 saying: Hey, what do you want with us, Jesus Natsarene?!, but since Hebrew is read from right to left, for us the order is reversed n, ts, r. This word root means branch. Greek has the equivalent for ps and ks, but not for ts, so the transliteration used a ζ dz, which is the voiced counterpart of ts. But when the Greek was transliterated into English it came out as z! But Hebrew has a z, ז , so in transliterating back into Hebrew people assumed the consonants נזר, replacing the correct with . Neither Nazareth nor Nazarene, spelled with a , is to be found in the Old Testament, but there is a prophetic reference to Messiah as the Branch, Isaiah 11:1and several to the related word, Isaiah 4:2, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; Zechariah 3:8, 6:12. So Matthew 2:23 is quite rightthe prophets plural, being at least three referred to Christ as the Branch. Since Jesus was a man, He would be the Branch-man, from Branch-town. Which brings us to the word Natsorean. The familiar Nazarene Ναζαρηνος Natsarene occurs in Mark 1:24, 14:67, 16:6 and Luke 4:34, but in Matthew 2:23 and in fourteen other places, including Acts 22:8 where the glorified Jesus calls Himself that, the word is Natsorean Ναζωραιος, which is quite different. I have been given to understand that the Natsareth of Jesus day had been founded some 100 years before by a Branch family, who called it Branch town; they were very much aware of the prophecies about the Branch and fully expected the Messiah to be born from among themthey called themselves Branch-people Natsoreans. Of course everyone else thought it was a big joke and tended to look down on them. Can anything good...? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you arethe Holy One of God! 