Matthew records that shortly after Jesus's birth, there was a visit from some "wise men" from the east (from Persia?)
Matthew 2: 1-8, Herod hears
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: `But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: `But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
According to the NIV footnotes, "Magi" traditionally meant "Wise Men". In verses 2 and 9 the phrase translated "star in the east" could also mean "star when it rose".
According to the NIV footnotes, "Magi" traditionally meant "Wise Men". In verses 2 and 9 the phrase translated "star in the east" could also mean "star when it rose".
The quote in verse 6 is from Micah 5:2.
Matthew 2: 9-12, The eastern visitors see the real king!
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Matthew 2: 13-15, Joseph and family flee
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
The quote in verse 15 is from Hosea 11:1, a verse whose primary interpretatoin primarily recalls the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt in the days of Moses.
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."
Most of the events in this chapter are reported only here; they are not mentioned in the other gospels. This is an especially poignant and sorrowful scene.
What would it have been like to have been the mother of one of those innocents? The world is cruel; even the arrival of the Messiah does not change the cruelty.
The quote in verse 18 is from Jeremiah 31:15.
Matthew 2: 19-23, The Nazarene
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."
The quote at the end of this chapter is unclear. Matthew appears to be recalling a prophetic statement but this sentence does not appear in the Old Testament scripture that we possess. It is possible it is quotes a variant of Isaiah 53:2, the Hebrew nasir being an alternate of the Hebrew word translated as "shoot" in that passage. Other ideas are given at this Wikipedia page.
And so Jesus grows up in Nazareth. In the next chapter, Matthew's gospel jumps ahead to the beginning of Jesus's ministry.
On this chapter there has been some controversy because of the nature of the stories. Robert Gundry argued in a commentary in the early 80s that the killing of the innocents was an example of a Hebrew midrash, an account not strictly historical but illustrative of major themes of the larger biblical account. He argued that this took nothing away from the authority of scripture, but the leadership of the Evangelical Theological Society disagreed and asked him to resign membership, which he did. I think that was unfortunate, because I don't see a huge problem with his view and hold a similar view myself of the story of Jonah. From the records we have of Herod, this is not an action uncharacteristic of the man, so could also have happened as written. No corroborating extrabiblical evidence, however, but that's also not uncommon given the relative scarcity of records.
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