John’s message to the overly and privately religious.

Synopsis §14, “John’s Preaching of Repentance”: Matthew 3.7-10, Luke 3.7-9.

Color-coding: Matthew & Luke.

Matthew 3.7-10. 3.7 ἰδὼν δὲ πολλοὺς Seeing many τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ Σαδδουκαίων of the religious folks, and those with private faith,	Luke 3.7-9. 3.7 Ἔλεγεν οὖν Heα said this
ἐρχομένους ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα αὐτοῦ coming to hisα baptism,	τοῖς ἐκπορευομένοις ὄχλοις βαπτισθῆναι ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ· to the crowds coming to be baptized by him:
εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, he told them, “You sons of bitches!β	γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, “You sons of bitches!β
τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν Who warned you to escape ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; from the futureγ fury? 3.8 ποιήσατε οὖν καρπὸν Okay then: Produce fruit ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας that would count as turning away.	τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν Who warned you to escape ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; from the futureγ fury? 3.8 ποιήσατε οὖν καρποὺς Okay then: Produce fruits ἀξίους τῆς μετανοίας that would count as turning away.
3.9 καὶ μὴ δόξητε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς· Don’t presume to tell yourselves, πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ. ‘We have Father Avraham,’δ λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς for I tell you that God can, ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων from these rocks, ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ. raise up flocksε for Avraham.	καὶ μὴ ἄρξησθε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς· Don’t start to tell yourselves, πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ. ‘We have Father Avraham,’δ λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς for I tell you that God can, ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων from these rocks, ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ. raise up flocksε for Avraham.
3.10 ἤδη δὲ ἡ ἀξίνη Now, the axe πρὸς τὴν ῥίζαν τῶν δένδρων κεῖται· lays at the root of the tree— πᾶν οὖν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν so every tree not producing good fruit ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται. is cut down and thrown into fire.”	3.9 ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀξίνη Now, the axe, too, πρὸς τὴν ῥίζαν τῶν δένδρων κεῖται· lays at the root of the tree— πᾶν οὖν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν so every tree not producing good fruit ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται. is cut down and thrown into fire.”

Among the folks who came to hear John were certain people, as Matthew relates it, who weren’t coming to learn; they already had God figured out, and were just coming to check John out. These would be:

• The “religious folks.” The ‏פְרִשִׁים/Perishim, Pharisees, practiced the Hebrew religion, whose traditions evolved it into Judaism.

  Jesus spars with them on a very regular basis in the gospels. Consequently people get the wrong idea that they’re a bunch of evil, hypocritical heretics. They’re not. If they were that far gone, Jesus wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to correct them. They were more right than anyone else. Paul, who later joined Jesus’s side, never left the Pharisee side, and identified himself with them many times.

  Jesus’s problems with them were the same problems He has with us Christians today: Too many hypocrites; too much of a tendency to embrace traditions inconsistent with the bible; too much self-justification and pride and denseness and blindness. I have always recommended to my students that rather than read “Pharisee” in their bibles, they would do well to read “Christian.” (Dr. Clarence Jordan actually went that far in The Cotton Patch Version, and it hits the nail right on the head.)

• The “folks with private faith.” The ‏צָדוֹקיִם/Tzadokim, Sadducees, believed in God and the Torah—minus angels, miracles, resurrection, the afterlife, anything unscientific, and any inconvenient traditions. They didn’t believe in the supernatural. They were materialists. These were extreme cessationists; God, to them, worked through nature, and that was all.

  I describe them as having “private faith” because that’s how materialists practice religion. They really can’t defend their religious beliefs very well. A person who believes in a spirit God, yet doesn’t believe in spirits, is a huge contradiction in terms. So rather than explain themselves, they tend to mutter, “My faith is very private to me,” and don’t talk about it. The only way you know they even have a faith is that they claim allegiance to a denomination… but are never seen worshipping, never appear to perform any religious duties, and you really can’t tell any difference between them and the nicer pagans.

  In the case of the Tzadokim many were priests. After all, in order to perform their job, they needed to believe something, and being a Tzadokim meant that you at least believed in the God you worked for. I’m not saying their belief in God was fraudulent or completely pragmatic. More likely they did believe in God; that He made infinitely more sense to them than atheism or the pagan religions. But since they couldn’t accept the supernatural as reasonable—they hadn’t seen it for themselves—they didn’t believe it.

  I know how they feel. If I hadn’t seen the supernatural for myself, I’d probably be with them.

John’s reaction to them is essentially, “What’re you doing here? Aren’t you saved already?”

I rendered his greeting to them as, “You sons of bitches.” I deliberately picked an English phrase that would be as offensive to us as John meant for it to be to them. The KJV puts it “brood of vipers,” which is no insult nowadays, and any good translation should have all the impact of the original language. Why did he start the conversation by trying to antagonize them? We can tell it from what he says next.

“Produce fruit.” Which they weren’t currently doing. Fruit, as it’s used in the New Testament, refers to good deeds, as well as other people who see the good deeds and mimic the behavior. The folks with private faith didn’t bother with good deeds, and the religious folks performed only the good deeds that made them look pious in public.

John nails the sort of fruit he’s speaking of down by saying this has to be fruit “that would count as turning away.” In other words, visible good works that could demonstrate to God, not to others, that they were serious about following Him. Yeah, God knows the heart; but if the heart has no influence over the rest of the body, that would be a disobeyed heart, and is as good as an evil heart.

Don’t fall back on Abraham. Hebrews had made this mistake throughout history: They presumed that because they’re God’s chosen people, God was obligated to bless them. Christians make the very same mistake: we presume because God has saved us from death, He’s obligated to bless us in every other way.

He’s under no such obligation. First of all, humans don’t obligate God. “Standing on the promises of God” does not mean that we can bend God to our will by invoking His promises. That’s a common, but demented, interpretation. Standing on God’s promises mean we trust God. Nothing more. We expect God will come through because He’s consistent like that; we never demand God to come through because He owes us something. He owes us nothing. Quite the contrary: We owe Him everything.

Some blessings, as Jesus pointed out, fall on everyone, God-follower and pagan alike. Other blessings are specific to those people with whom God has a relationship. Others are specific to the obedient. In the case of Abraham’s descendants, their blessing was connected with his blessing, but only so far that they followed God like Abraham did. They made a big deal of their family relationship with him, and in God’s eyes that relationship doesn’t count for much when you nullify it by not following Abraham.

Hebrew-speakers point out here that John made a pun, which I tried to duplicate in the translation: “God can, from these rocks, raise up flocks for Abraham.” In Hebrew, John is comparing a stone, ‏אֶבֶן/eben, with a son, ‏בֵּן/ben. Of course, this theory sorta depends on John speaking Hebrew. In the first century, Jewish scholars knew Hebrew, and it’s entirely possible that the folks John was speaking to would know enough Hebrew to get the joke, but the general Jewish public spoke Aramaic. “Stone” in Aramaic is כיפא/kifa, and “son” is כר/bar. So I might be all wet here. But it’s a thought.

John finally made the point to them that there was no sense in putting off their new behavior, as if the End wasn’t coming. “The axe lays at the root of the tree,” John told them, “so every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire.” The End will come—if not yet for the world, then at least for each of us—and it is imperative that God find fruit in our lives that is consistent with obedience and repentance. If we lack these things, He’ll save us anyway, if He considers us His; but how can we say with any certainty that we’re His when we don’t follow Him? We’ll wind up in the midst of a sheep-and-goats scenario where we’re insisting that we’re His, and He’s insisting that we’re not. The Jews will point to Abraham; the Christians will point to the sinner’s prayer; and Jesus will point to our works, or lack thereof, as a clear sign of either our obedience and love, or apostasy and apathy.

α. This would be John.

β. Lit. “begotten of adders,” usu. “brood of vipers.”

γ. Or “intended.”

δ. Abraham.

ε. As close as I can get to the Hebrew pun John possibly made. See the text.

John, the herald of Jesus.

Synopsis §13, “John the Baptist”: Matthew 3.1-6, 4.17, 11.10, Mark 1.2-6, 14-15, Luke 3.1-6, 7.27.

Color coding: Matthew & Mark, Matthew & Luke, Mark & Luke, all.

Matthew 3.1-3. 3.1 Ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις In those days		Luke 3.1-4α. 3.1 Ἐν ἔτει δὲ πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ In the 15th year τῆς ἡγεμονίας Τιβερίου Καίσαρος, of Tiberius Caesar’s rule, ἡγεμονεύοντος Ποντίου Πιλάτου τῆς Ἰουδαίας, governor Pontius Pilatus over Judah, καὶ τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Γαλιλαίας Ἡρῴδου, tetrarchα Horodosβ over the Galilee, Φιλίππου δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ his brother Philip τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Ἰτουραίας tetrarch over Ituría καὶ Τραχωνίτιδος χώρας, and Trachonítis provinces, καὶ Λυσανίου τῆς Ἀβιληνῆς τετρααρχοῦντος, Lysanias tetrarch over Abilené,γ 3.2 ἐπὶ ἀρχιερέως Ἅννα καὶ Καϊάφα, and high priests Anan and Ka’ifa, ἐγένετο ῥῆμα θεοῦ God’s message came
παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς Yochananδ the baptizer appears,		ἐπὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν Ζαχαρίου υἱὸν through Yochanan ben Zkaryah,δ
κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας preaching in the wilds of Judah		ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. in the wild. 3.3 καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς πᾶσαν He went into all [τὴν] περίχωρον τοῦ Ἰορδάνου the land around the Yarden,ε
	1.4 καὶ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα preaching baptism	κηρύσσων βάπτισμα preaching baptism,
3.2 [καὶ] λέγων· μετανοεῖτε· and saying, “Turn away, ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. for the Universal Kingdom has come near.”	μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. of turning away to have sins forgiven.	μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, of turning away to have sins forgiven,
3.3 οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ῥηθεὶς This is the message διὰ Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος· through Yesha’iahuζ the prophet, saying,	Mark 1.2-6. 1.2 Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν Just as it’s been written in τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ· the prophet Yesha’iahu:ζ	3.4 ὡς γέγραπται ἐν βίβλῳ like it’s been written in the book λόγων Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου· of sayings of Yesha’iahuζ the prophet:
Matthew 11.10. 11.10 οὗτός ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται· This is what was written about him:		Luke 7.27. 7.27 οὗτός ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται· This is what was written about him:
ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου “Look, I send My angelη πρὸ προσώπου σου, before your face, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου who will prepare your road ἔμπροσθέν σου. in the front of you.	ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου “Look, I send My angelη πρὸ προσώπου σου, before your face, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου· who will prepare your road.	ἰδοὺ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου “Look, I send My angelη πρὸ προσώπου σου, before your face, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου who will prepare your road ἔμπροσθέν σου. in the front of you.
Matthew 3.3β-6. φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· “A shouter’s voice in the wild:	1.3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· A shouter’s voice in the wild:	Luke 3.4β-6 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· “A shouter’s voice in the wild:
ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, ‘Get the Lord’sθ road ready. εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. Make His trails straight.’ ”	ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, ‘Get the Lord’sθ road ready. εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, Make His trails straight.’ ”	ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, ‘Get the Lord’sθ road ready. εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ· Make His trails straight.’ 3.5 πᾶσα φάραγξ πληρωθήσεται All ravines will be filled. καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ βουνὸς ταπεινωθήσεται, All roads and hills will be knocked down. καὶ ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθείαν The crooked will be straightened. καὶ αἱ τραχεῖαι εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας· The rough, into smooth roads. 3.6 καὶ ὄψεται πᾶσα σὰρξ τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ. All flesh will see God’s rescue.
3.1β παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς Yochanan the baptizer appears,	1.4 ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης [ὁ] βαπτίζων Yochanan, who baptizes, came
κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας preaching in the wilds of Judah	ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα into the wild, preaching baptism	3.3β κηρύσσων βάπτισμα preaching baptism,
	μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. of turning away to have sins forgiven.	μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, of turning away to have sins forgiven,
3.5 Τότε ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν Then they were all going out to him—	1.5 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν They were going out to him—
Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία Jerusalem and all Judah καὶ πᾶσα ἡ περίχωρος τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, and everyone around Judah.	πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα all the Jewish countryside καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, and all Jerusalem,
3.6 καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο … ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ … They were baptized … by him … ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ … in the river Yarden … ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. openly admitting their sins.	καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ and they were baptized by him ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ in the river Yarden, ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. openly admitting their sins.
3.4 αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Ἰωάννης εἶχεν Yochanan himself was having τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου his clothing made from camelhair,	1.6 καὶ ἦν ὁ Ἰωάννης Yochanan was ἐνδεδυμένος τρίχας καμήλου clothed in camelhair,
καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην and a sash of skin περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, around his loins. ἡ δὲ τροφὴ ἦν αὐτοῦ ἀκρίδες His food was grasshoppersι καὶ μέλι ἄγριον. and beeκ honey.	καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην and a sash of skin περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ around his loins, καὶ ἐσθίων ἀκρίδας and eating grasshoppersι καὶ μέλι ἄγριον. and beeκ honey.
3.5 Τότε ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν Then they were all going out to him—	1.5 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν They were going out to him—
Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία Jerusalem and all Judah καὶ πᾶσα ἡ περίχωρος τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, and everyone around Judah.	πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα all the Jewish countryside καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, and all Jerusalem,
3.6 καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο They were baptized ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ in the river Yarden by him, ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. openly admitting their sins.	καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο … and they were baptized … ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ … ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ … in the river Yarden … by him … ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. openly admitting their sins.
Matthew 4.17. 4.17 Ἀπὸ τότε From then on, ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς Yeshuaλ began κηρύσσειν to preach καὶ λέγειν· and to say, μετανοεῖτε· “Turn away! ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. For the Universal Kingdom comes near.”	Mark 1.14-15. 1.14 Μετὰ δὲ τὸ παραδοθῆναι τὸν Ἰωάννην After the betrayal of Yochanan, ἦλθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν Yeshuaλ went to the Galilee κηρύσσων τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ preaching God’s gospel 1.15 καὶ λέγων ὅτι and saying this: πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς “The moment is fulfilled. καὶ ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ· God’s kingdom comes near. μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ. Turn away, and trust in the gospel.”

Mark begins with John, and all the other gospels refer to him too. The ministry of John is not so detailed in the gospel of John, but each of the evangelists recognized that the ministries of John and Jesus are connected. Jesus called John the greatest man who ever lived, (Mt 11.11, Lk 7.28) so John’s kinda important. You can’t start a gospel of Jesus without referring to Jesus’s herald, which is what John is.

A herald, in the ancient Middle East, is the king’s mouthpiece, treated with great respect as if he actually were the king; if you abused him, it was as if you abused the king… which is why so many heralds got their heads chopped off or were otherwise abused. In our culture we say, “Don’t shoot the messenger,” but in Jesus’s culture, shooting the messenger was what you did. It’s as if you shot the messenger’s king. And if you wanted to shoot the king, shooting the messenger was basically an entertaining way to send that message.

You remember the Angel of the LORD in the Old Testament, who was so frequently treated as if he were Yahweh in angelic form? He wasn’t. He was God’s messenger. Since the ancients understood that messengers were customarily treated as if they were the king, that is why they showed reverence to the Angel of the LORD. It is only in cultures where they don’t understand this—like ours—that we see theories thrown around about how the Angel of the LORD was probably Jesus before He became human, or some goofy theory that tries to make the angel into God-but-not-really-God. As if Jesus were God-but-not-really-God; ’cause that’s essentially what you’re doing when you speculate, “The angel wasn’t really God… he was Jesus.”

That rant aside, John was to Jesus as the Angel of the LORD is to God. John was a herald. A human herald. To do this he was prenatally filled with the Holy Spirit. (Lk 1.15) Unlike the angel, he was human; a bit less impressive than an angel, especially considering his clothes and food choices. Imagine the stench of wet camel fur. Imagine what a diet of bugs and sugar would do to your teeth.

John represented Jesus, and to a large degree we Christians are meant to represent Jesus in much the same way. We’re to be His heralds. We’re to preach His word—not ours—and because He’s given us His power to bind and loose stuff on earth and heaven, we can, when we truly represent Him, be an awesome force to be reckoned with. Will people reckon us this way? Nah. They don’t understand what heralds are anymore, and they’ll likely do to us what Herod Antipas later does with John—treat us like entertainment and chop off our body parts as party favors.

Briefly, a bit about baptism: Over the centuries we’ve overemphasized John’s description as “the Baptist” and forgot about him in order to nitpick the way he baptized. Did he sprinkle or dunk? Traditionalists say sprinkle, point to a neck of the Jordan River where it’s not deep enough to dunk, and say he did his baptizing there. Baptists and many evangelicals say dunk, and I’ve been to their tourist site; you can buy all sort of nick-nacks there, and get baptized (or re-baptized) if you like. The Jewish ceremonial washing, or mikveh, involves walking down into a bath until your head is covered—not getting lowered backwards into the water in a way that requires you to hold your nose—but I’m pretty sure Jesus doesn’t give a rip what way you fulfill the sacrament. Do it whatever way your church does it.

Was John still needed after Jesus showed up? No; why use a herald when the King can speak for Himself? John recognized this, and when his students complained that Jesus was getting bigger crowds, John had to remind them, “You all heard me when I said, ‘I’m not the Messiah; I was sent ahead of Him.’ The bridegroom gets the bride; the friend of the bridegroom stands, hears, and is happy for him for his success. He has to become more important, and I have to become less.” (Jn 3.28-30)

When Jesus said that John was the greatest human ever, He added, “…yet the smallest one in God’s kingdom is greater than John.” (Mt 11.11, Lk 7.28) In God’s kingdom, all God’s children have the Holy Spirit. All God’s children can be heralds of Yahweh… if we’d only listen to what God wants us to say on His behalf.

At another time I’ll discuss how Mark “misquotes” Isaiah here. He doesn’t really.

α. Literal. Means “head of a fourth,” not “king,” though that’s usually how it’s translated. Herod I’s kingdom was split into four: Judah, Galilee/Perea, Ituria/Trachonitis, and Dekapolis.

β. Horodos Antipatros, or Antipas Herod, (c. 20 BC–39 CE, son of Herod I. He and his brothers Archelaus Herod and Philip Herod are the other Herods we see in the gospels, though the others are referred to by their praenomina (given names), and he’s only called by his nomen (family name).

γ. Part of Syria that Herod I used to rule over; later Herods would rule it again.

δ. John, son of Zechariah, “the baptist.”

ε. The river Jordan.

ζ. Isaiah.

η. Literal. Or “messenger.”

θ. Or “Master’s.” The Jews used אֲדֹנָי/adona’i, “my Lord,” to refer to Yahweh without saying His holy name.

ι. Usu. “locusts.” They’re not called grasshoppers in Europe, but they are in the United States.

κ. Usu. “wild,” lit. “field.” Field-honey referred to bee honey; the usual kind was actually date syrup.

λ. Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth, child prodigy.

Synopsis §12, “The Boy Jesus in the Temple”: :Luke 2.41-52.

2.41 Καὶ ἐπορεύοντο οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ ἔτος εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ	His parents went yearly to Jerusalem
τῇ ἑορτῇ τοῦ πάσχα.	to the Pesachα festival.
2.42 Καὶ ὅτε ἐγένετο ἐτῶν δώδεκα,	When He was 12 years old,
ἀναβαινόντων αὐτῶν κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς ἑορτῆς	they had gone up,β as usual, to the festival,
2.43 καὶ τελειωσάντων τὰς ἡμέρας,	and once its days were completed,
ἐν τῷ ὑποστρέφειν αὐτοὺς	they were to return;
ὑπέμεινεν Ἰησοῦς ὁ παῖς ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ,	the boy Yeshuaγ stayed behind in Jerusalem,
καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ.	and His parentsδ didn’t know.
2.44 νομίσαντες δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι ἐν τῇ συνοδίᾳ	Thinking Him to be in the group,
ἦλθον ἡμέρας ὁδὸν	they went on the road for a day,
καὶ ἀνεζήτουν αὐτὸν	and were looking for Him
ἐν τοῖς συγγενεῦσιν καὶ τοῖς γνωστοῖς,	among family and people they knew.
2.45 καὶ μὴ εὑρόντες ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ	Not finding Him,ε they returned to Jerusalem,
ἀναζητοῦντες αὐτόν.	looking for Him.
2.46 καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ ἡμέρας τρεῖς εὗρον αὐτὸν	It was three days until they found Him:
ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ	in the temple,
καθεζόμενον ἐν μέσῳ τῶν διδασκάλων	seated in the middle of the teachers,
καὶ ἀκούοντα αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπερωτῶντα αὐτούς·	listening to them and putting questions to them.
2.47 ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες οἱ ἀκούοντες αὐτοῦ	Everyone who heard Him was shocked
ἐπὶ τῇ συνέσει καὶ ταῖς ἀποκρίσεσιν αὐτοῦ.	at His intelligence and responses.
2.48 καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν ἐξεπλάγησαν,	Seeing Him, His parents were panicked,
καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ·	and His mother told Him,
τέκνον, τί ἐποίησας ἡμῖν οὕτως;	“Boy, why did You do this to us?
ἰδοὺ ὁ πατήρ σου κἀγὼ ὀδυνώμενοι ἐζητοῦμέν σε.	Look, Your father and I suffered in finding You.”
2.49 καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς·	He told her,
τί ὅτι ἐζητεῖτέ με;	“Why is it that you looked for Me?
οὐκ ᾔδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με;	You hadn’t known that it was necessary for Me to be in My Father’s stuff?”
2.50 καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐ συνῆκαν τὸ ῥῆμα	They didn’t understand the message
ὃ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς.	which He spoke.
2.51 καὶ κατέβη μετ᾿ αὐτῶν	He went down with them,
καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς Ναζαρὲθ	and went to Netzaret.ζ
καὶ ἦν ὑποτασσόμενος αὐτοῖς.	He was placing Himself under them.
καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ διετήρει πάντα τὰ ῥήματα	His mother carefully kept all these words
ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς.	in her mind.η
2.52 Καὶ Ἰησοῦς προέκοπτεν [ἐν τῇ] σοφίᾳ	Yeshua excelled in wisdom,
καὶ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις.	manhood, and grace with God and people.

I’ve heard this story this way: Jesus, now that He was old enough to take to the temple, went there with His parents for Passover. Afterwards, He stayed behind and had an interesting discussion with the rabbis. Meanwhile His unwitting parents got about halfway home before they realized their son was missing; they turned back, and found Him talking shop in the temple. When Mary rebuked Him, saying, “Your father and I were worried about You,” His response was, “I was busy doing the work of My real Father.” But, in order to maintain appearances—pretending to be a human boy instead of a God boy in disguise—He went with them to Nazareth and behaved Himself appropriately, quietly waiting… for His time to come.

Yeah, that version’s got problems.

I had always wondered about that idea of this being the first time Jesus was old enough to go to Jerusalem with the folks. Eleven isn’t old enough? Or—if He had to be an adult before He could properly participate in the worship—since when is 12 considered adulthood in the Jewish culture? He would have been 13. I’ve actually heard pastors fudge around this problem by telling me, “Well… maybe Luke got his years mixed up.” (Just a suggestion: If you’re gonna claim you believe in inerrancy in order to get a pastoring job, yet you personally don’t believe in it, this is not how you hide your hypocrisy.)

Fact is, Jesus likely went to Jerusalem for Passover, with His parents, every year of HIs life. Passover had to be celebrated in Jerusalem because the temple was the only place you could offer your Passover sacrifice. (Dt 16.5-6) Nowadays, there’s no temple and no sacrifices, which is why Passover isn’t solely done in Jerusalem. The other thing is that the dinner custom—practiced even back then—was that the youngest person there had to ask the Four Questions—“Why do we eat only matzo tonight, instead of bread and matzo? Why do we only eat bitter herbs tonight, instead of all kinds of herbs? Why do we dip our herbs twice, when ordinarily we don’t dip at all? We are we eating lying down instead of sitting?”—so that the host could answer them. You needed a little kid to be there for dinner; part of the point of Passover is to teach the Exodus story to the kids. So reasonably, this was not the first time Jesus had been to Jerusalem for Passover. This is just the first time He went missing.

Nearly everyone in Nazareth likely went to Jerusalem for Passover, and—thanks to the lack of Highway Patrol, and tons of highwaymen—people tended to travel in caravans. Every family loaded up the wagon and the tent, and off they’d go. Same as now, there were likely lots of kids saying, “Can I ride with my friends?” and swapping seats, and so it’s understandable that a parent might lose track of their boy in the crowd.

Thing is, realizing Jesus was missing had to have thrown His folks into an absolute panic. This is, after all, the Messiah we’re talking about. Have you any idea how much trouble you’d be in with God if you lost the Messiah? Yeah, He’d forgive you, but He’d put you in the bible so that people could mock you as a bonehead for the rest of human history. Remember Jonah? You don’t want to be Jonah.

This sort of panic—which Luke describes them as in v48—is ultimately what Jesus was rebuking in v49. Considering how carefully God was watching out for Him—you do recall that angel warning Joseph about anything that might happen to the boy—one should realize that if God hadn’t given you any warning, there likely wasn’t anything worth freaking out about. But you know, sometimes when we let our emotions run away with us, we stop listening to anyone, God in particular. Had they listened to God, He would have told them the very thing that Jesus was surprised they didn’t know already: He has to be at His Father’s.

Different bible versions have it that Jesus is at His Father’s business (KJV), or His Father’s house (NIV). But there’s no word at the end of that sentence; literally it’s “in that of the Father of Me.” The only translation that gets it right is The Message: “Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” I rendered it, “In My Father’s stuff,” which is about as vague as Luke has it. Part of the reason His parents didn’t understand what He meant is because they didn’t understand what stuff He was talking about.

But look at what He was doing in the temple. Traditionally it’s depicted as if Jesus has dropped in on a graduate-level seminary course with a few questions of His own for the rabbi, and when the rabbi answers His questions wrong, Jesus corrects him. This is what interpreters mean when they talk about how Jesus is here “teaching the teachers.” But it’s not an accurate interpretation of what was going on. In v46, Jesus was “seated in the middle of the teachers.” In the first century, only the teacher sits. The students stand up, listen, and answer the teacher’s questions. That’s what Jesus was doing. He wasn’t dropping in on a class and taking it over. He was teaching. Teaching, not seminary students, but seminary teachers. All of whom recognized that here was a 12-year-old boy that was smarter than all of them put together.

Imagine that your kid wanders off in the shopping mall, and when you find him a few days later, he’s at the local university explaining to the physics department how they were all wrong about string theory, and they’re taking notes. That’s about how weird Jesus’s parents probably felt right then. But again—emotions got in the way; they were too distraught about losing the Messiah to notice that here the Messiah was, doing exactly what a Messiah would be doing.

Messiah or not, Jesus was still a little kid. So yeah, it was mainly for their sake—and ours, ’cause Jesus is our example—that He stopped the lesson, went home with them, and went back to being a kid. A really awesome kid, though.

Anyway. The traditional rendering of this story tries to insert a little drama where there isn’t any, assumes a few ignorant things, and overlays an arrogance upon Jesus that’s completely inappropriate to who He is. Joseph and Mary forgot who He is, which is why they were so freaked out; we forget who He is whenever we mangle His history. But we are only surprised by that which we don’t understand. If we know Jesus’s character, His behavior doesn’t startle us, or scare us, or throw us into a panic. We don’t run away from it, or even try to fight it. It might be unexpected, but we can deal with the unexpected, because we trust Him.

α. Passover.

β. Lit. “having gone up.” Textus Receptus (TR) adds “to Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is higher in altitude than the Galilee.

γ. Jesus.

δ. TR has “Joseph and His mother.”

ε. TR has “Him.”

ζ. Nazareth.

η. Lit. “heart.”

How Jesus became Jesus of Nazareth.

Synopsis §11, “The Childhood of Jesus at Nazareth”: Matthew 2.22-23, Luke 2.39-40.

Matthew 2.22-23. 2.22 Ἀκούσας δὲ ὅτι Ἀρχέλαος βασιλεύει τῆς Ἰουδαίας Having heard that Arkhela’osα reigns over Judah ἀντὶ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ Ἡρῴδου in place of his father Horodos,β ἐφοβήθη ἐκεῖ ἀπελθεῖν· heγ feared to go there. χρηματισθεὶς δὲ κατ᾿ ὄναρ Having talked it over in a dream-vision,δ	Luke 2.39-40. 2.39 Καὶ ὡς ἐτέλεσαν πάντα Once they completed everything τὰ κατὰ τὸν νόμον κυρίου, that was according to the Lord’sζ law,
ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὰ μέρη τῆς Γαλιλαίας, he went to a part of the Galilee. 2.23 καὶ ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν He came to dwell	ἐπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν they returned to the Galilee,
εἰς πόλιν λεγομένην Ναζαρέτ· in a city called Netzaret ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν so that he could fulfill the message through the prophet,	εἰς πόλιν ἑαυτῶν Ναζαρέθ. to their city, Netzaret.
ὅτι Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται. that He will be called a Netzari.ε	2.40 Τὸ δὲ παιδίον ηὔξανεν The little boy was growing up, καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο πληρούμενον σοφίᾳ, and was becoming strong, full of wisdom, καὶ χάρις θεοῦ ἦν ἐπ᾿ αὐτό. and God’s grace was on Him.

Luke skipped the trip to Egypt completely, making it sound as if Joseph never intended to stay in Bethlehem. That’s where people get this idea that Joseph was from Nazareth, and wonder why he had to register for Augustus Caesar’s census in Bethlehem. Nazareth became their city, and Matthew explains why: because Bethlehem wasn’t safe from the Herods.

Herod I—the maniac who had killed all the little boys in Bethlehem—was known for killing anyone who might threaten his rule. Though there’s no other reference to the massacre in ancient literature, people believe this story because it was typical behavior for him; he had killed his wife and her entire family, 45 nobles who had opposed his earlier attempts to rule, his brother-in-law, and his three oldest sons, all because he feared they’d overthrow him.

Upon Herod’s death in 4BCE, his final will—written five days before his death—bequeathed his realm to his son Archelaus. Since Caesar had never ratified it, Herod’s other sons contested the will. After some legal haggling, Caesar made Archelaus the ἐθνάρχης/ethnárkhis. Literally this means “head of a people-group,” and though modern-day translators render this as “governor,” our governors are elected. Probably a better translation would be “duke.” He wasn’t king, but he answered to no one but Caesar, who might promote him to king in time.

Some Jews tried to take advantage of this instability and revolt. Archelaus’s response was, like his father, to kill a lot of people. That, combined with his marriage to his former sister-in-law Glafira, and the constant legal challenges by his brothers Antipas and Philip, eventually led Caesar to fire and banish him in 6CE.

It was somewhere during this 10-year reign that the angel contacted Joseph in Egypt and told him to return to Israel, which he promptly did. Trouble was, he returned in the middle of this madness; hardly the safest place for Jesus to be. Remember, God had told a lot of people that the Messiah had been born, and the Messiah’s return to Israel would have been the perfect opportunity for various revolutionaries to get ahold of Him and use Him as their figurehead. It wasn’t just Archelaus that Joseph had to worry about.

There are two ways one can interpret Mt 2.22. Joseph either figured, “Okay, God said to return to Israel; Judah isn’t the only part of Israel, so maybe we can settle in the Galilee, and that’d be fine with God.” In other words, he stretched the interpretation of what the angel had told him, and went with a convenient understanding of it. That’s one way to look at it, and that’s typical human behavior too.

The way it’s traditionally interpreted is that the angel appeared to him again and told him, “Move north.” As if Joseph couldn’t figure that out for himself. Again, this goes back to the traditional understanding of Joseph as this dumb schmuck who unwittingly got saddled with Jesus, rather than being personally chosen by God to be His father.

The interpretation I’m going with—which you can see in the translation—comes out of the word χρηματίζω/hrimatídzo, which is usually translated “being warned [by God].” It actually means to haggle. Χρῆμα/hríma, its word-root, means an object of value; the idea is that you’re negotiating over it. When you have big decisions such as this one, you talk it over with God, and that’s my understanding of what Joseph did here: the next time God’s angel showed up in his dreams, Joseph worked out with God where they were to go next.

I don’t believe Joseph was ignorant of the prophecies about the Messiah coming from Bethlehem. I expect he wanted Jesus to grow up in Bethlehem for that reason. It makes sense: five kilometers away from the temple, access to the best schools, right in the center of power. According to most folks’ understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to be, Bethlehem was the ideal location to raise Jesus. According to God’s understanding, it wasn’t at all. Likely God had to get it through Joseph’s thick skull that Bethlehem wasn’t part of His plan.

Contrary to popular belief, visions aren’t one-way communication, where God tells you how things are going to be, and you just passively receive it. That’s not how any of the visions took place in the scriptures. Visionaries responded to their visions, and talked back to God or God’s angels in them. Sometimes they freaked out, sometimes they objected, sometimes they had questions. We Christians tend to talk about our visions as if we’re dumbstruck fools, so awed by the fact that God is talking with us that we forget that God likes to talk with us. God wants a relationship with us, and relationships require interaction. Joseph had a relationship with Him where he could negotiate with God. We should aspire to the same thing.

Here’s where this “He will be called a Netzari” line comes up. (Mt 2.23) The word means a citizen of Nazareth, and eventually Jesus did become known as Yeshua Netzari, Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus the Nazarene—and His followers became known as Nazarenes as well. But this line isn’t found anywhere in the scriptures. There are no prophecies that refer to Nazareth at all; the city didn’t exist until probably the first century BCE.

Scholars figure the reference to a prophecy about Nazareth must therefore be a bit of Hebrew wordplay: that it’s from ‏נָזִיר/nazír, a person especially dedicated to God (Nu 6) or ‏נֵצֶר/natzér, a sprout, which Isaiah used poetically to refer to a branch from “the stump of Jesse” (Is 11.1) that would be the Messiah. It’s frequently said that Hebrews were big fans of puns and wordplay—though personally I suspect it’s ’cause interpreters, just as they do nowadays, like to stretch a text until it means what they want it to mean, and this sort of abuse was so common that it’s treated as if it’s okay. But I am loath to say that this is what Matthew was doing.

There’s a more recent interpretation that “Netzari” was first-century slang for “scum of the earth,” and that Nathanael’s comment, “Is any good to come from Nazareth?” (Jn 1.46) was a common saying that indicated how low Nazareth was in most folks’ esteem. The thinking is that the Messiah was meant to be despised, (Ps 22, Is 53) and so Jesus’s identification with a despised town would fulfill such prophecies. I have a hard time, though, thinking that Joseph would be receptive to this interpretation: “Hey, move to this sucky town with a lousy reputation, because your boy is destined to be shunned.”

Nah. The fact is that we really don’t know where Matthew got this quote, and are spinning our wheels trying to justify it. My theory is that Matthew—or Joseph—got it from some extra-biblical prophet. I have no trouble with that idea, ’cause I don’t believe you have to be published in the bible in order to be a valid prophet. The important thing is that God led Joseph to move the family to Nazareth, and this is how Jesus got the last name, “of Nazareth.”

α. Archelaus Herod, son of Herod I.

β. Herod I.

γ. Meaning Joseph.

δ. Usu. “being warned in a dream.” Can also be, “Having negotiated according to the dream-vision.”

ε. Nazarene.

ζ. Or “Master’s.” The Jews used ‏אֲדֹנָי/adona’i, “my Lord,” to refer to Yahweh without saying His holy name.

When God tells you to break the rules.

Synopsis §10, “The Flight into Egypt and Return”: Matthew 2.13-21.

2.13 Ἀναχωρησάντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἰδοὺ	Once they’d left,α look,
ἄγγελος κυρίου φαίνεται κατ᾿ ὄναρ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ	the Lord’sβ angel appeared in a dream-vision to Yosef,γ
λέγων· ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ	saying, “Wake up.δ Take the little boy and His mother.
καὶ φεῦγε εἰς Αἴγυπτον	Flee to Egypt.
καὶ ἴσθι ἐκεῖ ἕως ἂν εἴπω σοι·	Be there until I tell you otherwise.
μέλλει γὰρ Ἡρῴδης ζητεῖν τὸ παιδίον τοῦ ἀπολέσαι αὐτό.	For Horodosε is about to seek the little boy’s destruction.”
2.14 ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς	Having been woken up,
παρέλαβεν τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ νυκτὸς	he took the little boy and His mother by night
καὶ ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον,	and left for Egypt.
2.15 καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἕως τῆς τελευτῆς Ἡρῴδου·	He was there until the end of Horodos’s reign,
ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ κυρίου	so that he could fulfill the Lord’sβ message
διὰ τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος·	through the prophet, saying,
ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐκάλεσα τὸν υἱόν μου.	“I called My Son out of Egypt.”
2.16 Τότε Ἡρῴδης	Then Horodos,
ἰδὼν ὅτι ἐνεπαίχθη ὑπὸ τῶν μάγων	seeing that he was mocked by the magi,
ἐθυμώθη λίαν,	was extremely angry.
καὶ ἀποστείλας ἀνεῖλεν	His agent killedζ
πάντας τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς ἐν Βηθλέεμ	all the children who were in Beit Lekhemη
καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτῆς	and in all its countryside,
ἀπὸ διετοῦς καὶ κατωτέρω,	from two years old and under—
κατὰ τὸν χρόνον ὃν ἠκρίβωσεν παρὰ τῶν μάγων.	according to the time which he found out from the magi.
2.17 τότε ἐπληρώθη τὸ ῥηθὲν	Thus he fulfilled the message
διὰ Ἰερεμίου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος·	from the prophet Yiremyahu,θ saying,
2.18 φωνὴ ἐν Ῥαμὰ ἠκούσθη,	“In Ramah, a voice called,
κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὀδυρμὸς πολύς·	mourning and greatly lamenting:
Ῥαχὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς,	Rakhel,ι mourning her children.
καὶ οὐκ ἤθελεν παρακληθῆναι,	She doesn’t want to be comforted
ὅτι οὐκ εἰσίν.	because they aren’t.”
2.19 Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Ἡρῴδου	Upon the end of Horodos,κ
ἰδοὺ ἄγγελος κυρίου φαίνεται	look, the Lord’sβ angel appears
κατ᾿ ὄναρ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ	in a dream-vision to Yosef in Egypt,
2.20 λέγων· ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ	saying, “Wake up.δ Take the boy and His mother.
καὶ πορεύου εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ·	Go to the land of Isra’el.
τεθνήκασιν γὰρ οἱ ζητοῦντες τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ παιδίου.	Those seeking the life of the little boy are dead.”
2.21 ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς	Having been woken up,
παρέλαβεν τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ	he took the little boy and His mother
καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ.	and entered the land of Isra’el.

Joseph really doesn’t get enough credit for being Jesus’s father. Whenever I refer to Joseph as His father, people seem to feel obligated to remind me, “Joseph is His foster father.” Which isn’t true. Who the hell started this trend of referring to Joseph as a foster parent? “Foster parent” means the kid is a ward of the state, and the foster parents are state representatives. There was no such system in the first century. You were either a parent or you weren’t.

Biology didn’t matter; what mattered was that you claimed the kid as yours. And as we just saw, Joseph was at Jesus’s circumcision—he was the guy who stated what Jesus’s name would be. The only person that got to do that was the father. If the biological father was dead, it would therefore be whatever man was stepping in to take the father’s place—grandfather, uncle, stepdad—and that person would be the kid’s legal father. That’d be Joseph.

Jesus isn’t biologically Joseph’s son—and, for that matter, there’s a better than average chance He’s not biologically Mary’s son, as I explained when I discussed how parthenogenesis works. But parentage made absolutely no difference in their relationship. Joseph was the leader of His family, the decision-maker, the chief provider, and the spiritual head. Imagine being the spiritual head for the Messiah; it’s an intimidating responsibility.

Christians frequently treat Joseph as an afterthought in God’s plan: Mary was picked to be His mom, and she just happened to have a fiancé named Joseph, who had to be convinced to go along with the plan, ’cause it would have been really inconvenient for her if he hadn’t. Quite a few Christian myths depict him as a clueless schmuck who has no idea what sort of kid he was raising—that Jesus would frustrate the bejeezus out of him by being smarter than His teachers, or by creating sparrows on the Sabbath, or being inexplicably omniscient, or otherwise being a holy pest. And he couldn’t turn to Mary for help, because she was the very same way. In these myths, Joseph is the comic relief while Jesus and Mary are the unruffled, faith-filled, magical beings who always know their way around.

Joseph was picked to be Jesus’s dad, same as Mary was picked to be Jesus’s mom. True, God didn’t ask him, but technically He didn’t ask Mary either. He told Joseph to take Mary as his woman because she hadn’t cheated on him; Jesus was no bastard, but holy. (Mt 1.20)

As I mentioned at that time, Joseph heard this in a dream-vision, and the fact that he paid attention to it indicates that these dream-visions were not a new thing for him. Likely he had been having such visions all his life. And that is one of those indications that Joseph was not an afterthought. Who better to have as the father of the Messiah than a prophet, who heard from God, knew he heard from God, and unquestioningly obeyed Him? Really, it would be monumentally dumb to pick anyone else. Any other guy than Joseph would have sat on his skeptical ass in Bethlehem, whining, “I don’t know whether it was really God or not,” right up until the time Herod’s assassin came knocking.

You see, Joseph had to know he was hearing from God, because the directions the angel gave him to flee to Egypt (v13) violated the scriptures. Specifically this bit:

You’re going to establish a king, whom your god Yahweh is choosing from you, from among your brothers, to put as king over you. You may not set a foreign man, who is not your brother, as king over you. He may not collect many horses. He may not send people back to Egypt to acquire many horses. Yahweh tells you, “Don’t ever again return that way.” (Dt 17.15-16)

There was a whole controversy in Jeremiah when, during the Babylonian occupation, the locals wanted to escape to Egypt. God, through Jeremiah, told them no; that He was going to destroy them if they did. They decided to ignore Him and listen to other prophets who told them what they wanted to hear; and dragged Jeremiah off with them; (Jr 43-44) and wouldn’t you know, their settlements were soon after destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

Yes, there were Jewish settlements in Alexandria by this point in history. But they existed outside of God’s instructions that His people weren’t to return to Egypt. And now here Joseph was… getting instructions to go to Egypt.

Not to settle, of course. It was temporary. When the Hebrews had gone to Egypt in the past, it was to settle. Abraham went there because of a famine, and quite possibly would have stayed if he hadn’t alienated the Egyptians. Israel and his family moved there during a later famine, and stayed so long that the Egyptians enslaved them. The Jews in Jeremiah’s day went there to hide from the Babylonians, and it really didn’t look like they were leaving. The Jews in Jesus’s day had come to hide from the Seleucids, and they didn’t leave.

So that may be the important difference in God’s instructions to Joseph. God wasn’t telling Joseph to settle, but hide until He brought the family back to Israel.

Now, a legalistic sort would immediately respond, “No, Lord; You told us to never return that way.” But Joseph knew this was God, and knew God well enough to know He wasn’t testing him. And that shows two different kinds of spiritual maturity in Joseph: the ability to recognize when it’s God, and a spiritual development that’s got beyond the ridiculous childishness of legalism.

If there’s any question about whether Joseph would have made a good spiritual head for the Messiah, we see some strong evidence here that he was a solid guy for God to pick. (But of course, God knew this already.)

What I pull from this, naturally, is Joseph’s good example. I need to be at the point where I’m following God with Joseph‘s level of faith and maturity. I need to be at a point where I can discern the difference between the voice of God and my own silly literalistic, and even legalistic, tendencies. Thus, when God tells me to “break the rules,” I’ll recognize whether it’s really breaking the rules or not, and follow God accordingly.

α. Lit. “[After] they, having left.”

β. Or “Master’s.” The Jews used ‏אֲדֹנָי/adona’i, “my Lord,” to refer to Yahweh without saying His holy name.

γ. Joseph.

δ. Usu. “Get up,” but this is a passive participle; it’s what people said to wake one another up.

ε. Herod I of Judah.

ζ. Or. “Having sent out, he killed.”

η. Bethlehem.

θ. Jeremiah.

ι. Rachel.

κ. Lit. “[After the] ending of Herod.”

Telling everyone what God is up to.

Synopsis §9, “The Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple”: Luke 2.21-38.

2.21 Καὶ ὅτε ἐπλήσθησαν ἡμέραι ὀκτὼ τοῦ περιτεμεῖν αὐτὸν	After eight days, His circumcision was performed,α
καὶ ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦς,	and Yeshuaβ was declared His name,
τὸ κληθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγγέλου	which He was called by the angel
πρὸ τοῦ συλλημφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ.	before His conception in the womb.
2.22 Καὶ ὅτε ἐπλήσθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν	Once their purification days were fulfilled,
κατὰ τὸν νόμον Μωϋσέως,	according to Moshe’sγ law,
ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα	they took Him to Jerusalem
παραστῆσαι τῷ κυρίῳ,	to present Him to the Lordδ
2.23 καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν νόμῳ κυρίου	—just as it’s written in the Lord’s law
ὅτι πᾶν ἄρσεν διανοῖγον μήτραν	that every male which opens a uterusε
ἅγιον τῷ κυρίῳ κληθήσεται,	will be called holy to the Lord—
2.24 καὶ τοῦ δοῦναι θυσίαν	and to give an offering
κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ κυρίου,	according to what had been said in the Lord’s law,
ζεῦγος τρυγόνων ἢ δύο νοσσοὺς περιστερῶν.	a yoke of turtledoves, or two young doves.
2.25 Καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος ἦν ἐν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ᾧ ὄνομα Συμεὼν	Look, a person named Shimon was in Jerusalem.
καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος δίκαιος καὶ εὐλαβὴς	This person was fair and religious,
προσδεχόμενος παράκλησιν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ,	welcoming any supportζ for Isra’el,
καὶ πνεῦμα ἦν ἅγιον ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν·	and the Holy Spirit was with him.η
2.26 καὶ ἦν αὐτῷ κεχρηματισμένον	A deal had been made with him
ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου	by the Holy Spirit:
μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον	He was not to see death
πρὶν [ἢ] ἂν ἴδῃ τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου.	before he’d see the Lord’s Messiah.
2.27 καὶ ἦλθεν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι εἰς τὸ ἱερόν·	He went, in the Spirit, to the temple.
καὶ ἐν τῷ εἰσαγαγεῖν τοὺς γονεῖς τὸ παιδίον Ἰησοῦν	As the little boy Yeshua’s parents brought Him in
τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτοὺς κατὰ τὸ εἰθισμένον τοῦ νόμου περὶ αὐτοῦ	to do to Him as the Law requiredθ about Him,
2.28 καὶ αὐτὸς ἐδέξατο αὐτὸ εἰς τὰς ἀγκάλας	he took Him in his armsι
καὶ εὐλόγησεν τὸν θεὸν καὶ εἶπεν·	and blessed God and said,
2.29 νῦν ἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλόν σου, δέσποτα,	“Now, you despot, you can release Your slave,
κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου ἐν εἰρήνῃ·	according to Your word, in peace.
2.30 ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου τὸ σωτήριόν σου,	For my eyes saw Your rescue,
2.31 ὃ ἡτοίμασας κατὰ πρόσωπον πάντων τῶν λαῶν,	which You prepared in the face of all the peoples:
2.32 φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν	light for revelation to the goyim
καὶ δόξαν λαοῦ σου Ἰσραήλ.	and brilliance for your people Isra’el.”
2.33 καὶ ἦν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ θαυμάζοντες	His fatherκ and mother were surprised
ἐπὶ τοῖς λαλουμένοις περὶ αὐτοῦ.	at this saying about Him.
2.34 καὶ εὐλόγησεν αὐτοὺς Συμεὼν	Shimon blessed them
καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς Μαριὰμ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ·	and said to His mother Miryam,λ
ἰδοὺ οὗτος κεῖται	“Look, this is laid outμ
εἰς πτῶσιν καὶ ἀνάστασιν	for the downfall and resurrection
πολλῶν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ	of many people in Isra’el.
καὶ εἰς σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον—	This contradictory sign—
2.35 καὶ σοῦ [δὲ] αὐτῆς τὴν ψυχὴν διελεύσεται ῥομφαία—	and a sword will slice through your very life—
ὅπως ἂν ἀποκαλυφθῶσιν ἐκ πολλῶν καρδιῶν διαλογισμοί.	is so that every mind’sν thoughts might be revealed.”
2.36 Καὶ ἦν Ἅννα προφῆτις, θυγάτηρ Φανουήλ, ἐκ φυλῆς Ἀσήρ·	Hannah bat Penu’el, from the tribe of Asher, was a prophet.
αὕτη προβεβηκυῖα ἐν ἡμέραις πολλαῖς,	This woman was an elder of many days,
ζήσασα μετὰ ἀνδρὸς ἔτη ἑπτὰ ἀπὸ τῆς παρθενίας αὐτῆς	living with a manξ seven years after her virginity,
2.37 καὶ αὐτὴ χήρα ἕως ἐτῶν ὀγδοήκοντα τεσσάρων,	and a widow herself up to her 84th year,
ἣ οὐκ ἀφίστατο τοῦ ἱεροῦ νηστείαις	who never left the temple for fasts,
καὶ δεήσεσιν λατρεύουσα νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν.	ministering with prayer, night and day.
2.38 καὶ αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐπιστᾶσα	Coming over at that time,
ἀνθωμολογεῖτο τῷ θεῷ	she was acknowledging God,
καὶ ἐλάλει περὶ αὐτοῦ πᾶσιν	and speaking about Him to everyone
τοῖς προσδεχομένοις λύτρωσιν Ἰερουσαλήμ.	who supported the rescue of Isra’el.

Various Christians have taught that God’s revelation comes in stops and starts. Dispensationalists, in particular, teach that God talked to people back in bible times, but doesn’t now—and didn’t during the “400 silent years” between when Malachi finished his prophecy and when Paul wrote Galatians.

Of course, this is all crap. God has never stopped talking, and there have always been prophets. In ancient Israel, a great number of them hung out at the temple. Stands to reason; that’s what the temple was created for. God had Moses construct the tabernacle, also called the ‏אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד/Ohel Mo’ed, the Appointment Tent, so that those who wanted to meet with and speak to God could do so at the tabernacle. Moses met with Him there rather than on Sinai; people worshipped Him there because His immediate presence was focused there. Stands to reason that prophets made themselves available there too; people came to the tabernacle, and later the temple, to interact with God, and if you sucked at hearing God for yourself, the prophets were the next best thing.

Shimon and Hannah were two of them. Hannah was a regular, (v37) but Shimon “was in Jerusalem,” (v25) which suggests he wasn’t, and had to be specially prompted by the Holy Spirit to be there. (v27) He surprised Jesus’s parents, (v33) which suggests that they weren’t expecting a prophet to be there either.

Shimon’s back story is sorta interesting: There was an arrangement between him and the Spirit that he wasn’t going to die until he saw the Messiah. (v26) We have no idea how this was worked out. I have, in fact, taught a bunch of times that God doesn’t do deals—though what I’m usually talking about is the sort of deal where we pray, in desperation, “God, do this for me and I promise I’ll…” and then we offer to do something for Him that we really ought to be doing for Him anyway. As if we can pay God back for anything that He gives us. God doesn’t do that sort of deal. That is, He doesn’t do the human-initiated sort.

The sort of deal God does make is the God-initiated sort: He gives us some tasks to do—like follow commands—and in exchange He blesses us in one way or another. More than likely this is the sort of deal God had with Shimon. Especially since Shimon literally calls God a δεσπότης/despótis, a despot, and himself a slave. This doesn’t mean “evil king,” which is what we usually mean by “despot” nowadays; it means a guy who is absolutely in charge. God created the terms of their deal.

Shimon’s prophecy was nothing Jesus’s parents hadn’t heard before: Jesus was to save Israel. But there was one statement that was entirely different: Jesus was a light of revelation for the goyim. The foreigners. The Gentiles.

Isaiah had made reference to a light for the goyim, twice. (Is 42.6, 49.6) Both statements, though, didn’t appear to be referring to Jesus, but to the nation of Israel as a whole. And yet Jesus is foreshadowed in them. Israel is meant to enlighten the world, but Israel sucked at it, so a perfect, representative Israelite—Jesus—did it for them.

This was all part of the plan, Shimon explained to Mary; Jesus would make it so “every mind’s thoughts might be revealed.” (v35) Certainly He triggered a strong reaction in hypocrites. But that’s getting ahead of the story.

Luke didn’t record Hannah’s prophecy, though more than likely it just confirmed Shimon’s. The point of including her was let you get the idea that Shimon was some solitary nut. Hannah saw the same thing in Jesus; and she was a regular at the temple, had been hanging out there for probably six decades, and was a known quantity.

The point of this story is, naturally, to confirm who Jesus was through the well-established prophets of the day. Jesus wasn’t just revealed in special angelic visitations, or to special revelations to Zechariah and Mary, or as part of the usual dream-visions of Joseph, or even to obscure Zoroastrian magi. God, as I’ve said before, was not hiding what He was doing. He wanted everyone—except Herod, anyway—to know that His Messiah had come, and what His Messiah was for. He was blabbing it to temple prophets and everything.

For some reason we Christians get secretive and obscure about what God is doing among us, or in our own lives. I know lots of churches where the people in them don’t know what God’s been doing with the other people in them; heck, they don’t know if God’s doing anything with anyone, anywhere. It’s sad. But it’s all too common. When you don’t share testimonies, you get a totally wrong picture of what God is doing. (And in many cases it tends to work backwards—into your theology, into the way you read the bible, until next thing you know, you’re a dispensationalist, teaching that God didn’t do anything back in bible times either.)

God doesn’t hide what He’s up to. If we’re going to follow Him, we need to mimic this behavior and let everyone know what He’s doing in and through us. He wants, as Shimon said, to ultimately reveal the thoughts of everyone; we need to help, not hinder.

α. Lit. “Eight days fulfilled His circumcision.”

β. Jesus.

γ. Moses’s.

δ. Or “Master.” The Jews used ‏אֲדֹנָי/adona’i, “my Lord,” to refer to Yahweh without saying His holy name.

ε. Usu. “womb.” The word I translated “womb” in v21, κοιλία/kilía, refers to a person’s internal organs, not specifically a uterus. On the other hand, this word, μήτρα/mítra, does.

ζ. Lit. “coming alongside.”

η. Or “[the] Spirit was holy with him.”

θ. Or “as the Law’s customs [were].”

ι. Textus Receptus (TR) has “his.”

κ. TR “Joseph.”

λ. Mary.

μ. Usu. “this child is laid out.”

ν. Lit. “heart’s.”

ξ. There is no ancient Greek word for husband.

ο. Lit. “heart.”

The sort of folks who were told about the baby Jesus.

Synopsis §8, “The Adoration of the Infant Jesus”: Matthew 2.1-12, Luke 2.8-20, John 7.41-42.

Matthew 2.1-12. 2.1 Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ γεννηθέντος Yeshuaα having been born ἐν Βηθλέεμ τῆς Ἰουδαίας in Beit Lekhem,β Judah, ἐν ἡμέραις Ἡρῴδου τοῦ βασιλέως, during the time of King Horodosγ—	Luke 2.8-20.	John 7.41-42.
ἰδοὺ μάγοι ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν look, magi from the East παρεγένοντο εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα came to Jerusalem 2.2 λέγοντες· ποῦ ἐστιν saying, “Where is ὁ τεχθεὶς βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων; the newborn king of the Jews? εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ For in the East,δ we saw His light in the sky.ε καὶ ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ. We came to pay homage to Him.”	2.8 Καὶ ποιμένες ἦσαν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ αὐτῇ Herdersθ were in that country, ἀγραυλοῦντες καὶ φυλάσσοντες φυλακὰς τῆς νυκτὸς staying outdoors and keeping the night-watch ἐπὶ τὴν ποίμνην αὐτῶν. over their flocks. 2.9 καὶ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς The Lord’sι angel stopped them καὶ δόξα κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτούς, and the Lord’sι brilliance shone on them.
2.3 ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἡρῴδης ἐταράχθη Having heard, King Horodos was stirred up— καὶ πᾶσα Ἱεροσόλυμα μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ, and all Jerusalem with him.	καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν. They ran awayκ in great fear. 2.10 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ ἄγγελος· The angel told them, μὴ φοβεῖσθε, “Don’t run away!κ
2.4 καὶ συναγαγὼν πάντας τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς Having gathered all the head priests καὶ γραμματεῖς τοῦ λαοῦ and scholars of the people, ἐπυνθάνετο παρ᾿ αὐτῶν ποῦ ὁ χριστὸς γεννᾶται. he was asking them, “Where is Messiah to be born?” 2.5 οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ· ἐν Βηθλέεμ τῆς Ἰουδαίας· They told him, “In Beit Lekhem, Judah.” οὕτως γὰρ γέγραπται διὰ τοῦ προφήτου· For this is how it was written through the prophet: 2.6 καὶ σὺ Βηθλέεμ, γῆ Ἰούδα, “You, Beit Lekhem, land of Judah. οὐδαμῶς ἐλαχίστη εἶ ἐν τοῖς ἡγεμόσιν Ἰούδα· You certainly aren’t the least of Judah’s leaders. ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ ἐξελεύσεται ἡγούμενος, For a leader will come from you ὅστις ποιμανεῖ τὸν λαόν μου τὸν Ἰσραήλ. who will shepherd My people, Isra’el.”	ἰδοὺ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν For look, I announce good news to you— χαρὰν μεγάλην great joy! ἥτις ἔσται παντὶ τῷ λαῷ, It is for all the people 2.11 ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ that a Rescuer was born today to you, ὅς ἐστιν χριστὸς κύριος who is the Master, Messiah, ἐν πόλει Δαυίδ. in David’s city.	7.41 ἄλλοι ἔλεγον· Other people said, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ χριστός, “This is the Messiah.” οἱ δὲ ἔλεγον· They said, μὴ γὰρ ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας “It isn’t from the Galilee ὁ χριστὸς ἔρχεται; the Messiah comes. 7.42 οὐχ ἡ γραφὴ εἶπεν Don’t the scriptures say ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος Δαυὶδ that out of David’s seed, καὶ ἀπὸ Βηθλέεμ and from Beit Lekhem, τῆς κώμης ὅπου ἦν Δαυὶδ the village which is David’s, ἔρχεται ὁ χριστός; the Messiah comes?”
2.7 Τότε Ἡρῴδης λάθρᾳ καλέσας τοὺς μάγους Herodos secretly summoned the magi ἠκρίβωσεν παρ᾿ αὐτῶν τὸν χρόνον to find out from them the exact time τοῦ φαινομένου ἀστέρος, of the light in the sky’sε appearance. 2.8 καὶ πέμψας αὐτοὺς εἰς Βηθλέεμ εἶπεν· Having sent them to Beit Lekhem, he said, πορευθέντες ἐξετάσατε ἀκριβῶς περὶ τοῦ παιδίου· “Go search carefully for the little boy. ἐπὰν δὲ εὕρητε, ἀπαγγείλατέ μοι, Whenever you find Him, report it to me ὅπως κἀγὼ ἐλθὼν προσκυνήσω αὐτῷ. so that I might also go pay homage to Him.”	2.12 καὶ τοῦτο ὑμῖν τὸ σημεῖον, This sign is for you: εὑρήσετε βρέφος ἐσπαργανωμένον You will find an infant who had been swaddled, καὶ κείμενον ἐν φάτνῃ. and laying in a trough.” 2.13 καὶ ἐξαίφνης ἐγένετο σὺν τῷ ἀγγέλῳ Suddenly there became, with the angel, πλῆθος στρατιᾶς οὐρανίου a multitude of the heavenly army αἰνούντων τὸν θεὸν καὶ λεγόντων· praising God and saying, 2.14 δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ “The brilliance of God, the Highest, καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη and peace on earth ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας. for His beloved humans.”λ
2.9 οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπορεύθησαν Having heard the king, they left. καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁ ἀστήρ, Look, the light in the sky,ε ὃν εἶδον ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ, προῆγεν αὐτούς, which they saw in the East,δ appeared to them ἕως ἐλθὼν ἐστάθη ἐπάνω οὗ ἦν τὸ παιδίον. until it came to stand where the little boy was. 2.10 ἰδόντες δὲ τὸν ἀστέρα Having seen the light in the sky,ε ἐχάρησαν χαρὰν μεγάλην σφόδρα. they rejoiced very much, with great joy.	2.15 Καὶ ἐγένετο It was, ὡς ἀπῆλθον ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν οἱ ἄγγελοι, once the angels left them in the universe,μ οἱ ποιμένες ἐλάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους· the herders were saying to one another, διέλθωμεν δὴ ἕως Βηθλέεμ “We could go through Beit Lekhem καὶ ἴδωμεν τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο τὸ γεγονὸς and see if this word has come true ὃ ὁ κύριος ἐγνώρισεν ἡμῖν. which the Lordν revealed to us.”
2.11 καὶ ἐλθόντες εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν Having gone into the house, εἶδον τὸ παιδίον μετὰ Μαρίας τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ, they saw the little boy with His mother Miryam.ζ καὶ πεσόντες προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ They fell down, paying homage to Him. καὶ ἀνοίξαντες τοὺς θησαυροὺς αὐτῶν Having opened their treasures, προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δῶρα, they presented Him gifts— χρυσὸν καὶ λίβανον καὶ σμύρναν. gold, incense, and perfume.η	2.16 καὶ ἦλθαν σπεύσαντες Hurrying, they went καὶ ἀνεῦραν τήν τε Μαριὰμ καὶ τὸν Ἰωσὴφ and found both Miryam and Yosef,ζ καὶ τὸ βρέφος κείμενον ἐν τῇ φάτνῃ· and the infant laying in the trough. 2.17 ἰδόντες δὲ ἐγνώρισαν περὶ τοῦ ῥήματος Having seen this, they revealed the word τοῦ λαληθέντος αὐτοῖς which was spoken to them περὶ τοῦ παιδίου τούτου. about this little boy. 2.18 καὶ πάντες οἱ ἀκούσαντες ἐθαύμασαν Everyone who heard it were awestruck περὶ τῶν λαληθέντων about the sayings ὑπὸ τῶν ποιμένων πρὸς αὐτούς· from the herders to them. 2.19 ἡ δὲ Μαριὰμ πάντα συνετήρει τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα Miryam collected all these words, συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς. putting them together in her mind.ο
2.12 καὶ χρηματισθέντες κατ᾿ ὄναρ Having been dealt with by a dream μὴ ἀνακάμψαι πρὸς Ἡρῴδην, not to return to Horodos, δι᾿ ἄλλης ὁδοῦ ἀνεχώρησαν they went back on another road εἰς τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν. to their country.	2.20 καὶ ὑπέστρεψαν οἱ ποιμένες The herders returned, δοξάζοντες καὶ αἰνοῦντες τὸν θεὸν honoring and praising God, ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οἷς ἤκουσαν καὶ εἶδον for everything they heard and saw καθὼς ἐλαλήθη πρὸς αὐτούς. was just as it was told them.

Again, these stories aren’t really parallel stories. But you might notice a common story structure between Matthew’s story of the magi and Luke’s story of the herders.

• The scene: the time of Herod, (Mt 2.1) or the herders at work. (Lk 2.8)
• Someone showed up: the magi appeared and said, “Hey, where’s the King of the Jews?” (Mt 2.2) or the Lord’s angel appeared and glowed like a space alien. (Lk 2.9-12)
• The response: Herod freaked out, (Mt 2.3) and Jerusalem with him, ’cause Herod had a tendency to kill people when he freaked out. The herders fled in terror, (Lk 2.9) ’cause you know how those space aliens are.
• A bit of explanation: Herod goes to the priests and scholars to find out about Messiah and where He was expected to be born, (Mt 2.4-6) and the angel gave the reason for its appearance. (Lk 2.10-11) John also referred to where Messiah was to be born, (Jn 7.41-42) which is why that bit appears here in the synopsis.
• People are sent to find baby Jesus: Herod told the magi to go find Him for him, (Mt 2.7-8) and the angel told the herders what they’d see when they saw Him. (Lk 2.12)
• Off they went: The magi followed the light in the sky until it pointed them directly to Jesus’s house, (Mt 2.9-10) and the herders went through Bethlehem looking for kids in the feed troughs. (Lk 2.15)
• They found Jesus: The magi paid Him homage and gave Him stuff, (Mt 2.11) and the herders basically told everyone about what the angel said to them. (Lk 2.16-19)
• They went home. The magi bailed on Herod, (Mt 2.12) and the herders went back to herding. (Lk 2.20)

These stories don’t take place at the same time, of course, regardless of the Nativity crèches you might see around Christmastime. The herders’ story in Luke obviously took place at the same time as Jesus’s birth; by the time the herders found Jesus, He was still in the trough. The magi’s story in Matthew took place, we estimate, about two years later. (Mt 2.16) Jesus was out of the trough by then, and apparently Joseph had got the family a house. (Mt 2.11)

What I found interesting in both stories are the sort of people God had the birth of the Messiah announced to. People like to contrast them—rich magi and poor herders. Thing is, they did have something in common between them. They weren’t Pharisees.

“Well, that’s a good thing, right?” might be your response—if you make the all-too-common mistake of thinking that a Pharisee is a bad person. To most Christians nowadays, “Pharisee” means “self-righteous hypocrite.” Sorta like “Puritan” to a lot of people. Neither is accurate. Pharisees were the Jews who actually followed the Law and worshipped God. Non-Pharisees were what we’d today call “secular Jews”—descendants of Abraham who didn’t bother to follow the God of Abraham, and were no better than pagans. (Yes, there were other denominations of Jews—those we know of are the Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, and the Qumran sect. But the Pharisees seem to be the only folks who were solid enough for Jesus to critique.)

The herders were likely ethnic Jews. It is entirely possible, due to how close Bethlehem is to Jerusalem, that the animals they were raising were specifically for sacrifice in the temple. However, herders had an awful reputation in ancient Israel. Think cowboys in the Wild West—real cowboys, not the cowboys in the movies. Sure, some of them were God-fearing people, but the bulk of them were the scum of the earth, watching cattle because their obscene behavior made them unfit for much else. The herders weren’t far different.

These would not be the people we might expect God to talk to first when it came to announce the birth of the Messiah. But they are.

Next the magi. What are magi? Well, contrary to the Christmas carol, they’re not kings. Most Christians who know a little something about history tend to call them “wise men,” or even go so far as to say “Persian astrologers”—then quickly point out that people back then didn’t know the difference between astrology and astronomy, so they can be forgiven their ignorance; they were basically the ancient world’s version of scientists.

But that’s all junk. Magi are Zoroastrians.

Zarathushtra was an Iranian prophet who lived at roughly the same time as King David, in the 11th or 10th century BCE. Maybe even earlier. There are a lot of strange Greek and Christian myths about him, but put those aside. The religion that came from his teachings, Zoroastrianism, teaches there are two gods: the good creator, Ahura Mazda, and the evil destructive principle, Angra Mainyu, whom Ahura Mazda will inevitably defeat. People need to join Ahura Mazda’s side of truth and order, and actively pursue good thoughts, words, and deeds.

There’s a really good chance that Zoroastrian ideas were incorporated into the ancient Hebrew religion as a result of the Babylonian captivity, when the Hebrews were exposed to Zarathushtra’s teachings in the schools. Daniel, fr’instance, was more than likely taught a bit of it. In the bible, we don’t much about the Adversary, about resurrection, and about angels that are specifically in charge of nations, until after the Babylonian captivity. Not that these things didn’t exist before; it just appears as though the Hebrews didn’t know about them till they encountered what the Zoroastrians had to say about them.

This idea bothers a lot of Christians. We believe Jesus is right. But we inaccurately come to the converse conclusion: that pagans are all wrong. Pagans are not entirely wrong. They are just wrong enough for us to need to hear from Jesus. Many things they get right. There’s a great deal of Buddhism that is exactly right; a great deal of ancient Greek philosophy that accurately depicts the world; and a whole lot of Zoroastrianism that properly describes God.

How, if they’re pagans, could they possibly have arrived at the truth? Well, it’s not too hard to figure: All truth is God’s truth; all truth comes from God. They got it from God. “But they’re pagans.” Yes, they are. So what? They still got it from God.

Now, your average Christian has no trouble with the angels appearing to the herders because even though the herders were terrible Jews, they were still Jews. Out of hand, we tend to reject the idea that God only appears to special, extra-holy folks, ’cause there are so many stories in the bible and Christian history of God appearing to whomever He wants. But deep down, we still have a problem with the idea that God would talk to pagans. And yet it’s biblical. Noah wasn’t a Jew. Abraham, when God first spoke to him, was a pagan. Balaam was a pagan, and an unrepentant evil prophet-for-hire pagan at that, but God talked to him anyway. Cornelius was a pagan—a God-fearing pagan, but still a pagan.

It’s understandable that we’re anxious about the idea. We don’t want to give people the idea that you can be saved without Jesus. ’Cause you can’t. Catholic theologian Karl Rahner came up with an interesting idea, which I largely agree with, that there are some pagans who are “anonymous Christians”—thanks to God’s grace, He has credited them with righteousness just as He did Abraham (Ro 4.3) and Jesus has saved them, even though they don’t know it’s Jesus who saved them. He did so “anonymously.” While there’s a very good biblical basis for saying there’s something to Rahner’s idea, we Christians don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that every good pagan might somehow be an “anonymous Christian.” It’s not for us to say who the “anonymous Christians” are; we have to do our job and keep proclaiming Jesus.

But we don’t want to go to the opposite extreme and say God doesn’t talk to pagans. Obviously He does. After all, how are pagans gonna ever come to God if He never talks to them?

What we have done, unfortunately and stupidly, is whitewashed what the magi are. The thinking was that if we obscure their religion, we won’t encourage people to try it out, and in so doing fall away from Jesus. And what has ironically happened as a result is that many Christians have tried out astrology. After all, the magi did it, and by golly, astrology pinpointed where baby Jesus was! So there must be something to it. Right? And in so doing, Christians fell away from Jesus; I mean, why read a bible to find out God’s general will when the planets will give you a much more specific answer?

In obscuring who the magi are, we largely eliminated the whole idea that God might—and in fact does—talk to pagans just as much as He talks to Christians. God talks to everybody. He’s not just the God of the Christians, remember? He’s the God of everybody. To the pagans, He encourages them to follow Him. To the Christians, He encourages us to follow Him. Sometimes He gets specific. Usually He just pokes us in the conscience whenever we’re violating it—though He has been known to make appearances and intervene from time to time.

But to say that He only appears to the “right” people? That’s simply not God. As demonstrated when He announced the most important thing ever: the birth of the Messiah.

α. Jesus.

β. Bethlehem.

γ. Herod I of Judah.

δ. Or “at its rising.” I translated it literally.

ε. Usu. “star.” But ἀστήρ/astír refers to any light in the sky—stars, planets, comets, etc.—smaller than the moon.

ζ. Mary.

η. Usu. “myrrh.” But it could be any resin used for perfume.

θ. Usu. “shepherds.” But ποιμήν/pimín can also refer to a goatherd, and “flocks” in this verse can likewise refer to goats.

ι. Or “Master’s.” The Jews used ‏אֲדֹנָי/adona’i, “my Lord,” to refer to Yahweh without saying His holy name.

κ. Usu. “feared.” But the passive form means “fled in fear.”

λ. Lit. “to humans of His good favor.”

μ. Or “went from them to the sky,” or “into heaven.”

ν. Or “Master.” See note θ.

ξ. Joseph.

ο. Lit. “heart.”