Based on your studies into Hebrew roots, is there some kind of language device that allows prophecies - such as those found in Matthew relating to Christ - to be lifted out of their original context?
For example, "Now all this [that is, pertaining to Joseph's dream and the pregnancy] was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is, God with us."
This passage is in Isaiah 7:14, and the writer of the book of Matthew suggests this passage is a prophecy of Jesus Christ - but the original context is quite different.
As you know, Isaiah addresses himself to Ahaz, and assures him that two kings should not succeed against him and that Ahaz should ask a sign of the Lord.
This Ahaz declined doing, giving as a reason, that he would not tempt the Lord. Isaiah then goes on to say verse 14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son - butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good - for before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land which thou abhors shall be forsaken of both her kings" - meaning the King of Israel and the King of Syria who were marching against him.
How can Matthew assign those verses to the prophecy about Christ? Or is it a literary device?
Matthew 2: 1-6. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East and are come to worship him. When Herod the king heard these things he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem, in the land of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel."
This passage is in Micah 5:2, yet again the context is seemingly not a prophecy.
It is speaking of some person, without mentioning his name, from whom some great achievements were expected; but the description he gives of this person, verse 5, 6, proves evidently that is unlikely to be Jesus Christ, "and this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise up against him [that is against the Assyrian] seven shepherds and eight principal men.
"And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod on the entrance thereof; thus shall he [the person spoken of at the start of the second verse] deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our borders."
It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians that had conquered and were in the land of Judea, and trod in their palaces when Christ was born, and when he died - and so far from his driving them out, it was they who signed the warrant for his execution, and he suffered under it.
Just one more by way of illustration. Matthew 2: 13. "The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be you there until I bring thee word: For Herod will seek the life of the young child to destroy him.
"When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son."
This passage is in the book of Hosea, 11: 1. The words are, "When Israel was a child then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim and burned incense to graven images."
Surely, this passage refers to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, and to the idolatry they committed afterwards. To make it apply to Jesus Christ, he then must be the person who sacrificed unto Baalim and burned incense to graven images; for the person called out of Egypt by the collective name, Israel, and the persons committing this idolatry, are the same persons or the descendants of them.
There are a number of other similar examples, and I wondered what your 'take' on these verses were.
Many thanks – Philip
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Dear Philip,
This question could be multiplied many times by examples in the Biblical text. And, this is a problem with Hebrew prose. It seems when you read "that was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet XXX" that God caused this all to come about in order to fulfill such and such, a prophecy. Of course, that is not the case at all.
The study of prophecy in the Biblical text is a very complicated subject in and of itself in view of the fact that prophesy can have a two-fold, three-fold, four-fold fulfillment. And, the person can be looking back to the particular event and say, "oh, that was a fulfillment of such and such," or one can be in the midst of a present event and look back to the scriptures and find a passage that seems to indicate that such and such was a fulfillment of that present event.
An interesting example is the passage in Matthew 2:23 where it mentions after the death of Herod, Jesus coming from the city of Nazareth that it might be the fulfilling that which was spoken by prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene." Look that one up and see if you can find anywhere in the Biblical text that it was prophesied that Jesus should be called a Nazarene. I will save you the trouble. Don't look because it is not there. You won't find it.
But, what you would find, if you knew Hebrew and Rabbinics well enough that in Isaiah 11, it says "and there shall come forth a shoot out of the stalk of Jesse and a twig which grows forth out of his roots." That word "twig" in Hebrew is Netzer from the root Natzar, and the city of Nazareth in Hebrew is Natzeret or sometimes called Natzart as it is known in Arabic today. The Rabbis saw that and connected the events together and saw that as a prophesy that He should be called a Nazarene.
In other words, one could stand on this side of the fence and look back on the other side of the fence and find an event or a word that seems to link the two together and declare it to be so. And, in Hebrew, it makes perfect sense.
Roy
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