Why Were They Mad at Jesus?

[JoeMo]

To start this topic, I offer the following quote from scripture:

"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.  And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way." (Luke 4:16-30).

The account begins with Jesus reading from Isaiah and proclaiming that the scripture was being fulfilled if front of them.  They all seemed happy and blessed by this.  But then when He tells them that although there were lots of widows and lepers in Israel, Elijah and Elisha helped a widow from Zerephath and a leperous Syrian commander instead. THAT really upset the people to the point they wanted to kill Jesus.

The sermons I remember hearing on this say the people were furious because Jesus blasphemed about the prophecy being fulfilled in their sight.  But I see from the scripture that they were furious because Jesus brought up the account of the Widow at Zerephath and Naaman.  Why would that change their mood so drastically?  First they are blessed; and then they are a murderous mob.  Why?  Is it because the widow and Naaman were Gentiles?  Even so, why would that upset the congregation so much?

[dgrimm60]

JOE MO

any  person that is  in  power  wants to keep  the  general  pubic  in their control===

if   another  person challenges  their   authority  they  become  very  hateful and want

to  eliminate  that  person ====as  it  was  with the JEWISH RELIGOUS LEADERS   during  

the time that  JESUS   was  here  on  earth

dgrimm60

[JoeMo]

1 hour ago, dgrimm60 said:

if   another  person challenges  their   authority  they  become  very  hateful and want to  eliminate  that  person.

 

1 hour ago, The Wanderer said:

the one over-all reason sounds like it could be related to Jesus' claims to being "God," or "Messiah." That one claim really did cause a lot of animosity and problems,

That's what I have always been taught about this passage.  But as I read it carefully, the local synagogue people received Jesus' implication that He was the Messiah quite graciously.  They didn't get angry until He brought up Elijah reviving the widow's son and Elisha healing Naaman.  The only reason I can think that that would make them mad is that both the widow and Naaman were Gentiles.  But that doesn't seem reasonable to my modern Gentile mind.

As Luke is the only gospel containing this account, I couldn't check it out any further.

[Kevin H]

There were two issues that came together here. 

The first was that Nazareth was a backwoods "you got to be kidding" town. Because of the Bible education was important among the Jews. Most of the world was illiterate. The Jews all knew how to read. A typical '"Illiterate" Jew had the equivalent to 2 to 4 years of college to us. The "literates" were people who had advanced education into the thoughts and discussions of the Rabbis. 

In this world of educated people, a small out of the way town like Nazareth was a small Jewish outpost working for the larger pagan cities around it. They only had the equivalent of a 6th grade education. They were influenced by the more conservative schools of the Rabbis, such as the school of Shammai. Now we won't know if this next part has happened unless we find the rabbi lists for Nazareth, but these conservative schools did have some woman rabbis, and most of them were stuck in these small out of the way towns. Nazareth was so small that it did not make it on any ancient maps or even the city lists of the area. It consisted of poor but hard working people and very conservative. But sometimes people at this extreme have a way of looking down on the better educated. And this attitude can get people to miss the opportunities that God gives them.

The fact that Nathaniel knew about Nazareth was pretty amazing. Rabbis encouraged their students to study under fig trees. So that tells us about who Nathaniel was. He was offered to study with a rabbi with only a 6th grade education. What good would that be. 

First of all those first 6 years of learning to read, write and arithmetic, the reading and writing part was focused on the Bible. After those 6 years they would get farther away from the Bible itself and more into rabbinical discussions and debates over the Bible. Second, Nazareth was on a ridge overlooking the Jezreel Valley where a large number of Bible stories took place. Living in Nazareth gave a chance to look out or take a walk to where the stories took place and read the stories right where they happened and your mind gets a visual of the story. Living in Nazareth gave a better version of the Bible story than even Uncle Arthur. 

But the people of Nazareth had a mindset that there should not be a headline "Local boy does good". 

The second thing was that they were a small Jewish outpost in an area full of pagans. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by all the pagans, but you are one of God's chosen people , so you can look down on the pagans.

But Mr. big time rabbi with his 6th grade education would speak words of grace for these pagans. That really made them mad. 

[Kevin H]

8 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. (John 1:46)

Too often we read into the quote the idea that Nazareth was a wicked city, rather than it being so out of the loop of things, so backwards and so uneducated that what good came come from it. 

[JoeMo]

13 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

What do you mean by "Gentile mind?"

 

14 hours ago, JoeMo said:

But that doesn't seem reasonable to my modern Gentile mind.

When I wrote this, I was trying to express that with my modern, non-Jewish mindset, I don't understand why this would bother an ancient Jew so much.

[JoeMo]

12 hours ago, Kevin H said:

But Mr. big time rabbi with his 6th grade education would speak words of grace for these pagans. That really made them mad. 

Pardon my dull mind; but is Jesus the "big time rabbi with his 6th grade education"?  If He is, then your line of thought makes sense to me.

[Aliensanctuary]

Those who imagine themselves to be the sole possessors of "truth" often tend to be bigots. In this case, those in the synagogue who got angry with Yeshua were Gentile-haters, too, deeply offended by being compared unfavorably with non-Jews..