57. A prophet is not devoid of honor. I have explained this statement at considerable length, where it occurs in the Gospel of John, (348) (John 4:44.) It may, no doubt, be a general proverb, that those who are distinguished by eminent gifts are nowhere held in less estimation than in their own country; and this manifests the ingratitude of men, who, in proportion to the greater familiarity with which God exhibits himself to them, are the more bold to reject him in the influences of his Spirit. I readily agree, however, with Chrysostom, who thinks that this proverb was applied in a peculiar manner to the Jews. But what was usually spoken against the whole nation, Christ now asserts with special reference to his Galilean countrymen; for nowhere did he receive less honor than on his native soil. There were good grounds for the charge which he brings against them, that, instead of being the first to accept the grace offered to them, as they ought to have been, they drive him to a distance from them; for it is truly extraordinary that a prophet of God, whom others warmly receive as a newly-arrived stranger, should be despised in the place where he was born.
(348) Our Author’s Preface to his Commentary on John’s Gospel is dated 1 January 1553; while the Preface to the Harmony is dated 1 August 1555. This accounts for the former being always referred to as an earlier work. — Ed.