Matthew 2:1

THE INFANT JESUS. -- Matthew 2:1-12.

GOLDEN TEXT. -- Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. -- Matthew 1:21. TIME. --About B. C. 4. (It is now conceded that the Savior was born about four years before the date assigned at the time our chronology was adopted.) PLACE. --Jerusalem and Bethlehem of Judah. RULERS. --Herod the Great, king of Judea; Augustus Cæsar, emperor of Rome. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-21; John 1:1-5. LESSON ANALYSIS. --I. The Wise Men and the King; 2. The Priests and Rulers in Council; 3. The Visit to Bethlehem.

INTRODUCTION.

Our lessons now come to the central fact in the history of the world. The fulness of time had come. The mighty wars and commotions which had tracked the earth with blood for thousands of years had been temporarily suspended. The temple of Janus in Rome, only shut in time of peace, had its doors closed. After long contests, extending through more than seven hundred years, Rome had become the mistress of the nations. The Roman empire held sway over nearly all the known world. Greece was subject to Rome politically, but ruled still intellectually, the school of literature and art. She was crowded with temples and statues, and her schools of philosophy and rhetoric were flourishing. This was. time of remarkable intellectual activity. Horace and Virgil had died but. few years before. Diodorus Siculus, the Greek historian, Strabo, the Greek geographer (B. C. 54--A. D. 24), Ovid (B. C. 43--A. D. 18), Livy (B. C. 59--A. D. 17), and Seneca, who died A. D. 65, were living during the life of Christ. Though there was intellectual activity, political might and civic splendor, there was utter moral degradation. Herod the Great,. usurper who held his place by the Roman favor, was. bloody tyrant, and under his heavy burdens the faithful ones in Judea were eagerly looking for the deliverer who was the hope of Israel.

The brief narrative of the visit of the Magi, recorded in the second chapter of Matthew, is of the deepest interest in the history of Christianity. It is, in the first place, the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It brings the facts of the Gospel history into close connection with Jewish belief, with ancient prophecy, with secular history, and with modern science; and in so doing it furnishes us with new confirmations of our faith, derived incidentally, and therefore in the most unsuspicious manner, from undisputed and unsuspected quarters.-- Farrar.

I. THE WISE MEN AND THE KING -

1. When Jesus was born. T

hough the home of Joseph and Mary was at Nazareth, the sure word of prophecy had declared that Christ should be born at Bethlehem, the native place of his royal father David; and this was accomplished by the agency of the Roman emperor.. decree was issued by Augustus for. census of "all the world" over which his power extended, that is, the Roman empire and its subject kingdoms. The connection of Judea with the province of Syria, first established by Pompey, was not regarded as utterly dissolved by Herod's elevation to the throne; nor was the dying prince, for such was Herod's condition at this time, likely to contest the authority under whose shelter his reign had flourished, even though the census might betray the intention of absorbing his kingdom into the empire. The sacred pride of the Jews In their genealogies would lead them to hasten to the head cities of their tribes and families; thus Mary, though about to become. mother, traversed with her husband the length of the land, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the royal city of David, to whose house they both belonged.

In Bethlehem of Judea.

Bethlehem was one of the oldest places in the land of Judea, and had been in existence at least 1500 years before the Savior was born. It was the scene of the events so touchingly related in the Book of Ruth. It was here that the good Boaz abode; and here the foreign damsel (destined to become the foremother of David and of Jesus), gleaned his field. Still earlier, it was here that the beloved wife for whom Jacob had served fourteen years was taken away from him. It was known as the City of David, because it was the birthplace of the greatest of the kings of Israel. The little town has an imposing aspect and commanding site. It stands on the summit of. narrow ridge, which projects eastward from the central mountain chain of Judah, and breaks down abruptly into deep valleys on the north, east and south. The steep slopes beneath the village are carefully terraced, and the terraces--clothed with olives, vines and fig-trees--sweep in graceful curves round the ridge, regular as stairs. Below these slopes, in the bottom of the valleys, are fields whose fertility gave the place its name, "House of Bread." It is about six miles south of Jerusalem, on the road toward Hebron. It contains at the present time about four thousand inhabitants, chiefly Christians of the Greek Church, who obtain much of their sustenance from the sale of relics to pilgrims and visitors.

In the days of Herod the king.

This statement gives data for ascertaining the time of the birth of Jesus. It has been generally conceded, for reasons that our space excludes, that it took place in the last year of Herod's reign. But it is known that Herod died about three years before the first year of our era. Therefore, if the Savior was born "in the days of king Herod," he must have been born about four years earlier than the date assigned. The error is due to the mistake of Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century, whose reckoning was blindly followed. Herod is called the king to distinguish him from the other Herods, his descendants, who were mostly tetrarchs. He was only partly of Jewish blood, was. man of most bloody and unscrupulous character,. great tyrant, the murderer of even his own wife and sons.

There came wise men from the east.

The word rendered "wise men" is more correctly Magi,. term which designates an order of priests and philosophers, which belonged originally to Persia and Media, and who were extensively distributed over the region east and west of the Euphrates. Those described in the book of Daniel as wise men, astrologers and magicians, belonged to this order. We can only conjecture where these "wise men" came from, but the probability is that they journeyed from the valley of the Euphrates.