Posted by Bibleman [Bibleman] on November 16, 1999 at 12:14:45 {pRztWiaeukMSSTtTA17sslyACFuF8c}:
In Reply to: QUESTION FOR BIBLEMAN posted by DaJahVeu on November 16, 1999 at 11:08:54:
Hello Da,
Very interesting question. I don't have any knowledge in particular of a specifically fulfilled prophecy that prophecied that Jesus would be from Nazareth.
But the NWT Reference Bible tends to think it may be a reference to Isaiah 11:1 which says: "And there must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout [branch] will be fruitful."
Of note, several references call Jesus "sprout" so in that sense he is a Nazarene. Nazareth means "branch-town." Thus you could see the play on words since someone from "branch-town", a Nazarene, means a branch or sprout.
Below is the Society's comment on this from the Insight Book which I would generally agree with except for adding that "sprout" is also a eumphemism for a eunuch or an unmarried person, thus you have the contrasting statement in Isa. 11:1 that this "eunuch" would become fruitful, or that a eunuch would have sons, meaning that though Jesus himself was not married on the earth, he would inherit the sons of Adam and thus become the "Eternal Father" in that sense.
So thanks very much, now we know besides Paul and likely John, Jesus apparently was also a eunuch at the time of his First Advent. This wouldn't mean he was actually "born a eunch" like some, or castrated, but that he chose to remain single for the sake of the kingdom. So he qualifies as a eunuch simply by not marrying. Thus the contrasting statement still works that a "eunuch" or a sprout, a person unmarried, would "become fruitful."
And that brings up something else. Nazarene is like "Magdalene". Magda in German means "maid" and that usually means a single girl. So "Mary Magdalene" could have been a reference to a name adopted by single women. Thus the reference to the three different Marys who visited Jesus tomb at three different times under three different circumstances could have simply meant the "Maid Marian", indicating these were among the many Marys in that culture who were single women.
Or, as has been also suggested, in the region of Galilee was a town called Magdala and it could be that these three Marys were from Magdala and so were called Mary the Magdalene. And that reminds me, it is always Mary "THE" Magdalene or THE Magdalene, so it wasn't like a surname as we use today but more like a title.
Anyway (I know, more than you asked for...:>) here's the Society's quote:
*** it-2 476 Nazarene ***Prophetic. Matthew pointed out that the name Nazarene was prophetically foretold as another sign identifying Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. He called this to the attention of his readers when he told how Joseph brought Mary and her child back from Egypt following Herod’s death. “Moreover,” Matthew wrote, “being given divine warning in a dream, he [Joseph] withdrew into the territory of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city named Nazareth, that there might be fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”—Mt 2:19-23.
Nazareth is not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. Some suppose Matthew had reference to some lost prophetic book or some unwritten tradition, but his expression, “spoken through the prophets,” is used by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures only in reference to the same canonical collection of the Hebrew Scriptures we have today. The key to understanding, apparently, lies in equating Nazarene with ne'tser, mentioned above as meaning sprout.
With this in mind, it is evident that Matthew was referring to what Isaiah (11:1) had said concerning Messiah: “There must go forth a twig out of the stump of Jesse; and out of his roots a sprout [we·ne'tser] will be fruitful.” Another Hebrew word, tse'mach, also means sprout and was used by other prophets when referring to the Messiah. Matthew used the plural, saying that “prophets” had mentioned this coming “Sprout.” For example, Jeremiah wrote about the “righteous sprout” as an offshoot of David. (Jer 23:5; 33:15) Zechariah describes a king-priest “whose name is Sprout,” a prophecy that could apply only to Jesus the Nazarene, the great spiritual Temple-builder.—Zec 3:8; 6:12, 13.
Cheers,
Bibleman