THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 5, Chapter 2 Continued
We spent the bulk of our previous time together on the birth story of Our Lord and
Savior as we find it in the Book of Matthew; it is the only place in the New
Testament that we'll hear about the magi and the Star of Bethlehem. We have
spent some time understanding who the magi were, what their profession
actually was, and what it was that they saw that caused them to go on a long
journey to Judea in search of a new born king. We'll briefly review.
The magi were astrologers. We must not picture in our minds modern astrologers
who mainly produce horoscopes. Rather the magi were a combination of
astronomers and seers. They were experts in understanding the heavens,
tracking and predicting the movements of stars and planets, and then using those
objects' positions in the sky as omens and portents for the purpose of interpreting
the present and foretelling the future. These were not the ancient Babylonian
brand of astrologers because that practice had died out 3 centuries earlier.
Rather they were Hellenistic astrologers; that is, the brand of astrology they
practiced was the product of a Greco-Roman culture and so was seen throughout
the Roman Empire as valid and valuable...... except for the Jews who did not
practice or accept it.
Even though the Jews did not embrace the concept of the Zodiac or employ
astrologers to tell them the future, they did, of course, pay attention to the sky as
did all human beings. They were aware of the several constellations formed by
patterns of stars. The Book of Job is considered by most scholars to be the
oldest book in the Bible, written well before the time of Moses and the Torah. In it
we find this statement in which Job is describing the greatness of God:
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CJB
Job 9:8-10
8
He alone spreads out the sky and walks on the waves in
the sea.
9
He made the Great Bear, Orion, the Pleiades and the hidden
constellations of the south.
10
He does great, unsearchable things, wonders
beyond counting.
The Great Bear and Orion are constellations. The Pleiades (also known as the
Seven Sisters) is a star cluster that helps to form the constellation Taurus. Job
gives God credit for forming these stars into patterns. So even in Job's day these
stars and constellations were observed and named.
We spent the final half of our time together last week discussing the Star of
Bethlehem that appeared in the sky and what it might have been. Unfortunately
to explore this phenomenon we have to get a bit technical; but I think you'll find it
worth the effort. Some theologians believe the star was a comet. Others think it
was a Supernova. Another group surmises it was a planetary conjunction. We
examined each of these and found that none of these, of themselves, would have
alerted the magi that a new king of the Jews had been born. That falls in line with
the thinking of many Believers that the star was simply a divine miracle. We'll
continue the pursuit of the nature of this star as we continue with today's lesson.
Part of what we are dealing with is that when we compare the words of Matthew's
Gospel to what has become Christian Tradition and unquestionable belief by
millions of Believers, we find some inconsistencies. For instance the birth star is
usually pictured in illustrations as an unusually large and bright star that suddenly
appeared. Nowhere does Matthew suggest such a thing. In Matthew (the only
place in the New Testament where the star is mentioned) it is made clear that the
ONLY people who had any knowledge of a special star announcing a newborn
king of the Jews were the pagan magi; the Jews seemed to be completely
unaware of it. Even King Herod knew nothing of it and this paranoid man was
always on high alert for any sign of anyone that might represent the slightest
threat to his throne.
We read in Luke's Gospel that it was NOT the star that illuminated the place of
Christ's birth, but rather it was something else.
CJB
Luke 2:8-11
8
In the countryside nearby were some shepherds spending
the night in the fields, guarding their flocks,
9
when an angel of ADONAI
appeared to them, and the Sh'khinah of ADONAI shone around them. They
were terrified;
10
but the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, because I am
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here announcing to you Good News that will bring great joy to all the
people.
11
This very day, in the town of David, there was born for you a
Deliverer who is the Messiah, the Lord.
So it was the Glory of the Lord (the Shekinah) that accompanied an angel that
illuminated the area and informed the Shepherds of the birth of Messiah, not the
star. So what was the sign of how these Shepherds would know which child was
the long awaited Deliverer?
CJB
Luke 2:12
12
Here is how you will know: you will find a baby wrapped in
cloth and lying in a feeding trough."
So the sign that this was the Messiah was where the baby was located, and that
he'd be lying in a feeding trough (a manger). It had nothing to do with a star, and
interestingly, it was not a newborn king the Jews were to be looking for but rather
their Deliverer. Here's where things begin to get dicey.
After visiting Herod, and the magis being urged by him to find this newborn king
of the Jews and then to let him know right away, they continued their journey.
Here's how Matthew describes it:
CJB
Matthew 2:9-10
9
After they had listened to the king, they went away;
and the star which they had seen in the east went in front of them until it
came and stopped over the place where the child was.
10
When they saw the
star, they were overjoyed.
A plain reading of these 2 verses seems to say that this special star that the magi
first saw, which told them that a new king of the Jews had been born in Judea,
actually moved and led them to where the child was; and then it stopped and
hovered over the place where Yoseph, Miryam, and Yeshua were. This defies
any natural explanation so it is no wonder that much of Christianity sees this star
as a miracle of God. It may well be that it was. However there's another
explanation that must be considered because Matthew in no way implies that the
star was miraculous or supernatural.
Various constellations of the Zodiac were thought by the magi to represent
different regions of the known world. The constellation Aries, the Ram, was
representative of the region under the control of Herod at this time, which
centered around Judea. So Aries is where these astrologers would have looked
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for portents about Herod's kingdom. Vettius Valens of Antioch as well as Ptolemy
recorded that Herod's kingdom was ruled by the Zodiac sign of Aries.
Before we continue concerning the star I want to add one more piece of
information. In Luke 1:5 we're told this:
5
In the days of Herod, King of
Y'hudah, there was a cohen named Z'kharyah who belonged to the Aviyah
division. His wife was a descendant of Aharon, and her name was
Elisheva. This is the beginning of the birth story of John the Baptist, and we're
told that this took place during King Herod's reign, meaning it had to have
happened before 4 B.C. when Herod died. Luke 1:36 puts Yeshua's birth about
15 months following the conception of John the Baptist. We also know that Herod
was still living and ruling after Christ was born. Thus it is becoming more and
more agreed upon by biblical scholars that 6 B.C. is a very good candidate for
the year of Messiah's birth.
At this point the understanding of the Zodiac and the position of planets and stars
within each sign of the Zodiac enters greatly into the matter of what the magi
were looking for as a portent. It is well beyond our scope to get into much detail
about this, so I will just present you with some interesting bottom line facts.
Where stars and planets appear within a section of the sky that represents the
sign of a certain region on earth had much to do with what omen or portent was
being signaled. Of the many things these ancient Hellenistic astrologers were
looking for, was the sign of a king dying or being born since kings were very
powerful and greatly affected matters of importance. The position of planets in
the Zodiac had everything to do with determining a portent about a king. To quote
Michael Molnar: "Thus, for a horoscope to be undeniably suited for a royal birth it
must have a strong set of conditions for attendance". In other words: the magi
would have been looking for something very specific and technical about those
tiny dots of light in the sky that only they and other members of their profession
would have known to look for.
As the famous astronomer Kepler pointed out around 1600 A.D., there had
indeed been a somewhat rare (about every 60 years) conjunction of planets that
occurred in 6 B.C., the likely year that Christ was born. Using modern
mathematical and astronomical techniques, scientists have determined that
precisely on March 20, 6 B.C., a special conjunction of planets and the
movement of both the moon and the planet Jupiter occurred within the Zodiac
sign of Aries (the sign for the region of Judea). Might this have been what the
magi saw that alerted them to the birth of a new king of the Jews? It certainly fits
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the scenario quite well. More importantly it fits within the mindset of pagan
astrologers, the magi, of the 1st century A.D.
But now what to make of the statements in Matthew about the mysterious
movement of the Star of Bethlehem? The first thing we must do is to attempt to
get outside our modern Western thinking and instead adopt the mindset, and
grasp the vocabulary, of Greek astrologers in the 1st century, which is also the
time at which the Book of Matthew was being written by a man who had no
choice but to consult with experts, eye witnesses, and written records in order to
gather the many details contained in his Gospel account that we are studying.
Verse 2 of the second chapter of Matthew has the magi asking the people of
Jerusalem this question: "Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we
saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." What is the
meaning of the description of where it is that they first saw the star? Does it mean
that the magi were located in the east where they resided when they saw it? The
term "in the east" is taken from the Greek and the literal English translation of it is
indeed "in the east"; but what it sounds like to us isn't what it meant to these
ancient astrologers. For them "in the east" is a technical astrological term that
means "at the rising" (in fact, in recognition of this some Bible translations are
now saying "at the rising" instead of "in the east"). This term is referring to a
planet that rises over the eastern horizon of the earth before the Sun appears.
Thus what the magi saw was a morning star.
A few verses later in Matthew 2 we read:
CJB
Matthew 2:9
9
After they had listened to the king, they went away; and
the star which they had seen in the east went in front of them until it came
and stopped over the place where the child was.
"Went in front" or "Went before" are also literal translations of astrological terms.
The technical term is proegeseis, and while it means in laymen's terms to "go
before", in astrological parlance it means "to go in the same direction as the sky
moves". The ancient Greeks thought that the regular direction in which a planet
moves is the same as the direction that the overall sky moves. For those of us
who live in the 21st century the idea that the sky "moves" is rather amusing. But
remember that we're talking about people who had incorrect views about the
structure of our solar system, believed the sun revolved around the earth, that the
earth was flat and had 4 corners, etc.). So the term "stopped over" or "stood
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over" (that seems to us to describe the birth star becoming stationary over the
place where Christ was born) has a slightly different meaning in ancient
astrology. According to Ptolemy it more means "above in the sky". So allow me to
rephrase the meaning of Matthew 2:9 into its astrological meaning to reveal what
this verse is telling us.
"After they had listened to the king, they went away; and the star which they had
seen at the rising, which went in the same direction as the sky moves, came and
was above in the sky where the child was".
In the end what we have in Matthew regarding the Star of Bethlehem is that
either it was a celestial event that signaled a portent, appearing in the Zodiac
sign of the Ram (Aries), which only the highly trained magi would have
recognized; a very subtle sign that occurs about every 60 years, and one that
would indeed have been marked by a morning star that rises in the east and then
moves its position across the sky, and then at some point appears to stop (before
it makes kind of a looping turn)..... or we have a miracle of God. I cannot say with
certainty which it is. But as we ponder this event we also need to factor into our
thinking that the birth star was NOT a sign that God gave to the Jews, but rather
it was a celestial sign meant for pagan astrologers. As Luke chapter 2 explains,
the sign God provided for the Jews was that they were to look in Bethlehem for a
baby that was laid in a feeding trough. Would God actually give pagan
astrologers a sign (any sign) of the birth of a divine Jewish Messiah? We find
God interfacing with pagans on a number of occasions in the Bible and one of the
more famous encounters involved the pagan magi Balaam, in the Book of
Numbers, which we talked about in a previous lesson and may be prophetically
connected to the birth of Christ.
In Matthew 2:11 when the magi finally found the child: Upon entering the
house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam; and they prostrated
themselves and worshipped him. Then they opened their bags and
presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The magi worshipped the child as they would any king. Remember: the magi
were not looking for a Savior or a god but rather for a new born king of Judea.
Prostrating oneself before a king was usual and customary. Presenting
expensive gifts when visiting a king was usual and customary especially for first-
time foreign visitors.
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My opinion on the matter is this: God in His amazing providence timed the birth of
His Son to coincide with a sign that pagan astrologers were looking for. A sign
that the Jews had no knowledge of, and a sign so subtle that the Jews never
noticed it (because they would have no reason to notice it). Gentile pagans
worshipped Miryam's child as a king, with no understanding that He was Israel's
divine Messiah. At the same time God gave His chosen people a) a miraculous
announcement of the arrival of their Messiah (as a human baby) by means of an
angel and the appearance of the Glory of God in the night sky near Bethlehem;
and b) He also gave them a sign in order for them to positively identify this child
by saying He would be the one laying in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. So God
introduced His Son to the world as both King and Messiah; king to the pagans,
and Messiah to the Jews. And He did it in ways that each could identify with and
using means that each could accept. Let's keep that in mind as we carry out our
commission to introduce Jesus Christ to our unbelieving friends and family.
OK; let's return from our extensive detour and put the narrative of Matthew
chapter 2 together. Several pieces of information are given to us in rapid fashion
in the 1st verse. First, the name of the child (the Deliverer) is given: it is Yeshua.
Second, the place of His birth is provided: it is in Bethlehem of Judea. There
were a number of "Bethlehems" in the Holy Land so the addition of the words "of
Judea" was necessary. Third, Christ's birth occurred during the reign of King
Herod (meaning it had to have happened before 4 B.C., and the most likely year
for Yeshua's birth is 6 B.C.). Fourth, magi from a foreign land came to Jerusalem
looking for this new king of the Jews. Why Jerusalem? Because it was the seat of
government in Judea and so it seemed logical to them that this is where the new
king would be found. When they asked the local townspeople where this king
was they weren't asking in terms of what city or town he might be in; rather they
fully expected him to be somewhere in Jerusalem. Turns out, they were in the
wrong place because we've already been told that He was born in Bethlehem
(something they did not yet know).
When in verse 2 the magi say they have "seen his star", it more means that they
have identified an astrological portent that indicates a king has been born in the
region of Judea. Most Bibles have it that they say the reason they came was "to
worship" him. While that is not wrong, to the Western mind "worship" is reserved
for deities. However from an old English standpoint, worship means to pay
homage (usually to a king or aristocrat). Therefore some Bible translations such
as the NAS use the word "homage" (this projects a much more correct image to
we moderns because what the magi intended was in no way religious).
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Verse 3 says that it didn't take long for Herod to hear about these magi asking
the townspeople about a new king of the Jews. Naturally this caught his attention
and the townspeople knew full well that the homicidal and brutal Herod would not
take this news lightly, so everyone got upset right along with him. Herod did what
any experienced king would do: he called for experts to come and give him
council. We are told that the chief priests (plural) came, and so did the Scribes of
the people (or as the CJB has it, the Torah Teachers).
We discussed in the Introduction to Matthew that at this time in history the Jews
operated under a dual religious system consisting of the Temple and the
Synagogue. These institutions were completely separate and run for different
purposes by different sets of authorities. The Levite priests ruled the Temple, and
the Scribes (who were not Levites) ruled the Synagogues. There was one
Temple but there were scores and scores of Synagogues. Also notice that when
the Chief Priests of the Temple were summoned, this was not speaking of the
High Priest but rather the most senior regular priests. Herod wanted to know
exactly where the Messiah was to be born, and seemed to understand that since
His advent was prophesied such information would be found somewhere in Holy
Scripture. Without hesitation (because those who knew Scripture knew the
answer) the priests and Scribes said it was to be Bethlehem of Judea because
the prophet had recorded it. The prophet they were speaking of is Micah, and
what they quote is essentially Micah 5:1 or 5:2 depending on which Bible version
you are using.
CJB
Micah 5:1 But you, Beit-Lechem near Efrat, so small among the clans of
Y'hudah, out of you will come forth to me the future ruler of Isra'el, whose
origins are far in the past, back in ancient times.
So in the mid-700's B.C. (the time of Micah) it was foretold that the Messiah
would be born in Bethlehem. But now around 5 B.C. Herod wanted to know
WHEN the magi first saw this star that sent them on their journey because from
this he could judge the child's current age, which would be useful in identifying
him. Please notice that Herod had no doubt that the magi were correct. Herod
was fully a Hellenistic king and so bought in to pagan astrology. We're not told
how the magi responded to him; only that Herod bade them go to Bethlehem and
find this new king. And once they did, report it back to Herod so that he, too,
might go and pay homage to him. Yeah, right. The magi were intelligent men;
they understood that King Herod was not about to go and pay homage to his
potential replacement. The magi of course behaved as though they were obeying
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Herod and set out towards Bethlehem. We are told that the star led them there,
but as we discussed earlier that's a misunderstanding of terminology. First of all,
they didn't need to be led to Bethlehem. The road to Bethlehem was well marked
and well traveled, and it was no more than a half-day's walk from where they
were. Second, Bethlehem was a small place and the process of finding the Christ
child wouldn't have been difficult. Nonetheless, they were excited beyond
measure that the star had indeed given them the correct information, and inside
the house they found Miryam and her child..... the new born king of the Jews.
It has become a Christian tradition that Miryam gave birth to Yeshua not in a
house or an inn, but rather in something like a barn or a cave. Verse 11
specifically says "house"; it can't be translated any other way. This tradition of a
cave or barn comes from the mention of the child being laid in an animal feeding
trough. But in that era (and it is still that way in parts of the Middle East) animals
are brought in at night to a courtyard that is part of the residence, and the
residents will sleep nearby to the animals. The purpose was to protect these
valuable animals from predators and from thieves. So naturally there was a
manger (a feeding trough) inside the courtyard. No doubt where the holy family
stayed was very lowly (it wasn't usual to put a child in a feeding trough as a bed).
According to Matthew it was a house and I feel certain that it was.
The magi paid homage to the child-king, giving him gifts of great value. How old
might this child have been by the time the magi found him? It is difficult to
ascertain. The description seems to be of an infant. And yet the timing says the
child might have been about a year old. So we'll just have to leave that an open
question. I'll repeat what I said earlier; to the magis' minds they were not
worshipping this child from the religious sense even though Christian Tradition
makes it seem so. Rather they were paying the typical homage due to a king.
Honoring even a baby if it was born regally was not at all unusual.
After paying homage the magi began the long journey back to their homeland (it
is not stated where that is), but they were warned in a dream not to return to
Herod. As seers they were sensitive to dreams and visions. Did they really have
a dream or was it really their instincts that told them that Herod was obviously up
to no good?
In verse 13 the magi now completely exit the story but the issue of Herod's
clearly murderous intent towards this child remains. We are told that an angel of
the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph to warn him to take his family and flee to
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Egypt because Herod wants to harm the child. There is disagreement among
Bible versions about whether this is "the" angel of the Lord or he is "an" angel of
the Lord. The first suggestion makes this a unique angel, or even the Lord
Himself. The second suggestion ("an" angel) makes this an unidentified angel of
which there were others like him. I opt for "an" angel for a couple of reasons.
First: when we find the phrase "the angel of the Lord" in the Bible, invariably the
original language word isn't actually "Lord", it is Yehoveh... God's name. However
here Lord means Lord; God's name isn't used. There is only one Angel of the
Lord (Angel of Yehoveh) because this Angel is but another manifestation of God.
Yet a complication is that we have this angel speaking in the first person; he uses
the term "I" when he says to go to Egypt and stay there until I tell you to return.
Second: usually when the first person is used by an angel described as the Angel
of the Lord, that Angel is God. However here the wording is such that it could be
that God will again send this particular angel to Joseph in Egypt once it is safe for
them to go home (and the angel is aware of this fact). However the unusual way
Matthew phrases this indeed leaves room for doubt.
Verse 14 explains that Joseph obeyed the angel in his dream, and then verse 15
presents us with a sticky problem. The angel says that the overriding reason
Joseph, Mary and Jesus were to go to Egypt was so that the prophecy of "Out of
Egypt I called my son", would be fulfilled. This prophecy is taken from Hosea
11:1. Context is everything in the Bible, so listen to the entire verse.
CJB
Hosea 11:1 "When Isra'el was a child, I loved him; and out of Egypt I
called my son.
So Matthew is applying to Yeshua a prophecy that specifically named Israel as
the child that God calls "my son". So the original context in Hosea is the exodus
of Israel from Egypt as led by Moses. Israel is called God's son as far back as
Exodus 4:22, going so far as God insisting that Israel is His firstborn son. So is it
right of Matthew to make such application by switching the subject of the
prophecy from Israel to the Messiah? It seems much like allegory for him to do so
rather than revealing straightforward biblical history and truth. While we could
camp here quite a while I'll hurry us through it.
Again remembering that Matthew is a well educated Jewish Believer, who (as we
will see as we move through the chapters) is equally knowledgeable with the
biblical Torah as he is with Jewish Tradition, he is likely employing what is called
the remez method of Bible interpretation. I've taught this before, but briefly: there
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were 4 standard and accepted means of interpreting the Bible among the Jews of
Christ's era and it has more or less remained so to this day. The first
is p'shat that means "simple". That is, it is the plain, literal sense of the biblical
words. The second is remez that means "hint". That is, the biblical passage hints
at a truth a bit deeper than what we read in the p'shat (the simple, literal sense).
The third is drash, from which we get the Hebrew word midrash. It allows a
person to make application of what is said in the Scriptures in a way similar to
(but not quite the same as) allegory. That is, drash depends on God guiding the
human interpreter to truths not necessarily directly stated by the biblical words.
The Apostle Paul was a master at drash. Fourth is sod, meaning "secret". It is
the mysterious meaning behind the plain meaning. Gematria (the use of
numbers) to reveal less apparent truth is part of sod. Might Matthew be making
use of one of these 4 methods when he connects Hosea's prophecy to Christ?
Probably. I would speculate that he is employing the remez method of
interpretation; that is, Hosea 11:1 speaks directly of Israel as God's Son that He
calls out of Egypt, but in fact it also hints of a prophetic future calling of His Son
Yeshua out of Egypt.
Such a concept makes a direct and intimate link between Israel as God's Son
and the Messiah as God's Son. Christ and Israel are as one. Yeshua represents
the ideal Israel. This idea is sprinkled throughout the prophets and especially in
Isaiah 49. Essentially we have Jesus repeating Israel's experience by being
called by God the Father to come out of Egypt.
Herod died in 4 B.C., so we can assume that it was in that same year when the
angel returned to Joseph and told him his family could safely return to the Holy
Land. They probably were in Egypt for about a year. However shortly before his
death, Herod went into a paranoid rage when he realized the magi had tricked
him. They had gone to Bethlehem as instructed, but then went home without
returning to him with the information he had sought. In response Herod ordered
all children (probably only the males) 2 years of age and under who lived in
Bethlehem and areas nearby to be slaughtered. Apparently in their visit to Herod
the magi had told him when it was that they first saw the star. However their
seeing the star didn't necessarily mean (to him) that it represented the specific
date the child was born; it could have a little earlier or a little later. Since he
wasn't certain of the date he killed a wide range of ages: the children who were 2
years old and younger. Here we see the continuing connection with Egypt
because Pharaoh did something similar to the Israelite children 1400 years
earlier.
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CJB
Exodus 1:15-22
15
Moreover, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew
midwives, one of whom was called Shifrah and the other Pu'ah.
16
"When
you attend the Hebrew women and see them giving birth," he said, "if it's a
boy, kill him; but if it's a girl, let her live."
17
However, the midwives were
God-fearing women, so they didn't do as the king of Egypt ordered but let
the boys live.
18
The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and demanded
of them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"
19
The midwives
answered Pharaoh, "It's because the Hebrew women aren't like the
Egyptian women- they go into labor and give birth before the midwife
arrives."
20
Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people
continued to multiply and grow very powerful.
21
Indeed, because the
midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.
22
Then Pharaoh
gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born, throw in the river;
but let all the girls live."
We'll close for today and pick up Matthew chapter 2 next week and then move
into chapter 3.
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