Zechariah's Chiastic-Christology.

[John D. Brey]

And speak to him, saying: Thus has the God of the hosts of creation said: Behold, a man, Tzemach (a shoot, a growth) is his name, and from his place he will shoot up [tzemach], and will build the Temple of God.​

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Zechariah 6:12 (Rabbi Mendel Hirsch translation and interpretation. Bracket added to reflect that the Hebrew word for "place" is the same as the name of the personage in the crosshairs).​

The interpretation of Zechariah 6:12 given by Rabbi Mendel Hirsch presents a curious chiastic structure linking Exodus 34:7's image of Nehushtan the "Branch of mercy" with a messianic Nazarene. Zechariah 6:12 is generally considered messianic. So to say the name of Messiah is "Tzemach" (which is a Hebrew word for a basal-shoot springing from a root) is utterly remarkable. It's remarkable since a parallel Hebrew word for a "shoot, or a growth," springing from the root, is nazar נצר. Futhermore, and more to the point, a place in Israel was named after a nazar: (Nazareth). Which leads to the curious, or amazing, chiastic structure of Zechariah 6:12, since in the chiasmus the prophet says the messianic man is named "shoot, or growth," because he will "shoot up" from his place. The prophet links the messianic personage's name with the name of the place he will shoot up from and be associated with. Zechariah links the name of Messiah with the "place" he's associated with.

A biblically-minded person immediately thinks of a would-be messianic-figure come down to us through history as "Jesus of Nazareth"; that is, a would-be Messiah who's known by a place called "sprout, a growth," (Nazareth). The "Branch (or Nazar) from Nazareth" fits the prophet Zechariah's chiastic structure perfectly. When we add that this Nazar in Exodus 34:7 is capitalized in the Hebrew text (something extremely rare and designed to make the reader sit up and take note), and when the sentence that begins Exodus 34:7 speaks of a, Branch (Nazar from Nazareth) of mercy for thousands who will be lifted up for their sins, perhaps we're being to perceive the vertiginous and paradoxical unity in the person of God that Moses so fervently desired to see and perceive.

Concerning this Yeshua, the prophets, who spoke of the mercy that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstance to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

1 Peter 1:10-12.​

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Exactly what Moses saw is not made known to us, but we do have here a record of the words, the "Names" by which the vision he beheld was explained to him, and of these we can try to attain some understanding.​

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The Hirsch Chumash, Exodus 34:7.​

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Branch [Nazar] of mercy for thousands lifted up for their iniquity, transgression and sin.​

וחטאה ופשע עון נשא לאלפים חסד נצר​

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Exodus 34:7.​

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The information above was composed in the thread on Exodus 34:7. But it stands alone and can be lifted up as a remarkable example of what's often hidden just beneath the surface of prophetic utterance throughout the Tanakh. In Zechariah 6:12, the prophet not only says that the future Messiah will be named with a Hebrew word meaning "branch," but going much further than that, he points out something utterly remarkable. This name of Messiah that's a Hebrew word for "branch" will also be the name of the "place" he's associated with. . . Let me say that again. . . According to Zechariah's chiasmus, a part of Messiah's name, which name is a Hebrew word for "Branch," will secondarily be the Hebrew name for the "place" he's directly associated with. His name and the place he's from (and will end his days) will be united grammtically and symbolically forever.

When we realize that the Talmud refers to Jesus as "the Nazarene," and that history refers to him as "Jesus of Nazareth," and when we realize that his alpha place is Nazareth, and his omega place was a wooden branch, so that he's from Nazar-eth, and died on a branch (nazar), so that he's the branch from Nazareth whose last breath was on a branch, and whose last breath was a phrase for mercy "Father forgive them," we can only with the greatest strain and cognitive dissonance deny, for the sake of our personal ideology, or religious tradition, a problematic grammatical relationship between all this and the first sentence in Exodus 34:7:

Branch [Nazar] of mercy for thousands lifted up for their iniquity, transgression and sin.​

וחטאה ופשע עון נשא לאלפים חסד נצר​

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Exodus 34:7.​

One view holds that "Nazareth" is derived from one of the Hebrew words for 'branch', namely ne·ṣer, ‏נֵ֫צֶר‎,[9] and alludes to the prophetic, messianic words in Book of Isaiah 11:1, 'from (Jesse's) roots a Branch (netzer) will bear fruit'.​

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Wikipedia, Nazareth.​

John

 

[Yokefellow]

Good find @John D. Brey

Here are all the occurrences of Strong's 5342 'netser' I could find...

Isaiah 11:1
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots"

Isaiah 14:19
"But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet."

Isaiah 60:21
"Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified."

Daniel 11:7
"But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail"

Strong's Hebrew: 5342. נֵ֫צֶר (netser) -- a sprout, shoot

From my research, a 'Branch' represents DNA, while a 'Tree' represents a Chromatid.