» ἐνεπαίχθη ὑπὸ τῶν μάγων, ἆ 45 έ Ped I, ὁρίοις αὐτῆς, ἀπὸ *SteTods καὶ κατωτέρω, κατὰ 4
b Lk. xxii. 2; xxiii. 32 (Acts often).
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ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ 1 Κυρίου y here only
peel * é0u μώθη να 2)
ἀνεῖλε πάντας τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς ἐν Βηθλεὲμ , for 13
Τό λ 0 parall. 17. Τότε ἐπ ὠ τὸ α Πετε only 7 — in) Nod,
ς Ch. iv. 13; viii. 34; xv. 22; xix.1. dhere
Bethlehem, Herod was enraged as one who had been befooled (ἐνεπαίχθη). Mad- dened with anger, he resolves on more truculent measures than he at first in- tended: kill all of a certain age to make sure of the one—such is his savage order to his obsequious hirelings. Incredible ?
Anything is credible of the man who
murdered his own wife and sons. This deed shocks Christians; but it was a small affair in Herod’s career, and in contemporary history.—év Βηθ. καὶ ἐν Tact τοῖς ὁρίοις αὐτής, in Bethlehem, and around in the neighbourhood, to make quite sure.—amd διετοῦς καὶ κατωτέρω: the meaning is clear—all children from an hour to two years old. But διετοῦς may be taken either as masculine, agree- ing with παιδός understood=from a two- year-old child, or as a neuter adjective used as a noun=from the age of two years, a bimatu as in Vulg. There are good authorities on both sides. For a similar phrase, vide 1 Chron. xxvii. 23, ἀπὸ εἰκοσαετοῦς. Herod made his net wide enough; two years ensured an ample margin.—kata τ. χ.... payov. Euthy. Zig. insists that these words must be con- nected, not with διετοῦς, but with κατω- τέρω, putting a comma after the former word, and not after the latter. If, he argues, Herod had definitely ascertained from the Magi that the child must be two years old, he would not have killed those younger. They made Mary’s child younger; Herod kept their time and added a margin: πλάτος ἕτερον αὐτὸς
προσέθηκε. It does not seem to matter very much. Herod would not be very scrupulous. He was likely to add a
margin in either case; below if they made the age two years, above if they made it less.—Ver. 18: still another pro- phetic reference, Jerem. xxxi. 15, freely reproduced from the Sept.; pathetic and poetic certainly, if the relevance be not conspicuously apparent. ‘The evangelist introduces the prophetic passage in this case, not with ἵνα, but with τότε (ver. 17),
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