From:  (Nigel B. Mitchell)
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Graeme's 6 points - was The Apocrypha
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 05:24:41 GMT
In relation to the following passage:
(Matthew 2:23 NRSV)  There he made his home in a town called
Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might
be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."
> (Ken Smith) wrote:
>
>>Perhaps Graeme can tell us which of the prophets in *his* collection
>>of canonical writings made this prophecy.
Graeme gave his usual reply to most difficult questions:
>Not really...
According to M. Eugene Boring (what a name for a Bible scholar!)
writing in the New Interpreter's Bible:
 " this formula of quotation ("He will be called a Nazorean.") is
not found in the Old testament, either in the Masoretic Text nor
the Septuagint. Matthew may have been thinking of Isaiah 11:1-16,
where the promised messiah is referred to as a 'branch'
(*nezir*), or confusing the religious order of Nazirites with the
apellation of Jesus as "holy one of God". (page 147)
In an excursus on Matthew's use of scripture, Boring states "The
fact that Jesus came from Nazareth generated a "prediction" in
2:23." (page 154).
John Fenton, in the Penguin commentary on Matthew, is more blunt.
"The source of this prophecy is not known" (page 51) - although
he goes on to say that Isaiah 11:1 is a possibility.
David Hill, in the New Century Bible Commentary on Matthew
consider the two most likely possibilities to be that the phrase
"He will be called a Nazorean."refers to the sect of the
Nazirites, or a pun on the word for 'branch' in Isiah 11:1.
Herman Hendrickx,  in his useful little book "Infancy
Narratives", writes that Matthew definitely understood
*Nazoraios* as an adjective referring to the town of Nazareth,
and no such reference or prophecy appears anywhere in canonical
scripture or surviving apocryphal literature.
---
What are the options here?
1. There was no prophecy "He will be called a Nazorean." Matthew
made it up, because it fitted his narrative and his preconcieved
notion that everything that happened to Jesus was foretold in the
prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures.
2. There was a prophecy "He will be called a Nazorean.", but that
prophecy was in a book or collection of prophecies that were
lost, and not included in the canon of scripture.
3. The autograph of Isaiah 1:1 or some other passage of scripture
actually says "He will be called a Nazorean.", but the text has
become corrupt in between Matthew's time and ours.
If Graeme, or anyone else, can suggest another option, I would be
interested to read it.
Eugene Boring opts for option 1. I would probably tend to go for
2, but allow 1 and 3 as possibilities. The connection with the
Nazirites, and other groups with similar names, seems to be too
far fetched for serious consideration, and in any case, there is
no text in any of the prophets which says "He will be called a
Nazirite." either.
Cheers
N+
Nigel B. Mitchell

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