Connection
He will be called a Nazarene
Matthew says the prophets foretold that Jesus would be called a Nazarene, yet no verse says so. Whether he means Isaiah's Branch, the despised Messiah, or something else is an honest open question, and FaithGraph says so.
Multiple responsible views exist and are described.
Read the earlier witness
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. Read the later witness
and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. Why FaithGraph draws this line
Matthew 2:23 alludes to Isaiah 11:1.
Matthew says the settlement in Nazareth fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets, that He would be called a Nazarene, but no Old Testament verse contains those words. The most common proposal hears a play on Isaiah's Branch (Hebrew netzer) from the stump of Jesse; others hear the prophets' theme of a despised Messiah, or the Nazirite of Judges 13. FaithGraph records the question as open.
Evidence
Matthew writes prophets in the plural, which may signal a theme rather than a single verse.
Other responsible views
- The Branch of Isaiah 11:1. Nazareth and the Hebrew word for branch, netzer, share consonants; Matthew may be pointing to the Branch from Jesse's stump.
- The despised one. Nazareth was an obscure village, and several prophets speak of a Messiah despised and rejected; Matthew may be summarizing that theme.
- Nazirite. Some connect the word to the Nazirite vow of Judges 13:5, though Jesus was not a Nazirite.
The explanation above is FaithGraph editorial content, not Scripture.