John 4:45Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If He so quickly left Samaria and came into Galilee, where He had been brought up, what do the words testify: "A prophet has no honor in his own country" (Jn 4:44)? It seems that He might rather have testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country if He had refused to go into Galilee and had remained in Samaria.

Pay attention, beloved. Here the Lord entrusts and sets before us a great mystery, about which I must speak. You have learned the question. Now learn the answer. Yet let us repeat the question, so that we may answer it more easily.

We are troubled by why the Evangelist said, "For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country." Since this perplexes us, we must return again to the preceding words, to discover why the Evangelist wished to say this.

We find the words he spoke before, when he narrated that after two days Jesus left Samaria for Galilee. Is it for this reason, O Evangelist, that you said Jesus testified, "A prophet has no honor in his own country"? Was it because, after two days, He left Samaria and hastened into Galilee?

On the contrary, it seems to me that one should rather think this: if Jesus had no honor in His own country, He should not have hastened there after leaving Samaria.

Yet if I am not mistaken, or rather, because this is true and I am not mistaken, the Evangelist understands what he says better than I do. He received the truth better than I did, having drunk it from the Lord's breast.

For John the Evangelist is the one who, of all the disciples, reclined on the Lord's breast (cf. Jn 13:25). Though the Lord had to love all, He nevertheless loved him more than the others (cf. Jn 21:20).

What then? Was he mistaken, while I think rightly? On the contrary, if I think piously, then I humbly listen to what he said, so that I may deserve to think as he thought.

Therefore hear, beloved, what I think about this question, allowing that you may think otherwise and even better than I. For we have one Teacher, and we are all fellow disciples in one school.

This, then, is my opinion. Consider whether my opinion is true, and whether it is close to the truth. He spent two days in Samaria, and the Samaritans believed in Him. He spent so many days in Galilee, and yet the Galileans did not believe in Him.

Turn back in your minds and recall yesterday's reading and sermon. He came to Samaria, where that woman first announced Him. While speaking with her at Jacob's well, He revealed great mysteries.

When the Samaritans saw and heard Him, they already believed in Him because of the woman's word. They believed still more firmly because of His own word, and many believed. So it is written (Jn 4:39-42).

After two days, in which the number of the two commandments is mystically conveyed, upon which the whole Law and the Prophets depend (cf. Mt 22:37-40), as you remember we mentioned yesterday, He goes into Galilee. He enters Cana of Galilee, where He turned water into wine (cf. Jn 4:46).

Then the evangelist John notes the favorable reception Jesus Christ received from the inhabitants of northern Galilee. He explains this by saying that they had witnessed the works of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at the feast.

The evangelist Luke similarly points to the effect of Jesus Christ’s teaching. When Jesus returned to Galilee, a report about Him spread everywhere. He usually taught in the synagogues and was glorified by all for His wisdom.

The evangelist explains this power of Christ’s word by saying that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit received by Him at His baptism.

After indicating the place of Jesus Christ’s activity, the evangelist Matthew gives the substance of His initial preaching in Galilee (v. 17). The evangelist Mark does the same.

According to their harmonious testimony, Jesus Christ began His work like John the Baptist, with a summons to repentance and the good tidings that the time appointed by God for the manifestation of the Kingdom of God had been fulfilled.

The evangelist Mark calls what Jesus Christ preached “the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” He adds that, together with repentance, the Lord summoned men to faith in this Gospel.

Jesus Christ spent two days in Samaria among the inhabitants of Sychar, and then set out for Galilee.

To understand the evangelist’s remark in verse 44, one must bear in mind that Nazareth is called Jesus Christ’s country. It was the place of His upbringing and life until the age of thirty (Mt 13:54 and parallels).

Consequently, Nazareth is set in contrast to what the evangelist calls Galilee. Galilee was divided into upper and lower Galilee. In the proper sense, upper Galilee was called Galilee. Nazareth was in lower Galilee.

Therefore the evangelist here speaks of Galilee in the narrow sense. He says that Jesus Christ chose upper Galilee, not lower Galilee where Nazareth was, as the chief place of His activity.

Why? Because, as He Himself later confirmed (Lk 4:24), the popular saying is true: a prophet has no honor in his own country.

By contrast, the inhabitants of upper Galilee received Him sympathetically, with readiness to believe in Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast.

According to this interpretation, the meaning is this. The Lord went from Samaria into Galilee, but passed by His own city, Nazareth, for He Himself had said that a prophet has no honor in his own country. He went to other parts of Galilee, and the Galileans received Him, and so forth.

Second, if by “country” one understands all Galilee, as the sequence of the discourse seems to require, and not Nazareth alone, the passage is explained thus. If, as the Lord testified, a prophet has no honor in his own country, then He had to acquire it outside His country, in a foreign place.

And the Lord did this. In Judea, in Jerusalem, He gained the respect and faith, and therefore the honor, of the Galileans who had come there for the feast. This they had refused the prophet at home, in His own country.

Thus He was now returning with honor and glory from a foreign place into His own country. For this reason the Galileans now received Him. They had seen His miracles in Jerusalem and now rendered Him the honor due to Him.

Third, Blessed Theophylact explains it thus: “The Lord, having departed from Samaria, comes into Galilee. Then, lest anyone should inquire and be perplexed as to why He did not always remain in Galilee, but came there at intervals, though He appeared to be from Galilee, he says: He did not live in Galilee because the Galileans did not render Him honor. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet does not enjoy honor in his own country.”

Whichever of these explanations we accept, they sufficiently resolve the difficult combination of ideas in the verses under consideration.

“He went into Galilee”: see the note on Mt 2:22.

“Jesus Himself testified,” and so forth: the Lord uttered similar testimonies later (see Mt 13:57; Mk 6:4; Lk 4:23), and not at this time. But the evangelist, writing long after the events, recalls here this testimony of the Lord, spoken at another time, to explain why the Lord now went into Galilee.

For the meaning of the testimony itself, see the note on Mt 13:57 and the parallels.

“They received Him,” that is, with the honor due to an extraordinary messenger of God. Such honor a prophet does not have in his own country. He had now acquired it by His works in Jerusalem, where the Galileans had seen Him when they went there for the feast.

“Having seen all,” and so forth: the miracles John mentioned (Jn 2:23), and all His deeds there and His teaching.

“They also had gone”: concerning the journeys of the Jews to Jerusalem for the feasts, see the note on Lk 2:41 and following.

And the Lord Jesus Christ chose Galilee as the chief place of His preaching activity. He visited Jerusalem only briefly, during the great feasts, because the Galileans were not blinded by Pharisaic prejudices and responded more trustfully to Christ’s preaching.

Moreover, in Galilee many Gentiles lived among the Jews: Phoenicians, Greeks, Arabs, Egyptians, and others. Thus the preaching of Jesus Christ there also affected the Gentile world.

Through Galilee’s trade connections with world markets, this preaching spread far beyond the borders of Galilee.

The evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe Jesus Christ’s activity in Galilee, His teaching, and His miracles in detail. Therefore the evangelist John only briefly notes Jesus Christ’s visits to Galilee, dwelling at length on the events that took place in Jerusalem.

The Galileans received Jesus as He passed through with respect. This was because, when they had been in Jerusalem at the feast of Passover, according to the prescription of the Law (Deut 16:16; Ex 34:29), they had witnessed the great works Jesus performed at Passover (Jn 2:13).

There were also those Jews gathered in the synagogue of Capernaum and in other cities, to whom the Lord said these very words: "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country" (Mk 6:4). They opposed the Lord, as in Mt 9, Mk 3, and Lk 13.

In other words, this was that part of Galilee's population which treated the Lord with malice. It was permeated with the views and aims of Jerusalem and the Pharisees.

But besides them, poor and unlearned Galileans also went to the feast. Unlike the scribes, they are everywhere called the people. This very people received the Lord joyfully.

The Lord had compassion on this people, seeing that they were harassed and scattered, like "sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 9:36). And the Galilean people "rejoiced over all the glorious things done by the Lord" (Lk 13:17).

Therefore it seems that the Lord's words about a prophet having no honor in his own country refer not to Galilee and the Galileans, but to the Jews in the broad sense. Wherever they lived, they are called His own in John 1, and they "did not receive the Lord": "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him."

Therefore the Lord's country, indicated in the saying, is in the broad sense Judea, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, where the Lord was born (Mt 2:5). It is the people who had been God's people and rejected their God.

More especially, it is that spirit of Judaism which "rejected the will of God for the sake of its tradition" (Mt 15:3). This spirit was embodied in the educated class of the people, in the scribes and Pharisees, who were considered the people's guides.

Individual persons were saved by the Lord. But the Jews, as a nation and as an educated class, were rejected by the Lord.

Perhaps in a narrower sense the saying mentioned above should also refer to the family circle of Joseph's sons, who did not believe in the Lord. It should also refer to those synagogues where they asked, "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?" (Mk 6:3; Mt 13:55).

It also refers to the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, which the Lord rebuked (Mt 11:21-23; Lk 10:13-15).

Yet the most terrible judgment was pronounced by the Lord upon Jerusalem (Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34). That city, where the Lord's temple stood, is the true spiritual country of the incarnate Son of God, whom "His own did not receive."

This country of the Lord who had received human flesh was ruled by men who had forgotten the will of God, the spirit of the Lord's law, and even the principles of all morality. They became a band of murderers, striving by every means to kill the Righteous One (Jn 5:16-18; 7:1, 19, 32; 8:40, 59; 10:31; 11:53).

These Jews are "the country in which a prophet has no honor." Therefore "their house is left desolate until they say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Lk 13:35).