Where did Jesus grow up?

The short answer

Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a small village in Galilee in the north of Israel. Matthew and Luke say he was born in Bethlehem, and Matthew says his family spent time in Egypt before settling in Nazareth.

What the record says

Both Matthew and Luke agree he was raised in Nazareth. Luke writes, “When they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.” (Luke 2:39)

Matthew tells a longer road. After his birth in Bethlehem, Joseph took Mary and the child to Egypt to escape King Herod (Matthew 2:13 to 15). After Herod died, they came back and settled in Galilee. Matthew says Joseph “came and lived in a city called Nazareth” (Matthew 2:23), and that he would be known as a Nazarene.

Later, Luke calls Nazareth the place “where he had been brought up” (Luke 4:16). That is why people called him Jesus of Nazareth.

The Gospels do not say how long the family stayed in Egypt or where in Egypt they lived.

How Son of Man tells it

Son of Man is a novel. It imagines the years the Gospels skip. In chapter two, “Egypt”, the novel imagines his first years in the busy port city of Alexandria. Then word comes that Herod is dead, and the family heads home by boat and road. They arrive in Nazareth when Yeshua is just over three, and he runs through the little house claiming every corner:

“A garden he could run in. A roof he could climb to.”