When the child-murderer Herod was dead, Joseph the foster-father of Jesus was visited in Egypt by an angel. The glorious messenger reassured him that it was now safe for the little family to return to Israel. And so they came and would have taken up residence in Judea, probably in Bethlehem the city of Joseph’s royal ancestor. Did Joseph and Mary decide that Judea and Jerusalem would be the proper home for the “Son of the Highest” ? Here he could converse with noted rabbis and attend the best traditional schools. Here he could celebrate all the feasts in the shadow of the Temple. Here he could have the “best” opportunities and meet the “best” people.
It was the common feeling of the Pharisees of Judea—among others—that Judea was the “holy place” and Galilee was at best the “court of the Gentiles”—an out-of-the-way, backward place of little consequence, only marginally related to the divine worship. And so it must have been with some surprise that Joseph heard the divine command turning himself and his dependents toward 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” (Matt. 2:23).
This is a passage of some difficulty, inasmuch as there is no such direct statement in any prophetic Scripture. But it is unlikely that Matthew would quote with authority any non-canonical source; so the answer must be there, in the pages of the Bible!
Let us note two comparatively minor points first of all:
- Which was spoken” : The stress on “spoken” here would imply something not written, perhaps a well-known (at the time) oral prophecy given by Isaiah or some other prophet. (“Nazareth Revisited”, 1968 edition, P. 74)
But we should expect that in the written word we will find at least a general confirmation of this theme of the “Nazarene” to explain why Matthew even mentioned it at all. - “He shall be called . . ” is really a Hebrew idiom signifying “He shall be . . . ” “Nazarene” was not to be the literal name of Jesus any more than was “Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14), “Wonderful, Counselor, etc.” (Isa. 9:6), or “Branch” (Jer. 23:6). All these “names”, as a matter of fact, are to be understood as divine descriptions, each one telling us something more of the Messiah’s character. (“The Christadelphian”, Vol. 66, P. 504)
- A Nazarene is not a Nazarite! The two words are distinctly different in the Hebrew and the Greek. Also, Christ drank wine and touched the dead; holiness and separation he exemplified, certainly, but it was of a different and a higher order than that of the legal Nazarite.
- The name “Nazareth” is from the Hebrew “netzer”, meaning primarily “to preserve or protect.” Certainly the child Jesus was providentially protected from the wrath of Herod, and indeed from all harm later—until the appointed time for his deliverance into the hands of wicked men.
As a noun, “netzer” means a new plant, or sucker, which springs from an old root. (“Nazareth Revisited”, P. 75; “Story of the Bible”, Vol. 8, P. 44; “Testimony”, Vol. 20, P. 295) The word is translated “Branch” in Isa. 11:1—a branch sprung up from the old root of Jesse. (Jesse is mentioned here, and not David, since at the time of the birth of Jesus the once-prominent house of David had returned to relative obscurity and poverty where it had been before David’s reign.)
In Isaiah 11 we read that this “netzer” was to receive the spirit of wisdom, that he might judge the poor and the meek of the earth (Vv. 2,4). He was in fact to be the champion of all the weak ones of creation, causing the lamb and the calf and the baby to dwell at peace among their natural predators (Vv. 6-8). Furthermore, this “netzer”, this root of Jesse, was to be the ensign or rallying standard for the Gentiles (!) and the outcasts (!) of Israel (Vv. 10,12). Apparently this fellow was not to be the product nor the friend of the “privileged class”, but instead a friend of the friendless, a defender of the defenseless! Certainly not much like the ordinary run of lords and kings!
Other Old Testament prophecies refer to Christ as the “Branch” (though this is the different word “tsemach”), with much the same emphasis—as the Saviour of the weak and oppressed, for he had once been weak and oppressed himself:
Jer 23:5,6; 33:14-16: Here certain shepherds have persecuted and scattered the defenseless flocks, but the good shepherd named the “Branch” will gather the frail remnant and they shall fear no more.
Zec h. 3:8; 6:12: In these passages the man Joshua, clothed with filthy garments, an object of ridicule and rejection, is typically cleansed and elevated —and given the prophetic name “my servant the Branch.”
(3) Nazareth was a city of poor repute a despised place. It was virtually a proverb in Israel: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) For that matter, all of Galilee was a poor and dirty place in the eyes of the elite. It was a “dry ground” (Isa. 53:2) from which no good plant could shoot forth:
“Shall Christ come out of Galilee? . . . Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:41,42, 52).
Solomon cared little for Galilee; he gladly gave away twenty cities thereof to Hiram of Tyre as wages. (Is this part of the reason for the common name “Galilee of the Gentiles —Isa 9 1,2) Hiram promptly protested, naming them ‘ Cabul or dirty and displeasing (1 Kings 9 11-13) Apparently they were of little value to him, for we read in a parallel passage that he soon returned them to Solomon (2 Chron 8 2) And so the despised cities of Cabul or Galilee became a fitting symbol of the Jew again Truly he was a Nazarene
Any Bible student will readily acknowl edge this general theme of the Scriptures —the Messiah as a suffering servant, a man of sorrows, despised and rejected, the embodiment of all that the Jews saw in Nazareth and Galilee Particularly is this evident in
Psa 22 6,7 ‘A worm and no man
Psa 69 7,8 A stranger or alien to my brethren
Isa 53 2,3 A root ( shoresh ) out of a thy ground
In the fullest and most meaningful sense He was a Nazarene And we can only bow in wonder at the great love and wisdom of the Father who provided for our salvation such a Son Jesus came to the outcasts and the Samaritans He came to the sinners, bent double with their burdens of sorrows He came to the blind and the lame and the poor and the forgotten And to each of them—and to us —he says,
I know you, you are my brethren Have I not been an outcast, a minority? Have I not been a man of sorrows and grief? Have I not been poor and despised and slandered and for gotten in a tomb of stone ? Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden Come unto me, all you Nazarene’s, you Galileans, and I will give you rest
Behold this man of Nazareth Let our concluding prayer be in the words of Bro L G Sargent
Lord, let me learn thy sorrow, mark thy pain
That no more heedless through the world I roam,
But come to take the pardon thou didst gain,
And find within thy fold eternal home
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One