It says that Joseph was afraid to return to Judea and that he was warned in a dream not to. Was Joseph warned as a concession to his fear? Was it coincidental?
Also, is the prophesy about Jesus being called a Nazarene more Drash, or is the prophecy clear (to us)?
See https://www.gotquestions.org/Matthew-2-23-Jesus-Nazarene.html for more discussion.
I couldn't find anything addressing (clearly) Joseph being afraid. However, it could have been practical. To get to Nazareth of Galilee, they had to go through Judea. Since at this time, I presume, they were homeless, Judea was as good of place to get a home as any.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jesus will be called a Nazarene. Uh oh. I thought I remembered reading that in the Old Testament - but it is not there. No where in the Old Testament does it say that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene. It doesn't even mention Nazareth in the O.T. Oh boy! Anyway, here's an article addressing this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.apologeticspress.org/APPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=938&article=1391
It basically says that it's using Nazarene as a slang or quoted term and not that the Messiah would actually be called a Nazarene, but that He would be despised.
It makes me wonder why the fathers included Matthew in the Bible.
I do believe that Matthew is the inspired word of God and that the Canon choosers made a choice to include Matthew under God's direction. I am wondering if they struggled with this or not. One of the best things I got out of John Walton's Genesis talk was that the Bible was not addressed to western minds. It probably made perfect sense to the early readers of Matthew as to what Matthew was writing and getting at. It is a struggle for me raised in a science age to accept what looks like mis-interpretation or re-interpretation of scripture.
ReplyDelete