“Haha! We got you this time you silly Christians! It says in Matthew 2:23 that Jesus moved to Nazareth, so that it would be fulfilled what the prophets said: “He would be called a Nazarene” – but there IS NO such prophesy in all of the Tanakh! And don’t even try to say that it meant that Jesus would take the Nazarite vow, because there’s no such prophesy about the Messiah either, not to mention that Jesus didn’t even keep such a vow… checkmate! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!”
Not so fast there slick. Although it would appear to be a false prophesy, that is simply because of the English translation. If you go back to Hebrew, it makes perfect sense what Matthew is saying (not only were the Gospels written from and to a Jewish audience, but there is some evidence to suggest the Gospel According To Matthew was originally written in Hebrew, not Greek). At any rate, it’s important to see what is being said here.
“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.” ~Matthew 2:23 KJV
First of all, the actual name of the city that Joseph took Mary & Jesus to dwell in is called Natzeret (similar sounding in English, but completely different from Nazareth). Natzeret takes it’s name from the root word Netzer. Ironically, it actually has something to do with ‘roots’. A Netzer is specific type of branch that springs up from an olive tree’s roots, often times away from the original tree. Even if the original tree were cut down (perhaps because it bore no fruit), the Netzer branch can still spring up from the roots of the tree.
The Messiah is often referred to throughout the Tanakh as The Branch (often with all capital letters in the English, BRANCH).
Matthew 2:23 is referring to Isaiah 11:1, which reads:
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:”
The “Branch” in this passage in the Hebrew is: “Netzer“. Hence, Jesus ended up living in Natzeret because He was The Netzer branch prophesied of by the prophet Isaiah.
See the video below by Michael Rood, which explains this and the original Hebrew in fuller detail:
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