Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: He Will Be from Nazareth

"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

This Messianic prophecy has no direct counterpart in the Old Testament (TANAKH) and has led some to say it reflects an error in Matthew and others to say that it is a reflection from a lost Jewish scripture. Probably, neither one of these views is correct.

The ancient Jews were zealous, even fierce, protectors of their holy books, and especially the Torah. Hand copies of the books were checked letter by letter for exactness. If any book failed to have the correct word total and letter total, it was discarded. If any one letter was not in the correct sequence, the entire book was discarded. There were no erasers and any corrections or smudges of the letters rendered the books unusable. Because the unusable books were still revered scripture, they were not destroyed, but were placed into sealed chambers (genizah: Hebrew for "hiding place") along with torn or soiled copies and books worn out by constant use. Needless to say, archeologists and biblical scholars jump with joy when one of these chambers is newly discovered.

Back to Matthew 2:23. Instead of a specific “proof text” Old Testament quotation, this verse probably connects the fact that the Nazarenes were held in contempt as unsophisticated country hicks (John 1:46; John 7:52) with the prophecies that the Messiah would be held in contempt (Psalm 22:6-8, 69:9-11, 19-21; Isaiah 53:2-4, 7-9).

This allusion would have been immediately obvious to Matthew’s Jewish readers, even the illiterate ones who had heard the scriptures read thousands of times. It is us modern readers, who don’t really know our Bibles, who have to dig it out. Dinesh D'Souza had it right when he said, "...we live in a religiously illiterate society..."