flower of virtues;’ for the Church the more zealously she removes from the earthly to the heavenly, the more she abounds in the flower and fruit of virtues. Glossa Ordinaria: To this he adds the Prophet's testimony, saying, That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets, &c. Jerome: Had he meant to quote a particular text, he would not have written ‘Prophets,’ but ‘the Prophet.’ By thus using the plural he evidently does not take the words of anyone passage in Scripture, but the sense of the whole. Nazarene is interpreted ‘Holy,’ and that the Lord would be Holy, all Scripture testifies. Otherwise we may explain that it is found in Isaiah (c. 11:1.) rendered to the strict letter of the Hebrew. There shall come a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Nazarene shall grow out of His roots. Pseudo-Chrysostom: They might have read this in some Prophets who are not in our canon, as Nathan or Esdras. That there was some prophecy to this purport is clear from what Philip says to Nathanael. Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. (John 1:45.) Hence the Christians were at first called Nazarenes, at Antioch their name was changed to that of ‘Christians.’ Augustine: The whole of this history, from the account of the Magi inclusively, Luke omits. Let it be here noticed once for all, that each of the Evangelists writes as if he were giving a full and complete history, which omits nothing; where he really passes over anything, he continues his thread of history as if he had told all. Yet by a diligent comparison of their several narratives, we can be at no loss to know where to insert any particular that is mentioned by one and not by the other. Notes References Sources External links WELS Topical Q&A: Where In O.T. Was Messiah To Be A Nazarene? (A confessional Lutheran response to the controversy) BibleHub Matthew 2:23. 02:23