聖經註釋書

Matthew 2:9-10. The Magi go on their errand to Bethlehem. They do not know the way, but the star guides them. ἰδοὺ ὁ ἀστὴρ: looking up to heaven as they set out on their journey, they once more behold their heavenly guide.—ὃν εἶδον ἐ. τ. ἀνατολῇ: is the meaning that they had seen the star only at its rising, finding their way to Jesus without its guidance, and that again it appeared leading them to Bethlehem? So Bengel, and after him Meyer. Against this is φαινομένου, Matthew 2:7, which implies continuous visibility. The clause ὃν εἶδον, etc., is introduced for the purpose of identification. It was their celestial guide appearing again.—προῆγεν: it kept going before them (imperfect) all the way till, arriving at Bethlehem, it took up its position (ἐστάθη) right over the spot where the child was. The star seemed to go before them by an optical illusion (Weiss-Meyer); it really, in the view of the evangelist, went before and stopped over the house (De Wette, who, of course, regards this as impossible in fact).

Matthew 2:10, ἰδάντες δὲ … χαρὰν μεγάλην σφόδρα: seeing the star standing over the sacred spot, they were overjoyed. Their quest was at an end; they had at last reached the goal of their long journey. σφόδρα, a favourite word of our evangelist, and here very appropriate after μεγάλην to express exuberant gladness, ecstatic delight. On the convoy of the star, Fritzsche remarks: “Fuit certe stellae pompa tam gravi tempore digna”. Some connect the seeing of the star in Matthew 2:10 with the beginning of the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. They rejoiced, says Euthy. Zig. ὡς εὑρόντες τὸν ἀψευδέστατον ὁδηγόν.

Matthew 2:11. The Magi enter and do homage.—καὶ ε. ε. τ. οἰκίαν: the house. In Luke the shepherds find the holy family in a stable, and the holy child lying in a manger; reconcilable by assuming that the Magi arrived after they had found refuge in a friend’s house (Epiphan. Theophy.).—εἶδον τ. π.… αὐτοῦ: εἶδον better than εὗρον, which seems to have been introduced by the copyists as not only in itself suitable to the situation, but relieving the monotony caused by too frequent use of εἶδον (Matthew 2:9-10). The child with His mother, Joseph not mentioned, not intentionally, that no wrong suspicions might occur to the Gentiles (Rabanus in Aquin. Cat. Aur.).—καὶ πεσόντες … σμύρναν. They come, eastern fashion, with full hands, as befits those who enter into the presence of a king. They open the boxes or sacks (θησαυροὺς, some ancient copies seem to have read πήρας = sacculos, which Grotius, with probability, regards as an interpretative gloss that had found its way into the text, vide Epiphanius Adv. Haer. Alogi., c. 8), and bring forth gold, frankincense and myrrh, the two latter being aromatic gums distilled from trees.—λίβανον: in classic Greek, the tree, in later Greek and N. T., the gum, τὸ θυμιώμενον = λιβανωτός, vide Phryn. ed. Lobeck, p. 187. The gifts were of three kinds, hence the inference that the Magi were three in number. That they were kings was deduced from texts in Psalms and Prophecies (e.g., Psalm 72:10, Isaiah 60:3), predicting that kings would come doing homage and bringing gifts to Messiah. The legend of the three kings dates as far back as Origen, and is beautiful but baseless. It grew with time; by-and-by the kings were furnished with names. The legendary spirit loves definiteness. The gifts would be products of the givers’ country, or in high esteem and costly there. Hence the inference drawn by some that the Magi were from Arabia. Thus Grotius: “Myrrha nonnisi in Arabia nascitur, nec thus nisi apud Jabaeos Arabum portionem: sed et aurifera est felix Arabia”. Gold and incense (λίβανος) are mentioned in Isaiah 60:6 among the gifts to be brought to Israel in the good time coming. The fathers delighted in assigning to these gifts of the Magi mystic meanings: gold as to a king, incense as to God, myrrh as to one destined to die (ὡς μέλλοντι γεύσασθαι θανάτου). Grotius struck into a new line: gold = works of mercy; incense = prayer; myrrh = purity—to the disgust of Fritzsche, who thought such mystic interpretations beneath so great a scholar.

Matthew 2:12. Their pious errand fulfilled, the Magi, warned to keep out of Herod’s way, return home by another road.—χρηματισθέντες points to divine guidance given in a dream (κατ ὄναρ); responso accepto, Vulg[6] The passive, in the sense of a divine oracle given, is found chiefly in N. T. (Fritzsche after Casaubon). Was the oracle given in answer to a prayer for guidance? Opinions differ. It may be assumed here, as in the case of Joseph (Matthew 1:20), that the Magi had anxious thoughts corresponding to the divine communication. Doubts had arisen in their minds about Herod’s intentions. They had, doubtless, heard something of his history and character, and his manner on reflection may have appeared suspicious. A skilful dissembler, yet not quite successful in concealing his hidden purpose even from these guileless men. Hence a sense of need of guidance, if not a formal petition for it, may be taken for granted. Divine guidance comes only to prepared hearts. The dream reflects the antecedent state of mind.—μὴ ἀνακάμψαι, not to turn back on their steps towards Jerus. and Herod. Fritzsche praises the felicity of this word as implying that to go by Jerusalem was a roundabout for travellers from Bethlehem to the east. Apart from the question of fact, such a thought does not seem to be in the mind of the evangelist. He is thinking, not of the shortest road, but of avoiding Herod—ἀνεχώρησαν, they withdrew not only homewards, but away from Herod’s neighbourhood. A word of frequent occurrence in our Gospel, four times in this chapter (Matthew 2:13-14; Matthew 2:22).

[6] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

Matthew 2:13-23. Flight to Egypt, massacre in Bethlehem, return to Nazareth. These three stories have one aim. They indicate the omens which appear in beginnings—omina principiis inesse solent (Ovid). The fortunes of Christianity foreshadowed in the experiences of the holy child: welcomed by Gentiles, evil entreated by Jews. “The real contents of these sections embody an ideal aim” (Schanz).

Matthew 2:13-15. Flight to Egypt.

Matthew 2:13. φαίνεται: assuming that this is the correct reading, the flight to Egypt is represented as following close on the departure of the Magi; the historic present, vividly introducing one scene after another. A subjective state of anxiety is here also to be presumed. Whence arising we can only conjecture. Did the Magi give a hint, mentioning Herod’s name in a significant manner? Be that as it may, Joseph also gets the necessary direction.—Ἐγερθεὶς … εἰς Αἴγυπτον: Egypt—near, friendly, and the refuge of Israel’s ancestors in days of old, if also their house of bondage.—παράλαβε, take with a view to taking care of (cf. John 1:11, “His own received Him not,” παρέλαβον); benigne, Fritzsche—ἕως … σοί: either generally, till I give thee further orders (Fritzsche); or till I tell thee to return (Meyer, Schanz); sense the same; the time of such new direction is left vague (ἂν with sub.).—μέλλει γὰρ: gives reason of the command.—τοῦ ἀπολέσαι αὐτό: Herod’s first purpose was to kill Mary’s child alone. He afterwards killed many to make sure of the one. The genitive of the infinitive to express purpose belongs to comparatively late Greek. It occurs constantly in the Sept[7] and in N. T.

[7] Septuagint.

Matthew 2:14. ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς: Joseph promptly executes the command, νυκτός, before the day, indicating alarm as well as obedience. The words of the command in Matthew 2:13 are repeated by the evangelist in Matthew 2:14 to emphasise the obedient spirit of Joseph.

Matthew 2:15. καὶ ἧν ἐκεῖ, etc.: the stay in Egypt cannot have been long, only a few months, prohably, before the death of Herod (Nösgen).—ἵνα πληρωθῇ: another prophetic reference, this time proceeding directly from the evangelist; Hosea 11:1, given after the Hebrew, not the Sept[8], which for בְנִי has τέκνα αὐτοῦ. The oracle states a historical fact, and can therefore only be a typical prophecy. The event in the life of the infant Jesus may seem an insignificant fulfilment. Not so did it appear to the evangelist. For him all events in the life of the Christ possessed transcendent significance. Was it an event at all? criticism asks. Did the fact suggest the prophetic reference, or did the prophecy create the fact? In reply, be it said that the narratives in this chapter of the Infancy all hang together. If any one of them occurred, all might occur. The main question is, is Herod’s solicitude credible? If so, then the caution of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, the massacre at Bethlehem, the return at the tyrant’s death to Nazareth, are all equally credible.

[8] Septuagint.

Matthew 2:16-18. The massacre. Τότε: ominous then. When he was certain that the Magi were not going to come back to report what they had found at Bethlehem, Herod was enraged as one who had been befooled (ἐνεπαίχθη). Maddened with anger, he resolves on more truculent measures than he at first intended: kill all of a certain age to make sure of the one—such is his savage order to his obsequious hirelings. Incredible? Anything is credible of the man who murdered his own wife and sons. This deed shocks Christians; but it was a small affair in Herod’s career, and in contemporary history.—ἐν Βηθ. καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτής, in Bethlehem, and around in the neighbourhood, to make quite sure.—ἀπὸ διετοῦς καὶ κατωτέρω: the meaning is clear—all children from an hour to two years old. But διετοῦς may be taken either as masculine, agreeing with παιδός understood = from a two-year-old child, or as a neuter adjective used as a noun = from the age of two years, a bimatu as in Vulg[9] There are good authorities on both sides. For a similar phrase, vide 1 Chronicles 27:23, ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς. Herod made his net wide enough; two years ensured an ample margin.—κατὰ τ. χ.… μάγων. Euthy. Zig. insists that these words must be connected, not with διετοῦς, but with κατωτέρω, putting a comma after the former word, and not after the latter. If, he argues, Herod had definitely ascertained from the Magi that the child must be two years old, he would not have killed those younger. They made Mary’s child younger; Herod kept their time and added a margin: πλάτος ἔτερον αὐτὸς προσέθηκε. It does not seem to matter very much. Herod would not be very scrupulous. He was likely to add a margin in either case; below if they made the age two years, above if they made it less.

[9] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).