The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 50

districts legally belonging to the oity, but statement of the present text of Genesis and the neighbourhood generally. From two by tradition, which may be trnced at least ns years old and under, aocording to the time far back as A.D. 333, and is nccepted by J ew11i which he had diligently inquired (ver. 7, Christians, and l\lohammedo.ns, there are note) of the Wise Men. Had he made further serious doubts whether 1 Sam. x. 2 does not inquiries, he might have aroused suspicion, definitely place it in the north of Benjamin, so he made sure of hie prey by allowing a and whether Jeremiah xxxi. 15 does not wide margin both in time and space. "• On accept this latter view (cf. for this question Augustus being informed,' eays Macrobius Dolitzsch, on Gen., loc. cit.). In any case, St; [' Sn turn.,' ii. 4J, • that among the boys Matthew adopts the statement of Genesis. , under two years of age whom Herod ordered to be slain in Syria, his own son also had Vera. 19-23.-The return from l!."gypt antf been slain, " It is better," said he, "to be settlenumt in Nazareth. Herod's pig (lit,) than his son (vlbv)."' Al- Ver. 19.-Bat when B:erod was dead. though Macrobius is a late writer [circ. 400], Does the repetition of the tenor of ver. 15 e.nd made the mistake of supposing that point to a different source? Behold, an- Herod's son Anti pater, who was put to death angel (rightly; contrast eh. i. 20, note) of about the same time as the massacre of the the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph innocents, had e.ctnally perished in that ( t/)0:lv•To:1 Ka.T' ~vap, as iil ver. 13). In both massacre, it is clear that the form in which cases the stress is on the fact of the appear- he narrates the bon mot of Anguetue points ance, not on its mode. In Egypt. The to some dim reminiscence of this cruel evangelist will leave no room for doubt as slaughter" (Farrar, ' Life,' etc., p. 34, illust. to where Joseph then was (cf. note at' head. edit. ; cf. also Ellicott, • Lectures,' p. 78). of chapter). Farrar (and Edersheim accepts bis calcu- Ver. 20.-Saying, Arise, and take the lation) reckons that not more than twenty young Child and _his mother (so far verbally children were killed. Thns failed the first equivalent to ver. 13). And go into the land attempt to destroyCbrist, Rev. xii. 4 (Nosgen ). of Israel; any part of the holy and pro- Vera. 17, 18.-Then was fulfilled that mised land (1 Sam. xiii. 19; Ezek. xi. 17). which was spoken by (6,o:') Jeremy the pro- For they are dead whioh sought the young phl!t, saying, In Rama was there a voice Child's life. The plural is difficult, and is heard, lamentation, and weeping, e.nd great perhaps best explained as an adaptation of mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, the historio parallel of Exod. iv. 19. e.nd would not be oomforted, becanse they Ver. 21.-And he arose, and took the are not (Jer. x:x:xi. 15, irom the Hebrew). :young Child and hill mother (so far verbally Notice: (1) As to details. (a) The order in equivalent to ver. 14), and came into the ihe Revised Version. A f!oice was heard in land of Israel. Implicit and immediate Bamal, is more literal; the stress is on the obedience marking all he did. cry rather than on the place. (b) Lamenta- Ver. 22.-But when he heard that Arohe- tion and mnst be omitted, with the Revised laus. Until his murder five dnys before Version, as a mere addition from the LXX. Herod's own death in the spring of A.u.o. 75<r, (c) A11d would not. The Revised Version, .Antipater, Herod's eldest eon, might natu- and she tDOUUJ, not, aeems to be an attempt re.Uy have been regarded es the successor, to expreBB the fnll term, Ko:l o,J,. ~8•:>..•v though in fact Antipas had been named as K.-r.:>... (cf. Gen. mv:ii. 35). (2) As to the such in the will. But after Antipater's quotation generally. St. Matthew applies death Herod altered his will; and appointing Jeremiah's picture of Rachel, the mother of .Anti pas Tetrarch of Galilee and Perma, and Joseph, i.e. of Ephraim (and also Manasseh), Philip Tetrarch of Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, which was the typical part of the northern and Paneas, he gro.ntcd the kingdom tQ kingdom, weeping over the destruction of .Archelaue. Further, even after Herod's her children by the .Assyrians, to the weep- death, the successie, was far from certain ing of the mothers in Bethlehem. This until the consent of Augnstue had been ob- application was the more easy because, as tained, and this, in i'act, wo.s jeopardized by Rachel'e tomb was near Bethlehem (Gen. Archelaue's massacre of three thousand of mv. 19; xlviii.7), she might be considered those who, on his accession, called for justice the figurative ancestreBB of the Bethlehe- on the a.gents of the barbarities of the Jata mites as well as the physical ancestress of reign. Eventually, however, Herod's last the Ephraimites. The fulfilment spoken of arrangement was practically confirmed by ia thus not to be understood as implying that Augustus,save that he exprosslygaveArche- J eremie.h predicted the massacre at Bethle- laus, who had hastened to Rome, but half of hem, but that in it his words received a new his father's dominion,and appointed him only and deeper significance. It must, however, etbna.rch, promising to make him king "if .be added tLat, althongh Rachel's tomb is he governed tha.t part virtuously" (Josephus, Fiaced at Bethlehem, both by the direct 'Ant.,' xvii. 8. 1; ll. 4; cf, 'Dell. Jud.,' i. <JH, u.1-23.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 37