Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, and the references to it in the New Testament are not numerous.  When Joseph returned from Egypt in the reign of Archelaus, the son of Herod, he was afraid to go into Judaea, “and being warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, that he should be called a Nazarene” (Matt. 2:19-23).  I do not know the age of Jesus when Joseph and Mary came with him to Nazareth, but “his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover”; and we are told that the child was twelve years old at the time his parents missed him as they were returning from the feast, and later found him in the temple hearing the teachers and asking them questions.  In this connection we are told that “he went down with them and came to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them” (Luke 2:51).  Luke also informs us that Jesus, “when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23).  Thus we have a period of eighteen years between the incident in the temple and the beginning of his public ministry, in which Jesus resided in Nazareth.  The greater part of his earth life was spent in this Galilean city, where he was subject unto his parents.  It is a blessed thing that so much can be said of our Savior in so few words.  It is highly commendable that children be subject unto their parents, who love them dearly, and who know best what is for their health, happiness, and future good.

After his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, “Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee, ... and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up:  and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.”  When the roll of the Scriptures was handed to him, he read from the opening verses of the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, then “he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down:  and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him” as he told them:  “To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears,” and although they “wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth,” they were not willing to accept his teaching, and as he continued to speak, “they were all filled with wrath, ... and they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong.  But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.  And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee” (Luke 4:14-31).