Rejection at Nazareth in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke—and Tatian

While Jesus’ rejection in his hometown is common to all three synoptic accounts, the placement of this episode differs. Mark and Matthew narrate his rejection at the synagogue of Nazareth only after a period of successful ministry elsewhere. Luke collapses the Markan timeline by relocating the scene in the synagogue in Nazareth to the initial preaching tour through Galilee, and he also recounts an unsuccessful attempt to cast Jesus from the cliff outside the town. This trajectory of rewriting can be extended to include the Diatessaron of Tatian, where the first half of the Lukan pericope is left in the preaching tour through Galilee, while the second half is postponed until later in the narrative. In his redaction of prior sources, Tatian’s editorial work is comparable to that of Matthew and Luke. His work was regarded by its primary users as the Gospel, and not just as a ‘gospel harmony’.