“Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

The Galilean town of Nazareth (circa 1900 A.D.) 

Although this post has more to do with historical irony than it does Biblical Hebrew, I’ll do my best to weave some useful linguistic information into the story as I go along.

The starting point for this discussion is the origin of the name for the Galilean town of Nazareth (נצרת nah-tzeh-RAHT), the place where Jesus spent almost all his childhood and most of his adult years. Its origin can’t be nailed down with any certainty, but the name seems to stem from a Hebrew word for “offshoot, offspring, shoot, sprig, sprout” (נֵצֶר neh-TZEHR), a term that may be related to the numerous olive groves planted in the surrounding areas. New branches and shoots that sprout out of a tree’s older limbs and exposed roots extend the life of the tree in cases where the main trunk has died off or has become unproductive. When these shoots are grafted into other olive trees, they can enhance the productivity of the host tree and improve the quality of its fruit. 

Here’s where the historical irony begins.

Based on what we know of Nazareth at the time of Christ’s birth, the ancient town would have been considered an unlikely and even unfitting place for the Son of God to be raised and begin His ministry. More than one scriptural passage from the New Testament hints that the Galilean town was probably regarded with some degree of contempt at the time of Christ. When Phillip reported back to his friend Nathaniel that he had found the long-awaited Messiah, the latter dismissed Philip’s invitation to “come and see” with the geographic jibe, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” In contrast, the Lord unconditionally embraced his personal connection to the town as demonstrated by the following: (1) in mortality He answered to the name "Jesus of Nazareth" (see John 18:5), (2) He referred to himself on at least one occasion following his resurrection by that same title (Acts 22:8), and (3) He apparently never discouraged his apostles from referring to him by the name (Acts 2:22, 4:10, and 10:38).

But the irony gets even better.

The modern and Early Christian Era Hebrew terms for “Christianity” and “Christian” are respectively nahtz-ROOT (נַצְרוּת) and nohtz-REE (נוֹצְרִי). For obvious reasons these words don’t directly reference Jesus’ name or his titles of Christ or Messiah, as happens in other languages; instead the Hebrew translation of Christianity is something akin to “Nazarinity”, with Christians being referred to as Nazarenes. It appears that there were tactical reasons behind this practice since Roman political leaders and the Jewish hierarchy both had something to gain by linking the budding Christian faith and Jesus’ followers to what was generally considered an insignificant, backwoods town. For example, during the Apostle Paul’s hearing for sedition in front of the Roman governor Felix, the High Priest Ananias’ spokesman refers to Christianity as “the sect of the Nazarenes” instead of the sect or religion of Jesus (Acts 24:1-5).

A rural road leading into present-day Nazareth

But the core meaning of the Hebrew terms for Christianity and Christian seems to have shifted over the centuries. The present-day usage of nahtz-ROOT and nohtz-REE focuses more on the linguistic relationship in Hebrew between the noun for “sprout, branch, shoot” and the Jewish view that Christianity is merely an off-shoot religion that grew out the living trunk of Judaism. So in Modern Hebrew, Christianity might be better translated something closer to “branching-off-ity” than “Nazarinity”.

The amazing thing is that Biblical prophecy addresses both of these meanings. 

If the term nahtz-ROOT was originally meant to emphasize Christianity’s link to the otherwise unremarkable rural town, the linguistic association has only worked to further validate Nazareth’s long-foreseen and honored place as the predicted hometown of the Messiah.

“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.”

(Matthew 2:23, emphasis added)

If, on the other hand, the Hebrew terms for Christianity and Christian are meant to underline the “off-shoot” religion’s subordinate relationship to the "father trunk" of Judaism, this meaning also fulfills Biblical prophecy.

 וְיָצָא חֹטֶר, מִגֵּזַע יִשָׁי; וְנֵצֶר, מִשָּׁרָשָׁיו יִפְרֶה.

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch (neht-ZEHR נֵצֶר) shall grow out of his roots.”

(Isaiah 11:1, emphasis added)  

From the Christian perspective, Christ Himself was the prophesied-of Branch that came directly out of the ancestral roots of the House of Judah. (Please see the caption that describes the photo below.)

Off-shoots (nahtz-REEM) growing out of the roots of an older olive tree