Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Luke 2:4
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, etc.] Where he now lived, and worked at the trade of a carpenter; having for some reasons, and by one providence or another, removed hither from his native place: out of the city of Nazareth; which was in Galilee, where he and Mary lived; and where he had espoused her, and she had conceived of the Holy Ghost: into Judea; which lay higher than Galilee, and therefore he is said to go up to it: unto the city of David; not what was built by him, but where he was born and lived; (see <091712>1 Samuel 17:12). which is called Bethlehem: the place where, according to (<330502>Micah 5:2) the Messiah was to be born, and was born; and which signifies “the house of bread”: a very fit place for Christ, the bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world, to appear first in. This place was, as a Jewish chronologer says f103, a “parsa” and half, or six miles from Jerusalem; though another of their writers, an historian and traveller f104, says, it was two “parsas”, or eight miles; but Justin Martyr f105 says, it was but thirty five furlongs distant from it, which is not five miles; hither Joseph came from Galilee, because he was of the house and lineage of David; he was of his family, and lineally descended from him, though he was so poor and mean; and this is the reason of his coming to Bethlehem, David's city.
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