The Great Christ Comet
Page 9
Falling down to Worship. Falling down on one’s face before another is a powerful gesture of acknowledgement of higher status. It is particularly appropriate when one is expressing one’s submission to and worship and fear of the divine. In this connection, Davies and Allison rightly comment that in Jewish circles prostration was regarded as something that should be directed only toward God.106 The religious significance of the word used here (piptō) is present elsewhere in Matthew (4:9; 17:6; 26:39). Here, where it is accompanied by worship (cf. 4:9; 1 Cor. 14:25; Rev. 4:10; 7:11; 22:8), the religious nature of the prostration is clear. The heartfelt worship of Jesus offered by these Gentile astrologers from the east can be explained only if the celestial sign they had seen had been perceived by them directly and/or indirectly to disclose the divine nature of the newborn King.
Gifts. The Magi then offered Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The choice of these particular gifts naturally brings to mind Isaiah 60:6, where Yahweh spoke inspiringly of the eschatological restoration, when Jerusalem and its temple would be the center of the earth and the focus of the nations’ pilgrimages: “Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of Yahweh” (NIV). It is impossible to believe that Matthew did not think of this text when he mentioned the gifts brought by the Magi. Indeed it is difficult to think that the Magi’s choice of gifts was not influenced by Isaiah’s eschatological oracle. Certainly the Magi had some knowledge of Jewish messianic expectations. In bringing their gifts, however, the Magi could hardly have been imagining that they were completely fulfilling Isaiah 60:6. They would presumably have felt that they were anticipating the fulfillment of this prophecy, looking forward to the period when the Messiah would reign over the whole earth.
Gold, according to Haggai 2:8, belongs to Yahweh, the Sovereign over all. Gold was used extensively in the building of the tabernacle and its vessels and furniture, most notably the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25), and the high priest’s accoutrements (his crown, breastplate, and ephod) were made of it (Exodus 39). It was imported by Solomon for lavish use in the construction of the temple of God, most notably the Most Holy Place and the royal palace (1 Kings 6 and 10). Gold, then, was especially appropriate as a gift to God and to a king.
Like gold, frankincense and myrrh were expensive, luxury items. Frankincense is a yellowy white gum tapped from the frankincense tree, genus Boswellia, in the southern Arabian Peninsula or the Horn of Africa, which gives off a sweet, balsamic odor when burned or heated. Pure frankincense was widely used in the ancient Near East for cultic purposes.107 In Israelite religion it was placed alongside the showbread in the tabernacle and then temple (Lev. 24:7), accompanied the cereal offerings (Lev. 2:1–2, 14–16; 6:14–18), and was the key ingredient in the sacred incense that was placed before the ark in the Most Holy Place (Ex. 30:34–36). The offering of frankincense to the messianic infant probably implied that the Magi were acknowledging his priestly and/or divine status.
Myrrh is a fragrant yellowy-brown gum resin tapped from the Commiphora myrrha tree, which is also found in southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa.108 It was employed as an ingredient in perfumes (Est. 2:12; Ps. 45:8; Song 1:13) and in the manufacture of holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:23). It was also a painkiller (Mark 15:23) and a burial spice (John 19:39). In view of the fact that the gold and frankincense gifts were selected under the influence of Isaiah 60, it seems likely that the Magi’s bringing of myrrh reflected a messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant Song, and that the Magi believed that the newborn Messiah would in due course suffer for the transgressions of his people.
The gifts of the Magi therefore most likely imply that, by the time they arrived in Judea, they believed that the one whom they were going to see was royal and divine, and yet was destined to be killed and buried. The Magi’s offerings seem to have reflected a surprisingly enlightened grasp of Jewish messianic ideas in the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly in Isaiah. This is consistent with their having been aided in the interpretation of the Star by a Jew (or Jews) in Babylon educated in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Magi may have secured the gold, frankincense, and myrrh in their homeland or purchased them en route to Judea.109 In view of their mission, they would not have wished to arrive in Judea without having gifts fit for the newborn King.110
The Thwarting of Herod’s Scheme
According to Matthew 2:12, “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they [the Magi] departed to their own country by another way.”
It is clear from this verse that the Magi had been completely fooled by Herod. They were evidently fully intent on reporting back to him concerning their successful mission to find the holy child. They were oblivious to the fact that the evil tyrant would seek to use that information to execute the one they had just journeyed 28–37 days to worship. We may presume that the Magi kept their agreement with Herod to themselves or, at any rate, that anyone to whom they passed this information shared their conviction that Herod had good motives.
According to Matthew, God had previously communicated with the Magi by means of celestial phenomena, which they interpreted through the lens of Jewish and particularly Biblical traditions, and by means of the Prophetic Word conveyed to them from the religious leaders through Herod. Now, God spoke to them by a dream. Whereas the prior revelations were directed toward getting the Magi to meet the newborn messianic King, this new revelation was intended to protect the child from the evil ruler’s vile scheming. Because of the divine warning, the Magi avoided Jerusalem on their way back home.111
Matthew 2:13–18: A Key Problem
In Matthew 2:13–18 we are told of how Herod, upon discovering that the Magi had reneged on their commitment to return and tell him where the messianic child was, flew into a rage and “sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were in their second year or under,112 according to the time that he had ascertained from the Magi” (v. 16).
Why Did Herod Order the Massacre of Boys in Their Second Year?
Many scholars have made much of the fact that Herod chose to eliminate all infants up to “two years old,” maintaining that this reveals that the Magi arrived on the Judean scene a very long time after Jesus’s birth. For example, Hauerwas and Turner argue that this is a clue indicating that the Magi did not arrive on the scene until about two years after the birth of Jesus.113 However, that is implausible. We have already seen that the Magi believed that the celestial sign they had seen in the eastern sky—and that had been the catalyst for their heading westward—marked the occasion of the birth of the Messiah. Moreover, the fact that Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem when the Magi arrived suggests that the interval between Jesus’s birth and the Magi’s arrival could not have been long at all. In view of Luke 2:4–6’s statement that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem on a temporary basis to register for the census, it is difficult to believe that they intended to remain in Bethlehem for long after they had offered their purification offerings and dedicated their infant on the fortieth day after the birth, in accordance with the Torah.114
Why, then, did Herod eliminate infants in their second year of life in the region of Bethlehem, when he was perfectly well aware that the Magi believed that Jesus had been born within the last couple of months?
Could the answer be found in the length of time it took for Herod to become certain that the Magi were not returning to see him? This is most unlikely—it is difficult to imagine that this period was more than five or six days.
A key may be found in Herod’s gruesome nature. If the tyrant was to ensure that this baby was eliminated from the scene, he could not afford to take any chances. He needed to allow for a wide margin of error.115 The fact that he killed infants not only in Bethlehem proper but throughout the surrounding districts confirms that Herod was indeed seeking to spread his net sufficiently widely to be sure to catch his prey. Th
e brutality entailed in this episode is very much in character with what we know of Herod from Josephus: not only had he had three of his own sons and one of his wives executed (Ant. 16.11.7 [§392]; 17.7 [§§182–187]), but he also even sought to ensure mourning at his passing by having one member of every noble Jewish family throughout the nation killed (Ant. 17.6.6 [§§180–181]).
Matthew suggests that Herod was fully cognizant that he was taking on God’s Messiah. Aware of the special nature of the newborn infant, Herod may have been concerned that the child might appear older than he actually was.
However, the reason given by Matthew for Herod’s decision to slaughter infants in their first and second year is that he had carefully ascertained from the Magi when the Star had first appeared. The implication is, of course, that the Star first appeared a considerable time before it rose heliacally on the eastern horizon. Since Jews typically reckoned years inclusively, the star must have appeared more than one year (twelve or thirteen lunar months, depending on whether there was an intercalary [or leap] month in Judea during the course of that year116) before the point at which Herod gave the order. In electing to slaughter Bethlehemite infants up to one year old based on the date of the Star’s first appearance, Herod was covering the possibility that the Magi might have made a mistake when they concluded that what the Star did in connection with its heliacal rising coincided with the Messiah’s birth. The Judean king was allowing that the Messiah might have been born at an earlier stage of the Star’s apparition, either at the time of the Star’s first appearance117 or during the period between that event and the Star’s “rising.” Herod wanted to make absolutely sure that he successfully executed the Messiah.
The Failure of Herod’s Assassination Attempt
As brutal, sweeping, and grievous as Herod’s atrocity was, the massacre of the male infants in Bethlehem and the surrounding area did not succeed in its objective—the elimination of the Messiah. The reason for this is given in Matthew 2:13–15a: “Now when [the Magi] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.”
The episode calls to mind Psalm 2, with its mysterious prophecy that the kings of the earth would conspire against Yahweh and his Messiah, but would do so in vain, because Yahweh had infallibly decreed that his Son, the Messiah, would reign over all nations.
Conclusion
In this chapter we have sought to unpack Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus and particularly his account of the journey of the Magi to worship the baby Messiah. In the course of doing so we have developed a clearer understanding of the Star that played such an important role in the story.
In light of our detailed study of Matthew 1–2, we are now in a position to set out some data that a compelling hypothesis regarding the identity of the Bethlehem Star must be able to accommodate.
1. Matthew’s Gospel is a theological biography with a definite interest in history. Matthew believed that the account of the Magi and the Star was historically reliable. Further, the narrative has a strong claim to be considered historically accurate.
2. The Magi were professional astronomers and astrologers, their astronomical observations being in the service of astrology. They would have done horoscopes for clients and so were particularly concerned with the heliacal risings of the zodiacal signs and the place of the planets within the zodiac. They took note of any unusual celestial phenomena. Such astronomical data was generally used to identify the fortunes of clients based on the state of the heavens on the occasion of a birth.
3. The Magi were probably from Babylon, an important center of astronomy and astrology and a city with a sizeable Jewish population. It was about 550 miles from Jerusalem.
4. The Magi saw a “star.” That means that, whatever phenomenon explains the mystery of the Star of Bethlehem, it must have been counted a star by at least some of the ancients. The ancients could consider a number of different phenomena “stars,” including fixed stars, planets, comets, and meteors.
5. The Star was an objective rather than a subjective phenomenon. This is strongly suggested by: (a) the fact that it was seen by a group of professional astronomers/astrologers (Matt. 2:1); (b) the phrase “at its rising” (en tē anatolē) in verse 2; (c) the distress felt by Herod and the people of Jerusalem (v. 3); (d) Herod’s ascertaining from the Magi the precise time of the Star’s appearance (v. 7); and (e) the guidance that the very same entity gave to the Magi when they were on the final stage of their journey, leading them to the very house where the Messiah was in Bethlehem (vv. 9b, 11). The Star was observable by the Magi in their eastern homeland and presumably across the whole Near East, including Judea, and beyond, subject to favorable atmospheric conditions.
6. The Star first appeared more than one luni-solar year, that is, twelve or thirteen lunar months (depending on whether there was an intercalary month in Judea during the relevant year), before Herod gave the order to slaughter the infants of Bethlehem. The Magi took careful note of the date of the Star’s first appearance.
7. Some months after the Star’s first appearance, it rose heliacally (note the word “rising” [anatolē] in Matt. 2:2, 9). That is, after becoming invisible for a time because it was close to the Sun, the Star was seen rising above the eastern horizon just in advance of the rising Sun.
8. The astronomical wonder relating to the rising of the Star was clearly extraordinary, indeed momentous, in the judgment of the Magi. This is demonstrated by the fact that the Magi responded to the celestial sight by undertaking a long journey—in fact, a pilgrimage—to Judea. One can safely presume that the Magi were not in the habit of making such urgent and challenging journeys.
9. The celestial marvel in connection with the rising of the Star was interpreted by the Magi as signifying a special birth, with the Star itself representing the important person being born. That the Magi perceived that a special birth had taken place is clear from the fact that the question they ask the people in Jerusalem relates to the location of one just born (v. 2a). That they understood the Star to represent the person born is demonstrated by their statement that they “saw his star” at its rising (v. 2b).
10. What the Star did at or around the time of its heliacal rising persuaded the Magi that the King of the Jews, the Messiah, was born and could be found in Judea. This is demonstrated in their traveling to Judea (v. 1) and their question to the people in Jerusalem, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (v. 2). The Magi were evidently aided in their interpretation of the meaning and significance of the astronomical scene by prophetic traditions in the Hebrew Bible, in particular Balaam’s oracle concerning a rising star-scepter in Numbers 24:17 and messianic and eschatological prophecies in the book of Isaiah. (We shall consider these prophecies in greater detail in chapter 8.)
11. The heavenly sign seen in the east communicated directly and/or indirectly to the Magi that the one born was divine in nature. This is evident in Matthew 2:2b, where the Magi assert that they had “come to worship” the newborn baby (cf. v. 8). It is also clear in verse 11a, where we read that the Magi, upon going into the house and seeing “the child with Mary his mother,” “fell down and worshiped him.” Since the celestial phenomenon indicated a birth, the divine one was also human.
12. Matthew’s favorable treatment of the Star and of the Magi’s pilgrimage strongly suggests that what the Star did to announce the Messiah’s birth was something that demanded more than merely a pagan astrological interpretation.
13. The Magi responded to the celestial phenomenon relating to the Star’s rising by making a pilgrimage westward to Judea with the intention of worshiping the Messiah. They probably departed very shortly after the conclusion of the spectacle in the eastern sky (i.e., within a few days) and travel
ed westward by camel caravan 28–37 days to Jerusalem.
14. After the Star’s appearance in the eastern sky, the celestial entity more than likely remained observable to the Magi as they traveled westward from their homeland to Jerusalem. It seems to have shifted quickly from the eastern morning sky to the western evening sky, and thereafter migrated to the southern evening sky. Each night, it may have seemed by the location of its setting in the west to be guiding the Magi toward Judea.
15. The appearance of the Star was perceived by Herod to be a serious threat to his royal dynasty. According to verse 3, he was “troubled” by the report of the Magi. We discover in verses 4–18 that he immediately determined to eradicate the threat by executing the one whose birth the Star had announced. He had a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was the targeted assassination of the baby Messiah based on the assumption that the Magi, after visiting Bethlehem, would return to Jerusalem to inform him where the messianic baby was located. Failing that, Plan B was the wholesale massacre of the babies of Bethlehem and the surrounding area, based on what the Magi had reported to him about the date of the Star’s first appearance (which Herod regarded as revealing the Messiah’s maximum age, if not his actual birthday) and what the Jewish teachers had told him regarding the prophesied place of the Messiah’s birth.
16. In the wake of the Magi’s arrival in Jerusalem, the people of the city came to regard the Star’s appearance as a threat to the status quo, a provocation to Herod, and a herald of bloody regime change. They, too, were therefore “troubled.” The Magi’s messianic interpretation of the celestial event was evidently alien to them. This may have been because the Jerusalemites missed key parts of the astronomical phenomenon due to cloudy conditions, or simple oversight, or, more likely, because they had disregarded the astronomical phenomenon or interpreted it differently.