The accounts of the Infancy comprise : (ft) normal features — the Circumcision, the Presenta- tion ( = Purification of Mary and Redemption of tlie Firstborn) ; and (b) peculiar features — the Visit of the Magi and connected incidents.
As for («), it is noticeable that we have these particulars given in Lk. alone. The rites appointed to be performed on the birth of a Hebrew boy, a firstborn, were duly carried out. The Circuiiui- sion took place, on the eighth day (Lk '2-'), ;.i. at the time prescribed by ancient law ami usaj^e (Lv 12^). Again, after the proper interval (Lv 1-2^) the Purification of Mary \vitn all due rites took place at the Temple (Lk 2~).
The oeiTi. (• their purification') cannot without strain be made to refer to any but both Joseph and filarv who brought the child to Jerusalem (see also v.33). This, as wc41 as tlie inter- pretation making aCruy refer to mother and child (see, ?.;/., rendering of the Twentieth Cent. A'7'). is in conflict with the ritual law (Lv 12) ; and the reading followed by A V ( ' her purifica- tion'), which has practically no MS authority, is an evident correction to remove the discrepancy.
The offering brought was that prescribed tor persons in humble circumstances (Lv 12*), though the regulation is so quoted in Lk 2'-^ that this does not explicitly appear. The Presentation of the infant Jesus involved at the same time the ancient ceremony of the Redemption of the firstborn son, as the reference to Ex 13-' ^^ shows. In our Lord's day a rabbinical regulation had added to the Mosaic rule the condition that the child thus pre- sented and redeemed should be free from physical defect and blemish.
In the Pentateuch this devotion of the male firstborn of both
mote Semitic antiquity (t.eu \\ . R. bimth, 7;.^- p. 102fE.).
Yet in connexion with these ordinary incidents
of infancy among the Jews we have touches of the unusual, though the forecast of a great destiny thus indicated is not per sc an incredible feature of the ihtwn (if hueh a life. At the Circumcision the name •Irsiis was given, we are told (Lk 2-'), in accordance with au angelic intimation to Mary prior to con- ception (P'), a matter in which, it may be noted, a marked contrast with the representation in Mt l"*--5 appears. At the Presentation the part played by Simeon and Anna (Lk 2=^-^) forms an unwonted accompaniment of the ceremonies of the occasion, and wonderfully breaks in upon the even recital of customary proceeding's (cf. vv.-*- '^). The close parallel, however, which exists here with the story of John the Baptist's birth cannot be overlooked. Cf. Lk 113-M-63 and pi 2^1; also P^-'^ and 2."-^. Tlie character of the narratives as a whole, and especially as regards such elements as these, sug- gests that we have thus conveyed to us ' the tradi- tional Jewish-Christian views of Jesus,' and argues a special Jewish-Christian (Palestinian) source (see Moft'att, Historical NT, p. 651 ft'.).
(6) The more peculiar features are furnished by the narrative in Mt 2. It is quite unneeessaiy to give an outline of the stories themselves ; 'but some notice iii\i>t l>i' t:iki-n of the considerable problems to-\\liirli i\\r\ tji\r rise. Did they form from the very llr-i ju iiir .r.il part of Mt.'s Gospel? Consideratid'iis ,,\ >\\\r and general structure favour the jirdlKiLilit \ '..i tliiir being from another hand than that whic I'l lumi^hed the main body of the Go.spel. 'I'Im- >tdii' - :iie not therefore to be rejected as witliuiil lii-luvic basis; nor are we to cast them aside on the ailjitrary ground of intrinsic incredibility. But we cannot ignore the striking features of the narrative that raise the question as to what the nature of the narrative precisely is. Consider, e.cf., the use made of dream-warnings (w.'" '^' '^•-^) ; the peculiarities in the leading of the ' star ' (seen first in the East, then lost siglit of —else they had not gone to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem — only to reappear and go before them to Bethlehem, moving in the heavens, and at last stopping ' over where tlie young child was ') ;
lie symbolic character of (v.") ; and, lastly, th clement of prophetic in the story answer prophets (vv.^- ^''- "■ -'"), cases being but reniot characterize as legcii' story of tlie Magi as ; Orient,' gives them i
ottering iiilrrr~t in the iial^iii'j lach turn ia-.a.ui- iium the ionilciice in some ivv. We at once iiiliroidery of the I ■ three kings of chiborates their
liter history, and sucli features as the ox and the ass incessantly adoring the Child {Gosp. ofpseudo- Mt.); but is 'the story as it stands in Mt. abso- lutely free Iroiu clciiie'nts of the same order? The narr.'iti\i' is m, iiai\t', e.g., that it seems superfluous and licsidc tlic iiiaik to' venture seriously on calcu- lations u> pru\L' that some astronomical pheno- menon, such as a conjunction of planets, really explains what is said of the star.
The story of the Massacre of the Innocents cannot be said to be inherently improbable. Herod was not the man to hesitate at such a measure if occasion arose for it. Absence of confirmatory references in history also goes for little when all the circumstances aie (onsidered. Macrobius (Saturn, ii 4), wiitmi; m the 5th cent., states that Augustus, h.-aiuu that some baby boys of less than two jeais ot .it;e had been put to death at III lod's command, and that the king's own child