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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 1:47 - 1:47
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47. ἐκ Ναζ. κ.τ.λ. All Galileans were despised for their want of culture, their rude dialect, and contact with Gentiles. They were to the Jews what Bœotians were to the Athenians. But here it is a Galilean who reproaches Nazareth in particular. Apart from the Gospels we know nothing to the discredit of Nazareth; neither in O.T. nor in Josephus is it mentioned; but what we are told of the people by the Evangelists is mostly bad. Christ left them and preferred to dwell at Capernaum (Mat 4:13); He could do very little among them, ‘because of their unbelief’ (Mat 13:58), which was such as to make Him marvel (Mar 6:6); and once they tried to kill Him (Luk 4:29). S. Augustine would omit the question. Nathanael “who knew the Scriptures excellently well, when he heard the name Nazareth, was filled with hope, and said, From Nazareth something good can come.” But this is not probable. Possibly he meant ‘Can any good thing come out of despised Galilee?’ or, ‘Can anything so good come out of so insignificant a village?’
ἔρχου κ. ἴδε. The best cure for ill-founded prejudice; at once the simplest and the surest method. Philip shews the strength of his own conviction by suggesting this test, which seems to be in harmony with the practical bent of his own mind. See on Joh 12:21 and Joh 14:8. Here, of course, ἴδε is the imperative; not an interjection, as in Joh 1:29; Joh 1:35; Joh 1:48.