According to the Gospel of Matthew, Bethlehem is assumed to be the home of Joseph (see 2.1). It is only at the command of the angel that Joseph moves with his family to Nazareth. The climax of the story is reached by the quotation He shall be called a Nazarene.

Dwelt means “established as a home,” “resided,” or “settled.” Thus, Good News Translation has “made his home.” Some languages can get this across with a phrase such as “went to live.”

Nazareth is located about twenty-seven kilometers (seventeen miles) west of the southern end of Lake Galilee.

That carries the idea “in order to” or “so that.” They settled in Nazareth in order to fulfil the words of the prophets.

What was spoken refers normally to oral speech rather than to written information, although what the prophets spoke was normally preserved in writing. There is no record in the Old Testament of this prophecy, and there is no clear explanation as to where it comes from.

Prophets is plural and can be understood to refer to the prophets in general or even to their writings, as in “what the prophets had written” or “what was written in the books of the prophets.”

For suggestions on fulfilled, see 1.22.

The word translated Nazarene in Greek is somewhat of a puzzle, though Matthew obviously takes it as a fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus moved to Nazareth. Accordingly, Nazarene can be translated as “a citizen (or, person) of Nazareth.”

Called does not mean here “named.” Some languages have to say “He will be known as a citizen of Nazareth” or “People will know (or, say) he is from Nazareth.”

He in the scripture quotation refers to Jesus, not to Joseph, as the pronominal referent might suggest. In place of he one may translate “the Messiah.” Translators who do this should refer to the comments on “Messiah” in 1.1.

Translators should render the verse as naturally as possible in their languages. Often this requires two sentences, as in the following:

• So he went to Nazareth and made his home there. In this way (or, When he did this) what the prophets had said about the Messiah came true (or, the prophets’ words came true). They had said the Messiah would be known as a person from Nazareth.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .