Matthew 2

Another installment from reader David:

MATTHEW 2,
in which your humble commentator is confused for the first 17 verses, then gets very excited because he thinks he's starting to see the SHAPE of Matthew's logic vis a vis the selection of proof-texts; but alas, he is thrown into confusion again by the final verse.

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

This seems like a good way to get your head chopped off. As such, it doesn't pass the sniff test at all. I'm skeptical that anything even remotely like this really happened.

Magi were Priest-Kings. They were very important in Persia, very rich, and very powerful. Herod (a two-bit underling to Augustus) would have been in big do-do if he had attacked them. This would have been like the president of one country visiting the president of another.

 Also, question. Evangelicals are, for the most part, pretty down on astrology, right? Well... why? If you believe the Bible, not only did it work out amazingly well for the Magi, astrology is a tool for knowing when the Messiah has come. That's powerful stuff!

Shouldn't Christian astrology be a thing? Are there warnings against it later in the New Testament, or is it frowned on for mostly cultural reasons, or what?

Yes, Christian astrology should be a thing. The aversion to it is cultural and ignorance for the most part; a desire to avoid the Satanic branch of star study. 

There are several, though, who have taken ancient culture's names and stories from the stars and seen the common thread throughout. "The Gospel in the Stars" by Joseph A. Seiss is one example. Now, he does get a lot wrong, in my opinion, but he gets a lot right too.

The Bible says that God named the stars. He let Adam name the animals, but He named the stars (Psalms 147:4, Isaiah 40:26). The stars do not control us or anything, but they do tell the Redemption Story. They are a Bible for those who don't have the written Word.

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 
4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

The modern Jewish answer, for the record, is “Who knows?” More precisely: there's a long-standing teaching that, in each generation, there's one person who COULD be the Messiah – one person who has the potential. And if both he *and the Jews of his generation* are righteous enough, then he'll go from “potential Messiah” to actual Messiah. But he's not required to come from any one specific place.

As with almost all Jewish teachings, this notion isn't universally embraced—and even among the streams of thought that believe this, there's a lot of quibbling about details. But, y'know, welcome to the religious marketplace.

I bet if you trace the origin of that tradition you will find it began sometime after the Jewish leaders killed Jesus. They refused their true Messiah and then had to come up with an excuse for why the biblical Messiah hadn't shown up.

5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘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 shepherd my people Israel.’” [Micah 5:2,4]

Oh boy! You may wonder: why was verse 3 omitted? Good question! Let me add another: why did Matthew stop at verse 4? And just for good measure, let's ask a THIRD question, though this is for the NIV translators and not for Matthew: why does this text not match your own translation of Micah 5?

Matthew would likely have been quoting from memory since the automatic press had not been invented yet. It is possible he got the gist right but not the exact wording. Those who translated the Bible into English chose to stay true to what Matthew wrote instead of changing it to match Micah.

Here's the NIV version of Micah 5:2:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,though you are small among the clans of Judah...”

The key difference here is “clans of Judah” versus “rulers.” FULL DISCLOSURE:I'm aware that the NIV gives “rulers” as another possible choice in place of “clans.” But I spot-checked with four other translations and all of them read “clan” without any footnotes for alternate renderings. So maybe Matthew's reference is slightly off from the Hebrew original? I couldn't say; you'll have to ask a local New Testament scholar. 

The NIV is my least favorite of the new translations, but honestly there isn't a lot of difference. 

I CAN answer the other two questions. Why did Matthew leave out verse 3? Because it's not a great fit for Jesus. Here's the missing verse:

“Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”

Seems enigmatic, doesn't it? But actually if you flip back a page, you'll find that Micah 4 talks about Zion as the “woman in labor,” in a passage that's just SUPER fun to read:

“Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.” Is that vivid, or WHAT? (It's Micah 4:10, by the way.)

So when you put all this together, Micah 5 is predicting that the captives from Judah (or rather, their descendants) will be delivered from captivity and “return to join the Israelites.” And of course this DID happen. But the deliverer in question was Cyrus the Great, not Jesus.

Our second question – why did Matthew stop at Micah 5:4? – has a straightforward answer. If he'd gone any further, it would be obvious that this passage is NOT a good Jesus preview. Here's Micah 5:5-6:

“And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders, who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders.”

Aaaand we're back to the Assyrians, I see. This, again, is very hard to apply to Jesus. although it DOES show why so many Jews expected the Messiah to be a military leader.

I keep struggling with the verses Matthew chooses to cite. His claim is that Jesus is the Messiah and, therefore, the Messiah isn't going to free the Jews from foreign oppression. So why cite verses that, when you go back and check their context, undermine your position?

Honestly, this is a mystery and I'm not sure what Matthew's objective is; I'd welcome any thoughts or suggestions. I'm reluctant to conclude that it's JUST sloppy proof-texting, but right now, that's all I've got.

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

So – is this star visible ONLY to the Magi? Why does Herod need to consult with them specifically? I'm pretty sure he'd have people in his court who could tell him when a new star appeared. Astrology was serious business – omens and portents and prophecies were hugely important in the ancient Greco-Roman world – and a new star would be a BIG deal. Its arrival would be widely observed and discussed.

I think maybe the Jews were not as into stargazing as other nations. 

There are many theories regarding the Star of Bethlehem ranging from only the Magi could see it to it being a comet or supernova. 

My favorite theory is that is was a supernova in the constellation Coma Bernese. I understand the non Greek ancients pictured this as a virgin nursing a baby (the Greeks saw a woman holding her hair). There are records from the time of a new star (likely a supernova) appearing where the baby's head should be starting about 100BC, being its brightest at about the time of Christ's birth, and fading to invisibility by AD100. Some believe this constellation would have appeared directly over Bethlehem at midnight at this point in history, but I don't see exactly how that could be proved. 

Resting over the house itself? No idea. That does lend more weight to the comet theory or "magic," excuse me, "miracle" though. God can do whatever He wants so that's a possibility, but usually He obeys His own laws just tweaking them a bit to accomplish His will.

Also, some believe there were three important conjunctions the year before Christ's birth. Legend says there were two the year Moses was born and that was why Pharaoh chose that year to kill all the baby boys. Three would have alerted the Magi to the arrival of the King. 

As far as how they knew to be looking in the first place, the prophet Daniel became a Magi himself and he gave prophecy that just about labels the very year of Christ's arrival. And they may very well have had copies of the Jewish scriptures and been studying them for hundreds of years.

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

Really, we need to talk about this star. What kind of star behaves like this? What does it mean for a star to be stopped “over a place?” How does one measure what place a star is “over?” How can we say the star is over one particular house and not its neighbor three doors down, for instance?

Again, I'm not being flippant; I really don't understand. When Matthew says the star “went ahead of them,” what does that mean?

Wish I could give you a better answer :-( Would love to know myself.

10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 
11 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, frankincense and myrrh.

Why are pagan sorcerers worshiping the Jewish messiah? Why are they the FIRST to worship Jesus? Do they count as the first Christians? Do they come back into the story later? Is there any tradition that suggests that three of the apostles were actually the Magi in disguise, or something? If not, can we start one?

Daniel's prophecy tells us that the Messiah will end the need for sacrifice for sins. Isaiah tells us He paid the price due for all sins and many of the OT prophecies strongly imply that this payment applies to gentiles as well as Jews. Also, the Magi were monotheistic, possibly a corruption of Judaism. So Jesus was their Messiah also.

Most believe the Shepherds mentioned in Luke were actually the first to worship Christ, but, yeah, I guess you could call the two groups the first Christians:-)

Unfortunately we never here from the Magi again. I don't think even secular history says anything about them. There are a couple of fictional works and legends with them as the main characters. Magi as disciples could be a cool story :-)

And though tradition says there were three, we really don't know that. There were three types of gifts, but the number of Magi is never really stated. There may have been quite and army showing up at Herod's doorstep here.

12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

13 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.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

15 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.” [Hosea 11:1]

Hosea 11:1-2:

“1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

2 But the more they were called,

the more they went away from me.

They sacrificed to the Baals

and they burned incense to images.”

Again: you go ONE verse farther on and it's clearly not about Jesus – “my son” would here be the Jewish people as a whole, it seems. Maybe this IS just sloppy proof-texting.

16 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.

Shades of Moses, again.

17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “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.” [Jer. 31:15]

I just had an insight! I think Matthew is DELIBERATELY picking passages that talk about the return from the Babylonian Captivity, because, yes, this one does too (Jeremiah 31:16-17: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants.”).

So now I've got a thread to pull at. My first thought is that Matthew's arguing that the Jews of his age are being held in captivity by... well, by... well, gosh. Hm. It's hard to find anything going on in Jesus' day that would finish that sentence appropriately.

The Jews of that time were being oppressed by a force far more brutal, far more cruel than Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria combined. 

Sin.

Maybe it's a different kind of parallel. Matthew has spent a fair amount of time linking Jesus to Moses; maybe he's also trying to link Jesus to Cyrus? (Again, remember that Cyrus delivered the Jews from the Captivity. Though honestly, that's a pretty Judeocentric way to look at events. It's more accurate to say that Cyrus conquered Babylon and eventually allowed all the captive peoples – not just the Jews – to go home.)

It is Judeocentric, but I bet the others countries worded it just as self centered.

But even this is difficult, because so many of the references so far have been to Assyria, not Babylon.

But still! I have a THEORY now: Matthew is picking his scriptural references in order to tell SOME kind of story, make SOME kind of connection. Maybe it's linking Jesus to Cyrus, maybe it's something else, but to tell SOME kind of I'll have to keep an eye on this and see if Matthew's citations *do* suggest that he's trying to link Jesus to Cyrus. Failing that, maybe there's some other story I can piece together from his scriptural references.

You have hit the nail on the head and worded it in a way I couldn't form; "Matthew is arguing that the Jews of his age are being held in captivity by..." Sin. 

And they need a Messiah that is Moses and Cyrus combined to rescue them. 

And the truth is that every human is under this same captivity and in need of a Savior.

The Return to Nazareth

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt

Joseph can hardly get a good night's sleep, can he?

LOL

20 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.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

22 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,

See? Every time he lies down his head! Every time! Also: did the angel from verse 20 give him a bum steer, or what? “Wait, you BELIEVED me when I said you could go home?! You beautiful, gullible man! That's just ADORABLE. But listen, your family is in mortal danger here, and I mean it for real this time. My advice: keep walkin', chump.”

Luke's version of Jesus birth tells us Mary and Joseph were originally from Nazareth. They went to Bethlehem because of the tax commanded by Augustus. So here they were "returning" to Judah, but to Jerusalem, likely to provide Jesus with the better educational opportunities. But God wanted them back where they started from. They probably had extended family there, it was a small village, old friends, etc. Much more the kind of life God wanted His Son raised in.

23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Here's an interesting fact: the NIV doesn't cite ANY verse here, which suggests that Matthew doesn't HAVE a verse to cite. I certainly can't think of one. Is he really just straight making this up? Help a brother out? 

The NIV doesn't have the reference because no one can find it! 

We just don't really know what in the world Matthew is talking about. There is no scripture in the OT that says this. Wikipedia.

The best explanation I could find was;

"First, Matthew does not say 'prophet,' singular. He says 'prophets,' plural. It could be that Matthew was referring to several Old Testament references to the despised character of Jesus (i.e., Psalm 22:6, 13, 69:10, Isaiah 49:7, 53:3, Micah 5:1). Nazareth held the Roman garrison for the northern areas of Galilee.1 Therefore, the Jews would have little to do with this place and largely despised it. Perhaps this is why it says in John 1:46, "And Nathanael said to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" So, it could be a reference not to an actual location, but the maligned character of the Messiah even as Nazareth was maligned for housing the Roman garrison, and Matthew was using it in reference to the implied hatred of Christ." Source

Just don't know on this one.  
(I'm having lots of fun though. Your insights are exciting:-)

So, what is the Jewish take on universal sin?