Posts by tag: hometown

The differences between Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John have for centuries puzzled commentators. Some labored hard to reconcile every jot and tittle, while others reached the conclusion that John contradicts the Synoptics. Many commentators are situated between these positions. They recognized that essentially the Gospels tell one story about Jesus. They also recognized that some of the crucial differences cannot be dismissed nor should they be ignored. In addition to the absence of the incident with the Samaritan woman from the Synoptics, there is another significant feature in which the Synoptics and John part company. John states that the reason Jesus did not return to Judea, but went on to Galilee, was because “Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own homeland (literally fatherland in the sense of motherland in English language).” (4.43) What is of course striking here is that John names Judea as Jesus’ homeland, his fatherland, where he belonged, and not Galilee as do the Synoptics (Mt 13:54-57, Mk. 6.1-4, Lk. 4.23-24). It is likely that the Synoptics treat Galilee, the place of Jesus’ upbringing, as the fatherland. For John, however, Jesus is Judean because of his birth in Bethlehem of Judea.