Bible Commentaries

Went before them (προηγεν αυτους). Imperfect tense, kept on in front of them, not as a guide to the town since they now knew that, but to the place where the child was, the inn according to Luke 2:7. Justin Martyr says that it was in a cave. The stall where the cattle and donkeys stayed may have been beneath the inn in the side of the hill.

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They rejoiced with exceeding great joy (εχαρησαν χαραν μεγαλην σφοδρα). Second aorist passive indicative with cognate accusative. Their joy was due to the success of the search.

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Opening their treasures (ανοιξαντες τους θησαυρους αυτων). Here "treasures" means "caskets" from the verb (τιθημ), receptacle for valuables. In the ancient writers it meant "treasury" as in 1Macc. 3:29. So a "storehouse" as in Matthew 13:52. Then it means the things laid up in store, treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:20), in Christ (Colossians 2:3). In their "caskets" the Magi had gold, frankincense, and myrrh, all found at that time in Arabia, though gold was found in Babylon and elsewhere.

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Warned in a dream (χρηματισθεντες κατ' οναρ). The verb means to transact business (χρηματιζω from χρημα, and that from χραομα, to use. Then to consult, to deliberate, to make answer as of magistrates or an oracle, to instruct, to admonish. In the Septuagint and the New Testament it occurs with the idea of being warned by God and also in the papyri (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 122). Wycliff puts it here: "An answer taken in sleep."

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Until the death of Herod (εως της τελευτης Hηρωιδου). The Magi had been warned in a dream not to report to Herod and now Joseph was warned in a dream to take Mary and the child along (μελλε ζητειν του απολεσα gives a vivid picture of the purpose of Herod in these three verbs). In Egypt Joseph was to keep Mary and Jesus till the death of Herod the monster. Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1 to show that this was in fulfilment of God's purpose to call his Son out of Egypt. He may have quoted again from a collection of testimonia rather than from the Septuagint. There is a Jewish tradition in the Talmud that Jesus "brought with him magic arts out of Egypt in an incision on his body" (Shabb. 104b). "This attempt to ascribe the Lord's miracles to Satanic agency seems to be independent of Matthew, and may have been known to him, so that one object of his account may have been to combat it" (McNeile).

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Slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem (ανειλεν παντας τους παιδας τους εν Βηθλεεμ). The flight of Joseph was justified, for Herod was violently enraged (εθυμωθη λιαν) that he had been mocked by the Magi, deluded in fact (ενεπαιχθη). Vulgate illusus esset. Herod did not know, of course, how old the child was, but he took no chances and included all the little boys (τους παιδας, masculine article) in Bethlehem two years old and under, perhaps fifteen or twenty. It is no surprise that Josephus makes no note of this small item in Herod's chamber of horrors. It was another fulfilment of the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15. The quotation (Matthew 2:18) seems to be from the Septuagint. It was originally written of the Babylonian captivity but it has a striking illustration in this case also. Macrobius (Sat. II. iv. II) notes that Augustus said that it was better to be Herod's sow (υς) than his son (υιος), for the sow had a better chance of life.

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For they are dead (τεθνηκασιν). Only Herod had sought to kill the young child, but it is a general statement of a particular fact as is common with people who say: "They say." The idiom may be suggested by Exodus 4:19: "For all are dead that sought thy life."

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Warned in a dream (χρηματισθεις κατ' οναρ). He was already afraid to go to Judea because Archelaus was reigning (ruling, not technically king, βασιλευε). In a fret at last before his death Herod had changed his will again and put Archelaus, the worst of his living sons, in the place of Antipas. So Joseph went to Galilee. Matthew has had nothing about the previous dwelling of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth. We learn that from Luke who tells nothing of the flight into Egypt. The two narratives supplement one another and are in no sense contradictory.

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