Friday, May 17, 2002
He will be called a Nazarene?
While reading Matt 2, I run into the last verse (Matt 2:23):
There [Joseph] settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way, the words spoken through the prophets were thought to be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.
My New Jerusalem Bible did not contain any back-references to the OT for this prophecy, so I decided to hunt a little more. This is what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have to say on this:
Nazareth . . . he shall be called a Nazorean: the tradition of Jesus' residence in Nazareth was firmly established, and Matthew sees it as being in accordance with the foreannounced plan of God. The town of Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, and no such prophecy can be found there. The vague expression "through the prophets" may be due to Matthew's seeing a connection between Nazareth and certain texts in which there are words with a remote similarity to the name of that town. Some such Old Testament texts are Isaiah 11:1 where the Davidic king of the future is called "a bud" (neser) that shall blossom from the roots of Jesse, and Jdgs 13:5,7 where Samson, the future deliverer of Israel from the Philistines, is called one who shall be consecrated (a nazir) to God.
posted by Kensy |
11:33 PM
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