Luke 2:11

For unto you is born, &c.— Because one of the Bodleian manuscripts reads this ημιν, to us, Mr. Fleming has conjectured, that the angel who spoke was a glorified human spirit, perhaps that of Adam, all of whose happy descendants might, he thinks, make up the chorus, Luke 2:13. But considering the great assent of copies to the present reading, this conjecture leans upon a very slender support. Grotius imagines (which is more probable) that this angel was Gabriel. Almost all the Greek fathers, after the fourth Century, taught that this day, upon which our Saviour was born, was the sixth of January; but the Latins fixed his birth to the twenty-fifth of December. However, the principles upon which both the one and the other proceeded, clearlyprove their opinion to be without foundation. They imagined that Zacharias, John the Baptist's father, enjoyed the dignity of high-priest, and that he was burning incense on the day of expiation, when the angel appeared to him in the temple; and as the national expiation was always made on the tenth of Tisri, answering to the twenty-fifth of September,they fixed Elisabeth's pregnancy to that day, and supposed that Gabriel appeared to Mary precisely six months after; so that reckoning nine months forward, they brought the birth of Christ exactly to the twenty-fifth of December. The Greek fathers, though they proceeded upon the very same principles, were not so exact in their calculations, making the birth to happen some days later; but the uncertainty, or to express it better, the fallacy of those principles, has induced Scaliger, Calvisius, and most learned men since that time, to maintain, in opposition to the ancient doctors of both churches, that our Lord was born in September. The writers above mentioned support their opinion by the following calculation: when Judas Maccabeus restored the temple worship on the twentieth of the month Casleu, answering to the beginning or middle of our December, the course of Joarib, or first course of priests, (according to 1 Chronicles 24:7.) began the service, the rest succeeding in their turns. By making computations accordingto these suppositions, it is found, that the course ofAbia, to which Zacharias belonged, served in the months of July or August, at which time the conception of the Baptist happened. And as Mary had her vision in the sixth month of Elisabeth's pregnancy, that is to say, about the beginning of January, she conceived so as to bring forth our Lord in the September following. To this agrees the circumstance of the shepherds lying out in the fields the night of the nativity, which might happen in the month of September, but not probably in January. So likewise the taxation at Christ's birth, which might be executed more convenientlyin autumn than the depth of winter, especially as the people were obliged to repair to the cities of their ancestors, which were often at a great distance from the places of their abode.

After the time, the angel mentions the place of the Saviour's nativity,—in the city of David; informing us, that thus it pleased God, that He who is described as of the house and lineage of David, and of whom David himself was but a type, should have his birth in the same city where David had, to make the parallel more complete and exact. But there is yet something further in the case; for this city of David was Bethlehem, whence we find his father called Jesse the Bethlehemite; and from hence it was that the prophet Micah foretold that the ruler in Israel should come forth, ch. Luke 5:2. Now since Hebrew names are usually significant, and imposed to some special end or purpose, we may observe that the name of this city signifies the house or place of bread; and what place fitter for his birth and reception, who was and is the living bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die? After the place, the angel makes out the great characteristics of the Saviour,—who is Christ the Lord,—the Messiah, or Anointed. The natural properties of things, though separated from common to religious use, continue the same. They are hallowed by such separation; they are applied to greater objects, and employed in the highest service; but are not altered in themselves. The frankincense, the salt, the oil are the same, whether in the temple or the cottage, and are subservient to like purposes. The properties of oil are such, as have recommended it to various offices, civil and religious. It not only preserves itself, but also gives a lustre to other bodies; is a proper vehicle for odoriferous perfumes, is soft and bright, and makes the face to shine, which was of old esteemed a symbol of joy and magnificence; to which may be added, that as it feeds and maintains life in the lamp, so it served to denote the influences of the Spirit. Hence the king, the prophet, the priest, consecrated persons and thing, were anointed, to give them a lustre, and to denote and publish the separation of them from common men, and common use. Hence the offerings of a sweet savour were with oil and frankincense; but the sin-offering was without them. Leviticus 5:11. Oil was poured on the head of Aaron with such profusion, as to run down upon his beard, and the skirts of his garments. His sons were anointed with oil; the altar and all its vessels, the tabernacle, the laver, and its foot were anointed. We have also, in sacred and prophane history, many examples of anointing with oil. See Luke 10:34. Homer's Iliad, Τ. 38. Σ. 350. It has been already said, that kings, priests, and prophets were anointed. The word anointed was often used for prince or king. Cyrus is called the Lord's anointed: Saul was anointed captain before he was king: Zerubbabel, with his crown of gold, and Joshua the high-priest, with his crown of silver, are the two anointed ones in Zechariah 4:14. See also Isaiah 61:1. So usual was the phrase of the anointed for kings, that in the parable of the trees, Joshua 9:9 they are said to go forth to anoint a king. Hence it follows, that the expected king of the Jews, their greatest prince, prophet, legislator, priest,—each of which offices alone would have entitled him to the name of Messiah, or Anointed,—should eminently be called by the Jews the Messiah, or Christ. It is not without particular emphasis, that the angel has added to this character that he is the Lord. The title of Anointed, or anointed of the Lord, is, as we have shewn, given to kings and God's vicegerents upon earth; but the character of Christ the Lord is more exalted and sublime, and belongs only to Him, whom the prophet calls Jehovah our righteousness; and the apostle, the Lord from heaven; and who, being co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, is God of gods, or Lord of lords. He was the Lord, the Jehovah, who appeared so often under the first dispensation; to Abraham, in the plains of Mamre; to Isaac, in Gerar; to Jacob, in Beth-el; to Moses, in the wilderness. He is the Leader of the host of Israel; the Word of God, by whom he made the world, by whom he conversedwith the first and best of mankind; whom he sent as a Saviour to redeem his people from their servitude in Egypt, their captivity in Babylon, and at last, in the flesh, to redeem the world from the pollution of sin, and the dominion of death.