The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 46

the fnlse Messiah of the second century ap- t.oo well jnatiffcd by experience, thnt the plying the term to himself-" Barcocho.b." news would excite Herod to fresh crimes. (2J They had learned, by intercourse with It is also possible that mnny would shrink ,Tews (cf. the influence of the Jewish Sibyl- from the changes which the coming of line or.1cles on the fourth eclogue), that Messiah conld not but bring. Present ease, t hesc latter expected a great King, and they though only oompornti\"e, is with the uu- ha<l applied to his coming, as to all events, bclieving preferable to possibilities of the the science that they themselves practised. highest blessedness. Ch. xxi. 10 nffords They helie,ed fully in astrology, and the both a parallel nnd o. contrast. With him. Di,·ine ordering that a star should appear In this respect Jerusalem wo.s one with to t.bem was a condescension to the then Herod (Johu i. II). ,;tn[e of human knowledge. In the East (l11 Ver. 4.-And when he he.d gathered .. ; rj avaTo;\.ff). Ellicott points out (' Hist. together ( 1eal 1Tuv11yaywv). 'l'he Revised Lects.,' p. 73) that t.o translate this "at its Version, m,d gathering together, suggests rising" seems to be nt needless variance that there was no delay. All the chief with the use of the sa.me words in ,er. 9, priests and scribes of the people ( 1r&u-ras where they seem t.o stand in a kind of local Tovs ltpx«p•is teal -ypaµµaTEis .-oiJ AaoiJ). In antithesis to "where the young Child was." tllc absence of the article before -ypaµ/J-aT••• For the phrase as referring to the Eastern we must tnlre the words, "of the people," part of the earth, cf. Clem. Rom., § 5. as belonging to both terms. The audition It is more definite than the plural of 'fer. 1. helped t.o bring out the evangelist's thought And are come. "We saw ..• and came" that tile represento.tives of the chosen people (,tool'•" . . . f/Moµw) without delay. To (1 Pet. ii. 10) were fully informed of the worship him. Not as God. but as Lord and coming of Christ. Tho chief priests (cf. Kicg (eh. iv. 9, note). The prostration of also eh. xvi. 21, note) represented the eccle- thcmsel,es bodily before him (1rpo1Ttcuri/1Ta,; eiaeticnl and Sadducean part, the scribes ef. also ,er. 11) was not a Greek or Roman, the more literary and probnbly the Phari- but an Eastern, and it is said especially o. snic part, of the nntion. The width of the Persian, form of homage. term "all," and the double classification, Ver. 3.-When; and when, Revised Vcr- seem to point t.o thia not being a meeting of eio!l. There is a contrast (6.') between the the Sanhedrin ae such. Herod called an eager question of the Magi and the feclinga informal and perhaps the more comprehen- of Herod. Herod the king. In the true sive meeting of those who could assist him. te~ t the empho.sis is not on the person (as He demanded of them ; Revised Vcrsion, in- in ,er. 1, where the date wae all-important), quired; for "demand" is, in modern Eng- but on the office as then exercised. The lish, too strong for i11'11116&v,.-o. Tile tyrant king visibly regnant is contrasted with him could be courteous when it served hie pur- who was born to be King. Heard. Through pose. Does the imperfect mark his putting some of his many sources of information, the question to one after another (cf. Act.a for " there were spies set everywhere" i. 6; and conlrast John iv. 52)? Where (Josephus,• Ant.,' xv. 10. 4). These things; Christ (the Christ, Revised Version) should ba it, Hevised Version. Nothing is expressed in born (-ywua'Ttll<). In ver. 2 (6 .-,xOels) the the originnl. He was troubled; perplexed, stress lay on his birth as an accomplished a)?ituti·d (frapax/hi). Fully in accordance fact. Here on hie birth a.s connected with with hie jealons and snspicionJ character. his origin. The present is chosen, not the For he had already slain, as actual or future, because Herod is stating a theolo- possihle candidates for the throne, five of gical question without reference to time. the Maceabean princes e.nd princesses, in- Observe, in Herod's inquiry and subsequent cl u<l ing his fa'l"onrite wife Mariamne (thus action, the combination of superstition and extirpating the direct line) e.nd also his irreligion. He was willing to accept the two enne by Mariamne. Josephus (' Ant.,' witness of stars and of prophecies, but not xvii. 2. 4; cf. Holtzmann) mentions a pre- willing to allow himself to be morally ,h.·tion of the Pharisees towards the end of influeuced by it. His attempt to kill this l:Icrud'e life, that "God ha.d decreed that Chilcl was the expression of o. desire to Herr,d's government should cease, and his destroy the Jewish nationality so far as this posterity should be deprived of it." This was severed from himself, a.ml perhaps with seems to have a Messianic reference, though it to uproot at the same tiwc a funcle.mental used at the time for an intrigue in favour part of the J ewieh religion. of Pheroras, Herocl'e brother. And a.ll lera.- Ver. 5.-A.nd they 1aid unto him, In :Beth- salem. The feminine (here only, riitT"' lehem of ludala: for thus it is written by '!fpocro/wl'-11) points to a Hebrew source. the prophet. For "by" the Revised Ycrsion Tl1c reason for the iuhabitunts of Jerusalem margin hae "through" (eh. i. 22, note). fodiog troubled ie generally explained, Ver. 6,-And thou Bethlehem, in the land bv 1.llei, fear, which was in fact only of J'uda, art not the !Gast among the princo~ CID, II, 1-23.) THE GOSPEL .ACCORDING TO ST. MAT'fllEW.