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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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The Christmas Prophecy that Isn’t in the Bible (btw God is funny)
Matthew 2
Introduction
What I like about Matthew’s Gospel is that he connects the Old Testament to the New. He’ll include a verse from the Old Testament and say something like, “As the prophet Jeremiah said…” or “As the prophet Isaiah said…” I appreciate that he cites his sources.
Except for that time that, well, he didn’t. And we have no idea where it came from.
It’s in the Christmas story, Matthew chapter 2, where it says in
Verse 23
And he [Jesus] went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
That all sounds fine, except: which prophet said that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene? And it wasn’t just one; Matthew said it was “spoken by the prophets” which means more than one. And yet you can scour your Old Testament and you will never find a single verse that the Christ would be called a Nazarene. In fact, you won’t find a single mention of Nazareth at all.
So what prophecy is Matthew talking about?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s NOT in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 2, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
The Context
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about Matthew’s prophecy that wasn’t in the Bible.
And Merry Christmas everybody! I have a couple of Christmas-themed episodes for you this week and next.
And since this is a prophecy-related episode, I’m also releasing it on my God and His Prophets podcast channel. So Merry Christmas to all of you over there as well!
And since we are in Christmastime, I thought we could look at something weird to do with the Christmas story. There are actually several weird things in the Christmas story, so it was a little harder to narrow it down than you’d think. And as I said, I want to examine where Matthew got this idea that the Messiah would be a Nazarene.
So let’s examine the context first. In the book of Matthew, it tells the story of Jesus’ birth from more of Joseph’s perspective. The book of Luke focuses more on Mary. But in Matthew, we hear how an angel came to Joseph in a dream and warned him that the evil King Herod was going to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem because King Herod didn’t want the Messiah to come. The wise men had been there and they didn’t tell Herod where Jesus was, which ticked him off.
I’ll pick up the story there in
Matthew 2:16-18, and I want you to pay attention to how Matthew cites scripture as he writes His gospel account:
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
We see an example right there of when Matthew cites an Old Testament Scripture. He says it fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, and then he cites Jeremiah 31:15.
So Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt for a little while, until Herod later died and it was safe to come back. When they returned to the land of Israel, they didn’t go back to Bethlehem. They actually went to live in a town called Nazareth. Here’s the story in
Matthew 2:19-23
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
This is probably pretty familiar to you. We have all heard this story before. In fact, if you go back and read it all the way from Matthew 1, you’ll notice a pattern as Matthew constantly cites Scripture as He tells the story, trying to make it clear that Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the future Messiah. He’ll constantly draw our attention back to a prophetic word or a pattern that was established in the Old Testament and how it is fulfilled in Jesus here in the New Testament.
However, this prophecy about Jesus being from Nazareth is a little different. As I said in the opening, you won’t find anywhere in the Old Testament that it talks about Nazareth at all.
The Nazareth Prophecy
So perhaps you’re thinking this: maybe Nazareth had a different name in the Old Testament, and perhaps there was a prophecy about this city under a different name?
And that’s not it. Nazareth was established in the Old Testament time as well under the name Nazareth. It likely existed during the lives of about all the prophets and their writings according to archaeological evidence. It was a tiny city that probably had 200-400 people. So it didn’t have a name-change.
Another possibility I was thinking: could the prophecies about the Messiah coming from Nazareth have originated from outside the Bible? If that idea sounds far-out, we actually saw this in the Book of Jude. It quotes from a prophecy in The Book of Enoch, yet The Book of Enoch is not in what’s called the “canon” of Scripture. So prophecies can come from outside the Bible and I have no theological problem with that concept, especially if the prophecies come true. But is there an extra-biblical prophecy of the Messiah coming from Nazareth or being called a Nazarene? No, there is not.
And I’ll just make one more note for clarification: Being a Nazarene has nothing to do with the Old Testament custom called a Nazirite vow. A Nazarite vow like what Samson took where you don’t cut your hair or drink wine or touch a dead body. That was an optional custom in the Old Testament law, but it’s a different word and has nothing to do with the town of Nazareth.
So where does Matthew get this idea that multiple prophets predicted that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene?
Well this prophecy is unlike any other prophecy in Scripture. In the Bible you have literal fulfillment prophecies. You have typology. You have patterns and you have dual fulfillments. But this one doesn’t fit into any other category. I call it the Pun Prophecy.
And I hate to call it that because I generally hate puns. I think it’s, like, the lowest form of humor. I don’t appreciate puns. Most of the people I know do not appreciate them. When I married my wife, it was under the pretenses that in our house, we do not like puns and we do not eat onions. And 13 years later, those pretenses have proven false. That’s why if you are getting married and you have strong opinions about puns or onions, you probably better just write your own vows and make sure to include that in there. I’m not trying to be overdramatic here but I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips because they eat onions and make puns.
And yet, as much as I hate to say it, God likes puns. God uses puns generously throughout Scripture. We don’t often pick up on them because puns really only work in their original language. Samson used some puns that actually work pretty well in both English and Hebrew. But that’s kid of an exception because Jesus also used a lot of puns and they generally go right over our head. If you read Micah in Hebrew, the whole first chapter is just a series of puns. He’s basically coming out in that book like a stand-up comedian, but of course the humor is lost on us because it doesn’t have the same ring to it in English. So I guess my sense of humor just needs to become more sanctified or something because God apparently likes puns a lot.
And this prophecy that Jesus would be a Nazarene is a pun. It’s not directly stated in the Old Testament. However, there’s a word that’s used in several prophecies about the Messiah called Netzer. The word Netzer is a Hebrew word meaning “branch.” A branch as in a tree branch. One of the big limbs with several small limbs growing off of it. So a branch, or Netzer, is one of those big tree limbs. Here are some places where we see the Messiah being described as a Netzer in the Old Testament:
Isaiah 11:1
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
Or here’s another one, in Zechariah 6:12
And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.
Or Jeremiah 33:15
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
We could also, if we wanted to, find this in Isaiah 4:2 as well as Jeremiah 23:5. And for those of you listening on my God and His Prophets podcast, we’ll see it again soon in Zechariah 3:8, which is the chapter we’re in the middle of right now.
So as you can see, “branch” or Netzer is a frequent word used to relate to the upcoming Messiah. So, what is the connection between Netzer and Nazareth? It’s right there in the name. The Hebrew word for Nazareth is Netzeret, So Jesus is the Netzer from Netzeret.
For those of you who are grammar nerds like me, we can dig a little deeper. For those of you who aren’t grammar nerds, you may wanna skip ahead about 45 seconds.
In fact, the word “Nazareth” probably means “the place of the Branch,” because when you put the “et” on the end of Netzer, it means “the place of.” We have this in English with the suffix “-stead.” It means “the place of.”
This comes up in a few different city names as well. There’s a Homestead, Florida. Homestead means “the place of your home.” There’s Hampstead, England, which means the same thing. There’s Armistead, California, which means “the place of the hermit.” And Hempstead, New York, which means “the place of Snoop Dawg.”
So Netzeret is “the place of the Branch.” So it actually makes perfect sense that the Messiah who is called “The Branch” would come from there, even though the Old Testament never outright says “The Messiah will be called a Nazarene.”
It’s just a pun. To me, it is literally God trying to be funny. But it’s harder for us to see the comedy in it because we read it in English.
I’ll try to come up with a modern equivalent, if we can just pretend for a minute that the Bible was written in English. I grew up near a town called Goodman. I didn’t grow up in Goodman, I grew up in the middle of the woods in the middle of a county in the middle of nowhere. But about 10 miles away was the closest town called Goodman. Now imagine if the Messiah had come from a town called Goodman, and everybody is like, “The Messiah was a resident of little old Goodman?” And God is like, “Well yeah, didn’t I always say He would be a ‘Good Man’?”
See, that would be funny. Even though it’s a pun. I’d probably be giving God a high-five for that one. God is actually very funny. He actually invented humor, He invented words and language, and God invented puns. But don’t try to tell me He invented onions, too. I believe those came after the fall.
Mailbag
And that’s your explanation of the Nazarene prophecy. That’s really all there is to it. I don’t really know what you call it; we can call it the Branch Prophecy if you want, or the Pun Prophecy, or the Here a Little, There a Little prophecy, since it’s just kind of scattered around the Bible.
The Bible is a very interconnected book. A lot of doctrine and ideas are not located in just one place, but kind of strategically scattered throughout and intermingled. And God wants us to understand His Word by doing a lot of reading and study and going here a little and there a little and cross referencing and putting pieces together… And no prophecy really showcases that idea better than this one right here: that Jesus would be a Netzer from Netzeret.
So perhaps you’re looking at the time and saying: if this is the end of the study, why are there still 6 or 7 minutes left? With the time we have today, I just want to get through a few mailbag submissions. I’ve heard from many many many listeners over the past couple weeks. I try to respond to each person individually the best I can. If someone takes the time to write me a paragraph or two, I want to honor that and take the time to write back a paragraph or two. I probably spend too much time writing back with all the emails I’ve gotten, as if I let them go a few days without catching up, it can take me an hour or so to get caught back up. And I’ll try to respond to a few here. It felt like everyone used their Thanksgiving break to write in.
First of all, it was great to hear from many of you over the holiday including some new official weirdos Amber, to Heidi, to Ellie, to Jeff, to Tracy, to Eugene, to Trini, to Mark in Wichita Falls, TX, to Tim in the United Kingdom, and to Reed in TN who shot me an email just before I started recording. Also to Joey, who sent this message last month that I found very encouraging:
I have listened to all your episodes from way back and look forward to the next. Just wanted to let you know that the episode of binding and loosing really spoke to me and I had an addiction for years and I studied and prayed the prayer of loosen the spirit and bind it and haven’t even thought about the addiction for weeks now God works even through your podcast
I wanted to share that message because I have also found the binding and loosing prayers extremely effective. If anyone out there isn’t praying prayers of binding and loosing, I’d encourage you to check out episode 52 which I did about a year ago. And you can find out more in episodes 73 and 77.
To go back to Heidi for a minute, I also really liked this message from her:
Because of your podcast I’ve been digging deep myself into the Greek and Hebrew meanings behind scripture and learning for myself what God is saying instead of letting someone else’s view lead me astray. (And then she said in a follow-up email) It’s amazing how all these crazy things exist and have existed but right now in time everyone is pretending they are normal and spirit beings don’t exist and miracles don’t happen. I think science is man’s way of explaining God creation just giving it a new name as to remove anything miraculous.
I echo these sentiments she shared. The deception of modern times in the Western World is downplaying the supernatural. The skeptical mindset. The need to try to explain everything in a scientific way, and that if you can, it means the supernatural realm isn’t real. What I find- especially in some of the episodes just lately- is that there’s a lot of things we can observe in the physical realm- things like sicknesses- that might have supernatural causes. Just because you can point to a physical issue doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t a supernatural issue as well.
One more thing: I received a very kind message from Ellie and tried to reply, but it appears she entered her email wrong on the website form so I wasn’t able to reply. But Ellie, I have been praying for you since I got that email and if anyone else out there has a prayer request, I’d be willing to add it to my prayer list this month. I don’t need a long story, and my prayers don’t mean more than anybody else’s but I’d be honored to pray for you if you need support in anything.
Next Time
For anyone who wants to write in, it’s weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com.
One thing I always like to learn when you write is how you came across the podcast. I don’t really do any marketing on the podcast, so I’m always curious how people came across it so I can know what kinds of things work.
The only marketing I do is that I sometimes leave these little business cards with a QR code when I’m on a trip somewhere. And if you’re listening because you found one of those cards somewhere, I’d really really like to know because I’m always wondering about who comes across those. But other than that, I don’t do any marketing or anything, so next time you write in- or even if you’ve written in before- I’d love to hear how you originally found this podcast or what episode you first clicked on.
Next time on this podcast, we’ll go into another Christmas oddity. I have two ideas I’m batting around in my head, so I won’t say which one I’ll go with now. And then in two weeks- it will actually be December 24- Christmas Eve- so I won’t have a new episode that Wednesday.
But if you wanna get next week’s episode, and the dinosaur episode coming up at the end of the month, make sure you’re subscribed!
Closing Thoughts
And one more thing I’ll mention is that there’s a new article on the website called: Will the Antichrist Prevail over the Saints? This content was previously in a newsletter episode. I break down a few eschatological categories and talk about why Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, yet the Bible also says that the Antichrist will prevail over the saints and even conquer them. How do we make sense of all that? You can check out that article on the home page of my website: WeirdStuffInTheBible.com
So if you think making puns is weird, it’s actually holy, so I hope you’ll be a little more holy today, too. Just don’t do it around me. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.