CHAPTER III: That appellation, Jesus the Nazarite, explained
And thus again, as his conception was at Nazareth, Luke 1:26, so he was every way Ναζαραῖος, a Nazarite, given up to God from the womb, given up by the second person that assumed that nature, given up by the human nature, the soul of it assumed, by a miraculous work of God, as was his conception itself, given up by his mother also, who assents to all that the angel said of him, to have such a child to be conceived in her: 'Be it according to thy word,' said she. Lastly, a Nazarite by God's own dedication and separation of him then to it, in the message of the angel, which was sent by him.
CHAPTER III
Shewing the mystery of that appellation given him, 'Jesus the Nazarite,' to have been, that he was thus dedicated from his very conception to this great work.
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.—MAT. 2:23.
There was no name more ordinarily and familiarly given to Christ, and that by all sorts of persons, than this, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' and 'Jesus the Nazarite.' It was given him by the Jews, John 18:5, 7, Mat.
26:71; by angels: (1.) the bad, Mark 1:24; (2.) the good, Mark 16:6.
Yea, this appellation obtained so among all, that it was put by Pilate, the Roman Governor, into the superscription upon the cross, in all three languages, 'Jesus the Nazarite,' John 19:19; and was further used by his apostles, as glorying to own him under that title after his ascension; so Acts 2:22, and chap. 3:6, 4:10. Yea, and himself, after his ascension, doth from heaven decipher himself thereby: Acts 22:8,
'I am Jesus (ὁ Ναζωραῖος) the Nazarite.'
Now it so fell out, in the providence of God guiding the idiom or manner of speech in that language, that a Nazarene or Nazarite
signified both an inhabitant of the city Nazareth, as also one that by profession and vow was peculiarly separated and dedicated to God.
The Jews, as they gave this name unto Jesus, intended no other thing thereby than that he was an inhabitant of and dweller in the city of Nazareth; as you say a Londoner, noting out an inhabitant of the city of London. And so it is given to Christ, Ναζαρηνὸς, Luke 4:34, compared with John 1:46, where it is τόν ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲθ, that is, one of the inhabitants of Nazareth.
But Matthew tells us that God had a further design in guiding those Jews to this appellation, to hold forth a higher mystery, namely, that this was the great Nazarite, vowed and separated unto him, of whom all the votaries or Nazarites of the Old Testament were types. And therefore he is termed by Matthew and others ὁ Ναζωραῖος, the great Nazarite, those having been his shadows, even as he is called the last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:43; the true David, Acts 13:34.
The words of Matthew to this purpose are these, Mat. 2:23, 'And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth,' which was the only occasion why the Jews termed him Jesus of Nazareth, or Nazarene; but it had this mystery further in it, 'That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets,' of him that was to be the Messiah, 'that he shall be called,' that is, be, 'a Nazarite.'
Now, under the Old Testament, the writers of which are generally called the prophets, all that were dedicated or consecrated unto God by vow of their parents from their birth, or that separated themselves unto God in a special vow of holiness and obedience above others of their brethren, these were termed Nazarites; as Joseph, Gen. 49:26,
'The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, and to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.' And Samson also, Judges 13:5,
'For, lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the
womb.' And whoever he was that vowed his person to God, and not his goods only, was by the law called a Nazarite: Num. 6:2, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves to the Lord.' All which were acted as types and shadows of the dedication of himself, to be after this made by this great votary, who was the substance of them in this particular, as in all things else he was of all his other forerunning types, in what was attributed to them.
There may other royal qualifications and characters of Christ the Messiah fall into this, that he was called a Nazarite, as will in the current of this discourse appear; but this of his being vowed to God was the great and main thing intended thereby, as Joseph and Sampson and others were.
The main difficulty herein is, how the examples and the law of those Nazarites should be esteemed prophecies of him, as Matthew here says, 'That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.'
It is a known and a taken-for-granted truth, that those names and things spoken of the eminent types of Christ, are by the evangelists and apostles given unto Christ, whom they prophetically signified, as more truly, and in a more transcendent manner, belonging to him than unto the persons themselves to whom they were first given unto; as eminently fulfilled in him, yea, and as more really intended of him than of them, as appears by many instances of the like kind.
Thus when Paul to the Hebrews would prove Christ to be the Son of God, in that peculiar manner as never man, yea, nor angel, ever was:
Heb. 1:4, 5, 'Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?' He would here prove that Christ's name given him in the Old Testament, was 'the Son of God,' and so the Son as no
angel. He cites a speech spoken of, and to Solomon, 'And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.' Now where are these words to be found, or how come they to be meant of Christ? The words are only found, 2 Sam. 7:14, 1 Chron. 22:10. No way can be devised but this, that what God speaketh of Solomon is more properly intended of Christ; De Solomone vero, more than de
Solomone mero. David's Son was but a shadow. Yea, and which is stranger, he quotes it to prove that Christ the Messiah was the Son of God in such a transcendent manner as Solomon was not, even that he was the only begotten Son, whereof Solomon's sonship was but a shadow. This and many the like must be resolved into this general rule, that what is attributed to the type his shadow, must needs be in a more divine and super-eminent manner ascribed to him the substance. For if so excellent persons in their highest excellency were but his types, then what are those excellencies in him, a person so divine? I might exemplify all this more clearly in the apostle's quoting, and that as a proof too, what was said of the first Adam, that he was an earthly man, a living soul, to fore-prophesy Christ's superexcelling dignity of his being the Lord of heaven, a quickening Spirit, a second Adam: 1 Cor. 15:44, 45, 'It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.' And multitudes of other instances might be given; as that in Hosea 11:1,
'Out of Egypt have I called my Son,' quoted by Matthew in this chap.
2 ver. 15. Now then parallel this of Matthew, concerning Christ his being a Nazarite, with that of his being a Son under the type of Solomon, and a second Adam, &c., and you will readily say as Matthew here, This name of Nazarite was commonly given him, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarite. So as, although there were no other scriptures in the prophets to foresignify this thing, than these which were his types, yet that alone is sufficient to call for Matthew's πληρωθῇ, 'that it might be fulfilled'; yea, and the name and thing more eminently fulfilled in him than it was in them; and he a more transcendent votary, made more holy and more sanctified than they all.