GOG AND MAGOG

The Bible book of Revelation (20:7, 8) states that, after Christ’s thousand-year reign, Satan “will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.” Evidently such nations are the product of rebellion against Christ’s administration.—See GOG No. 3.

NATURE

[Gr., phyʹsis, nature, origin, birth; or, the regular order of law or nature; from phyʹo, to produce, to bring forth, to grow].

Translators generally render phyʹsis and phy·si·kosʹ (the adjective form) as “nature” and “natural,” respectively.

MEN AND ANIMALS

That there is a nature belonging to man different from that of wild beasts, and that even wild beasts are not all of the same nature, is shown by the statement at James 3:7: “For every species [Gr., phyʹsis, nature] of wild beast as well as bird and creeping thing and sea creature is to be tamed and has been tamed by humankind [phyʹsei tei an·thro·piʹnei, nature belonging to the man].” This difference in “nature, origin, birth” reveals the variety in God’s creation and is maintained due to the divine law that each produces according to its own kind.—Gen. 1:20-28; compare 1 Corinthians 15:39.

DIVINE NATURE

Also, there is a different nature belonging to those in heaven, spirit creatures of God. The apostle Peter speaks to his fellow Christians, spiritual brothers of Jesus Christ, of “the precious and very grand promises that through these you may become sharers in divine nature [phyʹse·os].” (2 Pet. 1:4) That this is heavenly life Peter shows in his first letter: “God . . . gave us a new birth [a·na·gen·neʹsas he·masʹ, having generated us again] to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . . It is reserved in the heavens for you.” (1 Pet. 1:3, 4) “Divine nature,” therefore, requires a new genesis, a new birth, a change in nature through death and resurrection, as made plain by the apostle Paul at First Corinthians chapter 15. He explains that the Christian must die (vs. 36), and must be resurrected in a different body, a spiritual one (vss. 38, 44, 49), which requires a change (vs. 51).

Since “nature” has the basic thought of that which has an origin, is born, produced or grows, the term “nature” could not be properly applied to God, who has no beginning or birth, but, rather, applies to those whom he creates in the heavens or the earth, or who are born on earth through the process God has arranged.

INHERENT NATURE

Paul speaks of his fellow countrymen the Jews, calling them “Jews by nature,” that is, born of Jewish parents, of the children of Israel or Jacob.—Gal. 2:15.

In the illustration of the olive tree he calls the fleshly Jews the natural (ka·taʹ phyʹsin, “according to nature”) branches of the garden olive. He tells the Gentile Christians: “For if you were cut out of the olive tree that is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into the garden olive tree, how much rather will these who are natural free be grafted into their own olive tree!” (Rom. 11:21-24) The wild olive tree is unfruitful or produces very inferior fruit, but it is common practice in Mediterranean countries to graft branches of cultivated olive trees into the wild olive tree to produce good fruit. However, if the wild olive branch is grafted into the cultivated tree, it produces only the poor fruit of the wild olive tree. Therefore Paul calls this latter grafting “contrary to nature.” It serves to emphasize the power of God as well as his undeserved kindness to Gentiles in bringing them in to replace “natural branches.” The Jews had been ‘cultivated’ by Jehovah for centuries, but the Gentiles had been “wild,” not having the true religion, not bringing forth fruitage to God. Not naturally, but only by God’s power could they be made to bring forth fine fruit. Only Jehovah, therefore, could accomplish this ‘grafting’ successfully.

Also, in his argument to the Galatians to prevent their enslavement to Judaistic teachings, Paul said: “When you did not know God, then it was that you slaved for those who by nature are not gods.” These false gods they had worshiped were by their very origin and production not truly gods; it was impossible for them to come into such a status. Not merely did they have no authority to be gods, but they did not have such qualities in their intrinsic nature or makeup.—Gal. 4:8.

CONSCIENCE

Certain traits or qualities inhere in mankind from birth, actually having been placed in man from the beginning. The apostle Paul comments on the conscience, or at least a vestige of such, that still persists in fallen man, even though in many cases he has strayed from God and does not have his law. This explains why all nations have established many laws that are in harmony with righteousness and justice, and many individuals follow certain good principles. Paul says: “For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and, between their own thoughts, they are being accused or even excused.”—Rom. 2:14, 15.

In discussing the matter of headship with the Corinthian congregation, Paul called attention to the rule that a woman should wear a head covering when praying or prophesying before the congregation, as a sign of subjection. In illustration, he says: “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? Because her hair is given her instead of a headdress.”—1 Cor. 11:14, 15.

Bible scholar Albert Barnes comments on Paul’s use of the word “nature” in this passage: “The word nature . . . denotes evidently that sense of propriety which all men have, and which is expressed in any prevailing or universal custom. . . . It is such as is demanded by the natural sense of fitness among men. . . . The word in this place, therefore, does not mean the constitution of the sexes, . . . nor simple use and custom, . . . but it refers to a deep internal sense of what is proper and right.” (Notes on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians [1851], pp. 225, 226) Dr. A. T. Robertson likewise says: “Here it means native sense of propriety (cf. Rom. 2:14) in addition to mere custom, but one that rests on the objective difference in the constitution of things.”—Word Pictures in the New Testament (1931), p. 162.

Those Christians in Corinth were aware that it was the general practice for men to clip their hair to a moderate length. This was also common with Jewish men, the long uncut hair of Nazirites marking them, for the time of their Naziriteship, as under special obligation before God. (Num. 6:5) Absalom’s hair grew more luxuriantly than normal, and he may have let it grow somewhat long out of pride of beauty or affectation. However, he had his hair cut once a year.—2 Sam. 14:25, 26; see ABSALOM.

On the other hand, Jewish women usually wore their hair quite long. (Luke 7:38; John 11:2) And in the Greek city of Corinth, shaving a woman’s head, or clipping her hair very short, was a sign of her being a slave girl or of being in disgrace for having been caught in fornication or adultery.—1 Cor. 11:6.

That Paul, in using the word “nature” (phyʹsis) in the text under consideration, did not mean mere “custom” is shown in verse 16, where he says, with regard to the woman’s wearing a head covering: “However, if any man seems to dispute for some other custom [sy·neʹthei·an], we have no other, neither do the congregations of God.”

When Paul says “Does not nature itself teach you . . . ?” he is not personifying nature, as though it were a goddess. Rather, God has created, brought forth or produced natural things or nature. He has given man reasoning powers. By observing and reasoning on things as God has made them and set them in position man learns much as to what is proper. It is really God that teaches, and the man with his mind properly oriented by God’s Word can view things in their right perspective and relationship, thereby rightly discerning what is natural or unnatural. (Rom. 1:20) By this means the individual can have a trained conscience in this respect and can avoid a conscience that is defiled and that approves unnatural things.—Titus 1:15; 1 Cor. 8:7.

NATURAL USE OF BODIES

It is wrong for men and women to use their bodies in any way that is out of harmony with the functions for which God created them. What is unnatural in that sense is sinful. The Scriptures describe the uncleanness and condemnation coming upon those who practice these things: “That is why God gave them up to disgraceful sexual appetites, for both their females changed the natural [phy·si·kenʹ] use of themselves into one contrary to nature; and likewise even the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error.” Such persons lower themselves to a beastlike level. (Rom. 1:26, 27; 2 Pet. 2:12) They go after wrong fleshly things because, like a beast, they lack reasonableness, having no spirituality.—Jude 7, 10.

BIRTH

Another Greek word often translated “natural” is geʹne·sis, also meaning “birth” or “origin.” James speaks of “a man looking at his natural face [literally, “the face of the birth of him”] in a mirror.” (Jas. 1:23) James also says that “the tongue is a fire”, and that it “sets the wheel of natural life [literally, “the wheel of the birth”] aflame.” (Jas. 3:5, 6) Evidently James here has reference to a wheel, such as that on a chariot, that would be set on fire by the hot, glowing axle, and therefore pictures the tongue as setting aflame the whole round of one’s life into which he came by birth.

NAZARENE

(Naz·a·reneʹ) [Greek text of Westcott and Hort uses the words Na·zo·raiʹos, and Na·za·re·nosʹ; probably from Hebrew neʹtser, meaning sprout, shoot or branch, hence, figuratively, offspring].

A descriptive epithet applied to Jesus (by himself and others) and later to his followers. The names Nazarene and Nazirite are not to be confused, for, though spelled similarly in English, they stem from altogether different Hebrew words with different meanings.—See NAZIRITE.

It was natural and not particularly unusual to speak of Jesus as the Nazarene, since from infancy (less than three years of age) he was raised as the local carpenter’s son in the city of Nazareth, a place about sixty-two miles (100 kilometers) by air N of Jerusalem. The practice of associating persons with the places from which they came was common in those days.—2 Sam. 3:2, 3; 17:27; 23:25-37; Nah. 1:1; Acts 13:1; 21:29.

Frequently Jesus was referred to, in widely scattered places and by all kinds of persons, as the Nazarene. (Mark 1:23, 24; 10:46, 47; 14:66-69; 16:5, 6; Luke 24:13-19; John 18:1-7) Jesus himself accepted and used the name. (John 18:5-8; Acts 22:6-8) On the sign that Pilate had placed on the torture stake he wrote in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: “Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews.” (John 19:19, 20) From Pentecost 33 C.E. forward the apostles, as well as others, often spoke of Jesus Christ as the Nazarene or as being from Nazareth.—Acts 2:22; 3:6; 4:10; 6:14; 10:38; 26:9.

PROPHETIC

Matthew pointed out that the name “Nazarene” was prophetically foretold as another sign identifying Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. He called this to the attention of his readers when he told how Joseph brought Mary and her child back from Egypt following Herod’s death. “Moreover,” Matthew wrote, “being given divine warning in a dream, he [Joseph] withdrew into the territory of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city named Nazareth, that there might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”—Matt. 2:19-23.

Nazareth is not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. Some suppose Matthew had reference to some lost prophetic books or some unwritten traditions, but his expression, “spoken through the prophets,” is used by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures only in reference to the same canonical collection of the Hebrew Scriptures we have today. The key to understanding, apparently, lies in equating Nazarene with neʹtser, mentioned above as meaning sprout, shoot or branch.

With this in mind, it is evident that Matthew was referring to what Isaiah (11:1) had said concerning Messiah: “There must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout [neʹtser] will be fruitful.” Another Hebrew word tseʹmahh also means sprout and was used by other prophets when referring to the Messiah. Matthew used the plural, saying that “prophets” had mentioned this coming “Sprout.” For example, Jeremiah wrote about the “righteous sprout” as an offshoot of David. (Jer. 23:5; 33:15) Zechariah describes a king-priest “whose name is Sprout,” a prophecy that could apply only to Jesus the Nazarene, the great spiritual Temple-builder.—Zech. 3:8; 6:12, 13.

NAZARETH

(Nazʹa·reth) [Branch-town].

A city in Lower Galilee where Jesus lived most of his earthly life, along with his half brothers and half sisters. (Luke 2:51, 52; Matt. 13:54-56) Both Joseph and Mary were residents of Nazareth when Gabriel announced the approaching birth of Jesus. (Luke 1:26, 27; 2:4, 39) Later, after their return from Egypt, they took up residence in Nazareth again.—Matt. 2:19-23; Luke 2:39.

LOCATION

Evidence favors an identification of Nazareth with the site of modern En Nasira in Galilee. If this view is correct, Nazareth was situated in the low mountains just N of the Valley of Jezreel and approximately halfway between the S tip of the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean coast. It was in a mountain basin with hills rising 400 to 500 feet (122 to 152 meters) above it. The area was well populated, with a number of cities and towns near Nazareth. Also, it is estimated that one could walk from Nazareth to Ptolemais on the Mediterranean coast in seven hours, to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee in five hours and to Jerusalem in three days.

On one occasion people of Nazareth sought to throw Jesus from the “brow of the mountain upon which their city had been built.” (Luke 4:29) That is not to say that Nazareth was on the very brow or edge, but that it was on a mountain having a brow from which they wanted to hurl Jesus. This has often been identified with a rocky cliff some forty feet (12 meters) high located SW of the city.

PROMINENCE OF NAZARETH

It is difficult to say with certainty just how prominent Nazareth was in the first century. The most common view of commentators is that Nazareth was then a rather secluded, insignificant village. The principal Biblical statement used to support this view is what Nathanael said when he heard that Jesus