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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.
Luke 4:16 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
  • KJV And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
  • BSB Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read,
  • NKJV So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
  • NLT When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Jesus comes to His hometown Nazareth and, as was His custom, attends synagogue on the Sabbath. He honors regular worship and the reading of Scripture.

Overview

Returning to Nazareth where He was raised, Jesus enters the synagogue 'as was his custom,' showing His habitual reverence for the Sabbath and the Scriptures. Standing to read was the posture of respect for God's word. This scene introduces Luke's programmatic account of Jesus' mission, declared from Isaiah.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • Matt 2:23and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
  • Acts 17:2Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
  • Acts 13:14–16But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.
  • Matt 13:54–55Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?
  • Mark 6:1–3He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him.
  • Luke 2:51And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
  • John 18:20Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where the Jews always meet. I said nothing in secret.
  • Luke 2:42When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast,
  • Luke 2:39When they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.
  • Luke 4:21He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
  • Luke 4:15He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
  • Luke 1:26–27Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Luke videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Luke 4:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on LukeMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.

How Luke 4:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.