God is not haphazard in how He uses words. Every word is there for a reason. One of the reasons for using the King James Version is because it clearly indicates by the use of italics, words that were added by the translators but were not in the original texts[1]. Words added by men which are not the original inspired Word of God. They might be useful but they might be misleading or erroneous. (Consider: if you dictated a letter or memo to someone and they added things without your permission, they could change or distort the meaning of what you originally said and meant.)
One of the things most people don’t know about Jesus Christ is that he was a rabbi. He taught in the synagogues. In the Temple, he taught in the Women’s Court, the Court of the Gentiles, Solomon’s Porch, and the Court of Israel. (Eastern culture separated men from women in their temples. Even today some synagogues separate men and women and most mosques have separate areas for women.) Jesus Christ also taught in people’s homes. Most of the time he spoke God’s Word without having a scroll in his hand because he had memorized it. After his ascension home fellowships became the primary teaching venue of the early Christian church.
As we read being thoughtfully aware of key words and not rushing over them will shed light on many Biblical records. “ In the last day, that great day of the feast [Tabernacles/Sukkoth], Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the holy spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” (John7:37-42)
Here we see different opinions regarding Jesus Christ. Some understood and believed that he was the Messiah. Others got hung up on the detail of where the Messiah would be born, even though that prophecy did not say anything about where he would live. What these “others” did not know is that while Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Mary and Joseph did not live in Bethlehem except for a short period of time after his birth. They went to Bethlehem for the taxing/census by order of the occupying Roman government, because they were of the house of David. But after the Magi departed God showed Joseph (Jesus’s stepfather) that Herod would try to murder him, the family left and went to Egypt, which, though also part of the Roman empire was ruled directly by the Roman Emperor Augustus and not by relatives of Herod. The prophesy of Micah 5:2 “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” had been fulfilled.
The family stayed in Egypt until Herod was dead, but when they returned, they lived in Nazareth of Galilee, not Judea, because Herod’s son Archelaus was reigning in Judea. When Jesus went into the areas of Judea and Samaria, people knew was that he was FROM Galilee; it was obvious because the Galileans in Northern Israel, spoke a different dialect of Aramaic than the Judeans and Southern Israel. But the fact that he was not born there, but in Bethlehem remained, but was hidden from them. Obviously Mary and Joseph were not going around broadcasting it.
The (apparently) politically and socially ordinary family had an advantage that the murderous Herod and the occupying Roman government did not—the ability to receive revelation from GOD and knowledge of the Scriptures. “But when he (Joseph) heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:22, 23) Nazareth was where Mary and Joseph had grown up, and where they lived after they were married. Some things are written in God’s Word; others are both written and spoken. The detail that the Messiah would be from Nazareth was hidden from most because it was only spoken, not written, and not readily accessible to unbelievers and enemies. One word mattered and shows how God protected His Word and His son. Many years later, after Jesus Christ’s mission was accomplished, God had the relevant information written down in the gospels.
But there were indications in other parts of Scripture that the Messiah would bring the light to Galilee as well. ”Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’‘ ( Isaiah 9:1-2) There were greater implications amd broader applications would not be realized and understood until the ministry of Paul.brought the Word of God to the Gentiles. Galilee was not only a part of Israel, it was an area with a diverse population and a crossroads for trade and commerce.
The full implications and understanding of a prophecy are not evident until it comes to pass. The prophets knew that there would be a period of time between the Messiah’s torture and death and his glory and reign–but neither what would happen in that period nor how long it would last. People who studied the Scriptures knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but not the circumstances that surrounded his birth, which is why the Magi went first to Jerusalem expecting that the Messiah and king of the line of David would be in the capital city. And the Roman approved King Herod, who was not of God’s chosen lineage of King David, didn’t have a clue. Nor did all the elites in Jerusalem. “ Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” (Matthew 2:1-6)
Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider in several of his books and articles, quotes the Amplified version’s rendering of Isaiah 9:1, 2. The Amplified adds explanatory information based on what became known when the prophecy was fulfilled. “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.” The parts in the brackets are not in the original scripture, but were added information based on what had come to pass after the original scripture was written down.
How did some people know what was only spoken by the prophets? They memorized Scripture. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8) Those who would teach memorized great amounts of Scripture, and Jewish kings were required to write out their own copy of the Old Testament law. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm `119:11) Devilish men may try to hide the truth by burning books and killing people, but they cannot destroy the Word of God.
Resources:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/isa/9/1/s_688001
The Companion Bible – E.W. Bullinger (Annotated King James Version study Bible.)
Judith Niewiadomski, Yonkers
[1] The original texts of the Bible were written in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.