But when he [i.e., Joseph] heard that Archelaus did
reign in Judæa in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither:
notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts
of Galilee: and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.[i] Matthew 2:22-23.
The historical incident
Matthew 2:23 records the historical incident of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus journeying from the land of Egypt to the city of Nazareth. After coming out of their exile of safety in Egypt, they returned to Nazareth. Because of God’s warning, they did not stop in Judæa but continued on to their former home in Galilee. There Jesus grew from boyhood to manhood (cf. Luke 2:51-52; 4:16).
Nazareth was a village in the region of Galilee, part of the land of Naphtali (Joshua 21:32; 2 Kings 15:29, et al.). Galilee bordered and was west of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Isaiah 9:1 suggests a region jutting into or surrounded by “the nations,” Gentiles, a non-Jewish population (cf. Matthew 4:15). Magdala (Matthew 15:39), Tiberias (John 6:1, 23), and Capernaum (Matthew 4:13) were on the Sea of Galilee. Nazareth and nearby Cana (John 2:1ff.) were about halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea.
As cities go, Nazareth was small and insignificant. Neither the Hebrew Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the writings of Josephus, nor the Talmud mention the city of Nazareth. It first shows up in the Bible in the Gospels, as the town of Mary and Joseph (cf. Luke 1:26; 2:4; Matthew 2:23; 4:13).[ii] Joseph and Mary had lived in Nazareth before traveling to Bethlehem because of the taxation (cf. Luke 2:4-5), and thither they eventually return.
One commonly accepted belief about the origin of the name of the city is that it derives from the Hebrew word netzer (or nēser, netser נֵצֶר). The Old Testament Hebrew uses this word four times, including Isaiah 11:1.[iii]
“…the name, Nazareth, is from the Hebrew word netzer, which is translated ‘branch’ in the English language. Several of the Old Testament prophets predict the coming of Christ as ‘the Branch,’ or a synonymous term.”[iv]
Concerning the name of the city, John Gill writes:
A Nazarene, as David de Pomis says,{[v]}
“is one that is born in the city Netzer, which is said to be in the land of Galilee, three days journey distant from Jerusalem.”
The
prophetical equivalent
The historical incident of Jesus’s family returning to Nazareth coincides with the fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew explicitly and unequivocally connects Jesus being a called “a Nazarene” with his dwelling in Nazareth.[vi] What is the prophecy? What does it mean?
In its simplest meaning, a Nazarene is a man
from Nazareth.[vii]
But why is “a Nazarene” significant? We cannot search the Old Testament and
find the word Nazareth, much less Nazarene. Note that in verse 23 Matthew
writes prophets plural, rather than citing one specific prophet. Rather
than “fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,” it is “fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets.” Compare Matthew 1:22; 2:15, 17; 3:4; 4:14; 8:17 and
other places, where he is stating a specific prophecy by a specific prophet.
This should shortly (or at least eventually) suggest to us that Matthew is connecting a
theme of prophecy, a general sense, rather than a direct statement found in one particular place.
But what is that theme? What is the sense? Unlike Bethlehem, the town of King David where Jesus was born, Nazareth was an obscure town in a despised region of the country. Commenting on Matthew 2:23, Matthew Henry wrote:
“Thither they were sent, and there they were well known, and were among their relations; the most proper place for them to be in. There they continued, and from thence our Saviour was called Jesus of Nazareth, which was to the Jews a stumbling-block, for, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” [and “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” they thought.]
Henry continues on this theme:
“…He shall be called a Nazarene. Which may be looked upon…As a name of reproach and contempt…Now this was not particularly foretold by any one prophet, but, in general, it was spoken by the prophets, that he should be despised and rejected of men (Isa. liii. 2, 3), a Worm, and no man (Ps. xxii. 6, 7), that he should be an Alien to his brethren, Ps. lxix. 7, 8.”
Albert Barnes put it this way.
“He does not say ‘by the prophet,’ as in Matthew 1:22; Matthew 2:5, Matthew 2:15, but ‘by the prophets,’ meaning no one prophet particularly, but the general character of the prophecies. As Jerome observes,[viii] he shows that he took not the words from the prophets, but only the sense.”[ix]
The high and holy eternal Son of God became the meek and lowly (Matthew 11:29; Zechariah 9:9), of no reputation, the reputation of a Nazarene. The prophets, plural, prophesied this theme about the Messiah to come. Jesus fulfilled it.
Prophets prophesy
- Psalm 22:6-8 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
- Psalm 69:7-8a Because for thy sake I have borne
reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren,
and
an alien unto my mother’s children.
- Psalm 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
- Isaiah 53:2-3 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Isaiah 53:12 …he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
- Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off…
- Zechariah 9:9 …behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Jesus Christ fulfills
- Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
- Mark 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
- Luke 17:25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
- John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
- John 1:46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
- John 7:52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.
- John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
- Acts 3:14-15 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
- Philippians 2:6-8 …Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
- Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death…
Called a “Nazarene” i.e., Jesus of Nazareth, by:
- a multitude in Jerusalem (Jesus the prophet of Nazareth ιησους ο προφητης ο απο ναζαρεθ, Matthew 21:11)
- a maid in Jerusalem (Jesus of Nazareth ιησου του ναζωραιου, Matthew 26:71; του ναζαρηνου ιησου ησθα Mark 14:67 )
- by demons (Jesus of Nazareth ιησου ναζαρηνε, Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34)
- a crowd on the Jericho road, heard by blind Bartimæus (Jesus of Nazareth ιησους ο ναζωραιος, Mark 10:47; Luke 18:37)
- an angel (ιησουν ζητειτε τον ναζαρηνον Mark 16:16)
- disciples on the way to Emmaus (Jesus of Nazareth ιησου του ναζωραιου Luke 24:19)
- Philip (Jesus of Nazareth ιησουν τον υιον του ιωσηφ τον απο ναζαρεθ John 1:45)
- officers of the priests (Jesus of Nazareth ιησουν τον ναζωραιον, John 18:5, 7)
- someone writing by the authority of Pilate (Jesus of Nazareth ιησους ο ναζωραιος, John 19:19)
In an ingenious display of the low and humble estate of Jesus, Luke 4:28-30 shows that even the despised citizens at the synagogue of the despised city of Nazareth despise and reject Jesus the Nazarene, intending to cast him down the brow of the hill on which Nazareth was built. Oh, the power and wonder, too – “But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” See Matthew 13:54-58, another occasion where “they were offended in him” and showed him no honour – he whom they contemptuously considered the native carpenter’s son. Although the Nazarene prophet was without honour in his own country, in his own city, in his own house, yet at the name of the Nazarene carpenter’s son every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Lowly Nazarene (by William Henry Gardner, 1866-1932).
1. Jesus knows earth’s cares and sorrows,
Through Death’s valley has He been,
At the bench He toiled and suffered,
Christ, the “Lowly Nazarene.”
On Him you can ever lean,
He knows all our hopes and longings,
Christ, the “Lowly Nazarene.”
Freely as unto a Queen,
For His love indeed is boundless,
Christ, the “Lowly Nazarene.”
Lord of earth and sky forever,
Christ, the Lord, with pow’r supreme!
Born of woman in a manger,
Once a “Lowly Nazarene.”
We see Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God who made
himself of no reputation, lower than the angels for the suffering of death –
the death we deserved and his death that paid the penalty for sin. With the songwriter
Charles H. Gabriel, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.”
Amen.
[ii] Some mythicists (people who think that Jesus never existed) place high stock in the fact of lack of prior mention, hoping to use it to support their own myth. However, neither faith nor facts support their diversion. In 2009, Israeli archaeologists found what they believed were the remains of a dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated to the time of Jesus. Archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that their finds suggested that Nazareth was a small out-of-the-way city populated by Jews of modest means. See “Nazareth dwelling discovery may shed light on boyhood of Jesus,” as well as “Did First-Century Nazareth Exist” and “Jesus’ House? 1st-Century Structure May Be Where He Grew Up.”
[iii] For four uses of netzer (sprout, shoot, branch) in Old Testament, see Isaiah 11:1; 14:19; 60:21; Daniel 11:7.
[iv] Old Testament in Matthew, Volume I, J. W. Griffith, Pasadena, TX: White Printing, 1994, p. 28.
[v] De Pomis, 1525-after 1593, a notable Italian Jewish physician and philosopher, in Ẓemaḥ Dawid (i.e., The Offspring of David), Hebrew Lexicon, fol. 141. 2., 1587.
[vi] Nazarene – an inhabitant of the village of Nazareth. This has been often confused with Nazarite. A common misreading or misinterpretation of “Nazarene” is that it means “Nazarite.” However, Matthew does not say Nazarite, and Jesus was not a Nazarite.
[vii] Followers of the Nazarene were sometimes called Nazarenes. “For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:” (Acts 24:5). In addition, sometimes “Christians are called Notzrim by Israelis in the Middle East.” See “Jesus “the Nazarene” – what is behind the title?”
[viii] Et veniens habitavit in civitate, quae vocatur Nazareth ut adimpleretur quod dictum est per prophetas, quoniam Nazareus vocabitur. Si fixum de Scripturis posulsset exemplu, numquam diceret, quod dictum est per prophetas; sed simpliciter, quod dictum est per prophetam: nune autem pluraliter prophetas vocans, ostendit se non verba de Scripturis sumpsisse, sed sensum. Nazaraeus, sanctus interpretatur. Sanctum autem Dominum futurum, omnis Sciptura commemorat. Possumus et aliter dicere, quod etiam verbis, juxta Hebraicam veritstem in Isaia scriptum sit: Esiet virga de radice Iesse, et Nazaraeus de radice ejus conscendet (Isai. xi. i.). | English translation: And coming, he dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. If he had asked for a fixed example from the Scriptures, he would never have said what was said through the prophets; but simply, what was said by the prophet: but now, calling the prophets in the plural, he shows that he did not take the words from the Scriptures, but the sense. A Nazarene, the Spirit interpreted. And all the Scriptures mention the coming of the Holy Lord. We can also say in another way, that even in words, according to the Hebrew truth, it is written in Isaiah: A rod shall come from the root of Jesse, and a Nazarene shall come up from his root. (Isai. xi. i.). Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew.
[ix] Barnes sums up the view of Jesus the Nazarene as one despised in four points: 1. He does not say “by the prophet,” as in Matthew 1:22; Matthew 2:5, Matthew 2:15, but “by the prophets,” meaning no one particularly, but the general character of the prophecies. 2. The leading and most prominent prophecies respecting him were, that he was to be of humble life; to be despised and rejected. 3. The phrase “he shall be called” means the same as he shall be. 4. The character of the people of Nazareth was such that they were proverbially despised and contemned, John 1:46; John 7:52. To come from Nazareth, therefore, or to be a Nazarene, was the same as to be despised, or to be esteemed of low birth; to be a root out of dry ground, having no form or comeliness. This was what had been predicted by all the prophets.
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