Matthew 2:23 is the twenty-third (and the last) verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The young Jesus and the Holy Family have just returned from Egypt and in this verse are said to settle in Nazareth. This is the final verse of Matthew's infancy narrative. Matthew ends the verse arguing that Jesus' life in Nazareth fulfilled a messianic prophecy, which he quotes: "He will be called a Nazarene." However, no such prophecy is found in the Old Testament, or any other extant source. Because of this, the verse has been much studied, and various theories have been advanced attempting to explain the enigmatic quote. Content The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads: καὶ ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς πόλιν λεγομένην Ναζαρέτ, ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν ὅτι Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται. In the Authorized King James Version of the Bible the text reads: 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. The World English Bible translates the passage as: and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." Interpretation Nazareth was a small village unmentioned in any writings before this time, though there is some archeological evidence that a village existed in the area at the time of Jesus. The word "town" is from the Greek polis, which is used both for a big city such as Jerusalem and quite small settlements. Matthew gives no specific reason for why the family moved to this town except for the prophecy fulfillment and does not show any knowledge that Luke has them originally from there. The town was near the Via Maris, the main road connecting to Egypt, and the route the family would have most likely been travelling. Clarke notes that Nazareth was just to the north of the larger centre of Sepphoris that had been largely destroyed in the violence after the death of Herod the Great. At this time it was being rebuilt by Herod Antipas, and Clarke speculates that this could have been a source of employment for a carpenter such as Joseph. Nazareth could have had a population somewhere between 100 and 2000 people in the first century AD, and was quickly