John 4:44 – ‘His own country’

This entry is part 63 of 101 in the series: Tough texts
- Genesis 1:26 – Why a plural name for God?
- Genesis 3 – traditional and revisionist readings
- Genesis 3:16b – ‘Your desire shall be for your husband’
- Genesis 5 – the ages of the antedeluvians
- Genesis 6:1f – ‘The sons of God’
- Genesis 6-8 – A worldwide flood?
- Genesis 12:3 – ‘I will bless those who bless you’
- Genesis 22 – “Abraham, kill your son”
- Exodus – Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?
- Exodus 12:37 – How many Israelites left Egypt?
- Leviticus 19:18 “Love your neighbour as yourself”
- Joshua 6 – the fall of Jericho
- Joshua 10 – Joshua’s ‘long day’
- Judges 19:11-28 – The priest and the concubine
- 1 Samuel 16:14 – ‘An evil spirit from the Lord’
- 2 Sam 24:1, 1 Chron 21:1 – Who incited David?
- 1 Kings 20:30 – ‘The wall collapsed on 27,000 of them’
- Psalm 105:15 – ‘Touch not my anointed’
- Psalm 137:8f – ‘Happy is he who dashes your infants against the rocks’
- Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23 – “The virgin will conceive”
- Daniel 7:13 – ‘Coming with the clouds of heaven’
- Jonah – history or fiction?
- Mt 1:1-17 and Lk 3:23-38 – the genealogies of Jesus
- Matthew 2:1 – ‘Magi from the east’
- Matthew 2:2 – The star of Bethlehem
- Matthew 2:8f – Can God speak through astrology?
- Matthew 2:23 – ‘Jesus would be called a Nazarene’
- Matthew 5:21f – Did Jesus reject the Old Testament?
- Matthew 7:16,20 – ‘You will recognise them by their fruit’
- Matthew 8:5/Luke 7:3 – Who asked Jesus to help?
- Matthew 8:5/Luke 7:7 – son? servant? male lover?
- Matthew 8:28 – Gadara or Gerasa?
- Matthew 10:23 – ‘Before the Son of Man comes’
- Matthew 11:12 – Forceful entry, or violent opposition, to the kingdom?
- Matthew 12:40 – Three days and three nights
- The Parable of the Sower – return from exile?
- Mt 15:21-28/Mk 7:24-30 – Jesus and the Canaanite woman
- Matthew 18:10 – What about ‘guardian angels’?
- Matthew 18:20 – ‘Where two or three are gathered…’
- Matthew 16:18 – Peter the rock?
- Matthew 21:7 – One animal or two?
- Mt 24:34/Mk 13:30 – ‘This generation will not pass away’
- Matthew 25:40 – ‘These brothers of mine’
- Matthew 27:46/Mark 15:34 – Jesus’ cry of dereliction
- Matthew 27:52f – Many bodies raised?
- Mark 1:41 – ‘Compassion’, or ‘anger/indignation’?
- Mark 2:25f – ‘When Abiathar was high priest’
- Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10 – The unpardonable sin
- Mark 4:31 – ‘The smallest of all the seeds’?
- Mark 6:45 – ‘To Bethsaida’
- Mark 12:41-44/Luke 21:1-4 – ‘The widow’s mite’
- Luke 2:1f – Quirinius and ‘the first registration’
- Luke 2 – Was Joseph from Nazareth, or Bethlehem?
- Luke 2:7 – ‘No room at the inn’
- Luke 2:8 – Shepherds: a despised class?
- Luke 4:16-19 – An incomplete quotation?
- Luke 7:2 – ‘Highly valued servant’ or ‘gay lover’?
- John 1:1 – ‘The Word was God’
- John 2:6 – symbol or history?
- John 2:12 – Did Mary bear other children?
- When did Jesus cleanse the Temple?
- John 3:16f – What is meant by ‘the world’?
- John 4:44 – ‘His own country’
- John 7:40-44 – Did John know about Jesus’ birthplace?
- John 7:53-8:11 – The woman caught in adultery
- John 14:6 – “No one comes to the Father except through me”
- John 14:12 – ‘Greater deeds’
- John 20:21 – “Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
- John 21:11 – One hundred and fifty three fish
- Acts 5:1-11 – Ananias and Sapphira
- Acts 5:34-37 – a (minor) historical inaccuracy?
- Romans 1:5 – ‘The obedience of faith’
- Romans 1:18 – Wrath: personal or impersonal?
- Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16 – faith in, or faithfulness of Christ?
- Romans 5:18 – ‘Life for all?’
- Rom 7:24 – Who is the ‘wretched man’?
- Romans 11:26a – ‘And so all Israel will be saved’
- 1 Corinthians 14:34 – ‘Women should be silent in the churches’
- 1 Corinthians 15:28 – ‘The Son himself will be subjected to [God]’
- 1 Corinthians 15:29 – ‘Baptized for the dead’
- 1 Corinthians 15:44 – ‘Raised a spiritual body’
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 – ‘God made Christ to be sin for us’
- Galatians 3:17 – How much later?
- Galatians 3:28 – ‘Neither male nor female’
- Galatians 6:2 – ‘The law of Christ’
- Galatians 6:16 – The Israel of God
- Ephesians 1:10 – ‘The fullness of the times’
- Philippians 2:10 – ‘The name that is above every name’
- 1 Cor 11:3/Eph 5:23 – ‘Kephale’: ‘head’? ‘source’? ‘foremost’?
- Colossians 1:19f – Universal reconciliation?
- 1 Thessalonians 2:14f – ‘The Jews, who killed Jesus’
- 1 Timothy 2:4 – ‘God wants all people to be saved’
- 1 Timothy 2:11f – ‘I do not allow woman to teach or exercise authority over a man’
- 1 Timothy 4:10 – ‘The Saviour of all people’
- Hebrews 6:4-6 – Who are these people?
- Hebrews 12:1 – Who are these witnesses?
- 1 Peter 3:18-20 – Christ and the spirits in prison
- 2 Peter 3:9 – ‘The Lord wishes all to come to repentance’
- Jude 7 – ‘Unnatural desire’
- Revelation 7:4 – The 144,000
- Revelation 14:11 – ‘No rest day or night’
Jn 4:4 ‘Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.’
In this passage, ‘his own country’ may apply to:-
- no place in particular. Michaels, judging all the suggested specific identifications to be unsatisfactory, concludes that Jesus’ meaning is simply that his is an itinerant ministry, and therefore he doesn’t intend to spend so long in any one place as to make it his ‘own country’. ‘The saying, after all, is a generalization. Its subject is not Jesus, but “a prophet,” any prophet. Instead of explaining why Jesus was rejected in his actual hometown of Nazareth, the saying simply explains why he kept moving instead of settling down in one place.’ This view would seem consistent with the general rejection recorded in Jn 1:11, but with exceptions as indicated in Jn 1:12.
- Judea, or more specifically to Jerusalem, which Jesus has just left, and where he was greeted with unbelief, Jn 2:24. His visit to Galilee is, on this occasion, met with a general welcome, v45, and a notable instance of belief. Commentators who support this view might suggest that the Fourth Gospel Jerusalem is presented as ‘his own country’, whereas in the Synoptics it is Galilee (Mt 13:54-57).
- Israel, in contrast to Samaria, from where he has just come and has been given an unqualified welcome. Here in Galilee, however, the reception is more ambiguous. As Carson says, ‘Jesus himself has declared that “a prophet has no honour in his own country” (unlike the reception he enjoyed in Samaria), and he determinedly and knowingly heads in that direction. Therefore when he arrives, the Galileans welcome him – not as Messiah, but because they had seen all that he had done at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem.’
- Nazareth. The meaning would then be that Jesus departed for Galilee, where he was welcomed (v45), but not to his home town of Nazareth, where he was given no honour. His comment might have been prompted by the close proximity of Nazareth (2 miles) at one point in this particular journey. This is the view of Ryle, following Calvin and others.
- Galilee: As Lincoln says: ‘readers have already learned that Jesus is from Nazareth (1:45–6) and that he and his family have a base in Capernaum (2:12), so they would most naturally assume Galilee to be his home territory (cf. also 7:41, 52).’ Advocates of this view must explain why, according to the very next verse, Jesus was ‘welcomed’ in by the Galileans. This, as it turns out, is not difficult to do, since that welcome appears to be judged by our Lord as inadequate (v48; cf. Jn 2:23-25). The view of Ridderbos is that Jesus went to Galilee as a place where he would not excite fervent adulation, and, therefore threats on his life (cf. Jn 7:1). An alternative interpretation is that Jesus went to Galilee even though he knew that he would not be honoured there. He goes, not because he will receive honour, there, but because he is needed there (Boice). Cf. Jn 1:11 – ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.‘ Nevertheless, he does find faith there: Jn 1:12 – ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.‘ See also Jn 15:18, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”