II. (1) IN THE DAYS OF HEROD THE KING. — The death of Herod took place in the year of Rome A.U.C. 750, just before the Passover. This year coincided with what in our common chronology would be B.C. 4 — so that we have to recognise the fact that our common reckoning is erroneous, and to fix B.C. 5 o... [ Continue Reading ]
WHERE IS HE...? — The Magi express here the feeling which the Roman historians, Tacitus and Suetonius, tell us sixty or seventy years later had been for a long time very widely diffused. Everywhere throughout the East men were looking for the advent of a great king who was to rise from among the Jew... [ Continue Reading ]
HEROD THE KING. — When the Magi reached Jerusalem, the air was thick with fears and rumours, The old king (the title had been given by the Roman Senate in B.C. 40) was drawing to the close of his long and blood-stained reign. Two years before he had put to death, on a charge of treason, his two sons... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES. — The chief priests were probably the heads of the twenty-four courses into which the sons of Aaron were divided (2 Chronicles 23:8; Luke 1:5), but the term may have included those who had, though only for a time, held the office of high priest. The “scribes” were the... [ Continue Reading ]
IN BETHLEHEM OF JUDÆA. — The words of the people in John 7:42 show the same belief thirty years later. The Targum, or Jewish paraphrase, of Micah 5:2, inserts the very words, “Out of thee the Messiah shall come.”... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU BETHLEHEM.... — The Evangelist is not quoting the prophecy of Micah himself, but recording it as it was quoted by the scribes. This in part explains the fact that he does not give either the version of the LXX., or a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew, but a free paraphrase. As the Targu... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE HAD PRIVILY CALLED. — True to his nature to the last — himself probably a believer in astrology, and haunted by fears of what the star portended — the king’s next measure is to ascertain the limits of his danger. The English “what time the star appeared” is not quite accurate. Literally, _th... [ Continue Reading ]
Bethlehem was but a short six miles from Jerusalem. “Diligently,” better, as before, _exactly._ So far as the mission became known, it would impress the people with the belief that he too shared their hopes, and was ready to pay his homage to the new-born King.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH THEY SAW.... — The words would seem to imply that they started in the evening, and, as they started, saw the star in the direction of Bethlehem. In popular language it served to guide them, and so led them on. We need not suppose that they found the child whom they sought in the “manger” descr... [ Continue Reading ]
OPENED THEIR TREASURES. — The word points to caskets, or chests, which they had brought with them. GOLD, AND FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH. — These were natural enough as the traditional gifts of homage to a ruler. Compare the gifts sent by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 43:11), and Psalms 45:8, for the myrrh a... [ Continue Reading ]
BEING WARNED OF GOD. — Following the order of events in our minds, it seems probable that after their homage on the evening of their arrival, they retired, possibly to the “inn” of Bethlehem, and were then, in their sleep, warned not to return to Jerusalem the following day, but to make their way to... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ANGEL. — Better, _an angel._ The interval of time between the departure of the Magi and Joseph’s dream is not specified. Probably it was very short. As with the Magi, the dream may have come as an echo of his waking thoughts, an answer to the perplexities with which their visit and the other won... [ Continue Reading ]
HE TOOK THE YOUNG CHILD AND HIS MOTHER. — The form adopted here, as in the preceding verse, is significantly reverential. In a narrative of common life the natural expression would have been “his wife and the young child.” AND DEPARTED INTO EGYPT. — The brevity with which this is told is, to a certa... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTIL THE DEATH OF HEROD. — The uncertainty which hangs over the exact date of the Nativity hinders us from arriving at any precise statement as to the interval thus described. As the death of Herod took place a little before the Passover, B.C. 4 (according to the common but erroneous reckoning), it... [ Continue Reading ]
The fact of the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem is not mentioned by Josephus, or by any other writer, and has on that ground been called in question. It is admitted, however, on all hands, that it was an act every way in harmony with Herod’s character. Tormented with incurable disease, and yet... [ Continue Reading ]
IN RAMA WAS THERE A VOICE HEARD. — Here again we have an example of St. Matthew’s application of a passage that had a direct bearing upon the events of the time when it was delivered to those which his narrative had brought before him. The tomb of Rachel, “in the way to Ephrath, which _is_ Bethlehem... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE DEAD. — The use of the plural is noticeable, as Herod alone had been named. Possibly, however, others may have been implicated in the scheme; or the turn of the phrase may have been suggested to the reporter of the dream by the parallel language of Exodus 4:19, in reference to Moses.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARCHELAUS. — Strictly speaking, this prince, who, under his father’s will (made just before his death), governed Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa, was never recognised as a king by the Roman Emperor, but received the inferior title of Ethnarch. Antipas had Galilee and Peræa, Philip the region of Trachonit... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL BE CALLED A NAZARENE. — For an account of Nazareth, see Note on Luke 1:26. Here it will be enough to deal with St. Matthew’s reference to the name as in itself the fulfilment of a prophetic thought. He does not, as before, cite the words of any one prophet by name, but says generally that w... [ Continue Reading ]