Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)
Matthew 2 - Introduction
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 Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King”: that is all. The main purpose is to show the reception given by the world to the new-born Messianic King. Homage from afar, hostility at home; “foreshadowing the fortunes of the new faith: acceptance by the Gentiles, rejection by the Jews; such is the lesson of this new section. It is history, but not of the prosaic sort: history with a religious bias, and wearing a halo of poetry. The story forms a natural sequel to the preceding account. The δὲ in Matthew 2:1, as in Matthew 1:18, is adversative only to the extent of taking the attention off one topic and fixing it on another connected and kindred. This, according to Klotz, who regards δὲ as a weak form of δὴ, is the original force of the particle. He says (in Devarius, p. 355): “Illa particula eam vim habet, ut abducat nos ab ea re, quae proposita est, transferatque ad id quod, missa illa priore re, jam pro vero ponendum esse videatur”.