Fresh Studies in Matthew, Matthew 2
It is interesting how each gospel takes the facts to meld
and mold a different story. Matthew 2 starts with the story of a fake king
versus the real king. I’m sure there was
some sardonic humor felt by the early Jews who read this and remembered the
mistake that was Herod and their antipathy toward him. These twelve verses were interpreted in
various ways pictorially, but we know they weren’t in the barn (v. 11).
Herod’s political duplicity is pretty
stark. This is probably the root of
later fairy tales of evil kings trying to find children who would threaten
their power. Politically powerful people
then were to be feared. The incident is
based on the prophecy that Bethlehem, house of bread and David’s birthplace,
was a sacred birthplace. Of course, who
were the Magi? Lots have been written,
but they were Gentiles, the first to believe.
Herod doesn’t know the prophecies or Jewish teaching; he has to get some
advisors to figure it out. His only
motivation is to stay in power because . . . well, what else is he going to do?
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