THE ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH
PART VI
THE PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN HIS FATHER'S HOUSE
and
THE GENTILES SEEK THE CHRIST-CHILD
So let his corporal birth be our spiritual birth, that
is, the beginning of our conversion. Let his persecution, that which he
suffered from Herod, be to us a sign of the temptation we suffer from the devil
in the beginning of our conversion. Let his growing up in Nazareth express our
advancement in perfection.
St. Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)
+ + +
Luke 2:22-24 ~ Joseph and Mary bring baby Jesus to the Jerusalem Temple
22 When the days were
completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him
up to Jerusalem to represent him to the Lord, 23 just as it is written in the
law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the
Lord," 24 and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young
pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. 25 Now there
was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and
devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26
It had been revealed to him that he should not see death before he had seen the
Messiah of the Lord. 27 He came in the Spirit into the Temple; and when the
parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard
to him, 28 he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: 29 "Now, Master,
you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, 30 for my eyes
have seen your salvation, 31 which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, 32
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." 33 The
child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; 34 and Simeon
blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for
the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted
35 and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may
be revealed." 36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of
the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with
her husband after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow until she was
eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshiped night and day with
fasting and prayer. 38 And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to
God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of
Jerusalem. 39 When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the
Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew
and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him.
After Jesus's birth, it was necessary for the Holy Family to remain in Bethlehem. They would not have considered leaving Bethlehem until after Jesus's presentation in the Temple, forty days after His birth. Joseph may have decided to relocate to Bethlehem to raise the Messiah in King David's ancestral home. Scripture tells us that they were still living in Bethlehem when the Gentile Magi arrived about a year or more after Jesus's birth.
The passage in Luke 2:22-24 refers to the rites of purification after childbirth under the Sinai Covenant stipulated in Leviticus 12:1-8. It is followed by quotes from two commands of Mosaic Law. The first is a quote from the Book of Exodus: Consecrate to me every firstborn that opens the womb among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to me (Exodus 13:2). The second is from Leviticus 12:8, which concerns one of the required sacrifices a mother of a newly born child must offer to God when she went to the Jerusalem Temple for her purification ceremony: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
Question 1: What were the requirements under Mosaic Law for the mother of a newborn child? See Leviticus 12:1-8. The answers to all questions are at the end of the lesson.
After completing the days of purification, the mother was to present herself at the Temple. At that time, she was to offer a female lamb or goat kid (Leviticus 5:1-7) as a sin sacrifice. If she could not afford an animal for the sacrifice, she could offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a whole burnt offering (consumed entirely on the altar fire) and the other for a sin sacrifice, which was eaten in a sacred meal by the priest (Leviticus 6:17-23).1
Question 2: What does the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons reveal about Joseph's economic status? See Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8. Please quote the significant verse on the sacrifice Joseph and Mary offered.
When Mary arrived at the Temple, she would have ritually immersed in the Temple mikveh (ritual holy water pool) before entering the Temple to make her sacrifice. Everyone who entered the Temple's inner courtyard had to immerse ritually, even the priests (Mishnah: Yoma, 3:3 ~ A person does not enter the courtyard for the service, even if he is clean, unless he immerses).
Question 3: What was the other requirement for redeeming Jesus as a firstborn son? See Exodus 13:13-15 and Numbers 18:15-16.
In obedience to the commands and obligations of the Sinai Covenant, Joseph and Mary presented Mary's firstborn son to Yahweh in the holy house of the Lord—the Jerusalem Temple, the "house" of Jesus's true Father (Luke 2:49). In the redemption of the firstborn, every generation of Israel relived the Exodus themes of redemption and judgment (Exodus 13:11-16). Every firstborn from the womb, whether animal or human, belonged to God. The firstborn "clean" animals could be eaten. Of the "clean" animals, only cattle, sheep, goats, or turtledoves and pigeons (the poor man's sacrifice) were fit for sacrifice; only these animals could be offered on God's holy altar of sacrifice (Deuteronomy 15:19-20). The "unclean" animals, like the donkey (Leviticus 13:13; 27:26-27; 34:20; Numbers 18:15), had to be "redeemed" by being replaced by a lamb or a kid, or it had to be killed. All firstborn clean animals and the redemption tax for firstborn children went to support the priests (Numbers 18:15-18).
The obligation of redeeming the firstborn was to remind Israel of the firstborn of Israel, redeemed in the event of the tenth plague during Egypt's night of judgment. But the offering of the firstborn also reminded Israel of God's judgment in the sin of the Golden Calf. Before the sin of the Golden Calf, every firstborn son was dedicated to Yahweh for a lifetime of service. Instead of being the head of his natural family, the firstborn sons were consecrated to God's spiritual family as the older brothers. This command made Israel a "nation of priests" (Exodus 19:6). The sons of Aaron were to function as the ministerial chief priests (Exodus 28:1), while the firstborn sons were to serve as the lesser ministers (similar to deacons).
However, in the rebellion of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32), the first generation of redeemed firstborn sons sanctified the night of the last plague when they were saved from death under the sign of the blood of the sacrificed lambs and kids (Exodus 12:3-14; 21-23), did not rally to Moses. Instead, Moses's tribe, the Levites, put down the rebellion. The apostasy of Israel and the fall from grace of the firstborn sons resulted in God's judgment on the Exodus generation. In God's judgment concerning Israel's sin of rebellion in the incident of Golden calf worship, the firstborn sons were dispossessed of their firstborn ministerial status. Their positions as Yahweh's lesser ministers were given to the other clans of the Levites. The Levites were to serve their brothers, the chief priests, who were the descendants of Aaron in place of the "firstborn sons" of Israel (Exodus 32:28-29; Numbers 3:11-13; 18:5-7).2
The redemption rite also reminded every family who redeemed a firstborn son that the fall from grace of the first Exodus generation of firstborn sons caused their sons to be dispossessed of their rightful place in Yahweh's service. It was ironic that the family's redemption tax that should have gone to the support of their sons as God's ministers went to the support of the Levitical ministers instead (Leviticus 18:20-24; Deuteronomy 14:22). This was the redemption tax and sacrifice that Joseph and Mary were obliged to offer Yahweh at the Jerusalem Temple.3
Luke 2:25-26 ~ Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was
Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him that he should
not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord.
The term "the Christ" (Christos)
is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word for "the Anointed One" = the
Messiah.
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
Under the Sinai Covenant, the
Holy Spirit usually did not fill and indwell the faithful believer. Instead,
God's Spirit "rested upon" the righteous or "came over" those God wanted to
move by the power of His Spirit
(Numbers 11:25-26, 29; 24:2; and 1 Samuel 10:10.
In contrast to
John 14:17; Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 3:16; and 2 Timothy 1:14).
The exceptions are Bezalel the craftsman who executed the metal work, the
cutting of the precious stones, and woodwork for the desert Sanctuary
(Exodus 35:30-33) and Joshua, Moses's successor (Numbers 27:18).
Question 4: Scripture says that Simeon looked forward to "the restoration of Israel." What exactly does this mean? See Isaiah 7:14; 11:6-9; Jeremiah 23:5-8; Ezekiel 34:23-24; 37:15-28.
A civil war after the death of King Solomon divided Israel into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam, a prince of the tribe of Ephraim, led the revolt against the House of David. Jeroboam of Ephraim became King Jeroboam I, ruled over the ten Northern tribes, and expelled the priests and Levites from his kingdom. He reintroduced the worship of the Golden Calf, leading the Israelites into idol worship. In opposition to the Jerusalem Temple, which God designated as the one site of legitimate worship (1 Kings 11:36), Jeroboam set up his own sites of idol worship (1 Kings 12:26-31). As a result of Israel's apostasy, God withdrew His hand of protection. The Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 BC; 2 Kings 17:1-24). The Assyrians depopulated the Northern Kingdom, disbursing ten of the original twelve tribes of Israel into the Gentile world, from which most of the ten tribes never returned to their ancestral lands.
In the 6th century BC, the prophet Ezekiel prophesized that the day was coming when God would restore the lost ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, reuniting them with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin as one people to be ruled by a Davidic Messiah who would be the king of the restored Kingdom (Ezekiel 37:25-28). He was the Davidic ruler for whom Simeon waited because the Lord had promised him he would not die until he had seen the Messiah (see 1 Kings 11:26; 12:20-33; 2 Chronicles 9:30-10:19; 11:13-17; 2 Kings 17:5-18).
Question 5: How did Jesus of Nazareth accomplish this promised restoration of the ten lost tribes scattered into the Gentile world for over 500 years to reunite them with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin as one holy people of the New Covenant Kingdom of Christ Jesus? How did Isaiah's final prophecy of restoration reach fulfillment in Jesus and His Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the universal Church (see Isaiah 66:18-24; Ezekiel 36:19-27 and Jeremiah 31:31-34)?
The Jewish emissaries of the new, restored Israel were sent into the Gentile world as priests and deacons to lead the nations of the world to salvation (Isaiah 66:21; Matthew 4:17; 28:19-20; Acts 1:6). The covenant blessing of this new creation in Christ was eternal life for those who accepted Jesus's gift of conversion, restoration, and salvation. But just as blessings became eternal in the New Covenant, so were judgments. Eternal separation from God was the judgment for those who, of their own free will, rejected Christ and His gift. Jesus's First Advent (coming) was the first stage of the universal restoration. There would be a final universal restoration when Jesus came again in His Second Advent (Acts 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17), immediately followed by the resurrection of the dead and the Final Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). The final prophecy of Isaiah addressed the establishment of the Universal Church and both stages of the Messiah's universal restoration.
Luke 2:27-32 ~ He came in the Spirit into the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, 28 he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: 29 "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."
Question 6: How did Simeon happen to be at the Temple when Joseph and Mary brought the Christ-child there?
Simeon's rendezvous with the Messiah was the climax of the old man's faith journey. Simeon's canticle of praise to God in verses 29-32 is known by its Latin name from the first two words of Simeon's hymn: the Nunc Dimittis, "Now Master." The hymn is in two parts. The first part of the addresses Simeon's approaching death. Having been told that he would live until he had seen the Messiah, Simeon recognized that the prophecy was fulfilled as he declared Jesus the promised Redeemer-Messiah. In the second part, Simeon addressed the promise of glory for Israel and all nations as he proclaimed a message of universal salvation. Calling out to God and using the prophetic language of Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6 from the "Song of the Servant" passages of Isaiah, Simeon identified the child Jesus as "your salvation." This declaration may also suggest a wordplay on Jesus's name in Hebrew: "Yahweh is salvation." He announces the promised gift of God's salvation through His Messiah is offered to all men and women, including the Gentiles who see the revelation of God in the light of the Messiah and the glory for Israel as she fulfills her mission as God's holy nation of emissaries (apostles) to the peoples of the world. It is as Jesus told the Samaritan woman: "... salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22).
Luke 2:33-35 ~ The child's father and mother were amazed at what
was said about him; 34 and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to
be a sign that will be contradicted 35 and you yourself a sword will pierce so
that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
In Simeon's prophecy for Mary
in verse 35: "and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of
many hearts may be revealed," Simeon is not referring to a literal "sword."
Swords pierce bodies; they do not pierce
"souls" (psyche in Greek). Simeon's prophecy about Mary is related to
his words concerning the fall and rise of many in Israel in verse 34.
It is an ominous prophecy because the "fall" comes before the "rise." Simeon's
prophecy foreshadows the Passion of Christ and Mary's suffering at the foot of His
Cross.
Question 7: What was Simeon's prophecy concerning Jesus? Concerning Mary? What is the connection to Matthew 10:34-36?
The child would create opposition to His message, and people would become divided over their response to Him. Simeon announced the rejection of the Messiah by His own people. Mary also used the "rising" and "falling" imagery in reverse in the Magnificat when she spoke of God lifting up the lowly and throwing down the rulers from their thrones (verse 52). Jesus would speak of the division over His mission when He said that He did not come to bring peace but division; there can be no middle ground in response to His message (see Matthew 10:34-36 and Luke 12:51-53).
Question 8: Why was Mary to suffer from Jesus's mission to redeem her people? Hint: God's plan for salvation history is carried forth and preserved by the "faithful remnant" of Israel, and Mary is the living image of "daughter Zion" spoken of by the prophets (Micah 4:10; Zechariah 2:10; 9:9, 13; etc.). See John 19:25; CCC# 618; 964.
Simeon's prophecy that "a sword" will pierce Mary's soul is an allusion to the shadow of the Cross. Simeon's prophecy may be a reference to either Ezekiel 14:12-20 and the prophecy of God's judgment on a faithless and sinful covenant people or perhaps Zechariah 12:9-13:1 which prophesizes the mourning over the "piercing" of the Messiah whose death opens a fountain of salvation to wash away sins and impurity—or perhaps it is an allusion to both passages. Simeon's prophesy is that Mary will share in her Son's suffering. The Cross is Jesus' unique sacrifice and is a sacrifice He asks all His disciples to embrace as His partners in the plan of redemption (see Matthew 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21; Luke 9:23; 14:27). The Catechism teaches: "... Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering" (CCC 618). As the embodiment of the "daughter of Zion," Mary will live out the sorrow of her people in their struggle to come to terms with Jesus' mission.
Luke 2:36-38 ~ There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. 38 And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
Much revealed about Anna in this passage may be only symbolic or symbolic as well as literal. Anna was a prophetess, meaning God spoke through her, and she was a devout older woman who fasted and prayed in the Temple continually. Her name is "Anna" in Greek, but her Hebrew name is "Hannah," the same name as the mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1:1-2:11). It is a name derived from the Hebrew root hnn, which means "grace" or "favor" (see Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, and The Anchor Bible: The Gospel of Luke, page 430)
The Scripture passage provides much information about Anna:
Only ten prophetesses are mentioned in Scripture: Miriam, sister of Moses (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14), Isaiah's wife (Isaiah 8:3), Anna (Luke 2:36), and St. Philip's four daughters (Acts 21:9).
Anna's tribe, Asher, was one of the northern tribes exiled into the Gentile world in 722 BC, never to return to its ancestral lands. The tribe's ancestorial father was Asher, the eighth son of Jacob/Israel, and his wife Leah's slave girl Zilpah. When Asher was born, Leah made a word play on the meaning of the child's name: Then Leah said, "What blessedness! Women will call me blessed!" So she named him Asher (Gen 30:13 NJB). In Hebrew, asher is a prime root, meaning, as Leah used the word, "to be blessed." Anna was "blessed" as one of the few remaining members of this tribe still living in the Holy Land and remaining faithful to the Sinai Covenant.
The climax of the passage is in verse 38 when the Holy Spirit reveals to Anna that the child she saw that morning in the Temple was the promised Messiah. Seeing Jesus was a visible "sign" for her of the redemption and deliverance of her people. For her, the revelation would have recalled the promise of the prophet Ezekiel that when the Davidic Messiah came, all Israel (expressed as "Ephraim" and "Judah" = northern and southern tribes) would be gathered from the Gentile lands into which they had been scattered (Ezekiel 37:15-28), and Israel would be restored and redeemed!
Question 9: Did Anna keep this revelation to herself? What is the obligation of New Covenant believers concerning God's revelation of salvation through His Son? See Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 4:11-12.
GENTILES SEEK THE MESSIAH
Let us remain in adoration; and to him, who, in order
to save us, humbled himself to such a degree of poverty as to receive our body,
let us offer not only incense, gold and myrrh (the first as God, the second as king,
and the third as one who sought death for our sake), but also spiritual gifts,
more sublime than those which can be seen with the eyes.
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio, 19
I am coming to gather every nation and every language.
They will come to witness my glory. I shall give them a sign ....
Isaiah 66:19-20a NJB
I see him but not in the present. I perceive him but
not close at hand: a star is emerging from Jacob; a scepter is rising from
Israel ....
Numbers 24:17 NJB
Matthew 2:1-12 ~ Gentiles Came
Seeking the Christ-Child
1 When Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east
arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw
his star at its rising and have come to do him homage." 3 When King Herod
heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Assembling
all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them, where
the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for
thus it has been written through the prophet: 6 'And you, Bethlehem, land of
Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall
come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 7 Then Herod called the
magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. 8 He
sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When
you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage." 9 After
their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had
seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place
where the child was. 10 They were overjoyed at seeing the star, 11 and on
entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated
themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him
gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream
not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
This part of St. Matthew's narrative in verses 1-23 contains Old Testament prophecy. First, there is the allusion to the prophecy of the star that was a sign of the future king of Israel in Numbers 24:17 (Matthew 2:6). Then there are three additional quotations from Malachi 5:1 (Matthew 2:6), from Exodus 4:23, which is related to Numbers 23:22a and Hosea 11:1 (Matthew 2:15), and Jeremiah 31:15 (Matthew 2:18). Finally, there is a mysterious fourth quote for which no single Old Testament prophecy appears in Matthew 2:23.
The "wise men" from the East, who came looking for the Messiah, are identified in the Greek text as Magoi ("Magi" in English). There are three elements in St. Matthew's narrative about the Magi that point to a historical account:
Magi were scholars who studied astronomy. When Jesus was born, Babylon in northern Mesopotamia was a Parthian royal city and continued to enjoy the distinction of being one of the ancient world's most important centers of astronomical and astrological knowledge. Still, the Magi were also in other royal cities, possibly Petra, the capital city of the Nabateans, east of Jerusalem. It is curious that Scripture records the Magi coming from the East, not the North. Some scholars think they came from Petra and not Babylon.
From the beginning of the pursuit of the study of the cosmos in the early second millennium BC, astronomy was linked to astrology and divination. Royal courts in the ancient world employed astronomers/astrologers to interpret the king's dreams and the significance of celestial events, which were viewed as signs from the gods (see Daniel 2:1-2). A lunar eclipse, for example, was often interpreted as a sign that a king would die (Jewish historian Flavius Josephus links an eclipse of the moon to Herod the Great's death.5 The work of these ancient astronomers was limited to what they could see (the telescope was not invented until the early 17th century). For the ancients, the study of the star constellations and the stars that traveled in erratic paths (which they called planetes, meaning the "wanderers" or the "nomads," but which we recognize as planets) was limited to observations by the naked eye. Therefore, the only "wanderers" the ancient astronomers could observe were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.
The Magi who made this momentous journey to Jerusalem were from the region that had become part of the Empire of the Greeks after the 4th century BC conquests of Alexander the Great. They were probably familiar with the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Jews' sacred texts) that translated the messianic prophecy in Numbers 24:17 in Greek as A star shall come forth out of Jacob, a man shall arise out of Israel (underlining added). This prophecy, which originated from the time of the Exodus journey, was partially fulfilled in King David. Still, the Jews also saw it as a prophecy that pointed to a future Messiah from the lineage of the great David. The prophecy in Numbers 24:17 was so widely known that references to it appear in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus.6
The Magi believed a star had led them on their journey by their statement, recorded in the Greek text of the New Testament: eidomen gar autou ton astera: "We saw his star as it rose ..." Astronomers down through the centuries have attempted to determine the nature of the celestial sign that prompted the Magi to travel the hundreds of miles from the region of what had been ancient Babylonia and Persia to the Roman province of Judea. Some have speculated that it was a supernova, and others that it was a unique alignment of several planets. The description of the "star" rising and then traveling to appear stationary over the village of Bethlehem supports the theory that the "star" was a planet or an alignment of planets. Stars remain fixed in the sky while planets move in what appears to be an erratic pattern. When a planet is about to complete its turn in its orbit around the sun, from a vantage point from Earth, it appears to slow down and then become "stationary" in the sky since the earth is also moving through its orbit. It is entirely possible for a planet, perhaps aligning with another planet, to appear stationary over a place on Earth like Bethlehem. It is significant that in Jesus's birth and His death, there was an unexplained cosmic phenomenon (from noon to 3 PM on the day of His death, there appeared to be a total solar eclipse lasting for several hours).
However, another cosmic phenomenon would have also caught the attention of astronomers and religious leaders. For centuries, ancient astronomers had observed the precession of the equinoxes, and they understood through their observations that the earth's position gradually changed in relation to the cosmos. We understand this phenomenon as the gyroscopic wobble of the earth's axis that changes approximately one degree every 72 years. When Scripture and the Church traditionally identified the timeframe of the birth of Jesus, the vernal equinox was starting to take place under the sign of Pisces rather than the sign of Aries. In the ancient world, this was indeed a momentous event.7
The last four astrological periods related to the shifting constellations of the vernal equinox occur approximately every 2,000 years:8
| 4000 BC - 2000 BC | Taurus |
| 2000 BC - 1 BC | Aries |
| 1 BC - 2000 AD | Pisces |
| 2000 AD - 4000 AD | Aquarius |
The Magi probably arrived in Jerusalem in about 1 BC, during the constellation shift. This can be determined by St. Luke's information that Herod ordered the murder of all boy children under two years of age (Luke 2:17). If the date of 3/2 BC is accepted as the year of Jesus's birth, according to the testimony of St. Luke that both St. John the Baptist and Jesus were 30 years old in the 15th year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (Luke 3:1-4, 23), then the Magi probably arrived within a year or a year and a half of the Messiah's birth, at a time when Pisces had come into the ascension position.
The advent of the Messiah under the sign of Pisces, the astrological sign of the fish, was a symbolically significant event for Israel, the people of God's holy Covenant. Fish symbolism figured prominently in the Old Covenant faith and early Christianity (which was heavily Jewish). The fish was a "sign" or symbol of Christ and is prominent in the Gospels and early Christian art. The symbolic reference to "the fish" is found in:
Even before the birth of the Messiah, the fish symbolized life and death. In the ancient Near East, it was a symbol of the "death" of one age and the "birth" or "resurrection" of another. This understanding becomes clear when one considers that early Christians came to use the fish as symbolic of the two most sacred of the seven Sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist. Both these sacraments of the New Covenant indicate a death and a rebirth. How perfect that the New Age for the New Covenant people of God was heralded by the astrological sign that signaled the death of man's great enemy, sin and death, the birth of the New Covenant, and the gift of eternal life that was to come from Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
In addition, historians agree that the fish sign was always interpreted as a symbol of Israel, the Old Covenant Church, and the Universal New Covenant Church.9 It is interesting that two fishes represent the constellation of Pisces. They are arranged with one fish horizontally and the other perpendicularly, with a band uniting the two fishes. The perpendicular fish points to the polar star. In the spirit of the Magi, we could speculate that the cosmic placement of the stars in the pattern of the horizontal fish is the Old Covenant Israel, the foundation of the covenant people, while the perpendicular fish is the New Covenant Church rising above the Old Covenant Church and pointing the way to salvation.
But what about the phenomenon that the Biblical text identifies as a star? St. Ignatius of Antioch (martyred 107 AD) made an interesting statement concerning the star of Bethlehem. He wrote circa 69 AD: "At the appearance of the Lord, a star shone forth brighter than all the other stars." St. Ignatius, who studied at the feet of the Apostles, may have been repeating an eyewitness account of the phenomenon. The Magi interpreted what they saw as a new star. It is, of course, possible that the Bethlehem star was a stellar phenomenon that God created for this moment in salvation history. Still, it is also possible that what they believed to be a "new" star may have been a conjunction of planets that God orchestrated to converge at that moment in time.
Stars are flickering lights that appear to move across the sky during the course of a night, but their positions in relation to each other remain fixed. Planets, however, are lights that change position slightly with respect to the stars. The positions of the planets change from week to week and do not repeat the same position from year to year. The earth and the planets orbit the sun more or less in the same flat plane; therefore, they appear to travel along the same path across the sky, known as the ecliptic. But whereas the sun makes a smooth journey across the ecliptic, spending precisely one month in each of the twelve visible constellations the ancients called the Zodiac, the planets do not. The path of the planets appears erratic. The planets appear to change speed and, to the ancients, they even appeared to change direction. For this reason, the Greeks called them planetes, meaning "wanderer" or "nomad." What the ancients didn't understand, of course, was that what appeared to be the retrograde motion of the planets was actually an illusion due to the fact that the sun and not the Earth was the center of the solar system and that the Earth was just another planet circling the sun.10
In the 16th century AD, the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1631) determined that there were three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the year 7 BC. Both astronomers and Bible scholars felt confident that the conjunction of these major planets had to be the Bethlehem star, especially since the significance of the planet of the king (Saturn) and the planet of the supreme god (Jupiter) seemed to fit so appropriately to the birth of Jesus the God who is King. This discovery of the conjunction of the planets in 7 BC, coupled with Kepler's other discovery of a partial lunar eclipse in the year 4 BC (Josephus recorded that King Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse and before the Feast of the Passover), therefore set the date as far as most Bible scholars were concerned for Jesus's birth in 7 BC and Herod's death in 4 BC. This theory continues to be accepted even though it contradicts St. Luke's testimony that Jesus was 30 years old in the 15th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius and also contradicts the writings of several early Church Fathers who identified the date of Jesus's birth as 3 BC (in agreement with Luke's information) and the official Church date of year 1 AD as the beginning of the calendar "in the year of the Lord."
However, new discoveries may help to identify the stellar phenomenon of both the star of Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. Dr. Ernest Martin has argued that an even more striking planetary alignment occurred during 3/2 BC. During 3/2 BC, Jupiter and Venus made a triple alignment that would have appeared as one tremendous single light, with Venus rising in the east. Except for the sun and the moon, Venus is the brightest light in the heavens, and Jupiter is the second brightest. A Biblical link to support this theory might be the passage in Revelation 22:16 that refers to Jesus as "the bright morning star." Martin's argument for this stellar alignment as the Bethlehem star is so convincing that many of the observatories worldwide, including the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, present this theory for the Bethlehem star in their annual Christmas programs.11
The 2/1 BC date for the Magi's journey following the star of Bethlehem is a date that agrees with St. Luke's testimony that Jesus was 30 years old in the 15th year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (Luke 3:1, 23), establishing St. John's birth and Jesus's birth "six months later" (but five months as we count) in range of 3/2 BC. This date agrees with the testimony of several of the early Church Fathers that Jesus was born in what would be about 3/2 BC, according to our calendar. The discovery of a total lunar eclipse (Kepler discovered only a partial lunar eclipse occurred in 7 BC) that occurred in the year 1 BC, fourteen weeks before the Passover of that year, supports Josephus's testimony that Herod died between a lunar eclipse and the Jewish Passover, and also points to a 3/2 BC date for Jesus's birth. Then, too, there was the shift of the constellations that occurred at this time; it was a long-awaited 2,000-year event that these ancient peoples would have seen as marking a change in the destiny of humanity.
Question 10: What does the narrative about the Magi and the star tell us about the importance of Jesus' birth?
Question 11: Why did the Magi go to the court of King Herod?
Matthew 2:3-6 ~ When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them, where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: 6 'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
Question 12: Why was Herod disturbed by the inquiries made by the strangers and why was the population of Jerusalem aroused?
Herod was ruling a kingdom to which he had no hereditary claim. He was not a Jew (a descendant of Judah, son of Jacob-Israel) but an Edomite/Idumean descendant of Esau (son of Isaac and brother of Jacob). See the Laws of the King in Deuteronomy 17:15. The news of the birth of a Davidic heir was enough to drive this suspicious and unstable man into a frenzy.12
The Magi had traveled a great distance from territory under the domination of the Parthians in the North, enemies of the Romans, or the Nabateans in the East. If their journey originated in the ancient city of Babylon, the distance from Babylon to Jerusalem was about 800 miles. Depending on where they originated, traveling by donkey or camel probably took six months to a year if they came from Persia but less than a month from Petra, the capital of the Nabeteans (modern-day Jordan). Tradition identifies the Magi as a company of three, but there is no Biblical evidence to support this tradition. The Biblical text only says there were three gifts, not three men (Matthew 2:11). In the Medieval times, many myths and legends were written about the Magi, and in the West they were assigned the names Melchior, Gaspar (Caspar), and Balthazar.13 However, since the Magi were men of high social status, they probably traveled in a large caravan with a retinue of servants. The arrival of any large caravan was probably enough to generate interest in the city. Still, since the richly dressed men of this particular caravan announced that they were looking for the promised Messiah, this news would have spread like wildfire throughout the holy city.
Herod called together the most learned men in Jerusalem to tell him where the Scriptures prophesied the Messiah would be born. The men probably included:
Question 13: What prophet wrote that Bethlehem would be the Messiah's birthplace, as quoted in Matthew 2:6? See Micah 5:1-3 [2-4].
Matthew 2:7-8 ~ Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage."
By the time these events occurred, Herod had been firmly gripping his royal throne for 37 years. He had married nine wives and had many children. His success as a ruler stemmed not only from his administrative abilities but from his ruthlessness.
Question 14: Why did Herod question the Magi about when they first saw the star in verse 7? Was he sincere in his expressed desire to do "homage" to the child?
Matthew 2:9-12 ~ 9 After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 They were overjoyed at seeing the star, 11 and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
Scripture records that the Magi found the "house" = oikia and the "child" = paidion (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon). Bethlehem is only about five miles south of Jerusalem. The Fathers of the Church saw the three treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh as symbols of Christ's kingship:
When the Magi arrived, the Holy Family lived in a house in the village of Bethlehem. The Church traditionally celebrated the visit of the Magi to the Christ child on January 6th in the Liturgical Calendar. Today, it is celebrated by many Catholic countries on the first Sunday after the Feast of Mary Mother of God.
Several Old Testament Scripture passages are fulfilled in the Gentiles following the star to the Messiah, bringing gifts and worshipping God the Son:
The priests and scribes probably also shared these passages with Herod. The second part of the Numbers 24:17-18 passage mentions Edom as an enemy of the Messiah. That would have certainly made Herod fearful. Herod was a descendant of Esau, the father of the Edomites, who in Herod's day were called Idumeans. Herod was a "converted" Jew and more Greek in his religious observances; he was the Idumaean enemy in the prophecy.
Question 15: What is the irony concerning the attitude of the Magi toward the Christ-child as opposed to the chief priests and scribes who are Herod's allies?
Matthew 2:12 ~ And having been warned in a dream not to return to
Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
God continually intervenes in human
events to protect His divine plan for humanity's salvation. The Magi returned
to their Gentile lands and told their story. They prepared the way for Jesus's
disciples, who would share the Gospel of salvation to Gentiles years later.
Matthew 2:13-15 ~ Joseph
is warned in a dream and takes the Holy Family to Egypt
13 When they had departed,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise,
take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him." 14 Joseph rose and
took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. 15 He stayed
there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord has said through the prophet
might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
Question 16: How many dream revelations has Joseph received so far? See Matthew 1:20-24. What Old Testament men of God also received God's revelations in dreams? What is their link to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus? Genesis 37:5-7, 9; Daniel 7:1, 13-14.
Since "the star rose" and they followed the star on the journey to Bethlehem, it must have been nighttime when the caravan of the Magi located Jesus and His family. After their visit, they camped near Bethlehem instead of returning the short distance to Jerusalem. Everyone concerned must have had a troubled sleep that night. The Magi and Joseph received warnings about the child's danger in their dreams. Perhaps the Magi weren't naïve concerning Herod's expressed desire to honor the child; after all, they didn't hurry back to report to him. Perhaps the dream was all the confirmation they needed to quickly withdraw from this historic scene, hoping Herod would think they had been unsuccessful in their search. Perhaps they took the Holy Family part way with them to help start their journey to Egypt. The costly gifts they gave Jesus could certainly finance such a journey and could support the family for several years.
Joseph was immediately obedient to the Lord's command (verse 14). St. Matthew then refers to a prophecy related to Exodus 4:23, Hosea 11:1, and Numbers 23:22. The verses from Numbers 23:22 are part of the story about the prophet Balaam who the King of Moab hired to curse the children of Israel on the final leg of their Exodus journey to the Promised Land (Numbers 22:1-24:25). Each time Balaam tried to curse Israel, God turned the curse into a blessing, which understandably infuriated the King of Moab. Balaam did not utter a curse or a blessing on the fourth attempt. Instead, he uttered a prophecy of a future Israelite king: I see him—but not in the present. I perceive him—but not close at hand: a star is emerging from Jacob, a scepter [a man = LXX] is rising from Israel... (Numbers 24:17 NJB). This prophecy probably inspired the Magi to follow the star to find the King of the Jews. But in the second curse-turned-blessing, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Balaam recounted God's blessings in bringing Israel out of Egypt, referring to the tribes of Israel as "Jacob," the ancestor from whom the twelve tribes of Israel are descendants. Balaam said: God has brought him out of Egypt (Numbers 23:22a NJB)—referring to Jacob as a single individual. This statement is related to Exodus 4:23 where God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh: Israel is my firstborn son (singular), meaning out of all the nations of the earth, the children of Israel, the descendants of Noah's righteous firstborn son, Shem (Genesis 10:1; 11:10-26), were God's "firstborn" among the nations of the Earth, and to Hosea 11:1 NJB ~ When Israel was a child I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.
Question 17: What is the significance of the passages from these prophecies that St. Matthew quoted and alluded to in Matthew 2:15 ~ what the Lord has said through the prophet might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt I called my son"? How is this Biblical text connected to the star prophecy in Numbers 24:17, to Moses, and how does it prefigure the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, son of God? Also see Exodus 2:1-10.
As an adult, Moses's mission was to lead the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and into freedom in the Promised Land because God had called Israel, His "firstborn son," out of Egypt. This event in salvation history prefigured an even greater exodus when God's firstborn son, Jesus of Nazareth, took His place as the new Moses. Jesus would also be a "firstborn son" called "out of Egypt" when Joseph brought the Holy Family back to the Promised Land after Herod's death. When the child Jesus became an adult, His mission as the "new Moses" was to inaugurate a "new Exodus," leading the children of God out of slavery to sin and into the true Promised Land of Heaven.
Matthew 2:16-18 ~ Herod's
revenge: the massacre of the innocent
16 When Herod realized that
he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of
all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in
accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Then was
fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: 18 "A voice was
heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled since they were no more."
Matthew 2:17 contains a quote from Jeremiah 31:15 concerning Israel, the Bride of Yahweh (symbolized by Rachel), and also the mothers of Israel who, after the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC, mourned as their children were rounded up and kept on the plains of Bethlehem near Rachel's tomb before being sent into exiled into the lands of Babylon. St. Matthew applied that mourning to the cries of the mothers who are the "Rachels" of Israel from the villages around Jerusalem, whose infant sons Herod's soldiers murdered.
In the archaeological excavations around Ein Karem (the traditional home of John the Baptist), only a few miles from Bethlehem, thousands of the bones of infants dating to this period have been discovered. If you visit Ein Karem, you can view a repository holding thousands of tiny bones and bone fragments. According to the account of the Massacre of the Innocents in the non-canonical document, The Proto-Evangelium of St. James, St. Elizabeth managed, with the help of an angel, to hide young John the Baptist, as Herod's soldiers murdered St. John's father, Zechariah, in his attempt to protect the children of his village. There is no historical evidence of the murder of these children outside of the Biblical record (except for the highly unusual amount of children's bones discovered at the sites of the small villages around Bethlehem and Jerusalem). However, from what is known historically of Herod's cruelty and brutality, he was certainly capable of ordering such a horrendous massacre.
The Tomb of Rachel, the wife of Jacob / Israel (see Genesis 35:19-20; 48:7)
Matthew 2:19-23 ~ The Holy
Family returns from Egypt
19 When Herod had died,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and 20 said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those
who sought the child's life are dead." 21 He rose, took the child and his
mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was
ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there.
And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of
Galilee. 23 He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been
spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He shall be called a Nazarene."
Question 18: When Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph a third time and told him to return to his homeland. Again, Joseph was obedient but did not return to Bethlehem for what two reasons?
When Herod died, the Romans honored Herod's will. They appointed his son Archelaus to rule from Jerusalem as ethnarch over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, while Herod's son Herod Antipas became the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. Archelaus was as cunning and cruel as his father but had none of his father's administrative skills. He ruled Judea for about two years before the Romans removed him and made Judea a Roman province, administrated by a Roman procurator under the Roman governor of Syria. It is why Pontius Pilate, not an heir of Herod, was Judea's Roman ruler when Jesus began His ministry. The Romans could overlook cruelty but not the inability to collect taxes for the Roman Empire.
Verse 23 is the fourth fulfillment formula statement in Matthew's Gospel. However, this passage has mystified Biblical scholars since no clear text in the Old Testament states the Messiah would be called a Nazorean. Unlike the other quotes, which refer to what is spoken by "the prophet," this passage does not refer to a single prophet but to "what had been spoken through the prophets," plural; therefore, Matthew may not be referring to a single text but to a larger theme in the prophetic texts. He may also be making a wordplay on the Hebrew word netzer, which means "branch," and may be the root word for Nazareth in Hebrew, Nazara/Nasrat. Netzer, "branch" is a Messianic title, most notably in the prophetic passage in Isaiah 11:1 NJB ~ But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots, a bud [netzer] shall blossom.
Luke 2:39-40 ~ The Return to Nazareth
39 When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of
the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child
grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
These verses complete the infancy narratives. The final prophecy in Matthew 2:23 ~ "He shall be called a Nazarene," was fulfilled when the Holy Family settled in Nazareth. The birth narratives of Jesus of Nazareth reveal that even in His birth, God the Son manifested Himself to people from all walks of life, first to the lowly Jewish shepherds, then to the humble prophets Simeon and Anna, and later to scholarly and sophisticated Gentile Magi. St. Augustine commented: "The shepherds were Israelites; the Magi, Gentiles. The first lived nearby; the latter, far away. Yet both came to the cornerstone, Christ" (Sermons on the Nativity of God, #202).
From the very beginning of His earthly life, He called Jew and Gentile, the humble and the proud, the poor and the wealthy, to come to Him in repentance and humility to receive God's gift of eternal salvation! How ironic that it was the Gentile Magi who sought Him out at the beginning of His story, and Gentiles would also seek Him out and acknowledge His kingship at the end. It was a group of Greek converts to the faith of the Sinai Covenant who requested to speak to Jesus on the last day He taught in the Jerusalem Temple in AD 30, the day before His Passion. It was the Gentile's willingness to come to Him that prompted the Messiah to declare: The hour has now come for the Son of man to be glorified (John 12:23). And it was a Gentile Roman centurion and his men who were the first to proclaim standing below the Cross: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54b).
Endnotes:
For a list of the political and religious rulers of Judea from 37 BC to 68 AD see: Rulers of Judea Chart
Answers to the Questions in the Lesson:
Answer 1: If the child was a boy, the mother was ritually
unclean for seven days after the birth. On the eighth day, the boy child was
circumcised (Genesis 17:11-12). After the brit (covenant ceremony), the
mother was to wait thirty-three more days (for a total of forty days after the
boy child's birth) before she could be purified and make her sacrifice at the
Jerusalem Temple Leviticus 12:1-4, 6-7). During this time, she could not go to
the Temple. The period of purification for the mother of a girl was longer: an
initial two weeks followed by sixty-six days for a total of eighty days
(Leviticus 12:5).
Answer 2: They offered the sacrifice for the poor: If, however, she cannot afford a lamb, she may take two turtledoves or two pigeons, the one for a holocaust [whole burnt offering] and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and thus she will again be clean [purified].
Answer 3: In addition to Mary's gift of a "whole burnt offering" and her sin sacrifice, Joseph would have paid a five shekel redemption tax.
Answer 4: He was looking for the reunification of all Israel under the rule of a Davidic king, as promised by the prophets.
Answer 5: In the Messianic Davidic Kingdom, all the nations of the Earth are called into a New Covenant with Yahweh. The descendants of the lost tribes of Israel are redeemed and drawn back from the Gentile nations into which they were exiled and scattered (Ezekiel 36:19-27). From Judah and the faithful remnant of the ten lost tribes came Jesus's Apostles and disciples who served as the first ministers of Christ's Kingdom: the new Israel of the New Covenant, Universal (catholic) Church, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 66:18-24 and Jeremiah in 31:31-34.
Answer 6: The Holy Spirit sent Simeon to the Temple to fulfill God's promise to this righteous man that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.
Answer 7:
Answer 8: Mary is a link between the Old and New Covenants. She was a true daughter of Old Covenant Israel; therefore, she bore the joy of the faithful remnant. But Mary also felt sorrow for those of her people who failed to embrace the gift of salvation through her son. She offered up her suffering for the redemption of her people at the foot of the Cross.
Answer 9: She told everyone (verse 38). It was the mission of the prophet or prophetess to share God's revelation with others. Our mission as Jesus's disciples is to joyfully share the "good news" of God's gift of redemption for all humankind and that His gift of salvation is only through Jesus Christ, Son of God.
Answer 10:
Answer 11: It probably had not occurred to these men that the birth of the new king of the Jews would not be in the family of the current ruler.
Answer 12: The Jews knew about the prophecies of the Messiah, the promised Davidic king, from the writings of the prophets in their Sacred texts.
Answer 13: The 6th century BC prophet Micah wrote that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the ancestral village of King David, and would come to reunite the nation of Israel.
Answer 14: Herod was not sincere in wanting to give homage to the Messiah. He questioned the Magi carefully about the exact date they saw the star because Herod was already forming his plan to murder the Messiah. He needed to know the age range of the children that would need to be murdered to ensure the removal of the promised child.
Answer 15: The prophets foretold a Davidic Messiah as the Redeemer of Israel, and yet it was the Gentiles who were anxious to seek Him, to find Him, and to worship Him.
Answer 16: This was Joseph's second dream revelation of God's plan. His first was when the angel told him it was God's plan for him to take Mary as his wife. Joseph, the son of Jacob-Israel, who shared the same name as Joseph of Nazareth, received God's revelation through dreams. The prophet Daniel, who prophesied the historical countdown to the coming of the Messiah, also received God's revelations through dreams.
Answer 17: The connection is to Jesus, Jacob's descendant through Mary, and God's firstborn son. Jesus was sent "into Egypt," just as Moses was sent into Egypt when his life was also threatened as a child by a wicked king, the Pharaoh of Egypt, who demanded the death of all male Israelite children (Exodus 2:1-10).
Answer 18: He feared Herod's son, Archelaus, and was warned in another dream to go to Nazareth in Galilee, where he and Mary had lived before going to Bethlehem.
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2008; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.
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