Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Seeker2000 · 07-16-2005, 08:23 PM

Now it would be important to find out where the name of the town of Nazareth and the term 'Nazarene' have their origins.

As I have already quoted in the original posting the Catholic Encyclopedia says about Nazareth: "In the manuscripts of the New Testament, the name occurs in a great orthographical variety, such as Nazaret, Nazareth, Nazara, Nazarat, and the like. In the time of Eusebius and St. Jerome (Onomasticon), its name was Nazara (in modern Arabic, en Nasirah), which therefore, seems to be the correct name; in the New Testament we find its derivatives written Nazarenos, or Nazoraios, but never Nazaretaios. The etymology of Nazara is neser, which means 'a shoot'."

So here we have 'neser', but Isa 11:1 uses 'netser'. I found a skeptics' website which says about this issue:

Quote:

The Hebrew word for branch is "netser," and that is where the town of Nazareth got its name, or so they claim. However, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance declares that the name Nazareth is of uncertain derivation, and Eerdmans Bible Dictionary says that the name was derived perhaps from naser, which means watch or neser meaning a sprout or descendent (1987, p. 751).

It would be interesting to know the exact meaning of the Hebrew terms now. As we see so far, 'netser' really means 'branch'. The Blue Letter Bible says about it:
"Root word: from 'natsar' [a primitive root] in the sense of greenness as a striking colour. Outline of Biblical Usage: 1) sprout, shoot, branch (always fig.)"
For 'tsemach' it says:
"from 'tsamach' [a primitive root]. Outline of Biblical Usage: 1) sprout, growth, branch a) sprouting, growth, sprout b) growth (of process) c) sprout, shoot (of Messiah from Davidic tree)"

Unfortunately I don't know what the Blue Letter Bible says about 'neser', since I don't know if this term appears anywhere in the bible. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia its meaning is a 'shoot' and according to the other cited text it is a 'sprout or descendent'. These meanings would be similar to the meanings of 'tsemach' and 'netser' given by the Blue Letter Bible, so there wouldn't be a big difference in the meaning contrary to what the second text I cited above says. Still it would be different Hebrew terms.

It would be interesting if someone with knowledge of the Hebrew language could comment on this.

I also found out that excavations have been done which brought a reference to Nazareth to light. One article says about this:

Quote:

Recent excavations have shown that the word Nazareth has its root meaning in the word netzer (qbm) describing the future royal shoot from the house of David (Is 11:1).
From the Greek, it was not clear if Nazareth would be spelt in Hebrew with a b (tz) or the simpler z (z). Excavations at Caesarea in 1962 found a clear Hebrew inscription referring to a family from Nazareth using the letter b, thus clarifying that Nazareth is derived from qbm. James Strange, “Nazareth,�? ABD IV (1992): 1050-51.

A picture of the stone fragments can be found here: http://www.bible-history.com/jesus/j...ed00000391.htm
They were were once part of a wall panel of a third-century synagogue, which listed the current residences of the 24 priestly classes who once served the temple.

An article from the Roman Theological Forum argues:

Quote:

Bargil Pixner maintains that the Greek word nazoraios in Matt 2:23 "certainly" comes from netser, because a Hebrew inscription found in Caesarea in 1962 and dating back to the third or fourth century A.D., spells Nazareth with tsade and not with zayin. And this discovery, he says, "eliminates the supposition that the appellation Natzoraios/Nazarene was linked to the name Nazirite. But this conclusion ignores the linguistic phenomenon of "consonant shift" as well as the possibility that the spelling of the name Nazareth may have been ambiguous back in the first century A.D.

So there seems to be some evidence for 'netser' really being the origin of Nazareth, albeit it is not 100% conclusive. I don't know what the author means with "consonant shift", so I can't really comment on that.

Seeker2000 · 07-16-2005, 09:24 PM

So what can be said is that there are indeed good arguments that Nazareth has the root 'netser', but that this term is also only used once in the OT, at least as a description of the messiah. Actually it is not even a messianic title here, as Schaeder is cited in the above linked article:

Quote:

Schaeder dismisses this argument that Is 11:1 lies behind the Matthean prophecy "since 'neser' was not a name borne by the Messiah". According to Schaeder, "the equivalent 'branch' of Is. 4:2; Jer. 23:5; 33:15 and esp. Zech. 3:8; 6:12 is certainly a name, but in this case the word is semah rather than neser, and there is no link with N azare/q, N azwrai=oj." While rejecting the claim of Strack and Billerbeck, Schaeder does note that there were rabbinic rules of interpretation allowing for the substitution of equivalent words.

(Schaeder is talking about 'neser' here, but I think it should actually be 'netser', as this is the term used in Isa 11:1, as pointed out above. Maybe it is just a typo or a mistake of Schaeder.)

All in all so far I think that 'netser' in Isa 11:1 cannot really be seen as a good and convincing prophecy, fulfilled by the name Nazareth and Jesus being called the Nazarene, because the word appears only once in the scriptures of the OT and more often another term, 'tsemach', is used. Matthew might have had this in mind though, when writing his gospel.

The article goes on and states some objections to Schaeder ('netzer' instead of 'netser' is used here):

Quote:

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has shed further light on aspects of Rabbinic exegesis in the final years of the Second Temple which clearly associate the two terms, 'Branch' and 'Shoot'. The community of Qumran look to a future son of David, and apply to him the term 'Branch' from the prophecy of Zechariah [...]
Even more striking is the pesher on Isaiah 11:1-5 where, following the quotation from Isaiah, the text is given a sectarian explanation. [...] The quotation follows the Hebrew text and uses qbm. In the commentary on this verse, the term netzer is rendered 'the shoot of David' but uses the expression wlb from Zechariah 6:12, (cywc wlb). These texts show that by the time of the Qumran writings the two terms tzamah and netzer are synonymous and the roles of both have become fused. The man named 'Branch' who will build the temple of the Lord, according to Zechariah 6, has been identified as the Messianic shoot of David.

The Targums also point to a similar fusion of roles. Zechariah 6 reads, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: here is a man whose name is Branch" (wl# wlb Wy)-gmg) (Zech 6:12). In the Targum of this verse, the word Messiah ()wyWl) is substituted for Branch (wlb), thus identifying the person 'Branch' with the Davidic Messiah, no doubt drawing on the Isaian reference to the shoot (qbm) from the stump of Jesse (Is 11:1). [...] Evidence from the Targums and Qumran scrolls support the hypothesis that by the first century C.E. the term 'Nazarene' had developed associations with a Davidic Messiah who would build the eschatological temple.

I will stop here now, but maybe others have comments about this topic.
Do you think this can be seen as a fulfilled prophecy?
Are these the thoughts that lay behind the verse from Matthew?
I have also found some other explanations for the Matthew verse, which I might post later.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.