The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew2:19–23

The Return to Nazareth

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Matthew 2:19–23 — The Return to Nazareth. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

19

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de tou Hērōdou Teleutēsantos idou angelos Kyriou phainetai kat’ onar tō Iōsēph en Aigyptō

Word by word14 · parsed
δὲdeAfterG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἩρῴδουHērōdouHerodG2264
√ Ἡρώδης — heroicNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ΤελευτήσαντοςTeleutēsantosdiedG5053
√ τελευτάω — to finish life (by implication, of G979 (βίος)), iVerbAorist Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
τελευτάω: to finish life A relatively rare verb (11 verses), euphemistic rather than violent: Herod does not fall, he simply runs out. Benson records the received account: "He died eaten with worms, at the age of seventy-one, after a reign of forty years," and Gill reproduces Josephus's catalogue of the disease in detail. The genitive absolute drops the whole reign into a subordinate clause, which is Matthew's judgment on it.
ἰδοὺidouG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού: lo, behold The hinge word of the verse.
ἄγγελοςangelosan angelG32
√ ἄγγελος — compare G34 (ἀγέλη)) (to bring tidings)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἄγγελος: messenger, angel Anarthrous here, "an angel," and JFB objects that the translators "somewhat capriciously" vary between the definite and indefinite rendering of the identical Greek phrase across 1:20, 2:13 and here. Gill and Benson both judge it to be the same angel who sent the family down to Egypt now recalling them, which makes the flight and the return one commission with two halves.
ΚυρίουKyriouof [the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
κύριος: supreme in authority, lord Genitive of origin: the messenger belongs to the Lord, so the dream carries the authority of the one who sent it, not of the dreamer who received it.
φαίνεταιphainetaiappearedG5316
√ φαίνω — to lighten (shine), iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
φαίνω: to shine, be made to appear Historic present, middle or passive: the angel does not display himself so much as he is caused to shine forth. Matthew's whole infancy narrative is governed by such passives, where God is the unnamed agent moving everything: the child is protected, Joseph is warned, the word is fulfilled.
κατ’kat’inG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
ὄναρonara dreamG3677
√ ὄναρ — a dreamNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄναρ: a dream Rare: six verses in the whole New Testament, five of them in Matthew and the sixth on the lips of Pilate's wife (27:19). Dreams in this Gospel are not atmosphere; they are the channel by which the Gentile magi, the Judean carpenter and finally a Roman governor's household are all moved off the course Herod's house had set.
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸωσὴφIōsēphJosephG2501
√ Ἰωσήφ — Joseph, the name of seven IsraelitesNounDative Masculine Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ΑἰγύπτῳAigyptōEgyptG125
√ Αἴγυπτος — Ægyptus, the land of the NileNounDative Feminine Singular
Αἴγυπτος: Egypt, the land of the Nile Henry draws the moral: "Egypt may serve to sojourn in, or take shelter in, for awhile, but not to abide in." Benson, quoting Doddridge, presses the reversal further: the old house of bondage has become the hiding place of the Son.
20

“Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are now dead.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Egertheis legōn paralabe to paidion kai tēn autou mētera kai poreuou eis gēn Israēl gar hoi zētountes tēn tou paidiou psychēn tethnēkasin

Word by word22 · parsed
ἘγερθεὶςEgertheisGet upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐγείρω: to waken, raise Aorist passive participle. Twice in two verses Joseph is the one acted upon: wakened here, and wakened again in v. 21, so that the obedience Matthew praises is not initiative but responsiveness. ⚙ The same verb in the same passive voice is the Gospel's own resurrection word, spoken by an angel at another dawn: "He is not here; for He is risen" (Matthew 28:6, ἠγέρθη). The child who is carried out of the reach of death here is raised out of it there, and in both scenes the verb declines to name who did the raising.
λέγωνlegōnhe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
παράλαβεparalabeTakeG3880
√ παραλαμβάνω — to receive near, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
παραλαμβάνω: to receive near, take alongside The verb of the flight (2:13, 2:14) becomes the verb of the return. Whatever the direction of travel, Joseph's office is the same: to keep mother and child beside him.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
παιδίονpaidionChildG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
παιδίον: a little child Matthew will not call Him by name in this whole unit. He is "the child," the object of every verb of carrying and protecting, and the grammatical passivity is part of the portrait: the King whose kingdom is announced is carried across borders in someone else's arms.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πορεύουporeuougoG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbPresent Imperative Middle or Passive2nd Person Singular
πορεύομαι: to traverse, journey Present imperative middle: not a single act but a road to be walked, deliberately vague as to destination. JFB notices the vagueness and makes it the point: Joseph and the Virgin had, "like Abraham, to 'go out, not knowing whither they went,' till they should receive further direction."
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
γῆνgēn[the] landG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἸσραήλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Ἰσραήλ: Israel Not Bethlehem, not Judea, not Galilee: the whole promised land in its most general sense. Pulpit cites 1 Samuel 13:19 and Ezekiel 11:17 for the phrase. The command withholds exactly the detail Joseph most wants, which is why v. 22 needs a second oracle.
γὰρgarforG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
οἱhoithoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ζητοῦντεςzētountesseekingG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
παιδίουpaidiouChild’sG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ψυχὴνpsychēnlifeG5590
√ ψυχή — breath, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ψυχή: breath, soul, life The object of the hunt is not a throne but a breath. The construction "seeking the psychē" renders the old biblical idiom for assassins, and the present participle οἱ ζητοῦντες keeps them in view as a class rather than as one dead king. ⚙ Matthew will use this noun once more of this child in a saying about His own dying: to give His psychē a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). What Herod tried to take by force is in the end given away.
τεθνήκασινtethnēkasinare now deadG2348
√ θνήσκω — to die (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
θνήσκω: to die Perfect tense: the threat is not merely past but permanently spent. The plural is the crux of the verse. Cambridge calls it a euphemism for Herod alone; Benson and Gill add Antipater, executed five days before his father; Ellicott, JFB and Pulpit all suspect the wording was shaped by Exodus 4:19, where Moses is told to return because "all the men are dead which sought thy life."
21

So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and went to the land of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ho de egertheis parelaben to paidion kai tēn autou mētera kai eisēlthen eis gēn Israēl

Word by word15 · parsed
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δὲdeSoG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἐγερθεὶςegertheis[Joseph] got upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐγείρω: to waken, raise The passive participle again. Pulpit's whole note on this verse is a single line: "Implicit and immediate obedience marking all he did."
παρέλαβενparelabentookG3880
√ παραλαμβάνω — to receive near, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
παραλαμβάνω: to receive near, take alongside Aorist indicative matching the aorist imperative of v. 20. Gill turns the exactness into a lesson, and into an argument for why the virgin needed a husband at all: that she "might have one to take care of her and her young child."
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
παιδίονpaidionChildG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἰσῆλθενeisēlthenwentG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰσέρχομαι: to enter A verb of entrance rather than of travel. The child who was carried out of the land under a death warrant is carried back into it, and the entrance is made the last word of the sentence.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
γῆνgēn[the] landG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Ἰσραήλ: Israel JFB reads Joseph's intention out of what follows: he meant to return to Bethlehem, "there, no doubt, to rear the Infant King, as at His own royal city." Benson supposes the same, reasoning from the scribes' answer in 2:5 that Joseph thought a Bethlehem upbringing as necessary as a Bethlehem birth. Both are inference; Matthew records only the intention's collapse in v. 22.
ἸσραήλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
22

But when he learned that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de akousas hoti Archelaos basileuei tēs Ioudaias anti tou autou patros Hērōdou ephobēthē apelthein ekei de chrēmatistheis kat’ onar anechōrēsen eis ta merē tēs Galilaias

Word by word25 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀκούσαςakousaswhen he learnedG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούω: to hear The only piece of ordinary human intelligence in the unit. Joseph acts on two sources here: what he heard in the street, and what he was told in the dream. Grace does not cancel the report; it corrects the destination.
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἈρχέλαοςArchelaosArchelausG745
√ Ἀρχέλαος — people-rulingNounNominative Masculine Singular
βασιλεύειbasileueiwas reigning inG936
√ βασιλεύω — to rule (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
βασιλεύω: to rule, reign The vivid present. Poole reads a providential irony in the loose title: "The true King of the Jews being born," the successors are called kings only because "the tetrarchs in their provinces exercised a regal power." JFB, tracking the same history to its end in Archelaus's banishment, says that then the sceptre "clean departed from Judah."
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἀντὶantiin place ofG473
√ ἀντί — opposite, iPreposition
ἀντί: opposite, in place of A preposition of exchange and substitution. Archelaus stands in his father's place and inherits his father's temper: Ellicott records the three thousand killed in the temple within months of his accession, and Barnes, Gill and Benson report the same massacre with varying numbers. Herod dies; Herod's place does not empty.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
πατρὸςpatrosfatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἩρῴδουHērōdouHerodG2264
√ Ἡρώδης — heroicNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐφοβήθηephobēthēhe was afraidG5399
√ φοβέω — to frighten, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
φοβέω: to frighten Aorist passive. Matthew does not rebuke the fear. He lets a righteous man's dread of a tyrant stand in the same sentence as the oracle, and the oracle confirms the direction the fear was already pointing.
ἀπελθεῖνapeltheinto goG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
χρηματισθεὶςchrēmatistheishaving been warnedG5537
√ χρηματίζω — to utter an oracle (compare the original sense of G5530 (χράομαι)), iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
χρηματίζω: to utter an oracle, instruct divinely Rare, nine verses in the New Testament, and weighty in each: it is the word used of Simeon, of Cornelius, and in Hebrews 12:25 of the God who speaks from heaven. Here the oracle comes without a messenger, a bare passive with no named agent, which is Matthew's most characteristic way of writing about God.
κατ’kat’inG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
ὄναρonara dreamG3677
√ ὄναρ — a dreamNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀνεχώρησενanechōrēsenhe withdrewG402
√ ἀναχωρέω — to retireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀναχωρέω: to retire, withdraw The signature verb of this chapter, used of the magi going home another way, of the flight into Egypt, and now of the move north. Withdrawal, not confrontation, is the shape of this King's first years.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
μέρηmerēdistrictG3313
√ μέρος — a division or share (literally or figuratively, in a wide application)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
μέρη: parts, districts Plural and vague. Pulpit reads the form as implying "removal from one spot to another before finally settling at Nazareth, and also the subordinate importance of the places visited." Galilee is named by region, not by city, because the city is still to come.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasof GalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
23

and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai elthōn katōkēsen eis polin legomenēn Nazaret hopōs plērōthē to rhēthen dia tōn prophētōn hoti klēthēsetai Nazōraios

Word by word17 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐλθὼνelthōnhe wentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
κατῴκησενkatōkēsen[and] livedG2730
√ κατοικέω — to house permanently, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
κατοικέω: to house permanently The verb that ends the flight. Three chapters of travel (Bethlehem, Egypt, the land of Israel, the parts of Galilee) come to rest in one obscure town not named in the Old Testament nor by Josephus, as both JFB and Pulpit point out.
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πόλινpolina townG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
λεγομένηνlegomenēncalledG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Feminine Singular
λέγω: to say, call Present participle middle or passive: "a town being called Nazareth." Matthew hangs the whole quotation on a name, and the participle of naming here prepares the future passive of naming at the end of the verse.
ΝαζαρέτNazaretNazarethG3478
√ Ναζαρέθ — Nazareth or Nazaret, a place in PalestineNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Ναζαρέθ: Nazareth Cambridge derives it from natsar, "the Protectress"; Gill from netzer, a branch, "so called from the multitude of plants and trees that grew there"; Ellicott agrees the town was probably named for its shrubs, "as pointing, like our -hurst and -holt, to the trees." JFB takes the opposite tack and reads the name from the town's insignificance, "a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree." The etymology is genuinely unsettled.
ὅπωςhopōsSoG3704
√ ὅπως — what(-ever) how, iConjunction
ὅπως: so that, in order that The looser purpose particle. Pulpit adds that the Revised Version's colon shows "that the following 'fulfilment' is not to be considered as part of Joseph's intention": Joseph moved to escape Archelaus, and God was fulfilling something else through the move.
πληρωθῇplērōthēwas fulfilledG4137
√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
πληρόω: to make replete, fill full Aorist subjunctive passive. Gill cites Surenhusius that the rabbinic formula "to fulfil what is said" was used when a writer alleged "not the very words of Moses, or the prophets, but their sense." Benson quotes Jerome to the same effect: Matthew "took not the words from the prophets, but only the sense."
τὸtowhatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
ῥηθὲνrhēthenwas spokenG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
προφητῶνprophētōnprophetsG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Plural
προφήτης: a foreteller, prophet The unnamed plural is the crux. Ellicott states the problem without flinching: no such words stand in the Old Testament, and there is no trace of an apocryphal prophecy to appeal to.
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
κληθήσεταιklēthēsetaiHe will be calledG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
καλέω: to call aloud Future passive, with no stated subject: the world will do the calling. The verse ends on other people's mouths, which is why both the mockery and the glory can inhabit the same word.
ΝαζωραῖοςNazōraiosa NazareneG3480
√ Ναζωραῖος — a Nazoræan, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
Ναζωραῖος: a Nazoraean Four readings compete in the brief and none is certain. (1) Ellicott, JFB, Gill and Cambridge hear the Hebrew netzer, the branch or twig of Isaiah 11:1 springing from the stump of Jesse. (2) Cambridge offers natsar, to protect. (3) Benson and Henry read it as a byword for contempt, since "no good thing could be expected from thence." (4) Poole, following Spanhemius and Calvin, argues for nazir, the separated one, with Joseph and Samson as types. Ellicott and Cambridge both rule (4) out on spelling, and Pulpit rules it out on the Jewish evidence that Nazareth and Nazarene alike derive from ntsr, not nzr. We record the dispute rather than settle it.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A tyrant finishes, an angel appears — 2:19

Matthew disposes of Herod the Great in a genitive absolute. Τελευτήσαντος τοῦ Ἡρῴδου (teleutaō, G5053, "to finish life") is a subordinate clause, not a sentence: the reign that emptied Bethlehem of its infants is grammatically background. Benson and Gill both fill in what the Greek declines to say, Gill reproducing Josephus's whole catalogue of the disease and Benson concluding that God "made him, in a remarkable manner, a terror to himself and to all round about him." Against that dead weight stands ἰδοὺ and a present tense verb: φαίνεται, "appears," middle or passive, the fourth message sent to Joseph, as Benson counts them, since he became the husband of Mary. JFB presses a translation point worth keeping: our versions render the identical Greek phrase "the angel of the Lord" at 1:20 and 2:13 and "an angel" here, "somewhat capriciously." Pulpit adds the restraint that matters for both verses: "the stress is on the fact of the appearance, not on its mode."

ii. The plural that is not an accident — 2:20-2:21

The angel's word runs τεθνήκασιν, perfect plural, "they have died," though only one man has been named. The commentators divide honestly. Cambridge calls it "Plural by a euphemism." Barnes allows either the idiom or Herod with his son Antipater, executed five days before his father; Benson and Gill develop the Antipater case, Gill widening it further to "the executioners of the infants at Bethlehem." Ellicott, JFB and Pulpit all reach instead for Exodus 4:19, where the Lord tells Moses in Midian to return to Egypt because "all the men are dead which sought thy life": JFB says plainly that the command to Moses was given "for the same reason that the greater than Moses was now ordered to be brought back." Note what the angel does not say. Not Bethlehem, not Judea, but γῆν Ἰσραήλ, the land at large, so that, in JFB's phrase, Joseph had "like Abraham, to 'go out, not knowing whither they went.'" Verse 21 answers verse 20 word for word: egertheis for egertheis, parelaben for paralabe. Pulpit's entire comment is the right one: "Implicit and immediate obedience marking all he did."

iii. Fear, oracle, and a withdrawal northward — 2:22

Then the obedience meets a rumour. βασιλεύει stands in the vivid present inside a past narrative, which Pulpit reads as Matthew preserving "the very words he heard." Historically the word is generous: Ellicott, JFB, Pulpit and Cambridge all note that Augustus withheld the title of king from Archelaus and gave him only the rank of ethnarch, and Poole finds providence in the downgrade, since with "the true King of the Jews being born" no more kings were constituted over Judea. What Joseph heard was the temple massacre, three thousand men by Ellicott, JFB and Barnes, nine thousand by the Jewish chronicler Gill cites. So ἐφοβήθη, aorist passive: he was made afraid. Matthew never rebukes the fear. He simply sets beside it χρηματισθεὶς (chrēmatizō, G5537, "to utter an oracle"), a rare passive that names no speaker, and Pulpit marks the omission exactly: "No angel is mentioned this time." The verb of the move is ἀνεχώρησεν, withdrawal, from which, Cambridge observes, "The English 'anchorite' is derived."

iv. The name no prophet wrote — 2:23

The unit ends in the hardest sentence in the chapter. Matthew writes ὅπως πληρωθῇ and then διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, plural and unnamed, and quotes words that stand nowhere in the Old Testament. Ellicott says so without evasion: "No such words are to be found in the Old Testament," and rules out any appeal to a lost apocryphal prophecy. Poole calls the verse as difficult "as any other in holy writ"; Cambridge grants that what was probably clear to Matthew's contemporaries, "for us it is involved in doubt." Four solutions are on the table. Ellicott, JFB, Gill and Cambridge hear the Hebrew netzer, the branch of Isaiah 11:1 out of the stump of Jesse, JFB adding the humiliation built into the image: "a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree." Cambridge offers natsar, to protect. Benson and Henry read the name as a byword, since Nazareth was "a place held in bad esteem." Poole, following Spanhemius and Calvin, argues for nazir, the separated one, with Joseph and Samson as types, a reading Ellicott and Cambridge reject on spelling and Pulpit rejects on the Jewish evidence that both Nazareth and Nazarene come from ntsr. Gill and Benson supply the same procedural key from two directions: Surenhusius's rabbinic formula for alleging a prophet's sense rather than his words, and Jerome's judgment that Matthew "took not the words from the prophets, but only the sense." Pulpit's grammar agrees: ὅπως rather than ἵνα "marks a less close connection," used "with reference to general statements."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested by the Word itself. Read the five verses by their verbs and a pattern surfaces that no single commentator in the brief states outright: almost every decisive action in this unit is passive or subordinate. Herod having finished life; an angel is made to appear; Joseph having been wakened, twice; Joseph was made afraid; Joseph having been oracled; the word might be filled full; He shall be called. Only three verbs in the unit are plain active choices by a human being, and they are hearing, withdrawing and settling down. Matthew is writing a chapter in which the agent is never named and never absent. That grammatical fact bears on the two puzzles the commentators argue over. On the plural "they have died," the Exodus 4:19 pattern that Ellicott, JFB and Pulpit find is not a citation Matthew is making but a shape he is reporting: the deliverer is hidden in a foreign land, the man who sought his life dies, the word comes to return. On the Nazarene, notice that the last verb of the unit hands the naming to other people. Matthew does not say the child was a Nazarene; he says He will be called one. The sentence is not primarily about a town or an etymology. It is about the mouths of men, which will use that name as an insult at the trial and carve it over the cross. If that is right, then Matthew's unnamed "prophets" are not one lost verse but the whole prophetic testimony that Messiah would be despised and rejected, which is exactly Benson's reading, with Jerome's principle of sense rather than words behind it. We hold this loosely. Ellicott's netzer of Isaiah 11:1 may be the better answer, or both may be true at once, the branch and the byword in one syllable. What we will not do is manufacture a quotation to close a gap that the text of Scripture leaves open.

The one active thing Joseph does in this whole unit is listen, and it is enough.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The five dreams of Matthew, and a sixth in Pilate's house verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun ὄναρ (onar, G3677) occurs in only six verses in the whole New Testament, and Matthew holds five of them: the angel to Joseph about Mary (1:20), the magi warned not to return to Herod (2:12), the flight into Egypt (2:13), this recall in 2:19, and the second warning in 2:22 that turns the family north. The sixth is the message of Pilate's wife at the trial (27:19). The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme across all of them. Two things follow. First, the phrase is always κατ' ὄναρ, "according to a dream," a fixed formula rather than a description of sleep. Second, the chain runs from the cradle to the tribunal: the same channel God used to move the holy family out of Herod's reach is used one last time on a Roman governor's household, and there it is refused.

Matthew 1:20 · Matthew 2:12 · Matthew 2:13 · Matthew 27:19

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3677 ὄναρ, rare at 6 verses in the New Testament, five of them in Matthew; all refs are Greek to Greek. This is a verbal chain within one author, not a quotation of another text.

"All the men are dead which sought thy life": the Exodus pattern behind the plural structural / thematic: confirmed

The angel's plural τεθνήκασιν in 2:20 has no antecedent in Matthew's own narrative, where only Herod has been named. Four of the commentators in this unit independently reach for Exodus 4:19, where the Lord tells Moses in Midian to return to Egypt because those who sought his life are dead. Ellicott: the turn of phrase "may have been suggested to the reporter of the dream by the parallel language of Exodus 4:19." Pulpit: the plural "is perhaps best explained as an adaptation of the historic parallel." JFB goes furthest, saying the command to Moses was given "for the same reason that the greater than Moses was now ordered to be brought back from it." Note what this is not: Matthew does not mark it as a quotation, uses no fulfilment formula here, and the link cannot be scored verbally because the Greek of Matthew and the Hebrew of Exodus share no Strong's numbers. The resemblance is one of pattern and phrasing, and the commentators name it as such.

Exodus 4:19

basis: No shared Strong's basis is possible: the link crosses the Greek and Hebrew lexicons, so a verbal tier cannot be scored. The recorded basis is the convergent identification by Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge and Pulpit of the same phrase pattern (deliverer hidden abroad, those seeking his life dead, command to return), with no quotation claimed by Matthew.

"He will be called a Nazarene": a fulfilment with no source text flagged: verify source

Matthew writes ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν and then quotes a line that appears nowhere in the Old Testament. Ellicott states it flatly: "No such words are to be found in the Old Testament," and rejects both an apocryphal source and a lost prophecy. Poole ranks the difficulty with the hardest in Scripture. Cambridge concedes the sense is now "involved in doubt." The candidate sources offered in this unit are Isaiah 11:1 with its netzer, branch (Ellicott, JFB, Gill, Cambridge, and Gill notes the Jewish commentators themselves read that verse messianically), the Zemach passages of Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8 and Zechariah 6:12 which use a different Hebrew word (Ellicott), and the general prophetic testimony to a despised Messiah such as Isaiah 53:3 and Psalm 69:9 (Benson). We flag rather than adjudicate: the provenance of this citation is genuinely disputed in the sources themselves, and any tier above this one would be our invention.

Isaiah 11:1 · Jeremiah 23:5 · Isaiah 53:3

basis: Matthew names no prophet and the quoted words are absent from the received Old Testament text; Ellicott, Poole, Benson and Cambridge all record the difficulty and propose different sources. Cross-Testament in any case, so no shared Strong's evidence exists and no verbal tier is available. Provenance disputed: flagged.

A Joseph, an Egypt, a death, and a going up to Israel structural / thematic: confirmed

The Verifier links 2:19 to Hebrews 11:22 and Acts 7:15 by a cluster of shared lexemes: τελευτάω (G5053, "to finish life"), Ἰωσήφ (G2501), Ἰσραήλ (G2474) and Αἴγυπτος (G125). The verbal overlap is real but the interest is the pattern it exposes. In Hebrews 11:22 a Joseph, finishing life, speaks of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gives orders about his bones; in Acts 7:15 Stephen recounts that Jacob went down into Egypt and there finished life. Matthew's scene runs the film the other way: a Joseph in Egypt is told that the man who finished life is the persecutor, and that the child may now go up to the land of Israel. Same vocabulary, same geography, reversed direction. We claim no quotation and none of these writers cites another.

Hebrews 11:22 · Acts 7:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5053 τελευτάω (in 11 vv), G2501 Ἰωσήφ (in 35 vv), G125 Αἴγυπτος (in 23 vv), G2474 Ἰσραήλ (in 66 vv). Greek to Greek, but the shared words are names and a common verb of dying rather than a rare distinctive term, and no writer cites another: tiered down from verbal to structural.

"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" structural / thematic: confirmed

The town name Matthew settles on in 2:23, Ναζαρέθ (G3478), is shared with John 1:45, where Philip tells Nathanael they have found "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph," of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, and Nathanael answers with the proverb. Three of the commentators here reach for that scene to explain Matthew's word: Benson quotes it directly, JFB quotes it as evidence of "a special contempt," and Poole quotes it to show why believing Jews would have to look past the reproach. Barnes records that the town was "proverbial for wickedness," and Henry makes the connection Matthew's readers would have felt at once: "Christ was crucified with this accusation, Jesus the Nazarene." The verbal overlap is a shared place name rather than a rare theological term, so we tier the link by its pattern: a name used as an insult becomes the title under which He is confessed.

John 1:45 · Acts 24:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3478 Ναζαρέθ (in 12 vv), G2501 Ἰωσήφ (in 35 vv), G4396 προφήτης (in 138 vv) between Matthew 2:23 and John 1:45. Greek to Greek, but the shared term is a place name and neither writer quotes the other, so the link is recorded as thematic. Acts 24:5 is added on Cambridge's note that the early Christians were themselves called Nazarenes in scorn.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The greater than Moses, called out of Egypt ancient/widely-held

⚙ Matthew has already stated the Hosea text at 2:15, and here he lets the shape of the Exodus story carry the weight without a formula. The deliverer is hidden in a foreign land while the king who sought his life dies; then the word comes to return. JFB names the typology directly, saying the command to Moses in Exodus 4:19 was given "for the same reason that the greater than Moses was now ordered to be brought back from it, the death of him who sought his life." Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit each register the same parallel behind the plural "they are dead." Henry generalises it to the reader: "Did we but look upon the world as our Egypt, the place of our bondage and banishment, and heaven only as our Canaan, our home, our rest." This is an ancient and widely held apostolic reading of the infancy narrative, though we note honestly that Matthew here states no citation and the commentators infer the pattern rather than quote a fulfilment formula.

Exodus 4:19 · Hosea 11:1 · Matthew 2:15

The netzer from the stump of Jesse ancient/widely-held

⚙ The oldest and best attested reading of 2:23 hears in Ναζωραῖος the Hebrew netzer of Isaiah 11:1, the twig that sprouts from the cut stump of Jesse. Ellicott sets out the whole case: Matthew had heard men speak with scorn of "the Nazarene," and had heard the same syllables in one of the most glorious Messianic prophecies, "so he found in the word of scorn the nomen et omen of glory." JFB draws out what the image concedes about the royal house: the branch springs "from the branchless, dried-up stump of Jesse," a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree, so that the town's insignificance and the prophecy's imagery say the same thing. Gill notes that the Jewish commentators themselves, Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra and Kimchi, read Isaiah 11:1 of the Messiah, which means the link was not invented by Christians to fit the case. Ellicott adds that the same royal branch appears under the different Hebrew word Zemach at Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8 and Zechariah 6:12, which may be why Matthew writes "prophets" in the plural. We hold the identification as probable rather than proven; Benson objects that Christ was as much the Branch at Bethlehem as at Nazareth, and that objection is not answered in this unit.

Isaiah 11:1 · Jeremiah 23:5 · Zechariah 6:12

Despised and rejected: the name over the cross ancient/widely-held

⚙ Whatever the etymology, the future passive κληθήσεται hands the naming to other people, and Scripture records what they did with it. Nathanael's "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46), the council's "out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (the words Benson quotes, from John 7:52), and finally the charge on the cross: Henry states it without ornament, "Christ was crucified with this accusation, Jesus the Nazarene." Benson takes the whole verse this way, that He was sent to a contemptible place "that he might there have a name of infamy and contempt put upon him, according to the frequent intimations of the prophets," citing Psalm 69:9 and Isaiah 53:3. JFB reaches the same end from the netzer reading, finding in the arrangement "a standing memorial of that humiliation which 'the prophets,' in a number of the most striking predictions, had attached to the Messiah." ⚙ Our own addition is small and follows the grammar: the title of scorn is the title the church then took for itself, since the believers are prosecuted as "the sect of the Nazarenes" at Acts 24:5, and Cambridge calls that for them "a point of triumph." Henry states the pastoral conclusion: "we may glory in being called by his name, sure that if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him."

Isaiah 53:3 · John 1:46 · Acts 24:5

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear, Strong's numbers and parsing as supplied in the brief. Greek throughout; no Hebrew root is asserted here except where a named commentator asserts it, which is the case for netzer, natsar and nazir at 2:23.

What is uncertain in this unit, stated plainly. (1) The plural "they have died" in 2:20 has no agreed explanation: euphemism (Cambridge, Barnes), Herod with Antipater (Benson, Gill, Barnes), or assimilation to Exodus 4:19 (Ellicott, JFB, Pulpit). We have not chosen between them. (2) The quotation in 2:23 has no identifiable source text in the Old Testament, as Ellicott, Poole and Cambridge all concede; the thread carrying it is flagged, and no tier above "flagged" would be honest. (3) The etymology of "Nazareth" itself is disputed within the brief: Cambridge derives it from natsar, protectress; Gill and Ellicott from the plants and trees of the place; JFB from its insignificance. (4) The numbers for the temple massacre under Archelaus differ by source: three thousand in Josephus as cited by Ellicott, JFB, Barnes and Pulpit, nine thousand in the Jewish chronicler Gill quotes; Gill himself judges Josephus "truest." (5) Historical details of Herod's death, its date and its manner come from Josephus through Benson, Gill and JFB, and are reported here as their testimony, not as the Gospel's.

Provenance of the voices: all excerpts are verbatim contiguous substrings of public-domain commentary supplied in the brief, resolved from anchors by the tooling rather than retyped. Two entries in the brief were capped before their end (Barnes and Pulpit at 2:23); nothing has been quoted from beyond the capped portion. Everything marked ⚙ is machine synthesis, fallible, and offered to be tested against the Word.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)