⁵ The promised Messiah is Jesus. The gospel writer Matthew alluded to the words of Isaiah 11:1 when he said that Jesus’ being called “a Nazarene” fulfilled the words of the prophets. Because he was brought up in the town of Nazareth, Jesus was called a Nazarene, a name apparently related to the Hebrew word used in Isaiah 11:1 for “sprout.”b​—Matthew 2:23, footnote; Luke 2:39, 40.