{"id":8248,"date":"2020-05-15T16:16:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=8248"},"modified":"2020-05-15T16:16:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:16:22","slug":"matthew-223-didnt-matthew-make-a-mistake-by-claiming-a-prophecy-that-is-not-found-in-the-ot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/matthew-223-didnt-matthew-make-a-mistake-by-claiming-a-prophecy-that-is-not-found-in-the-ot\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 2:23\u2014Didn\u2019t Matthew make a mistake by claiming a prophecy that is not found in the OT?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“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.<\/span>” (Matt 2:23)”<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong> Matthew claims that Jesus moved to Nazareth to live, in order \u201cthat it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene\u201d (Matt. 2:23<\/a>). However, no such prophecy is found in any OT prophet. Did Matthew make a mistake?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> Matthew did not say that any particular OT \u201cprophet\u201d (singular) stated this. He simply affirmed that the OT \u201cprophets\u201d (plural) predicted that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. So we should not expect to find any given verse, but simply a general truth found in many prophets to correspond to His Nazarene-like character. There are several suggestions as to how Jesus could have \u201cfulfilled\u201d (brought to completion) this truth.<\/p>\n

Some point to the fact that Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the OT Law (Matt. 5:17\u201318<\/a>; Rom. 8:3\u20134<\/a>), one part of which involved the holy commitment made in the vow of the \u201cNazarite.\u201d The Nazarite took this vow \u201cto separate himself to the Lord\u201d (Num. 6:2<\/a>), and Jesus perfectly fulfilled this. However, the word is different both in Hebrew and Greek, and Jesus never took this particular vow.<\/p>\n

Others point to the fact that Nazareth comes from the basic word netzer (branch). And many prophets spoke of the Messiah as the \u201cBranch\u201d (cf. Isa. 11:1<\/a>; Jer. 23:5<\/a>; 33:15<\/a>; Zech. 3:8<\/a>; 6:12<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Still others note that the city of Nazareth, where Jesus lived, was a despised place \u201con the other side of the tracks.\u201d This is evident in Nathaniel\u2019s response, \u201cCan anything good come out of Nazareth?\u201d (John 1:46<\/a>) In this sense, \u201cNazarene\u201d was a term of scorn appropriate to the Messiah whom the prophets predicted would be \u201cdespised and rejected of men\u201d (Isa. 53:3<\/a>; cf. Ps. 22:6<\/a>; Dan. 9:26<\/a>; Zech. 12:10<\/a>).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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“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.” (Matt 2:23)” Problem: Matthew claims that Jesus moved to Nazareth to live, in order \u201cthat it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall beContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-errors","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}