{"id":100,"date":"2014-06-02T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=100"},"modified":"2014-05-21T22:27:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T22:27:53","slug":"matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During the time of Jesus\u2019 childhood, Nazareth was a tiny, backwater village situated in foothill on the southern edge of what was known as \u201cLower Galilee.\u201d It was dwarfed by larger towns nearby. With a population estimated by some to be as low as 100 people, Nazareth was an insignificant place\u2014thus also a great place for a Messiah to be overlooked while growing into manhood. It was there that Jesus\u2019 earthly father, Joseph, settled his family and set up his carpenter\u2019s shop.<\/p>\n<p>Nazareth was also only about 4 miles (about a fifty-minute walk) from Sepphoris, a large city that had only recently been razed by Roman armies in order to put down a Jewish uprising. In spite of the ruins, Herod Antipas insisted on immediately rebuilding Sepphoris, making it the capital city of rule over Galilee. \u201cThis means that throughout Jesus\u2019 young life and into his teenage years,\u201d one Bible historian theorized, \u201cSepphora would have been a major building site\u2014the perfect place of employment for someone like Joseph.\u201d He adds, \u201cThe family\u2019s move north to Nazareth may also have been inspired by some other considerations\u2014good employment prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-253\" alt=\"A Carpenter of Nazareth: Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\" target=\"_self\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[ISJ, 31-33]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the time of Jesus\u2019 childhood, Nazareth was a tiny, backwater village situated in foothill on the southern edge of what was known as \u201cLower Galilee.\u201d It was dwarfed by larger towns nearby. With a population estimated by some to be as low as 100 people, Nazareth was an insignificant place\u2014thus also a great place&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[53,16,29,302,52,54],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geographicalbackgrounds","category-matthew","tag-galilee","tag-jesus","tag-joseph","tag-matthew","tag-nazareth","tag-sepphoris"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the time of Jesus\u2019 childhood, Nazareth was a tiny, backwater village situated in foothill on the southern edge of what was known as \u201cLower Galilee.\u201d It was dwarfed by larger towns nearby. With a population estimated by some to be as low as 100 people, Nazareth was an insignificant place\u2014thus also a great place&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-02T12:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-21T22:27:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"During the time of Jesus\u2019 childhood, Nazareth was a tiny, backwater village situated in foothill on the southern edge of what was known as \u201cLower Galilee.\u201d It was dwarfed by larger towns nearby. With a population estimated by some to be as low as 100 people, Nazareth was an insignificant place\u2014thus also a great place&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-06-02T12:00:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-21T22:27:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html","name":"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-02T12:00:27+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-21T22:27:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/NazarethCarpenter.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/06\/matthew-219-23-the-return-to-nazareth-geographical-backgrounds.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 2:19-23; The Return to Nazareth (Geographical Backgrounds)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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