Hi Ben1xy,
Got the extract from a website which particularly deals with the
subject matter you are pursuing. it is by Dennis Bratcher. i read
it - in particular para 2 which correlates with vince's findings
and make sense to me. The last 2 paras in the extract is also
edifying. I dunno, you might find more use of it.
website: http://www.cresourcei.org/branch.html
Blessings.
__________________________________________
The prophets used various metaphors to refer to this anticipated
revival of the ideal monarchy to replace the corrupt kings of the
day, including "servant" (Haggai, Isaiah), "signet ring" (Haggai),
"shepherd" (Micah, Ezekiel), or simply "David" (Amos). But in all
three of the above examples, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah also
use the term "branch" as a metaphor to refer to the new king that
God would raise up from the line of David (Isa 4:2, 11:1, Jer 23:5,
Zech 3:8, 6:12). The metaphor is most clearly expressed in Isaiah
11:1: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots.
In Hebrew, the word "branch" is netzer, actually only three
consonantal letters: NZR. Note that the town NaZaReth contains the
same three primary letters (plus an ending often attached to
nouns). In the Aramaic form of Nazareth, (Aramaic was the common
language spoken by most Israelites after the exile; some have
suggested that the entire book of Matthew was originally written in
Aramaic rather than Greek), it comes very close in sound to the
Hebrew word for "branch."
It seems, then, that Matthew was not at all "mistaken" in this Old
Testament reference, although he was certainly not exegeting
Isaiah. He was identifying the obscure Galilean town of Nazareth in
which Jesus grew up with the OT reference to a netzer God would
raise up to bring justice and righteousness and peace to His
people. In other words, this was the means Matthew used to identify
Jesus, even as a child returning to an obscure town in remote
Galilee ("can any good thing come from Nazareth?" -John 1:47), as
the "King" from the line of David whom God had finally raised up to
restore His people.
It is no coincidence that it is Matthew more than the other Gospels
in which the idea of the Kingdom of God and the reign of God
through His King finds particular prominence. This is Matthews way
of confessing Jesus to be the Messiah (the Christ)! But he is not
doing it historically, or geographically, as we so often assume,
nor is he simply connecting predictive prophecy with its later
fulfillment. He is doing it theologically, by using the similarity
in sound between a word in Hebrew and a word in Aramaic, as he is
(probably) writing in Greek! He is not interpreting Isaiah
directly; He is bearing witness to Jesus as the Christ, the
Messiah, the Branch!
What all of this suggests is that it is very unlikely that Isaiah
in 700 BC, or Jeremiah in 600 BC, or Zechariah in 520 BC had in
mind the city of Nazareth as they talked about the Branch. They
were not predicting anything about the city of Nazareth. Matthews
application here cannot be used as the key to understand those
books. It must work the other way; we cannot really understand
Matthews reference without first understanding the entire concept
and set of metaphors, and some cultural history, from the Old
Testament prophets. What those prophets affirm in the metaphor of
the Branch is that God will not leave His people without a leader
to show them how to be His people. It is not a predictive prophecy;
it is an affirmation about Gods grace, that He will continue to
work in history to enable His people to respond faithfully as His
people.
And Matthew, understanding both the significance of the coming of
Jesus, and the affirmation about God that those prophets of long
ago made, links the two in affirming that in Jesus, the Christ, the
Branch, God has once again been faithful to His people by entering
history and providing a way for them to be His people. Matthew
takes the insignificant town in which Jesus grew up and uses it as
a metaphor to confess Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of a
thousand years, and the revelation of the faithfulness of God to
His people. To me that is a far more significant affirmation than
trying to figure out how to use Matthew to interpret Isaiah, or to
use this as an example of predictive prophecy.
