CHAPTER 2. HISTORY OF THE INFANCY CONTINUED. The leading aim of the evangelist in this chapter is not to give biographic details as to the time and place of Christ's birth. These are disposed of in an introductory subordinate clause with a genitive absolute construction: “Jesus being born in Bethle... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν Βηθλεὲμ : The first hint of the birthplace, and no hint that Bethlehem is not the home of the family. τῆς Ἰουδαίας : to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in Galilee (Zebulon), named in Joshua 19:15. Our Bethlehem is called Bethlehem-Judah in 1 Samuel 17:12, and Jerome thought it should be so... [ Continue Reading ]
_Visit of the Magi._... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 2:2, ποῦ … Ἰουδαίων : the inquiry of the Magi. It is very laconic, combining an assertion with a question. The assertion is contained in τεχθεὶς. That a king of the Jews had been born was their inference from the star they had seen, and what they said was in effect thus: that a king has been... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἡρώδης ἐταράχθη : βασιλεὺς before the name, not after, as in Matthew 2:1, the emphatic position suggesting that it was as king and because king that Herod was troubled. The foreigner and usurper feared a rival, and the tyrant feared the rival would be welcome. It takes little to put evild... [ Continue Reading ]
_Herod's measures_. καὶ συναγαγὼν … τοῦ λαοῦ. Was this a meeting of the Sanhedrim? Not likely, as the elders are not mentioned, who are elsewhere named as the representatives of the people, _vide_ Matthew 26:3, “the chief priests, scribes and elders of the people”. Here we read only of the chief pri... [ Continue Reading ]
_The answer of the experts_. οἱ δὲ εἶπον, etc. This is not a Christian opinion put into the mouth of the scribes. It was the answer to be expected from them as reflecting the current opinion of the time. The Targum put upon the oracle in Micah a Messianic interpretation (Wetstein, and Wünsche, _Beit... [ Continue Reading ]
_Herod's next step_. τότε Ἡρώδης … ἀστέρος : τότε, frequent formula of transition with our evangelist, _cf._ Matthew 2:16-17; Matthew 4:1; Matthew 4:5; Matthew 4:11, etc. Herod wished to ascertain precisely when the child the Magi had come to worship was born. He assumed that the event would synchro... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ πέμψας … αὐτῷ : his hypocrisy went further. He bade the strangers go to Bethlehem, find out the whereabouts of the child, come back and tell him, that he also might go and worship Him. Worship, _i.e._, murder! “Incredible motive!” (H.C.). Yes, as a _real_ motive for a man like Herod, but not as... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Magi go on their errand to Bethlehem_. They do not know the way, but the star guides them. ἰδοὺ ὁ ἀστὴρ : looking up to heaven as they set out on their journey, they once more behold their heavenly guide. ὃν εἶδον ἐ. τ. ἀνατολῇ : is the meaning that they had seen the star only at its rising, fi... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 2:10, ἰδάντες δὲ … χαρὰν μεγάλην σφόδρα : seeing the star standing over the sacred spot, they were overjoyed. Their quest was at an end; they had at last reached the goal of their long journey. σφόδρα, a favourite word of our evangelist, and here very appropriate after μεγάλην to express exu... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Magi enter and do homage_. καὶ ε. ε. τ. οἰκίαν : the _house_. In Luke the shepherds find the holy family in a _stable_, and the holy child lying in a manger; reconcilable by assuming that the Magi arrived after they had found refuge in a friend's house (Epiphan. Theophy.). εἶδον τ. π.… αὐτοῦ :... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their pious errand fulfilled, the Magi, warned to keep out of Herod's way, return home by another road_. χρηματισθέντες points to divine guidance given in a dream (κατ ὄναρ); _responso accepto_, Vulg [6] The passive, in the sense of a divine oracle given, is found chiefly in N. T. (Fritzsche after... [ Continue Reading ]
φαίνεται : assuming that this is the correct reading, the flight to Egypt is represented as following close on the departure of the Magi; the historic present, vividly introducing one scene after another. A subjective state of anxiety is here also to be presumed. Whence arising we can only conjectur... [ Continue Reading ]
_Flight to Egypt_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Flight to Egypt, massacre in Bethlehem, return to Nazareth_. These three stories have one aim. They indicate the omens which appear in beginnings _omina principiis inesse solent_ (Ovid). The fortunes of Christianity foreshadowed in the experiences of the holy child: welcomed by Gentiles, evil entre... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς : Joseph promptly executes the command, νυκτός, before the day, indicating alarm as well as obedience. The words of the command in Matthew 2:13 are repeated by the evangelist in Matthew 2:14 to emphasise the obedient spirit of Joseph.... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ἧν ἐκεῖ, etc.: the stay in Egypt cannot have been long, only a few months, prohably, before the death of Herod (Nösgen). ἵνα πληρωθῇ : another prophetic reference, this time proceeding directly from the evangelist; Hosea 11:1, given after the Hebrew, not the Sept [8], which for בְנִי has τέκνα α... [ Continue Reading ]
_The massacre_. Τότε : ominous _then_. When he was certain that the Magi were not going to come back to report what they had found at Bethlehem, Herod was enraged as one who had been befooled (ἐνεπαίχθη). Maddened with anger, he resolves on more truculent measures than he at first intended: kill all... [ Continue Reading ]
: still another prophetic reference, erem. 31:15, freely reproduced from the Sept [10]; pathetic and poetic certainly, if the relevance be not conspicuously apparent. The evangelist introduces the prophetic passage in this case, not with ἵνα, but with τότε (Matthew 2:17), suggesting a fulfilment not... [ Continue Reading ]
_Joseph's return_. Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τ. Ἡρ : Herod died in 750 U. C. in his 70th year, at Jericho, of a horrible loathsome disease, rotten in body as in soul, altogether an unwholesome man (_vide_ Joseph, Bell, i. 33, 1 5; Antiq., xvii. 6, 5; Euseb., H. E., i. 6, 8). The news of his death would fly s... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἐγερθεὶς … Ἰσραήλ : it is expressed in the same terms as those of the message directing flight to Egypt, except of course that the land is different, and the order not _flee_ but _return_. “Arise, take the child and His mother.” The words were as a refrain in the life of Joseph in those critical mon... [ Continue Reading ]
_Settlement in Nazareth in Galilee_. Joseph returns with mother and child to _Israel_, but not to Judaea and Bethlehem. ἀκούσας … Ἡρῴδου : Archelaos reigns in his father's stead. A man of kindred nature, suspicious, truculent (Joseph., Ant., 17, 11, 2), to be feared and avoided by such as had cause... [ Continue Reading ]
κατῳκησεν. κατοικεῖν in Sept [11] is used regularly for יָשַׁב in the sense of to dwell, and with ἐν in Luke and Acts (Luke 13:4; Acts 1:20, etc.) in the same sense. Here with εἰς it seems to mean going to settle in, adopting as a home, the district of Galilee, the particular town called Nazareth. ε... [ Continue Reading ]