Bible Contradiction? When was Jesus rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When was Jesus rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

Early in his ministry

“And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. 14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. 16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 20 And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. 21 Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all the people were speaking well of Him, and admiring the [c]gracious words which were coming from His [d]lips; and yet they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will [e]quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24 But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many with leprosy in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. 30 But He passed through their midst and went on His way.” ( Luke 4:13-30)

Much later

“53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there. 54 And He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, with the result that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man acquire this wisdom and these miraculous powers? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is His mother not called Mary, and His brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man acquire all these things?” 57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:53-58)

“Jesus went out from there and *came into His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man learn these things, and what is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? 3 Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are His sisters not here with us?” And they took offense at Him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.” 5 And He could not do any miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” (Mark 6:1-5)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit Luke 4:13-30 as affirming the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” against both Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-5 as affirming “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry.”
4. We should consider the question whether the skeptic cited the passages accurately to establish the claims they stated here.  The skeptic did cite Luke 4:13-30 accurately.  Note how Luke 4:13 stated that this episode was right after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-12) which of course was right after Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:21-22) that was early in Jesus’ ministry.
5. The skeptic did cited Matthew 13:53-58 accurately also.  Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry and by “later in his ministry” I mean after time and other events have taken place after Jesus’ early ministry days.
6. Similarly Mark 6:1-5 was cited accurately by the skeptics also.  Many events have taken place by the time we get to the event mentioned in Mark 6:1-5.
7. Yet we do not have a contradiction.  That’s because the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” is not incompatible with “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry.”
   1. Logically in order to contradict the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” it would have to be “Jesus was not rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” or “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth only much later in his ministry.”  But the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry” is neither “Jesus was not rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” nor “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth only much later in his ministry.”
   2. Logically in order to contradict the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry” it would have to be “Jesus was not rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry.” or Jesus was only rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry.”  But the claim “Jesus was rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry” is neither “Jesus was not rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth much later in his ministry.” or Jesus was only rejected by the people in his hometown of Nazareth early in his ministry.”
8. Logically Jesus’ hometown rejection of Jesus can manifest over various and many instances.
9. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
10. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”

Advertisement