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Return to Nazareth
Matthew 2:19-23
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazarean."
Nazareth
A hill town in Galilee overlooking the plain of Jezreel and home to Jesus for about thirty years. It was to Nazareth that the angel Gabriel came to Mary and asked her to become the mother of the Saviour. In Luke's Gospel, Joseph and Mary travelled from 
Nazareth to Bethlehem and returned to Nazareth after the flight into Egypt. In contrast to Luke, Matthew makes no reference to the family in Nazareth before the return from Egypt. Nazareth was the home of the family and a wider family of relatives. Like Joseph, Jesus was a carpenter. St. Justin Martyr (100-167) suggests he was engaged in agricultural carpentry making "ploughs and yokes".
Nazareth was a small village at the time of Jesus. Six miles away and clearly visible was the city of Sepphoris. After the death of Herod the Great in 4 A.D. his son Herod Antipas made Sepphoris the capital of Galilee and began an extensive building programme to restore the city. How often the young Jesus must have visited it with Joseph and later, perhaps, found work there himself. Yet there is no mention of Sepphoris in the New Testament.
During the years of his ministry Jesus rarely visited Nazareth. He was not well received in his own village (Lk.4:16-30). He made his home at Capernaum.
Simon Roche.
This is the Story of Jesus drawn from the four Evangelists
Gospel passages accompanied by a number of brief commentaries
