Matthew Chapter 2 (Part Two)

Zodiac System
By the time of Jesus’ birth, the astrologers had devised a system of interpreting the meaning of the lights in the sky which we now call the Zodiac. It consisted of constellations of stars which were named and associated with living creatures. The Hellenistic star gazers had determined that the constellation Aries (the Ram) was the Zodiac symbol which had to do with the region of Judea. Thus, the magi would have looked towards Aries to tell them about the events concerting Judea, among which could be indications of the death of a current king or birth of a new king of the Jews. It is within that belief system in which we have to consider the fascinating Bethlehem Star.

What was the Star of Bethlehem?
There are a wide variety of commentaries on the Book of Matthew which discuss a wide spectrum of both theological and scientific views about the star of Bethlehem. Among those views is that the star was just a fictional myth meant to add drama and glory to the birth of Jesus. Another view is that there is no point in trying to explain the star in any natural terms as the star was a supernatural event. It was a miracle. Other views are that this star was a rare celestial event which coincided with Jesus’ birth.

Recently, some have argued that the appearance of the mysterious star is a Jewish teaching on the famous Old Testament account of the seer named Balaam. It states that the appearance of a star would accompany the birth of the Messiah.

This is the speech of Balaam, the son of Bear. The speech of a man whose eyes have been opened, the speech of him who hears God’s words, who knows what God knows, who sees what the Almighty sees, who had fallen, yet has open eyes. “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not soon. A star will step forth from Jacob, a scepter will arise from Israel, to crush the corners of Moab and destroy all descendants of Sheth. (Numbers 24:15-17)

Balaam’s mention of a star stepping forth is being related by some scholars as the star of Bethlehem. While I do not find this line of thinking conclusive, it is hard to ignore the many parallels between the story of King Balak and Balaam and the magi’s journey to Judea.

1. King Herod’s family was from Idumea (formerly known as Edom), and King Balak was also from that region.

2. Just as the magi ruined King Herod’s plan to kill the Messiah child, Balaam also ruined King Balak’s plans to kill the Israelites.

3. Balaam was a magi just as the star gazers were who came to find the new king of the Jews.

4. The magi came because a star announces the birth of a new king of the Jews, and Balaam mentioned a star that had to do with the arrival of a savior and king who would come from among the people of Israel.

During King Herod’s reign, the Jews were looking for a Messiah to arise. The pagan star gazers were looking for a king. The sign the Jews were looking for was not exactly clear. They just knew a leader would arise who would save them from their current Roman oppression. For the magi, the sign they were looking for was in the sky. They were looking for portents and omens.

A Closer Reading of Matthew 2:1-16
A close reading of the text shows that the magi did not go to King Herod and ask: “where is the newborn king of the Jews?” Rather, they arrived in Jerusalem and began asking around for this information. These inquiries reached the ears of King Herod because it unsettled the residents of Jerusalem. One can only imagine what this news did to King Herod’s already paranoid and suspicious psyche.

Herod was a brutal man who committed terrible atrocities even upon his closest family members. It was not just his brutality that distanced him from his Jewish subjects; it was also that Herod was not even a Jew. His mother was a Nabatean—Nabateans were an ancient Arab people who lived in northern Arabian from the Euphrates River to the Red Sea. Herod’s father was an Idumean (this is the Greek name for Edom). Herod was not raised in a Jewish household. Rather, it most likely was a Hellenistic household were a combination of Hellenistic and Jewish traditions were practiced.

Herod was a Hellenistic tyrant who completely aligned himself with Rome and fully embraced Roman culture. Any inkling of danger to his throne (real or imagined) was instantly dealt with. He killed three of his own sons thinking they might be plotting against him. He had so many people killed (many of whom were innocent) that August Caesar once commented that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s family.

With Herod’s ruthless rule coupled with thousands of Roman troops trampling over the Holy City, it is no wonder the Jewish people yearned for a deliverer and thought they were living in prophesied times of the apocalypse.

Back to the magi: One thing to note is the question the magi asked was not “if” a new king of the Jews had been born, but “where”. There was no doubt in their minds that a new Judean king had been born because a celestial omen had alerted them to it, and they fully trusted what they saw and what it meant. Oddly enough, the people of Jerusalem and Herod were startled by the magis’ hunt for a new Jewish king. They were unaware of such an event.

Yet, Herod understood the dire consequences of the meaning of the magis’ message because he believed the new king would also be the Messiah. We are left with a couple important questions.

1. How exactly did the magi know the this new king of the Jews had been born?

2. What was it they saw in the sky which alerted them to it?

3. How is it the Jews, the people over whom this new king was supposed rule over were completely unaware of, but the pagan star gazers expected and found?

The Star of Bethlehem has mesmerized and thrilled millions and millions of Christians over the centuries. We will explore what exactly the star might have been and where it might have come from.

Was it a comet?
Most of the theories about the star are based on how best to translate the Greek word “aster”. Matthew does not go into any great lengths to give us any help to understand what the word “aster” might mean in this context. The main problem we face is that the term “aster” could describe any number of heavenly bodies and luminaries including comets. Therefore, perhaps the most widely proposed solution for the identity of the Star of Bethlehem is that it was indeed a comet.

Comets can appear in the sky unexpectedly, hang around for weeks or months and then disappear. Here is the issue with this proposal that the star was a comet: for the pagan magi, a comet was an omen of disaster. It was a BAD sign. It was not something which would prompt the idea of birth and a king. Comets were thought to be a portent of DEATH of a king, or even the death of an emperor.

During the rule of Vespasian in 79 A.D., less than a decade after the destruction of the Holy Temple, a comet suddenly appeared in the night sky. He and his subjects knew this was an astrological omen that the end of his life was imminent. Vespasian’s reaction was to deflate any such stories of his demise. Vespasian declares that the comet’s bad sign was not of his death but to the king of Parthia. A few months from the first appearance of the comet, the king of Parthia did not die. However, Vespasian did die most likely from dysentery.

Comets were harbingers of death and calamity to the Hellenistic astrologers of the first couple centuries before and after Jesus’ birth. So the thought that modern Bible scholars have that the Star of Bethlehem was a comet is completely incorrect. We can scratch that off our list of possibilities.

Matthew Chapter 2 (Part One)

 A Brief Recap
As Matthew begins to tell the story of Jesus’ birth, he immediately brings up the issue of Mary becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit. We often hear the term immaculate conception in regards to this event. This is conflating two different things. The immaculate conception idea is purely a Roman Catholic doctrine which has little to do with the birth of Jesus.

Immaculate conception is a doctrine held as a core belief that the Virgin Mary was herself conceived by a divine miracle. This made her free from sin. In many respects, the thought is that Mary conceived her son in the same way she was conceived. In Roman Catholicism this allows for elevating Mary beyond normal human status to being semi-divine.

Included in the story of Christ’s birth is the matter of Mary and Joseph being betrothed. Living in modern times, we need to think of betrothal more as marriage than as an engagement. Even though during this period of betrothal the girl still lived with her father, she was called “wife” upon her betrothal, and she was called “widow” should her betrothed husband die. For Jewish reader’s of Matthew’s Gospel, the mention of Joseph and Mary being betrothed meant that the time for her moving in with Joseph had not yet come.

It also mean that they were not yet permitted to have marital relationships. Other than that, they were completely married as we think of it today. For a betrothal to be called off, a divorce document called a get had to be issued by the man. This was to invalid the marriage contract which had been drawn up and executed between the man and the girl’s father.


Chapter 2
Verse 1: The first half of verse one concludes Matthew’s story of the conception and birth of Jesus by saying that He was born in Bethlehem (House of Bread) in Judea. Although Matthew does not go into detail by explaining the significance of the place of Jesus’ birth, it was common knowledge for Jews to know that Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David. The direct connection between the Messiah and King David is a must in the messianic prophecies.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

Verse 2: The second half of verse 2 gives us an approximation of the date of Jesus’ birth based on the reign of King Herod. King Herod reigned from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C. So according to Matthew’s timeline, Jesus had to have been born prior to 4 B.C.

The last part of verse two also begins a captivating story about a visitation of magi in search of the new king of the Jews. This account we only find in Mathew’s Gospel. This story about the magi appears in no other place in the New Testament other than the Book of Matthew.

Who were the Magi?
The first thing to notice is that despite many Christian traditions and songs about the magi which indicate there were three, we are not told how many magi are actually present in the text. The idea of three magi traveling to find Jesus is entirely fictional and not supported by the Bible or any other ancient text.

The next fictional description is that the magi were kings. This is wrong on many levels.

The magi were highly respected experts in their field in which they used wandering lights in the sky to interpret current events and future events. Although they are said to have come from the east, There is a lot of land mass to the east of Judea. So, their point of origin cannot be pinpointed.
 

The most important feature of the magi for us to understand is that they were not astronomers as we think of an astronomer today. Rather, they were Hellenistic astronomers. What does Hellenistic mean? It means those who have adopted the Greek language, culture, thought, art and religious views. In the first century, it mostly meant to assimilate into the Greek based Roman culture.

The magi did not practice ancient astrology which was prevalent among the Babylonians. This form of astrology had ceased to exist shortly after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 300’s B.C.

The other point which is fundamental for proper understanding is that Jews generally did not practice any form of astrology at this time. They did not look to the skies for understanding events or for foretelling the future. However, understanding events and foretelling the future is exactly what Hellenistic astrologers did. This is exactly what the magi in the Book of Matthew did.

Historical Context
There is an underlying historical context which generally aids our understanding of the role of the magi in Jesus’ birth story. First, Rome and the Holy Land were in a constant state of confrontation and tension. The Jews felt offended by Rome’s overpowering presence, and Rome was frustrated with these stubborn people who refused all effort to assimilate. The Jews valued and insisted on keeping their unique faith, culture, traditions and history while Rome wanted them to abandon their heritage and conform to the progressive Hellenistic way of life which had been adopted by the rest of the Roman empire.

This festering hatred of the Romans led the Jews to openly express their hope for a Jewish Messiah to deliver them from Rome’s heavy hand. In turn the Romans were very concerned about the Jews’ messianic prophecies of a charismatic deliverer and were on high alert for his arrival. In both cases, the expectation was for a Jewish leader to emerge who would defy and challenge the Roman military. The Jews welcome the notion while Rome feared it.

The second element for understanding the context of the magi in our story is that astronomy was advancing at a high rate in the years leading up to Jesus’ birth. The Hellenistic astronomers studied the skies for many years. They developed mathematical equations which could fairly accurately predict the movement of the stars and plants. This will play a role in our understanding of the famous star which the magi followed to Bethlehem.

The third element for historical context is that there was no real distinction between astronomy and astrology in this era. The constantly progressing understanding of the movement of the objects in the sky could now be predicted. This made the development of astrology more credible and exciting. The entire purpose of astronomical observations in that era was to more accurately aid in the predictions that the cosmos was thought to reveal to the magi. The belief that fate could be determined in advance of a future event by means of observing and interpreting the movement of the stars and planets was well accepted throughout the Roman Empire, except it was rejected by the Jews. Thus the highly educated people who were expert star gazers (the magi) were greatly prized and admired for their knowledge. Their wisdom was much sought out and believed. It was believed that the ability to understand the movement of the stars and planets was a gift from the gods to help mankind navigate the present and to prepare for the future.

Matthew Chapter 1 (Part Three)

Back to the Birth Story
Verse 18: Matthew, after explaining the genealogy jumps right back into the birth story of Jesus. Immediately, Matthew takes on perhaps the most controversial aspect of Jesus’ birth circumstances. Matthew explains that although Joseph and Mary were engaged, they were not married yet. Despite this, Mary had become pregnant. This was a terrible scandal.

Engagement vs. betrothal
The use of the word “engaged” in many translations would probably be better translated as betrothed. The word engaged in the modern Western world does not carry the same sense as the word betrothed in ancient times. Engaged is an arrangement whereby a man and a woman agree to at some point to become married. Engagements are broken all the time and other than the emotional toll it takes, little other harm is done. Betrothal is another matter altogether,

Betrothal in Hebrew culture was a solemn promise sealed with a commitment in which the male and female bound themselves together through a marriage contract that was signed and sealed at the moment of the betrothal. So the way we think of marriage in modern times in the West occurred at the time of betrothal among the Hebrews in ancient times.

In ancient Hebrew culture, “marriage’ was when the bride moved into the home of the groom and they consummated their union. It was common that after the father of the bide agreed to the formal marriage contract, the woman was now called “wife”. Even after this status change, she typically continued to live under her father’s roof for about another year. The union was considered to be so complete that if the betrothed husband were to die, the woman was considered a widow. The physical consummation was little more than a private ritual.

Since the woman was already legally a “wife”, then cheating during the betrothal was adultery and was not merely an indiscretion as it is treated today in the West. So, Mary being pregnant during the betrothal period (with Joseph knowing the child was not his) put Mary at risk for being executed. Typically, if there was sufficient evidence, a betrothed husband would give his wife a divorce document (known as a get) to end the betrothal.

It cannot be overstated how serious it would have been for a betrothed girl like Mary to become pregnant. Mary would have been in danger of being stoned to death if she was brought to court and found guilty of adultery.

Within a few centuries after Jesus’ death, the incidence of adultery during the betrothal period became so many that the betrothal and marriage ceremonies were combined so as to eliminate the typical one year period between the two.

Matthew states that Mary’s pregnancy was the work of the Holy Spirit. That is, it was miraculous. She had done nothing wrong. Matthew mentions that Joseph and Mary were not yet married. This stresses that although Joseph and Mary were betrothed, they were not living together and had not consummated the marriage.

During the first century Hebrew communities, there were few instances of a betrothed woman having relations with a man who was not here husband. It would have brought enormous shame upon the woman’s father and hiss household as well as the betrothed couple. The Jews reading reading Matthew’s account would have immediately understood how serious a crime it was for Mary to be pregnant by someone who was not her husband.

One other matter should be clarified.  y Jewish tradition, even though the unborn child is not Joseph’s, he is the legal father. Actual biological relationship is not required when the father of the family accepts a child as his own. So there is no conflict should Jesus be called the son of Joseph.

Verse 19: In verse 19, it says that when it was clear that Joseph’s betrothed was pregnant, Joseph made the decision to not pursue public action, but to put her away quietly. The reason Joseph did this was that he was a righteous and just man.

Very often when righteousness or being a just person is preached about, it is defined as being kind or merciful. Rather, for the Jews, being just or righteous means being law abiding. Law abiding means observing the Torah (or the first five books of the Bible).

According to the Torah, this is what is stated should happen to a woman and man who have an affair outside marriage.

Deuteronomy 22:23-24:
If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man comes upon her in the town and has sexual relations with her; you are to bring them both out to the gate of the city and stone them to death—the girl because she did not cry out for help, and the man because he ha humiliated his neighbor’s wife. In this way, you will put an end to such wickedness among you.

The public execution held at the city gate was to ring the maximum shame upon the criminals and their families. It is difficult to explain the extreme level of trouble this would bring to a family.

We must not think of shame as being ashamed or being embarrassed. Shame was (and remains to this day in the Middle East) a detested social status, not an emotion. Having gained such an undesirable stars, ridding oneself or one’s family of it was very difficult and it dominated that family’s daily life. Being shunned bu most of the community was but the beginning. Often the only way to atone for family shame and regain family honor was to take revenge on the individual or group of individuals who were deemed to have caused the trouble. This could go on for many generations.

Joseph decided to not accuse his betrothed or marital infidelity.This would avoid her being publicly shamed and Joseph himself also being shamed. Rather, Joseph would quietly give a letter of divorce to Mary’s father (as she was still living at home). This would end the betrothal and would resolve the issue discreetly and privately.

Joseph understood the spirit of the Torah. He knew that even in this circumstance he was to act in love and not in vengeance.

Verse 20: Joseph did not act impulsively. He thought about what he was going to do, and he was visited by an angel. The angel brought Joseph a message. In Jesus’ time, divine revelations given in dreams were well accepted and not particularly unusual. We read about them in the Books of Genesis and Daniel.

The angel tells Joseph not to interrupt the marital process> Mary is innocent. She has conceived a son by means of the Holy Spirit. That is, a divine miracle of God’s will has occurred. The messenger tells Joseph what this child will do and it will her reflected in the child’s name, Jesus, which means God saves.

Verse 22: In verse 22, it brings together all that Mary and Joseph were experiencing into a heavenly orientation as opposed to a human orientation. That is, despite the difficult circumstances that the couple were facing, there was a reason for it. God, though His prophets, prophesied that the Messiah would come into the world in just this way. In the Book of Isaiah we read:

Therefore the LORD Himself will give you people a sign: the young woman will conceive, bear a son and name him Immanuel [God with us]. (Isaiah 7:14)

Verse 22 directly connects the Old Testament to Mary’s pregnancy. Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection are foretold in the Old Testament. In the New testament, we have the record of hundreds of years of prophecies coming to fruition. The Old Testament is as much the foundation for the New Testament as the foundation of a building is laid so that something can be constructed upon it.

Looking at Isaiah’s prophecy. some English translations say that the “virgin” will conceive and bear a son. However, that is not in Isaiah’s prophecy. The Hebrew word is “almah”. It means a young, unmarried woman of good reputation. It inherently means a young, unmarried woman who is of child bearing age. In Hebrew society such a woman was supposed to remain in a virgin state, but not all did. The idea of virginity was in the background of the definition of “almah”. However, that is not the main point of the word itself. It is meant to convey youthfulness and the marriage eligibility of the woman. The Hebrew word for virgin is “bethulah”.

Verse 24 and 25: In verse 24 and 25, we are told that Joseph not only heard the words of his dream, but he also acted upon them. This is the very definition of the Hebrew concept of “shema”. It means to hear, listen and obey. This is different from the passive concept of listening in which no action is taken. Despite full knowledge by Joseph that this child was not of his seed, he fully accepted Jesus as his son.

In the end, Joseph did not give Mary a get (divorce). Rather, he probably hurried to complete the betrothal process by having her move in with him. Yet, the consummation of the union was postponed. This passage states that this did not have relations until after Mary’s divinely conceived child was born.

To summarize chapter one: Matthew’s purpose in writing this Gospel was to explain who Jesus was. He is the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham, brought into this world by an otherwise nondescript, unimportant girl. His unique conception was a direct work of the God of Israel. through Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, Jesus is legally connected to the throne of David. Through Jesus’ earthly mother, Mary, his origin is divine.

Matthew Chapter 1 (Part Two)

The Importance of the names
Matthew was a Jewish believer. His opening point is to demonstrate that Jesus meets all the requirements of the Old Testament to be the Messiah. According to Scripture, the true Messiah must be a descendant of Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Jessie and David.

The opening verse of Matthew is like a preamble which introduces the genealogy. Jesus’ identity is summed up as simply the son of David, son of Abraham. Only thereafter (starting in verse 2) does the actual generation by generation accounting of Jesus’ ancestors begin. By saying that Jesus is the son of David, the intent is to prove that He is royalty of the tribe of Judah through Davi, which makes Him of the proper family to rule. By saying also that He is the sons of Abraham, it makes a firm connection that He is a full-fledged Hebrew and is therefore eligible to bring about the promise God made to Abraham is Genesis 12 that through Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed.

We find Matthew beginning his table of ancestors with Abraham, the founder of the Hebrews. The list of Jesus’ ancestors is a descending list (oldest first) which begins with Father Abraham and ends with Jesus. The usual Hebrew way of presenting a genealogy is one which is organized in descending order. Genesis 4:17 begins the Bible’s first genealogy. It is given in descending order. The Hebrew tradition of presenting a genealogy beginning with the oldest seems to have been taken from that.

In Matthew’s Gospel, the ancestor list is divided into three equal parts of 14 generations each. Between Abraham and David, there are 14 generations. From David to the Babylonian Exile there are 14 generations. And from the Babylonian Exile to Jesus there are 14 more generations. This gives a total of 42 generations.

The structure Matthew used is meant to covey meaning to the Jewish people. There are missing ancestors and generations are skipped. As mentioned before, the purpose of Hebraic genealogies is not to create a family tree. Rather, the purpose of Jewish genealogies is to convey a meaning, agenda or pedigree.

In Hebrew, even letter of the alphabet is assigned a numerical value. For example, the first letter aleph is assigned the number one. The second letter bet is assigned the number 2. So the word av (spelled aleph-bet) is 1+2 which equals three. Av means father. It is one of God’s names. God is associated with the number 3.

In kabbalistic Judaism, God is represented as the number 42. Without going into all the details, any word in the Bible which equals the number 42 is associated with God. Moreover, the number 42 is often broken down into three sets of 14. This is precisely how Matthew has written his genealogy.

Additionally, David’s name in Hebrew is represented as the number 14. David’s name is dalet-vav-dalet. Dalet is the number 4; vav is the number 6. So David’s name (dalet-vav-dalet) would be 4+6+4 which equals 14. Again it seems Matthew is trying to convey to his reader’s Jesus’ association with David. Jesus is called the son of David throughout the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Messiah is referred to as the son of David.

A Jew in the first century would have known the significance of the numbers 3,14 and 42. Matthew’s genealogy would have been a powerful example of why Jesus is the Messiah.

The mention of four women in the genealogy
An interesting thing to to is the mention of four women in Mathew’s genealogy of Jesus. The inclusion of women in a Hebrew genealogy is rare. The four named are: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba (although Bathsheba is not directly mentioned; she is referred to as the wife of Uriah).

Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah (the founder of the tribe of Judah) who disguised herself as a prostitue and produced twins sons with him.

Rahab was the inn keeper/prostitute of Jericho. She betrayed her own people to help Israel and their leader Joshua conquer Jericho was they began their invasion of Canaan.

Ruth was from Moab. She married a Israelite, but he died. She followed her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel. Ruth met a relative called Boaz. Boaz marries Ruth. They have a son called Obed. Ruth’s great-grandson is King David.

Bathsheba was the woman with whom King David had an affair. King David had her husband Uriah killed so that King David could have Bathsheba as his wife. King David and Bathsheba have Solomon who becomes King David’s successor.

We do not know Bathsheba’s background, the other three woman all began their lives as gentiles. Tamar, Rahab and Ruth all join themselves to Israel and covert to Judaism. It is likely Bathsheba was also a foreigner as her husband Uriah was a Hittite.

Assuming Matthew’s genealogy is based on gematria (the numbers assigned to each letter in the Hebrew alphabet, we should assume that since there are four women included there must be a meaning to the number four.

The number four means universality. It means the whole world. We can see this represented in our own culture since there are four directions—north, south, east and west. Most chairs have four legs. Many common household items such as sheets, blankets and towels have four corners. Standard paper has four corners.

The message seems to be that although Jesus was thoroughly Jewish, of the royal line of David and was born from a Jewish woman in the Holy Land, in his family lineage there are traces of gentile connection that cannot be ignored.

After a long list of Jesus’ ancestors, verse 16 says: “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary from whom was born the Jesus who was called the Messiah.”

Matthew is careful to make Joseph Mary’s husband but NOT the biological father of the child. At the same time, he makes Mary Jesus’ biological mother. Matthew is also specific in placing the word “the” in front of Jesus’ name. Jesus was one of the most popular male names in the Holy Land during that ear. It was necessary for Matthew to be clear about which one of the many hundreds if not thousands of Jesus he was referring to.