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.”