him alike in ancient prophecy and in popular expectation (see chap. John 7:41-42), the words surely signify that a prophet is unhonoured by those to whom he is especially sent: Jesus came unto His own country, and ‘His own received Him not.' This interpretation then (which is that of Origen, in the third century) seems completely to meet the requirements of the passage. In Samaria Jesus had not intended to remain, and He must therefore either return to Judea or go into Galilee; to Judea He will not go, for the reason given; He departs therefore into Galilee. There is only one objection of any weight to the view we have taken viz., that in John 4:1-3 of this chapter a somewhat different motive for leaving Judea is assigned; yet even there, though success in winning disciples is implied, it is said that He left the land because of the Pharisees. If this last consideration does not entirely remove the difficulty, it is to be borne in mind that our knowledge of the circumstances is imperfect, and that, even in its utmost force, the objection is much smaller and less important than those which lie in the way of the other interpretation of ‘His own country.' For such as think that Galilee must be intended there are but two explanations possible: these we give, only expressing our belief that they involve difficulties much greater than those presented by the other view. (1) Jesus went into Galilee, for there He would not meet with the honour of a true faith; and there, consequently, He had a work to do, a mission to prosecute: when therefore He came into Galilee, although He was welcomed, it was from unworthy not worthy motives. (2) Jesus now at length went into Galilee, for (He had avoided Galilee in the belief that) a prophet has no honour in his own country: such honour, however, He has now won in Judea, outside His own country; when therefore He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him.