Which Prophecy was Matthew 2 v23 refering to?

Answer 1

Quick referenceMatthew 2:23, 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. Mat 2:23 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.

Just as the region of Galilee was regarded as 'hillbilly country' by the Jews in Jerusalem and the Galileans as 'country hicks' or 'grass seeds' , so was Nazareth and its inhabitants (Nazarenes) regarded.

(Do not confuse 'Nazarene' and 'Nazarite' ; John the Baptist was a Nazarite from conception, but he was not from Nazareth so he was not a Nazarene. A Nazarite couldn't have wine or strong drink:-

Num 6:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:

Num 6:3 He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.

Num 6:4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

Luk 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

Luk 1:14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. Luk 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. )

Just as a Nazareth and the Nazarenes were despised, so was Jesus Christ:-

Joh 1:43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

Joh 1:44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Joh 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Joh 1:46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Thus, Matthew would have been referring to the following prophecies:-

Psa 22:6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Psa 22:7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

Psa 22:8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Isa 49:7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Nowhere. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and dwelt and have his own house in Capernaum, (MT 4:13) not Nazareth. The Hebrew adjunct ENE refers to the place of birth not the place of domicile. The name Mary Magdalene means Mary of Magdala, the place she was born..

ANSWER

It comes from Isaiah 11:1 in the original HEBREW scriptures known as the 'Tanakh' . See the following quote.

Jerome says that Isa 11:1 is the Old Testament prophecy: "Once more it is written in the pages of the same evangelist, "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." Let these word fanciers and nice critics of all composition tell us where they have read the words; and if they cannot, let me tell them that they are in Isaiah. For in the place where we read and translate, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots," in the Hebrew idiom it is written thus, "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a Nazarene shall grow from his root." " (Jerome, Letter 47:7)

[Quote From Article "Extra-Biblical Oral Tradition Arguments Refuted:

Refutation of the false Catholic & Orthodox tradition argument

Point (3) @ "The Interactive Bible" ]

Answer 2

Matthew's Gospel explains (Matthew 2:23) that after the flight to Egypt, the young family did not return to their former home in Bethlehem but instead turned aside and travelled to Galilee, where they settled in Nazareth, thereby fulfilling a prophecy that Jesus be called a Nazarene: "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."
Scholars have long noted that there is no prophecy anywhere in the Old Testament that could associate Jesus with being called a Nazarene. With further research on the history of the gospels, we now know that Matthew was largely based on Mark's Gospel. Mark, in the original Greek, does not refer to 'Jesus of Nazareth' (as he is described in the later gospels) , but frequently refers to him as a 'Nazarene' (Ναζαρηνοῦ - although most English translations change this to 'of Nazareth' in line with the other gospels). So, when the author of Matthew wrote of prophets having called Jesus a Nazarene, his source was Mark's Gospel.