The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 49

• , . (1/'f'<iv} hints that Herod's e.ction will to Messiah In Ta.Im. Bab., 'Suocah,' 52 a 'be the reeult of no momentary emotion, but in the late Midre.sh 'Tillim,' in loo., which -0f premeditation. The young Child to de- traces" the decree" there spoken of through 1troy him. Tho final motive ('f'aii l,,11071.friz,) the 1:!l'w (Exod. iv. 22),_ the prophets (e,f -0f seeking him. Isa. In. 13), and the Hag1ographa(e.g. Ps. 1i. Ver. H.-When he e.rore, he took; Re- 7 : ex. 1 ; for a paraphrase, cf. Edersheim, 'fised Version, and he arose and l-001'. The 'Life,' etc., App. ix.), It is hardly too "r•pB,l, here, e.s in ver; 13, precludes delay. much to say that no Jew oould consistently, The young Child e.nd his mother by night, either in the early days of the Church or now, -and departed into Egypt. As St. Paul in find any difficulty in St. Matthew'e reference after years was able to connect himself with of the term "my Son" to Christ. (5) See- fellow-craftsmen, and thUB maintain himself ing that St. Matthew's reference of the term (Acts xvili. 3), so might Joseph ree.eonably "my Son" is justified by Jewish thought, expect to be able to do in Egypt, e.nd the and that the passage in Hosea is adduced to more so since tbe connexion there between show tha.t the experience of MeBBiah we.a those who worked at the ea.me trade seems parallel to that of the nation, there seems to have been even closer than elsewhere, for no real need to look for further reasons fop in the great syne.gogue at Alexandria they the application. St. Matthew may he.v~ sat together, " so that if a stranger came he held that Messiah was the Flower of Israel, could join himself to his fellow-craftsmen BO that what was predicated of Israel and, through their means, obtain his liveli- could be essentially explained of Messiah; hood" (To.Im. Jer., • Suocah,' v. 1, p. 55, d). hemaybave considered that Mes&ah was so Jewish reference to our Lord's stay in organically connected with Iar110l that even Egypt are to be fonnd in the blasphemous when the nation was in Egypt Messiah was fables of his having brought thence his there also (of. Heh. vii 10; :xi 26); he may knowledge of magic (of. Laible, in 'Na.- have thought that the pre-incarnate Son or thane.el,' 1890, p. 79), God was e.lwayswith his Church, and there- Ver. 15.-And we.a there until the death fore with it even in Egypt; but of none of 41f Herod, The Revised Version rightly these theories have we any hint. The ap- joins this with the preceding, not with the plication of Hos. xi. 1 to tlie early life of following, clause. That it might be fnlfilled Christ belongs, we do not doubt, to the very which was spoken of the Lord by the pro- earliest stage of Jewish Christian thought, phet, saying (eh. i. 22, notes), Out ot Egypt and to defend it by modern subtleties of have I called (Revised Version, did I call) interpretation (sound though they may be in my Son (Hos. xi. 1, "When Israel was a other connexions) seems quite out of place. child, then I loved him, and called my son Messiah was in some sense, as all J ewe out of Egypt"). Observe here: (1) The quo- granted, the Son of God ; Messiola, like the tation is not from the LXX. (" Out of Egypt nation, went down into Egypt; whe.t was I summoned his ohildren "), but from the predicated of the one was, olearly in this Hebrew, which Aquila also follows. (2) case, true of the other, and the prophet's The expression in Hosea is based on· Exod. words received a "fulfilment." The fulfil- iv. 22, "Thus eaith the Lord, Israel is my ment was, indeed, what we should oo.11 son, my firetbom;" cf. also Wisd. xv iii. 19; a coincidence (cf. ver. 23, note), but to the "They acknowledged this people to be the pious mind, and especially to the pious mind ~on of God (wµol\.0')'11a'UV 0,oii viov;>.udv.Ivu,)." of a Jew, coincidences a.re not chnncee, they (3) The quotation is, by the context, evi- are signs of the Di vine Governor ( cf. Bishop dently adduced, not to prove the aonehip of Westcott,• Hehr.,' p. 481: 1889). Jesus, but to enlarge upon the treatment Vera. 16-18,-The slaughter of the inno- that he received. The fundamental thought is that the experience of Messiah was parallel cent,. to the experience of the ne.tion. (4) The Ver. 16.-Then Herod, when he saw that application of the term "my Son " to he was mooked (8n lv,1rulxB-r,). The verb Meseie.h is justified by Jewish thought. In whioh in the New Testament occurs only in Exod. iv. 22 the nation was so co.lied; in the eynoptiete, and always iu the strict sense Pe. ii 7 the heo.d of the nation, the theo- of "mock" (e.g. eh. xx. ID: xxvii. 29, 31, oro.tio king, received the same title; muoh 41), represents Herod's feelings, and perhaps more could the great theocratic King, the his language, at his trentment by the Magi. Messiah, be BO spoken of, That, indeed, It was more than deception ; they bud trifled the name, " the Son• of God," was used as with him. Ot the Wise Men, was exoeeding a title of Meesiahship by the Jews laoke wroth, e.nd ■ ent forth, and slew all the direct evidence (cf. Stanton, 'The Jewish ohildren; Revised Version, ma/8 childrBn and the Christian· Messiah,' 1896, p. 288), but (,,.ol,, 1ruih,, not .,-a .,.,,,.u). That were in is surely to be deduced from eh. u:vi. 63 Bethlehem, and in all the ooasts (Revised (xl'i.16); of, also the application of Pa, ii. 7 Version, bordera) thereof. Not meroly the  36 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [cu. n. l-23,