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Mat 2:23. Ἑλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς, he came to and took up his abode at) [E. V., he came and dwelt at], i.e., he came to dwell at, or he dwelt at. The same mode of expression occurs at ch. Mat 4:13. Thus, IN Gen 13:18, the LXX. have ἐλθὼν κατώκησε περὶ τὴν δρῦν, he came and dwelt by the oak.-Ναζαρέτ, Nazareth) In Hebrew, נזרת. The final ת is rendered in Greek by T.-Ναζωραῖος, a Nazarene) Our Lord spent His private life-that is, by far the greatest portion of His years-in the town of Nazareth, from whence the surname of Nazarene was given to Him in the common speech of men, whether devoted or hostile to Him, and in the title on the cross. This is what the prophecy here cited by St Matthew had long ago intimated. Some seek for the whole force of this prediction in an allegorical interpretation of the etymology of the word Nazareth; and this indeed should clearly be sought for in נזר, a diadem, etc., not from נצר, to keep or hide,[105] which Jewish animosity employs maliciously; for the Hebrew צ (Tzade) is always rendered by the Greek Σ (Sigma), whereas the Greek Ζ (Zeta) universally corresponds to the Hebrew ז (Zayin), as it does also in the word Ναζωραῖος. This rule is universal, which no one can rightly oppose without bringing forward examples to the contrary. Consider what the sound and learned Hiller says on this subject, Syntagm. hermen. p. 347, etc., and Onom. Sacr., pp. 695, 701, 893; and compare his remarks with I. H., a Seelen,[106] medit. exeg., p. 632. This belongs to the etymology of the name Nazareth; it does not, however, establish the allegory. For neither is there any reason why we should ascribe the character of a Levitical Nazarite to Christ (see Mat 11:19), nor why we should think that the scope of the prophecy is exhausted by any signification of the word NZR, נזר.
[105] See Pro 7:10, where a harlot is spoken of as נְצורַת לֵב, subtle of heart.-(I. B.)
[106] JOHN HENRY A SEELEN, an historian and philologist of the Academy of Lubeck, born in the year 1688. He published his Meditationes Exegeticœ at Lubeck, 1732.-(I. B.)
It was predicted by Micah, that Christ should go forth from Bethlehem: Bethlehem, בֵּית לֶחֶם, signifies house of bread, and Christ is the Bread of Life. But who would have said that the prophecy of Micah was fulfilled by Christ being the bread of life? We know that the town where Christ was born was intended by the prophecy; in like manner, the town where He grew up; and the common surname which thence arose was indicated by the prediction, Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται,” “He shall be called a Nazarene:” and therefore the particle ὅτι[107] is prefixed by the evangelist, as is the custom in citing testimonies. Although at what time that prophet flourished by whom this prediction was uttered; whether the town of Nazareth, of which no other mention occurs in the Old Testament, was then of any account or not; whether that prophet was himself a Nazarene, and deposited this remarkable verse at Nazareth, or whether he left it to posterity, conveyed by word of mouth alone, or also committed to writing,[108] whence St Matthew obtained it, who knows? what signifies it to know? In heaven, some stars illumine either hemisphere, some both, some have various risings and settings; on earth, rivers sometimes withdraw themselves from the sight of men, until by hidden ways they reach the place where they again burst forth. Thus the Divine Oracles are dispensed with admirable variety; a singular example of which is afforded by the passage in St John, concerning the three who bear witness in heaven, of which the Eastern Church was for many ages in ignorance, whilst the Western and African Churches maintained it always, though not everywhere. This prediction, indeed, He shall be called a Nazarene, was not known or understood by most persons; otherwise Galilee and Nazareth itself would not have been so much despised (see Joh 1:47; Joh 7:52). And, rightly, many have long since denied that this verse exists in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Its condition, therefore, is the same as that of the prophecy of Enoch, introduced at length by St Jude into the Scriptures of the New Testament, and thus stamped with the seal of inspiration; the same as that of the apothegm, which, though delivered by our Lord, does not occur in the Gospels, but is quoted by the mouth of St Paul, and the pen of St Luke, Act 20:35. Nor have the Jews any ground of accusation, because anything is quoted in the New Testament which does not exist in the Old; for they relate many ancient things which equally are not to be found there. Where lay hid the Proverbs of Solomon from ch. Mat 25:1; the prophecy of Azariah (2Ch 15:2, etc.); the epistle of Elijah (2Ch 21:12), until they were inserted in the books of the Old Testament, many ages after they were delivered? Certainly, there was no sufficient reason why St Matthew should frame[109] this, if it had been a perfect novelty in his own time. By such a proceeding, he would have more injured than advantaged the whole Christian cause. He had sufficiently numerous examples of prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth without this. Those who interpret this important verse more vaguely, so as to make out that it is contained here or there in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, in truth take away one from the ancient prophecies; whereas those who consider ΤῸ ΡΗΘῈΝ (that which was uttered), “He shall he called a Nazarene,” to have been expressly uttered of old, recognise a homogeneous portion of the entire testimony of prophecy, and thus in truth maintain the integrity and defend the simplicity of Scripture (Cf. Calovius’s Biblia Illustrata, and Rus’s[110] Harmonia Evangelistarum, p. 284). WHO was to have the surname of Nazarene, is not added in the verse: for wherever anything occurs in the prophecies which is not foreign to the Messiah, that should be understood of the Messiah, although there be no express mention of His name. It is, however, probable that more words than these two may have existed together with them in a very short prediction. The long concealment of this monument of antiquity was agreeable to the manner of Christ’s private life, spent in the retirement of Nazareth, and calculated to try the faith of saints, and condemn the falsehood of sinners. (See Joh 1:46, etc., and Joh 7:41, etc.)
[107] The literal meaning of ὅτι is that; but in cases like the present it has, by the Greek idiom, merely the force which inverted commas have in English.-(I. B.)
[108] For the prophets have uttered many things which were not inserted in their public writings.-B. G. V.
[109] i.e., It would serve no purpose to insert this prediction, if it had been a mere figment.-(I. B.)
[110] JOHN REINHARD RUS, a learned Lutheran divine of the eighteenth century. The title of the work is “Harmonia Evangelistarum, ita adornata, ut investigatâ, sedulò textus cohærentiâ, nullus versus, sive trajiciatur, sive prætereatur sine brevi ac succinctâ explicatione, quæ justi commentarii loco esse queat.” Jenæ 1727-1730.-(I. B.)
Now that we have proved that the peculiar and primary force of the name Nazarene, is to be found in the town itself of Nazareth, we proceed to lay down as a corollary, that the etymology of the country, and surname of Christ thence derived, is not unimportant. Christ, the Son of David the Bethlehemite, was not called a Bethlehemite: therefore, in the etymology of the town of Bethlehem, a mystery is not equally sought for. Christ was called a Nazarene. This was indeed effected by the discourse of men; but not without the overruling providence of God. It was not by mere accident that Pilate inscribed categorically, in the three cardinal languages, Jesus, King of the Jews, and retained what he had written: it did not by mere accident happen that Pilate at the same time inscribed “THE NAZARENE,” and that others, both before and after, used the expression with reference to our Lord. The names, “JESUS,” “CHRIST,” “EMMANUEL,” etc., intimate, that that which is implied by their sound is actually being exhibited: you would rightly deny that the surname, “Nazarene,” alone should be without a mystical meaning:נזר, a diadem, is the token of a king’s head, and נזרת is, according to Hiller, a town which crowns the summit of a mountain; the name, therefore, of Nazarene, may thus be expressed in German, “ZU CRONBERG HAT DER GECRONTE GEWOHNET,”-“The crowned one hath dwelt on the summit of a hill.”-See Psa 132:18. The names of places are frequently put for the thing itself which is signified: we pass by the Veronenses, Placentini, Laudiceni, of the Latins. The meaning of Scripture is deeper: Simon the Canaanite was also called Zelotes, both from his country and his distinguishing virtue.-See Mat 10:4, and Luk 6:15. See especially Isa 63:1.[111]
[111] Bengel, J. A. (1860). Vol. 1: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (J. Bandinel & A. R. Fausset, Trans.) (81-138). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.