Matthew 2:19-23

The Settlement at Nazareth. By Herod's will Archelaus (p. 609) held the title of King till the Emperor Augustus forbade it. In Galilee, another of Herod's sons, Antipas (p. 609), was tetrarch. There is here no thought that Nazareth (p. 29) was Joseph's previous home. He goes there because (a) Judæ a might be dangerous, (b) prophecy must be fulfilled. For Mt. the question of the Messiah's birthplace does not arise; Joseph and Mary live in Bethlehem, and it would be there. Lk.'s knowledge of Nazareth is better than Mt.'s. The closest OT connexion with Matthew 2:23 is that Is., Jer., and Zeph. refer to Messiah as the branch (Nezer) of the house of David. Nazarenes was a contemptuous name given to the early Christians; Mt., to consecrate it, snatches at the faintest prophetic allusion (cf. Acts 2:22 *). It is curious that Nazareth is not mentioned in OT, Josephus, or the Talmud, but that seven miles from the present village there was Bethlehem of Zebulun (Joshua 19:15), called in the Talmud Zoriyah (?=Notzeriyah), i.e. the Nazarene (or Galilean) Bethlehem. Did Jesus really belong to this place? The double name Bethlehem-Nazareth might easily account for the variant tradition as to His birthplace.