What Does Matthew 2:23 Mean?
And he came and settled in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets might be filled, saying, He shall be called a Nazarene.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
“Fulfilled” carries the sense of being filled to fullness: a prophetic word takes visible shape in a life dwelling in a particular place and bearing a particular name.
THE MEANING
The word reaches its fullness in a life with an address: Nazareth is where he dwells, and “Nazarene” is what he is called. The verse meets you in the ordinary place where you dwell, where what has been spoken can take shape in a life others can recognize.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a spoken word is complete the moment it is uttered; here its fullness appears in a life, a dwelling, and a name.
THE ROOT
πληρωθῇ
plērōthē
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
Fill; bring to fullness.
“filled ... through the prophets” in this verse is plērōthē. The English “fulfilled” can sound like a prediction simply checked off, but πληρόω (plēroō, “fill; bring to fullness”) holds the image of something reaching its full measure. The prophetic word is shown full in a lived location and identity: dwelling in Nazareth and being called a Nazarene.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: Fill; fulfill; bring to fullness.
πληρόω
The verb form makes fulfillment an act of filling something to its full measure.
plērēs: Full; complete.
πλήρης
This branch describes the state of fullness that the verse’s “fulfilled” evokes.
plērōma: Fullness; that which fills.
πλήρωμα
It makes visible the shared image of a word arriving at its full measure.
κληθήσεται
klēthēsetai
GROWS FROM
καλ-
Call; summon; name.
The word translated “called” belongs to the family that includes κλῆσις (klēsis, “calling”), linking a name with being summoned into a recognizable identity. Here “Nazarene” gathers a person’s lived location into the name by which he is known.
ALSO GROWS
kaleō: Call; summon; name.
καλέω
This is the verb family behind “called” in the verse.
klēsis: Calling; summons.
κλῆσις
The noun connects the act of naming with a call or summons.
klētos: Called; invited.
κλητός
This related form shows how the family can describe the identity of one who is called.
κατῴκησεν
katōikēsen
GROWS FROM
οἰκ-
House; dwell; inhabit.
“settled” in this verse is katōikēsen. The verb belongs to the Greek house-and-dwelling family, so arrival becomes inhabiting. Place is part of the identity in this verse: he dwells there, and the place’s name adheres to what he is called.
ALSO GROWS
oikos: House; household.
οἶκος
The dwelling verb carries the concrete image of a house or home.
oikeō: Dwell; inhabit.
οἰκέω
This is the base verb for living in a place.
oikētērion: Dwelling place; habitation.
οἰκητήριον
This branch makes the root’s link between inhabiting and a place of dwelling explicit.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word reaches full shape when it takes form in a person and a place where life dwells.
And a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots will bear fruit.For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has longed for it as his seat.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.THE THREAD
And a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots will bear fruit.Matthew’s Greek Ναζωραῖος (Nazōraios, “Nazarene”) echoes the sound of Isaiah’s Hebrew נֵצֶר (netser, “branch” or “shoot”). That echo places the name beside Isaiah’s image of new life growing from Jesse’s roots, so the name carries a root-and-branch resonance.
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