Luke 4:16-30

Contemporary English Version

The People of Nazareth Turn against Jesus

(Matthew 13.53-58; Mark 6.1-6)

¹⁶Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the Scriptures, ¹⁷he was given the book of Isaiah the prophet. He opened it and read,

¹⁸^(A) “The Lord's Spirit
    has come to me,
because he has chosen me
to tell the good news
    to the poor.
The Lord has sent me
to announce freedom
    for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone
    who suffers,
¹⁹and to say, ‘This is the year
    the Lord has chosen.’ ”

²⁰Jesus closed the book, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue looked straight at Jesus.

²¹Then Jesus said to them, “What you have just heard me read has come true today.”

²²All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, “Isn't he Joseph's son?”

²³Jesus answered:

You will certainly want to tell me this saying, “Doctor, first make yourself well.” You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. ²⁴^(B) But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown.

²⁵^(C) Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, ²⁶^(D) but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. ²⁷^(E) During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy.^[a] But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria.

²⁸When the people in the synagogue heard Jesus say this, they became so angry ²⁹that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. ³⁰But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.

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