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Mt 1:25 Lu 2:4-7

Verse 1. Bethlehem of Judea] This city is mentioned in Judg. xvii. 7, and must be distinguished from another of the same name in the tribe of Zebulon, Josh. xix. 15. It is likewise called Ephrath, Gen. xlviii. 7, or Ephratah, Micah v. 2, and its inhabitants Ephrathites, Ruth i. 2; 1 Sam. xvii. 12. It is situated on the declivity of a hill, about six miles from Jerusalem. �jl tyb Beth-lechem, in Hebrew, signifies the house of bread.

And the name may be considered as very properly applied to that place where Jesus, the Messiah, the true bread that came down from heaven, was manifested, to give life to the world. But �jl lehem also signifies flesh, and is applied to that part of the sacrifice which was burnt upon the altar. See Lev. iii. 11-16; xxi. 6. The word is also used to signify a carcass, Zeph. i. 17. The Arabic version has Beet lehem, and the Persic Beet allehem: but lehem, in Arabic, never signifies bread, but always means flesh. Hence it is more proper to consider the name as signifying the house of flesh, or, as some might suppose, the house of the incarnation, i.e. the place where God was manifested in the flesh for the salvation of a lost world.

In the days of Herod the king] This was HEROD, improperly denominated the GREAT, the son of Antipater, an Idumean: he reigned 37 years in Judea, reckoning from the-time he was created-king of that country by the Romans. Our blessed Lord was born in the last year of his reign; and, at this time, the scepter had literally departed from Judah, a foreigner being now upon the throne.

As there are several princes of this name mentioned in the New Testament, it may be well to give a list of them here, together with their genealogy.

Herod, the Great, married ten wives, by whom he had several children, Euseb. l. i. c. 9. p. 27. The first was Doris, thought to be an Idumean, whom he married when but a private individual; by her he had Antipater, the eldest of all his sons, whom he caused to be executed five days before his own death.

His second wife was Mariamne, daughter to Hircanus, the sole surviving person of the Asmonean, or Maccabean, race. Herod put her to death. She was the mother of Alexander and Aristobulus, whom Herod had executed at Sebastia, (Joseph. Antiq. l. xvi. c. 13.-Deuteronomy Bello, l. i. c. 17,) on an accusation of having entered into a conspiracy against him. Aristobulus left three children, whom I shall notice hereafter.

His third wife was Mariamne, the daughter of Simon, a person of some note in Jerusalem, whom Herod made high priest, in order to obtain his daughter. She was the mother of Herod Philippus, or Herod Philip, and Salome. Herod or Philip married Herodias, mother to Salome, the famous dancer, who demanded the head of John the Baptist, Mark vi. 22. Salome had been placed, in the will of Herod the Great, as second heir after Antipater; but her name was erased, when it was discovered that Mariamne, her mother, was an accomplice in the crimes of Antipater, son of Herod the Great. Joseph de Bello, lib. i. c. 18,19,20.

His fourth wife was Malthake, a Samaritan, whose sons were Archelaus and Philip. The first enjoyed half his father's kingdom under the name of tetrarch, viz. Idumea, Judea, and Samaria: Joseph. Antiq. l. xvii. c. 11. He reigned nine years; but, being accused and arraigned before the Emperor Augustus, he was banished to Vienna, where he died: Joseph. Antiq. l. xvii.

c. 15. This is the Archelaus mentioned in ver. 22.

His brother Philip married Salome, the famous dancer, the daughter of Herodias; he died without children, and she was afterwards married to Aristobulus.

The fifth wife of Herod the Great was Cleopatra of Jerusalem. She was the mother of Herod surnamed Antipas, who married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, while he was still living. Being reproved for this act by John the Baptist, chap. xiv. 3; Mark vi. 17; Luke iii. 19, and having imprisoned this holy man, he caused him to be beheaded, agreeable to the promise he had rashly made to the daughter of his wife Herodias, who had pleased him with her dancing. He attempted to seize the person of Jesus Christ, and to put him to death. It was to this prince that Pilate sent our Lord, Luke xiii. 31, 32. He was banished to Lyons, and then to Spain, where both he and his wife Herodias died. Joseph. Antiq. l. xv. c.

14.-Deuteronomy Bello, l. ii. c. 8.

The sixth wife of Herod the Great was Pallas, by whom he had Phasaelus: his history is no ways connected with the New Testament.

The seventh was named Phoedra, the mother of Roxana, who married the son of Pheroras.

The eighth was Elpida, mother of Salome, who married another son of Pheroras.

With the names of two other wives of Herod we are not acquainted; but they are not connected with our history, any more than are Pallas, Phoedra, and Elpida, whose names I merely notice to avoid the accusation of inaccuracy.

ARISTOBULUS, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne, a descendant of the Asmoneans, left two sons and a daughter, viz. Agrippa, Herod, and Herodias, so famous for her incestuous marriage with Antipas, in the life-time of his brother Philip.

AGRIPPA, otherwise named Herod, who was imprisoned by Tiberius for something he had inconsiderately said against him, was released from prison by Caligula, who made him king of Judea: Joseph. Antiq. l. xviii. c.

8. It was this prince who put St. James to death, and imprisoned Peter, as mentioned in xii. of Acts. He died at Caesarea, in the way mentioned in the Acts, as well as by Josephus, Antiq. l. xix. c. 7. He left a son named Agrippa, who is mentioned below.

HEROD, the second son of Aristobulus, was king of Chalcis, and, after the death of his brother, obtained permission of the emperor to keep the ornaments belonging to the high priest, and to nominate whom he pleased to that office: Joseph. Antiq. l. xx. c. 1. He had a son named Aristobulus, to whom Nero gave Armenia the lesser, and who married Salome, the famous dancer, daughter to Herodias.

AGRIPPA, son of Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, and grandson to Aristobulus and Mariamne; he was at first king of Chalcis, and afterwards tetrarch of Galilee, in the room of his uncle Philip: Joseph. Antiq. l. xx. c.

5. It was before him, his sister Berenice, and Felix, who had married Drusilla, Agrippa's second daughter, that St. Paul pleaded his cause, as mentioned Acts 26.

HERODIAS, the daughter of Mariamne and Aristobulus, is the person of whom we have already spoken, who married successively the two brothers Philip and Antipas, her uncles, and who occasioned the death of John the Baptist. By her first husband she had Salome, the dancer, who was married to Philip, tetrarch of the Trachonitis, the son of Herod the Great. Salome having had no children by him, she was married to Aristobulus, her cousin-german, son of Herod, king of Chalcis, and brother to Agrippa and Herodias: she had by this husband several children.

This is nearly all that is necessary to be known relative to the race of the Herods, in order to distinguish the particular persons of this family mentioned in the New Testament. See Basnage, Calmet, and Josephus.

There came wise men from the east] Or, Magi came from the eastern countries. "The Jews believed that there were prophets in the kingdom of Saba and Arabia, who were of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah; and that they taught in the name of God, what they had received in tradition from the mouth of Abraham."-WHITBY. That many Jews were mixed with this people there is little doubt; and that these eastern magi, or philosophers, astrologers, or whatever else they were, might have been originally of that class, there is room to believe. These, knowing the promise of the Messiah, were now, probably, like other believing Jews, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Persic translator renders the Greek magoi by mejooseean, which properly signifies a worshipper of fire; and from which we have our word magician. It is very probable that the ancient Persians, who were considered as worshippers of fire, only honoured it as the symbolical representation of the Deity; and, seeing this unusual appearance, might consider it as a sign that the God they worshipped was about to manifest himself among men. Therefore they say, We have seen his star-and are come to worship him; but it is most likely that the Greeks made their magoi magi, which we translate wise men, from the Persian mogh, and moghan, which the Kushuf ul Loghat, a very eminent Persian lexicon, explains by atush perest, a worshipper of fire; which the Persians suppose all the inhabitants of Ur in Chaldea were, among whom the Prophet Abraham was brought up. The Mohammedans apply this title by way of derision to Christian monks in their associate capacity; and by a yet stronger catachresis, they apply it to a tavern, and the people that frequent it. Also, to ridicule in the most forcible manner the Christian priesthood, they call the tavern-keeper , peeri Mughan, the priest, or chief of the idolaters. It is very probable that the persons mentioned by the evangelist were a sort of astrologers, probably of Jewish extraction, that they lived in Arabia-Felix, and, for the reasons above given, came to worship their new-born sovereign. It is worthy of remark, that the Anglo-saxon translates the word magoi by , which signifies astrologers, from a star or planet, and , to know or understand.

Ver. 1. Now when Jesus was born , etc.] Several things are here related respecting the birth of Christ, as the place where he was born, in Bethlehem of Judea ; so called to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in the tribe of Zabulon, ( Joshua 19:15). Here Christ was to be born according to a prophecy hereafter mentioned, and accordingly the Jews expected he would be born here, ( Matthew 2:4-6 John 7:41,42) and so Jesus was born here, ( Luke 2:4-7) and this the Jews themselves acknowledge; �Such a year, says a noted chronologer of theirs, Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem Juda, which is a �parsa� and a half, i.e. six miles, from Jerusalem.�

Benjamin Tudelensis says it is two parsas, i.e. eight miles, from it; and according to Justin Martyr it was thirty five furlongs distant from it. Yea even they own this, that Jesus was born there, in that vile and blasphemous book of theirs, written on purpose to defame him; nay, even the ancient Jews have owned that the Messiah is already born, and that he was born at Bethlehem; as appears from their Talmud f63 , where we meet with such a passage. �It happened to a certain Jew, that as he was ploughing, one of his oxen bellowed; a certain Arabian passed by and heard it, who said, O Jew, Jew, loose thy oxen, and loose thy ploughshare, for lo, the house of the sanctuary is destroyed: it bellowed a second time; he said unto him, O Jew, Jew, bind thy oxen, and bind thy ploughshare, for lo ajy�m aklm dyly �the king Messiah is born�. He said to him, what is his name? Menachem (the comforter); he asked again, what is his father�s name? Hezekiah; once more he says, from whence is he? He replies hdwhy �jltyb aklm tryb �m �from the palace of the king of Bethlehem Judah�; he went and sold his oxen and his ploughshares, and became a seller of swaddling clothes for infants; and he went from city to city till he came to that city, (Bethlehem,) and all the women bought of him, but the mother of Menachem bought nothing.�

Afterwards they tell you, he was snatched away by winds and tempests.

This story is told in much the same manner in another of their writings.

Bethlehem signifies �the house of bread�, and in it was born, as an ancient writer observes, the bread which comes down from heaven: and it may also signify �the house of flesh�, and to it the allusion may be in ( Timothy 3:16) �God manifest in the flesh�. The time of Christ�s birth is here expressed, in the days of Herod the king . This was Herod the great, the first of that name: the Jewish chronologer gives an account of him in the following manner. �Herod the first, called Herod the Ascalonite, was the son of Antipater, a friend of king Hyrcanus and his deputy; him the senate of Rome made king in the room of Hyrcanus his master. This Herod whilst he was a servant of king Hyrcanus (so in the f67 Talmud Herod is said to be anwm�j tybd adb[ a servant of the family of the Asmonaeans) king Hyrcanus saved from death, to which he was sentenced by the sanhedrim of Shammai; that they might not slay him for the murder of one Hezekiah, as is related by Josephus, l. 6. c. 44. and Herod took to him for wife Miriam, the daughter of Alexander the son of Aristobulus, who was the daughter�s daughter of king Hyrcanus.�

This writer tacitly owns afterwards that Jesus was born in the days of this king; for he says, that in the days of Hillell and Shammai (who lived in those times) there was one of their disciples, who was called R. Joshua ben Perachiah, and he was, adds he, yrxwnh wbr �the master of the Nazarene�, or of Jesus of Nazareth. Herod reigned, as this same author observes, thirty seven years; and according to Dr. Lightfoot�s calculation, Christ was born in the thirty fifth year of his reign, and in the thirty first of Augustus Caesar, and in the year of the world three thousand nine hundred and twenty eight, and the month Tisri, which answers to part of our September, about the feast of tabernacles; which indeed was typical of Christ�s incarnation, and then it may reasonably be thought that �the word was made flesh�, and eskhnwsen �tabernacled among us�, ( John 1:14). Another circumstance relating to the birth of Christ is, that when Jesus was born � behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem ; these wise men in the Greek text are called magoi , �Magi�, a word which is always used in a bad sense in the sacred writings; hence they are thought by some to be magicians, sorcerers, wizards, such as Simon Magus, ( Acts 8:9) and Elymas, ( Acts 13:8) and so the Jewish writers interpret the word �wgm a wizard, an enchanter, a blasphemer of God, and one that entices others to idolatry; and in the Hebrew Gospel of Munster these men are called �yp�km �wizards�. Some have thought this to be their national name. Epiphanius supposes that these men were of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, who inhabited a country in some part of Arabia, called Magodia: but could this be thought to be the name of their country, one might rather be induced to suppose that they were of the magoi , �Magi�, a nation of the Medes mentioned by Herodotus f71 ; since both the name and country better agree with these persons; but the word seems to be rather a name of character and office, and to design the wise men, and priests of the Persians. An Eastern writer says the word is of Persic original, and is compounded of two words, �Mije Gush�, which signifies �a man with short ears�; for such was the first founder of the sect, and from whom they were so called. But in the Arabic Persic Nomenclator it is rendered �a worshipper of fire�, and such the Persian priests were; and to this agrees what Apuleius says, that �Magus�, in the Persian language, is the same as �priest� with us: and Xenophon says, that the Magi were first appointed by Cyrus, to sing hymns to the gods, as soon as it was day, and to sacrifice to them. The account given of them by Porphyry is, that �among the Persians they that were wise concerning God, and worshipped him, were called magoi , �Magi�, for so �Magus� signifies in their country dialect; and so august and venerable were this sort of men accounted with the Persians, that Darius, the son of Hystaspis, ordered this, among other things, to be inscribed on his monument, that he was the master of the Magi.�

From whence we may learn in some measure who these men were, and why the word is by our translators rendered �wise men�; since the Magi, as Cicero says, were reckoned a sort of wise men, and doctors among the Persians: who further observes, that no man could be a king of the Persians before he understood the discipline and knowledge of the Magi: and the wisdom of the Persian Magi, as Aelianus writes, among other things, lay in foretelling things to come. These came from the east , not from Chaldea, as some have thought, led hereunto by the multitude of astrologers, magicians, and soothsayers, which were among that people; (see Daniel 2:2,10,27 4:7) for Chaldea was not east, but north of Judea, as appears from ( Jeremiah 1:14,15; Jeremiah 4:6) ( Jeremiah 6:22 Jeremiah 10:22 Jeremiah 25:9). Others have thought they came from Arabia, and particularly Sheba, induced hereunto by ( Psalm 72:10,15). But though some part of Arabia lay east, yet Sheba was south of the land of Israel, as is evident from the queen of that place being called the �queen of the south�, ( Matthew 12:42). The more generally received opinion seems to be most right, that they came from Persia, which as it lies east of Judea, so was famous for this sort of men, and besides the name, as has been seen, is of Persic original. The place whither they came was Jerusalem, the �metropolis� of Judea, where they might suppose the king of the Jews was born, or where, at least, they might persuade themselves they should hear of him; since here Herod the king lived, to whom it seems they applied themselves in the first place. The time of their coming was, �when Jesus was born�; not as soon as he was born, or on the �thirteenth� day after his birth, the sixth of January, as it stands in our Calendar; or within the forty days before Mary�s Purification; since this space of time does not seem to be sufficient for so long a journey, and which must require a considerable preparation for it; nor is it probable if they came so soon as this, that after such a stir at Jerusalem, after Herod�s diligent search and inquiry concerning this matter, and his wrath and anger at being disappointed and deluded by the wise men, that Joseph and Mary should so soon bring the child into the temple, where, it was declared to be the Messiah by Simeon and Anna. Besides, immediately after the departure of the wise men, Joseph with his wife and child were ordered into Egypt, which could not be done before Mary�s Purification.

But rather this their coming was near upon two years after the birth of Christ; since it is afterwards observed, that �Herod sent and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men�, ( Matthew 2:16). This was the opinion of Epiphanius formerly, and is embraced by Dr. Lightfoot f80 , to whom I refer the reader for further proof of this matter.

{Wise men from the east} (magoi apo anatolwn). The etymology of Magi is quite uncertain. It may come from the same Indo-European root as _(megas) magnus_, though some find it of Babylonian origin. Herodotus speaks of a tribe of Magi among the Medians. Among the Persians there was a priestly caste of Magi like the Chaldeans in Babylon (#Da 1:4). Daniel was head of such an order (#Da 2:48). It is the same word as our "magician" and it sometimes carried that idea as in the case of Simon magus (#Ac 8:9,11) and of Elymas Barjesus (#Ac 13:6,8). But here in Matthew the idea seems to be rather that of astrologers. Babylon was the home of astrology, but we only know that the men were from the east whether Arabia, Babylon, Persia, or elsewhere. The notion that they were kings arose from an interpretation of #Is 60:3; Re 21:24. The idea that they were three in number is due to the mention of three kinds of gifts (gold, frankincense, myrrh), but that is no proof at all. Legend has added to the story that the names were Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior as in _Ben Hur_ and also that they represent Shem, Ham, and Japhet. A casket in the Cologne Cathedral actually is supposed to contain the skulls of these three Magi. The word for east (apo anatol"n) means "from the risings" of the sun.