Quote:
Originally Posted by jambo  Matthew 2 records the fulfilment of four OT prophecies. The first three are clear enough but what prophet states the Christ would be a Nazarene? | It was the view of the early Church father Jerome (347-420) that Matthew was making reference to the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1: Quote: |
Once more it is written in the pages of the same evangelist, “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.” Let these word fanciers and nice critics of all composition tell us where they have read the words; and if they cannot, let me tell them that they are in Isaiah. For in the place where we read and translate, “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots,” in the Hebrew idiom it is written thus, “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a Nazarene shall grow from his root.” How can the Septuagint leave out the word ‘Nazarene,’ if it is unlawful to substitute one word for another? It is sacrilege either to conceal or to set at naught a mystery. See NPNF2: Vol. 6, Epistle 57, To Pammachius.
| Later, while referring back to this letter to Pammachius, Jerome wrote in his work Against Rufinus: Quote: |
I composed recently the book De optimo genere interpretandi, in which I pointed out that the following passages taken from the Gospel are found in the books of the Hebrews: ‘I called my son out of Egypt’; and : ‘For he shall be called a Nazarene’; . . . See Fathers of the Church, Vol. 53, Saint Jerome: Dogmatic and Polemical Works, The Apology Against the Books of Rufinus, section 27 (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1949), p. 151. Footnote 114 on this page reads: “Matt. 2.23. This is quoted from Isa. 11.1.”
| As a result of independent studies and exegetical investigation, others have reached the conclusion of Jerome: Quote: |
Nu 24:17 and Isa 11:1 together were already known to Matthew who refers to the latter at the end of his birth narrative (2:23): “In order to fulfill what was said through the prophets, that he should be called a Nazarene” (ο Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται). Matthew here refers to the Hebrew text of Isa 11:1 which contains the term Ne͂ser, translated in the LXX with ανθος. See Helmut Koester, Ancient Christian Gospels: Their History and Development (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1990), p. 384.
| Harrison likewise connects Matt. 2:23 with Is. 11:1, adding the predictions of Jer. 23:5, Zech. 3:8, and 6:12 as well (See Everett F. Harrison, A Short Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., reprinted 1979), pp. 55-56.). Interestingly enough, in a recent Roman Catholic periodical, mention is made of the connection between Matthew 2:23 and Isaiah 11:1: Quote: |
Qumran Covenanters and early Christians alike expected the fulfillment of OT predictions in their movements, which they believed were “in the last time.” Ne͂ser, for its part means “sapling, scion” (Isa. 11:1). The Dead Sea Scrolls use this term for “the scion of David” in 2 Sam 7:11-14 (4qflor 1:10-12) and Gen 49:10 (4Q252 = the Genesis pesher), while the NT uses it of Jesus (Rom 15:12; Rev. 5:5; Matt 2:23). Jesus “the Nazarene” in Matt 2:23 and “the Nazarenes” in Acts 24:5 are intended to connect Jesus with the ne͂ser in Isa 11:1. See Old Testament Abstracts, published by The Catholic Biblical Association, Vol. 22, No. 3, October 1999, pp. 501-502.
| I did some research on this because it is often assumed and asserted by Roman apologists, without explanation or proof, that this text refers to a prophecy preserved purely by oral tradition outside of the non-canonical Old Testament Scriptures. Matthew 2:23 is one of their favorite examples for appeal to oral tradition that was preserved orally prior to the Gospel narratives.
DTK
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Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
David T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.
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