Mattathias of Esdraelon and his family
This family lives at the crossroads of the roads to Nazareth and Ptolemais.
Mathatias and his wife Sara have a daughter, Dina, married to Philip, from whom three children are born: Anna, Naomi, and Mary, the youngest whom the father has difficulty accepting: he so hoped for a boy! Jesus helps him with this.[1]
It is a usual stopping place for Jesus:
"Let us stop at that house, where I have rested before".[2]
It is also a place known to John. He perfectly locates the wood that Sara owns there and where Jesus arranges to meet his mother.[3]
Their names
- Mathatias: Mattathias - Matthias - Matthew: come from the Hebrew "mattityah" meaning gift of the Eternal - Historical reference: the father of the Maccabean brothers, liberators of Israel.[4]
- Sara: Sara (or Sarai) means "Princess" - Historical reference: the wife of Abraham whom he married in Ur of Chaldees (Iraq).
- Philip means in Greek "lover of horses" - Historical reference: the father of Alexander the Great.
- Dina: Dina means "justice" - Historical reference: The daughter of Jacob and Leah. Seduced by Prince Shechem of Samaria, she was the cause of an outrage by the Hebrews.[5]