Matthew 2:22-23 and Luke 2:39-40
“Notice what you notice.” Not much to say this morning, since nothing jumped out to me on my own, but there was an explanatory item in my Study Bible. In the NASB and NKVJ translations Matthew 2:23 has in quotation marks, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” The ESV has no source quote: And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. But all three translations have a plural on prophets. In addition, the Study Bible also says that there is no mention of Nazareth in the Old Testament.
It seems that if there were a direct quote there would be no plural on prophet – see Mt. 1:22-23; 2:5-6, 17-18. So where does Matthew get his quote. If we look ahead to John’s Gospel, we find this familiar quote, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) I’m certainly not an Arabic or Greek scholar; I have no idea what punctuation these older writers used for quotations. I can only imagine that Nazareth had something of a seamy reputation in these OT and NT times and that Matthew was simply connecting Jesus to his low-status birth and early life.
Katey was looking ahead yesterday when she mentioned that Joseph had heard from the angel(s) on three occasions in his dreams. Today’s reading had that third occasion. Katey also mentioned that we have an OT Joseph who also was a dreamer. Intriguing!
Blessings!
I was intrigued by the word “Nazareth” too. In searching I found this, and we have definitely heard the Messiah as the branch foretold by the prophets: “Nazareth” may come from the Hebrew “netzer,” which means “branch” or “shoot.”
What hope we have!