Monday, October 2, 2023

R. Reed Lessing and Andrew E. Steinmann on Matthew 2:23 and Isaiah 11

  

Isaiah is one of the prophets Matthew is referring to [in Matt 1-2]. Isaiah 11:1 employs the Hebrew term netser, rendered by the ESV as the word branch: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch [netser] from his roots shall bear fruit” (emphasis added). Netser is a wordplay on Nazareth. Nathanael echoes the sentiments of many people of his day regarding this little out-of-the-way village: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46). Connect Nathanael’s disdain together with these words: “For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Is 53:2-3). How do these verses relate to Nazareth? Nazareth was despised and rejected by people. So was the Messiah—and then some, ultimately, at the cross of Calvary. He would be called a Nazarene. (R. Reed Lessing and Andrew E. Steinmann, The Messianic Message: Predictions, Patterns, and the Presence of Jesus in the Old Testament [St. Louis, Miss.: Concordia Publishing House, 2023], 163-64, emphasis in original)

 

Blog Archive