to bring into connection with [Hebrew: ncrt]. But this
conjecture would, at most, be admissible, only if, with the Jews too,
the form [Hebrew: ncri] were not found throughout without a [Hebrew:
t], and if the Arabic form also were not entirely analogous.[1]

[Pg 109]

The question now is:--In what sense was [Hebrew: ncr] assigned as a
_nomen proprium_ to a place in Galilee? Certainly, we must at once
reject the supposition of _Jerome_ that Nazareth was thus called, as
being "the flower of Galilee," partly because [Hebrew: ncr] never
occurs in this signification; partly because it is not conceivable that
the place received a name which is due to it [Greek: kat'anti phrasin]
only. It is much more probable that the place received the name on
account of its smallness: a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree.
In this signification [Hebrew: ncr] occurs in Is. xi. 1, xiv. 19, and
in the Talmudical _usus loquendi_ where [Hebrew: ncrim] signifies
"_virgulta salicum decorticata, vimina ex quibus corbes fiunt._" There
was so much the greater reason for giving the place this name that
people had the symbol before their eyes in its environs; for the
chalk-hills around Nazareth are over-grown with low bushes (comp.
Burkhardt II. s. 583). That which these bushes were when compared with
the stately trees which adorned other parts of the country, Nazareth
was when compared with other cities.

This _nomen_ given to the place on account of its small beginnings,
resembling, in this respect, the name of Zoar, _i.e._, a small town,
was, at the same time, an _omen_ of its future condition. The weak twig
never grew up into a tree. Nowhere in the Old Testament is Nazareth
mentioned, probably because it was built only after the return from the
captivity. Neither is it mentioned in _Josephus_. It was not, like most
of the other towns in Palestine, ennobled by any recollection from the
olden times. Yea, as it would appear, a special contempt was resting
upon it, besides the general contempt in which all Galilee was held;
just as every land has some place to which a disgrace attaches, which
has often been called forth by causes altogether trifling. This appears
not only from the question of Nathanael, in John i. 47: "Can there any
good thing come out of Nazareth?" but also from the fact, that from the
most ancient times the Jews thought to inflict upon Christ the greatest
disgrace, by calling Him the Nazarene, whilst, in later times, the
disg