What is the meaning in the Bible for the "Branch"?

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Jesus is prophetically referred to as "the branch of David" (Is 11:1) and a "branch from the roots of Jesse" (Jer 33:15).

In general, "branch" can refer to offspring and "root" to parents (think "family tree"). Children can be referred to as "fruit" ("be fruitful", "fruit of the womb", "house of Judah ... bear fruit", "fruit of my body")

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Here is a nice summary of the Bible's teaching on the branch (or, the Branch).

As with so many scriptures in the Tanakh, the meaning of a particular term can have two meanings and associated referents. The concept of types and antitypes depends on this "double meaning" or "double application" of prophecy to the prophecy's fulfillment.

The Tent of Meeting (or Tabernacle), for example, is replete with types, which are fulfilled primarily in the antitype of the "new and living way," which the writer of Hebrews refers to in 10:19-20. This new and living way is Jesus, who IS "the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Through Him and the efficacy of His work of redemption which He accomplished at the cross, we enter that new and living way today by God's grace, through faith. In Old Testament typology,

". . . we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body" (op. cit.)

Interestingly, as soon as Jesus expired on the cross after asking His Father to receive His spirit, we are told that

"And, behold , the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake , and the rocks rent" (Matthew 27:51 KJV).

"And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Mark 15:38 KJV).

"And the sun was darkened , and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst" (Luke 23:45 KJV).

A key word in the NT regarding types and antitypes is shadow (see Hebrews 8:5; 10:1; and Colossians 2:17, though a different word might appear in various translations). A shadow, of course, is cast behind someone or something. The shadow is not the real person or thing, but it "points to" a real person or thing. So it is with OT shadows of the Branch.

In the scriptures the Branch is a shadow of both a restored remnant of Israel (see Isaiah 11:11-14) and a particular branch (B-ranch, actually) which springs forth from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1 and 10); namely, "the Branch of Jehovah" or "the Righteous Branch of David" (Isaiah 4:2 and Jeremiah 23:1,5; 33:15).

This branch, also known in Isaiah's prophecy as the "Servant of Jehovah," in chapter 49 and following, has an inauspicious beginning:

"He grew up before [the LORD] like a tender shoot out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him" (53:2),

but He would develop into a mighty Branch, whose antitype is laid out for us quite nicely in a four-fold paradigm of Messiah Jesus in the Gospels:

"This fourfold presentation of the Branch of David, the Branch as servant, the man who is the Branch, and the Branch of the Lord beautifully corresponds to the fourfold gospel depiction of Christ as King (Matthew), servant (Mark), perfect man (Luke) and Son of God (John)".

This Branch of Jehovah, though He had humble beginnings as a "tender shoot", with no particular "beauty or majesty," would one day become "beautiful and glorious" (Isaiah 4:2). To us today, living as we do in the "church age," Jesus is indeed both beautiful and glorious! Moreover, some day yet future, the whole world will be filled with the glory of the LORD, concerning which the prophecies appear as early as Numbers 14:21:

"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. "

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