overshadowed by Sepphoris, which is only four miles away. Jerome indicates that Nazareth was used in reference to Old Testament verses using the Hebrew word ne'tser (branch), specifically citing Isaiah 11:1. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that, "The etymology of Nazara is netser, which means 'a shoot'. The Vulgate renders this word by flos, 'flower', in the Prophecy of Isaias (11:1), which is applied to the Saviour. St. Jerome (Epist., xlvi, 'Ad Marcellam') gives the same interpretation to the name of the town." Analysis The difficulty with the brief quote "he will be called a Nazarene" is that it occurs nowhere in the Old Testament prophets, or any other extant source. A number of theories have been advanced to explain this. At the time the canon was not firmly established and it is possible that Matthew is quoting some lost source, but all the other quotations in Matthew are from well known works, and if a quotation so closely linking Jesus’ hometown and the Messiah existed it would likely have been preserved. There is much debate, and many theories among scholars as to what the quote could mean. Scholars have searched through the Old Testament for passages that are similar. One popular suggestion is where of Samson it says "the child shall be a 'Nazirite'" ( ; LXX: ναζιραιος, naziraios). A nazirite was a member of a sect who practiced asceticism, and the word has no known link to the name of the town. Jesus was not a nazirite and is never described as one. France also notes that Judges has "shall be" while Matthew has "shall be called", so if Matthew had been quoting Judges he would have retained the same form. Another theory is that it is based on Isaiah 53:2. This messianic reference states that "he grew up before him like a tender shoot." One of the Hebrew words for "shoot" is netser ( ; cf. Isaiah 11:1), more similar to the word nazarene (Hebrew: netsri; Greek: , Nazōraios) than nazirite ( nezîr). Keener notes that the term is used to refer to the Messiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls. However this piece of wordplay is meaningless in Greek. However, there are other wordplays in Matthew that only makes sense in the Hebrew. In 1:21, the angel says his name will be Ιησους because he will σωσει. This only makes sense based on the Hebrew ישׁוּע Yeshua from