Matthew’s Mess of Fulfilled Prophecies That Weren’t
How a gospel writer twisted, stretched, and flat-out invented “prophecies” to make Jesus look like the fulfillment of Jewish scripture.
When Christians tell you Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, most of that comes from the Gospel of Matthew, whose number one obsession is prophecy. He throws it around like a drunk at a dartboard, yelling “bullseye!” even when the dart lands on the wall. The problem is, a lot of those prophecies aren’t real prophecies. Some are mistranslated, some are ripped out of context, and some are just plain made up.
Virgin Birth? Wrong Word, Buddy
Matthew 1:23 says Jesus was born of a virgin to fulfill Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.” Sounds impressive, right? Except Isaiah never said “virgin.” The Hebrew word almah means “young woman.” Not virgin. Just a young woman old enough to marry and have kids.
The Greek translation, the Septuagint, used parthenos (which can mean virgin), and Matthew ran with it. He needed Jesus’ birth to look magical, so he latched onto a sloppy translation and turned it into a miracle. The original prophecy was about a political crisis in Isaiah’s time, not some cosmic savior 700 years later.
To add insult to injury, the verse even predicts the savior’s name as Immanuel—not Joshua (Jesus).
Jews never believed in a virgin birth of someone from David’s line, because lineage back then was traced strictly through the father. The idea that a woman could pass on the royal line wasn’t even on the table. If a Messiah didn’t have a father, he by definition couldn’t come from David’s line.
Out of Egypt I Called My Son
In Matthew 2:15, Joseph takes baby Jesus to Egypt, then back to Israel, “to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”
That “prophecy” comes from Hosea 11:1. But Hosea isn’t predicting the future at all. He’s looking backward at history: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” He’s literally talking about the Exodus—Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery. Nothing to do with a future messiah.
Matthew twists it into a forecast of Jesus. That’s like me reading “George Washington crossed the Delaware” and saying, “See? That was a prophecy about me crossing the Hudson on vacation.” Total nonsense.
Rachel Weeping for Her Children
Matthew 2:18 claims Herod’s massacre of Bethlehem babies fulfilled Jeremiah 31:15: “A voice was heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children.”
Again, Jeremiah wasn’t predicting some Herod baby-killing story (which, by the way, has zero evidence outside Matthew). Jeremiah was talking about the Babylonian exile, when people were taken from their land in chains. Rachel, symbolic mother of Israel, was “weeping” for her people. Matthew rips it out of context to make his invented massacre sound prophetic.
So not only is the prophecy fake, the event itself is fake too. A prophecy made up to cover a massacre that never happened. Double scam.
He Will Be Called a Nazarene
This one’s the laziest. Matthew 2:23 says Jesus lived in Nazareth “so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.”
Go ahead, look in the Old Testament. Search all 39 books. Nowhere does it say the messiah will be called a Nazarene. Matthew just made it up. Scholars think he was either punning on the Hebrew word netzer (branch) from Isaiah 11:1, or just trying to explain why Jesus was from the backwater town of Nazareth. Either way, there is no such prophecy. Matthew literally wrote, “the prophets said…” when no prophet said a damn thing.
The Thirty Pieces of Silver Mess
In Matthew 27:9–10, Judas throws thirty pieces of silver into the temple, and Matthew says this fulfills “what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.” But the verse he quotes is actually closer to Zechariah 11:12–13, not Jeremiah.
So either Matthew didn’t know his Bible, or he didn’t care. He mangled the source, credited the wrong prophet, and twisted the meaning. Zechariah was talking about wages for a shepherd, not a betrayer of the messiah. Matthew shoved the verse in anyway, even when it didn’t fit.
Riding Two Donkeys at Once
This one’s just funny. Matthew 21:4–5 has Jesus ride into Jerusalem “to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.” He quotes Zechariah 9:9: “Behold, your king comes to you, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Hebrew poetry uses parallelism—saying the same thing twice in different words. It doesn’t mean two animals. But Matthew, clueless, takes it literally. He has Jesus riding on both a donkey and a colt at the same time. Picture Jesus like a circus acrobat, straddling two animals as he clops into town. That’s not prophecy fulfilled. That’s a gospel writer who didn’t understand poetry.
Why Matthew Did It
So why did Matthew keep forcing these “prophecies”? Easy: marketing. Mark was written first, but lacked fulfilled prophesies. Matthew, which copies bbug chuncs of Mark, add propesies.
Contrary to popular belief, Matthew wasn’t writing for a Jewish audience that actually knew their scriptures. He couldn’t back Jesus up with real verses, so he bent them, twisted them, and straight-up invented them for a Roman audience. In other words, instead of proving Jesus fit the mold—he rewrote the mold to make him fit.
It worked. Christians still parrot these “prophecies” today as proof Jesus was the messiah. Never mind that the originals had nothing to do with him. Faith doesn’t care about context. It only cares about a good sales pitch.
Before You Go
Matthew’s prophecy game is smoke and mirrors. Virgin birth? Bad translation. Out of Egypt? Misused history. Rachel’s tears? Out of context. Nazarene? Doesn’t exist. Thirty pieces of silver? Wrong prophet. Two donkeys? Dumb mistake.
Call it misunderstanding, call it creative writing, call it fraud—whatever. But what it’s not is prophecy.
Sources and Further Reading
The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Bart D. Ehrman – Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (HarperOne, 2009)
Raymond E. Brown – The Birth of the Messiah (Yale University Press, 1993)
Elaine Pagels – The Gnostic Gospels (Vintage, 1989)
Zechariah 11:12–13 – Thirty Pieces of Silver (Bible Gateway)
I have read from some authors that Matthew is confusing Judges 13:5, which refers to an ascetic religious sect (the Nazirites) and not a place of birth. It is possible that Nazareth the town didn't exist until the late first century.