"he Shall Be Called A Nazarene"

[kafka]

Here is a little something I wrote last night for those interested (I might blog it):

Mathew was a Jew who lived in Galilee. With his people in mind he presented his Gospel in light of the Old Testament, thus he would often demonstrate Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture prophecy. For example:

{4:13} And leaving behind the city of Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, near the sea, at the borders of Zebulun and of Naphtali,
{4:14} in order to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
{4:15} “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:
{4:16} A people who were sitting in darkness have seen a great light. And unto those sitting in the region of the shadow of death, a light has risen.”

This prophecy was revealed by God to Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus literally fulfilled it by moving into the city of Capernaum.

Now in the second chapter of Mathew the event of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt is described. Then after Herod died an Angel instructed Joseph to take Jesus and Mary back into Israel, yet Joseph was afraid to move back into Judea because Archelaus (Herod's son" reigned there, and so after another warning in a dream He settled the Holy Family in the northern region of Israel in a city called Nazareth. Mathew in his characteristic style of demonstrating Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy describes it as follows:

{2:23} And arriving, he lived in a city which is called Nazareth, in order to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “For he shall be called a Nazarene.”

This verse presents a small problem. In the Old Testament 'Nazareth' or 'Nazarene' is not explicitly mentioned anywhere whatsoever. Yet Sacred Scripture (both Old and New Testaments) is inspired by God, and by being inspired by God it is thereby inerrant, since God is Truth. Inerrancy and inspiration are inseparable. Inerrancy proceeds from inspiration, therefore anything inspired by God cannot contradict itself otherwise it would in fact be errant. Thus it is the duty of the Faithful in general especially theologians and scripture scholars to clarify seeming contradictions in the Bible (and not use them to disprove God's infallible words).

I would suggest that Nazareth and Nazarene is implied in the Old Testament. Saint Jerome and Eusebius seem to have shared the same idea since they came up with the speculation that Nazareth is derived from the Hebrew word 'neser' which means "a shoot" thus they linked the Mathew's prophetic reference to Isaiah 11:1, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root." In the Latin Vulgate the Hebrew neser is translated as flos meaning flower. Although this verse surely is a prophetic reference to Christ this view fails to convince me since it only refers to one verse in the Old Testament whereas Mathew mentions prophets in the plural form meaning that it is mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament by more than one prophet that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

There is another speculation that the towns name may be derived from or had some relationship with the name Nazarite which refers to a certain ritual that certain Israelites took vows and followed certain rituals. Since Mathew lived
in Capernaum of Galilee near the town Nazareth perhaps it was common knowledge that Nazareth was derived from Nazarite and so for Mathew Nazarite and Nazarene may have been interchangeable. And he under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit made a correct interpretation since Nazarites are clearly a foreshadowing of Christ as was Samson:

[Judges]
{13:5} For you shall conceive and bear a son, whose head no razor shall touch. [b]For he shall be a Nazirite of God[/b], from his infancy and from his mother’s womb. And he shall begin to free Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
{13:6} And when she had gone to her husband, she said to him: “A man of God came to me, having the countenance of an Angel, exceedingly terrible. And when I had inquired of him, who he was, and where he was from, and what name he was called, he was not willing to tell me.
{13:7} But he responded: ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. And you shall not consume anything unclean. [b]For the boy shall be a Nazirite of God[/b] from his infancy, from his mother’s womb, even until the day of his death.’ ”

These verses refer to an Angel appearing to the woman who would bear Samson as her son. Notice how "For he shall be a Nazirite of God" and "For the boy shall be a Nazirite of God" bear a resemblance to Mathew's "For he shall be called a Nazarene."

Also, in Jacob's prophetic discourse about the twelve tribes, Christ may be interpreted as the Nazarite:

[Genesis]
{49:26} The blessings of your father are strengthened by the blessings of his fathers, until the desire of the hills of eternity shall arrive. May they be at the head of Joseph, and at the summit of the Nazarite, among his brothers.

The Nazarites are mentioned in other verses of Scripture. On account of this speculative coherence between Nazareth possibly being derived from Nazarite, Mathew having lived in Galilee close to the town of Nazareth, and the Old Testament verses referring to the Nazarites in general as a foreshadowing or type of Christ, Samson as a type of Christ and Jacob's prophetic discourse it seems to me that this view clarifying the seeming contradiction is the more convincing of the two.

Edited February 26, 2009 by kafka

[kafka]

I added a few more points, polished up the grammar and syntax errors and published it on my blog:

[url="http://greatcatholicmonarch.blogspot.com/2009/02/he-shall-be-called-nazarene.html"]http://greatcatholicmonarch.blogspot.com/2...d-nazarene.html[/url]

I noticed in the above post I spelled Matthew wrong. I've had the habit of leaving out one of the 't's all my life. I forgive myself though since I was writing at two in the morning

Hope everyone has made a good start to Lent!