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.”