Isaiah 9:1 or Isaiah 8:23 - Ministry Began in Galilee

 When we are talking about early Isaiah chapters with single-digit numbers, we are talking about time period where there was a tense situation going on between Israel and the neo-Assyrian king, Sennacherib. 

The northern half of the tribes would be taken and never seen again. And here is what Isaiah 9:1 (or 8:23 in the Hebrew version) says: 

"For there is no weariness to the one who oppresses her; like the first time, he dealt mildly [by only taking those of] the land of Zebulon and the land of Naftali, and the last one he dealt with harshly: the way of the sea, the other side of the Jordan, the galil of the goyim."

The prophet is reminiscing about the early period, when Sennacherib defeated and took the Jews of Zebulon and Naftali, and then really crushed the seaside tribes, specifically those in the galil of the goyim.

Now galil can mean "Galilee", or simply a region, or rolling, or even something that attracts. And goyim means the enemies of the Jews, who took it over and dwell there.

So not only is there no Messiah going there to preach, but the one going there seeks to dominate the Jews, which isn't the type of "prophecy" that one would want to associate with Jesus.

So here's the verse in Matthew 4:13-15 (KJV) speaking about Jesus:

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelled in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, "The land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphthalim, by way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles."

Except that could not be fulfilled by Jesus because, according to the prophet, it was destined to be fulfilled by Sennacherib, who would make it an area of the enemies of the Jews.

It's quite possible that the author knew of the verse, wove a story for Jesus to walk through the same areas, and then applied the prophecy later to give Jesus' claim more credence.

But it doesn't.

For Jesus to "fulfill" the verse, he would have to enter the Galilee area and take it over, and subdue the residents, like Sennacherib.

And he didn't.

Style: "Non-messianic verse, an inverse relationship, Jesus didn't fulfill it."