Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 4:16

"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." — Luke 4:16 (ASV)

And he came to Nazareth.—The narrative that follows, remarkably interesting in itself, also has the special interest of being unique to St. Luke. We may naturally think of it as having come to him from the same group of informants from whom he derived his narrative of the Infancy. (See Introduction.) He may have journeyed from Caesarea to Nazareth during St. Paul’s imprisonment in the former city and obtained his information on the spot. It is clear that our Lord did not begin His ministry at Nazareth. He came there when His fame was, in some measure at least, already established.

As his custom was.—This, then, had been His habit before He entered on His work. Children were admitted to the synagogue at the age of five. At thirteen, attendance was obligatory. It was open to any man of reputed knowledge and piety, with the approval of the ruler of the synagogue, to read the lessons (one from the Law and one from the Prophets), and our Lord’s previous life had doubtless gained the respect of that officer. Up to this time, it would seem, He had confined Himself to reading. Now He came to preach, after an absence of possibly some months, with the new power that had already made Him famous. The work of preaching also was open to any person of adequate culture who had a word of exhortation to address to the worshippers. (Compare to Acts 13:15.) The constitution of the synagogue, in thus admitting the teaching functions of qualified laymen, was distinctly opposed to the root-idea of sacerdotalism.