Author: Jim Cantelon

The Wise Men 2:1-12 (Part 2)

Then there’s the star. There have been many attempts to explain this phenomenal aberration. Some commentators refer to Halley’s Comet (11 BC), or to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter (7 BC). Other talk of the Egyptian “dog star”  (Sirius) that rose at sunrise.

My view on the star is heavily influenced by v. 10, “When they saw the star they were overjoyed” (NIV), or as the KJV puts it, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” The Greek word for “exceeding” is “sphodia” which means “excessive” or “violent”. Why the excess of joy? After all this “star” had accompanied them for over a year of travel. Could it be that once it led the Magi to Jerusalem, it dimmed, or left them altogether? If it did disappear they would have been both perplexed and disturbed. They hadn’t seen the new “king” yet. Was the journey and the expense in vain?

The fact that it reappeared to lead them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem (a mere 5 miles) indicates that it may have been a bright light only hundreds of feet above and in front off them. Halley’s Comet or Saturn and Jupiter would never be able to direct anybody for such a short distance. It may have been a supernatural phenomenon like the “pillar of cloud by day” and the “pillar of fire by night” (Ex. 13:21) that led the children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land. After all, if God is God, the supernatural is his stock-in-trade.

The Wise Men 2:1-12 (Part 1)

There are four points of interest in these twelve verses: Bethlehem, the Wisemen (or “Magi”), the Star, and Herod the Great.

Bethlehem literally means “house of bread”. In Micah 5:2 the prophet adds “Ephratah” to Bethlehem which reads, “House of Bread twice blessed”. Perhaps Micah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was thinking of the double blessing in terms of Bethlehem being not only “the city of David” (1 Sa. 16:1; 17:12, 20:6), but also the birthplace of Israel’s Messiah. In most messianic writing, Bethlehem was the expected birthplace of David’s “anointed” son, so Micah writes in the tradition. We know from scripture that Jacob buried Rachel near Bethlehem (Ge. 35:19,20; 48:7) — indeed “Ramat Rachel” is now a thriving neighbourhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem with Rachel’s tomb still very much in evidence. And, we also know that Ruth and Boaz lived there (Ru. 1:22). It was, and is, a small town, situated on low lying hills, surrounded by steep valleys on the north, and wide plains on the east. Its hills are scored with cave-pocked fertile terraces. Although sleepy-looking, Bethlehem “breathes” with history and messianic significance.

Traditionally the Magi are believed to have been Medes from Medea. This territory, the ancient name for Northwest Iran, covers most of what we know today as Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. Magi were mainly a tribe of priests, but they have also been seen in a multitude of roles as philosophers, teacher, holy men, doctors, soothsayers, interpreters of dreams, truth seekers, and astrologers. As astrologers, especially, they believed that a “star” could be the “counterpart” of “angel” (“fravashi”) of a great ruler. Perhaps they were acquainted with the Jewish expectation that the Messiah would be identified by a “star out of Jacob” (Nu. 24:17). They were driven by astrological mystery and eschatological hope.

We don’t know how many made the long trek to Bethlehem but the three gifts presented to Jesus suggest there were three.

Jesus’ Birth 1:18-25 Part 2

We don’t know how far the divorce proceedings had progressed, but at some time in the process, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'” The angel goes on to say, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” No other man in history had or has received such a message. It’s amazing, indeed a testament to Joseph’s spiritual fine-tuning, that he accepted this dream-word uncritically.

“From the Holy Spirit” are the key words. The angelic messenger announced a supernatural creation of life. Just as the Almighty had called the universe into existence, He was now calling the Redeemer of that fallen space-time created order into being here on planet Earth. An d, God being God, this creative act was entirely within his capacity to do.

Only a supernatural act could qualify the developing embryo to be called “Immanuel” (v. 23), “God with us”, or as one rabbi put it, “God tabernacled with us.” The apostle John, one of the Matthew’s fellow disciples of Jesus, put it this way, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (Jo. 1:14) This miraculously conceived baby was to become “God made flesh”.

Then without any nativity narrative, Matthew hastily tells us the noble Joseph abstained from sex with his wife until she “gave birth to a son” named “Jesus”.

Jesus’ Birth 1:18-25 Part 1

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth is blunt and to the point, lacking Luke’s beguiling detail. Matthew seems to rush into the messianic narrative, impatient to recount Jesus’ powerful, earth-shaking ministry. So he summarizes the story of the incarnation. But the words he does use are charged with meaning.

The word Matthew employs to depict Joseph and Mary’s marital status is “betrothed” or “engaged” in the Greek. The NIV translates it as “pledged”. We modern readers need a little help with this, because Joseph is referred to as Mary’s “husband”, not “fiancé”.

In those days marriages were arranged by the parents and/or a matchmaker. From there earliest memory Mary would have known that Joseph was her intended husband. Their “betrothal” was totally bindings and could be broken only by death or “divorce”. When the day came where within a year she would be married she would call Joseph her “husband” and he would call Mary his “wife”. But, there would be sexual union until he “took her into his house” after that twelve month period. If, on the other hand, a man were marrying a widow that trial period was reduced to one month.

So even thought Joseph and Mary were not yet married, Matthew tells us in v. 19, “Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Joseph was “law-abiding”, a righteous man. He was also kind. He didn’t ask questions or confront Mary with her extra-marital pregnancy. He simply decided to protect her dignity and privately divorce her. Impressive.

Jesus’ Ancestors (1:1-17) Part 10

Before moving on, just a word about “levirate marriage”. In De. 25:5-10 we read this:

“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

“However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to carry on this brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.’ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, ‘I do not want to marry her,’ his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, ‘This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.’ That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandled”

The word “lever”, from the Latin “brother-in-law”, is derived from the Hebrew, “have”. At the time in history, not just the Israelites, but many other ethnic peoples believed the the only form of “immortality” a man would have would be “patrilineal” succession and bequeathing of property to a son. A man who died without a son was summarily excised from memory. So his brother was expected to marry his brother’s widow, and give her a son who would bear the departed brother’s name and inherit his property.

The Book of Ruth sees the custom of levirate marriage in very flexible terms. When the closest  male relative refuses to “redeem” Naomi’s property, her next-in-line kinsman, Boaz, chooses to do so. And he gives Naomi a son by marrying her daughter-in-law Ruth (Naomi being too old to become pregnant). In this way Boaz becomes “Kinsman Redeemer” and fulfills the levirate duty as well. The whole point, of course, was lineage and inheritance – to say nothing of genealogy.

Jesus’ Ancestors (1: 1-17) Part 9

Then, there is another woman to consider. Bathsheba was a Hittite woman, wife of Uriah one of King David’s military leaders. While Uriah was on duty, David seduced Bathsheba, then had Uriah killed. To maintain whatever honour David could have salvaged from such a sinful, tawdry act, he married Bathsheba. She eventually gave birth to King Solomon. And wonder of wonders, she is listed as one of Jesus’ progenitors!

So, Matthew’s genealogy includes four non-Jewish “Mothers of Messiah”. Absolutely astonishing for the culture and messianic expectation of the time. But, there are two more! A prostitute and a virgin.

The prostitute was the Canaanite woman, Rahab, who aided two Israelite spies in the well-known Jericho story (Joshua Ch. 2). It is conjectured by some biblical historians that Salmon may have been one of those two Israelite spies. The fact that she is mentioned in Ja. 2:25 and He.11:31 suggests that her profile was very much alive in Matthew’s day. Interestingly, rabbinic legend portrays eight prophets, including Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch, among her descendants. Nevertheless, Matthew includes her in Jesus’ pedigree as great-great-great grandmother of King David.

And the virgin? Well, there’s only one–Mary, the unmarried but betrothed mother of Jesus. Only fourteen or fifteen years of age at the time of her “visitation” by the angel Gabriel, she stands out as the singularly most famous and revered woman in history. She is the last of six “mothers of Messiah”: Lot’s daughter, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary. Such an unlikely sextet!

Jesus’ Ancestors (1:1-17) Part 8

Then there’s the story of Ruth. An entire, but brief, book of the Old Testament tells us about her. A Jewish man, Elimelek (“My God is king”), with his wife Naomi (“Pleasant”), migrate from Bethlehem to the region of Moab because of a famine. In Moab, shortly after, Elimelek dies. His widow is left with two sons and both marry Moabite women one of whom is Ruth. About ten years later both sons die leaving Naomi, Ruth and Orpah without male protection. The Bethlehem famine ends and Naomi decides to go back to her hometown and extended family. Orpah stays in Moab, but Ruth determines to accompany her and care for her. It’s at this point that Ruth, resisting Naomi’s entreaties to stay with her own Moabite people, makes the timeless statement: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ru. 1:16,17) So the two of them return to Bethlehem, Naomi changing her name to “Mara” (“bitter”), “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full but the Lord has brought me back empty.” (1:20,21)

As it turns out (read Ruth for the fun, romantic account) Ruth marries Naomi’s wealthy relative Boaz. It’s a scandal because Ruth is a foreigner. Moab (descended from one of Lot’s daughters) is an enemy, “unclean”, an alien. But Boaz marries her nonetheless, and becomes the protector, the “kinsman redeemer” for Naomi and Ruth. Most importantly, however, the scripture tells us that Ruth bears a son to Boaz and Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son!’ And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Then harking back to Judah and Tamar’s son Perez, the Bible says,

“This then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,
Hezron was the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon
Nahshone the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.”
(Ru.4:18-22)

And as Matthew’s genealogy tells us, King David became the ancestral father of Jesus.

Jesus’ Ancestors (1:1-17) Part 7

Judah married Er to a young Canaanite woman named Tamar. Their marriage was short-lived. Er died. So Judah ordered his n ext son, Onan to have sex with Tamar in order “to raise up offspring for your brother.” This was what we know as “levirate marriage” (more on that later). Onan complied with his father’s command but not fully. Whenever he ejaculated he withdrew (“coitus interruptus”) and “spilled his semen on the ground.” He “knew the child would not be his.” We’re told, “what he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight”, and so God is credited with his death.

So the patriarch consigns Tamar to widowhood — a fate worse than death in that culture — and tells her to wait until Shelah is old enough to father children. Tamar submits to Judah’s instruction and goes home, disgraced, to live with her parents.

Shortly thereafter Judah himself is widowed. Then, after the mourning period, he sets out to find his workers who are shearing his sheep. Tamar hears that her father-in-law is on the road. She quickly discards her widow’s garments, dresses as a prostitute, and intercepts him. He propositions her. She accepts, but demands a “pledge” or “IOU” that will guarantee Judah’s compliance in sending her a “goat” for payment. He gives her this “seal and its cord”, and the “staff in his hand”. This was quite extravagant — It would be like surrendering your driver’s license and credit cards. Judah was already awash in guilt, apparently.

A few months later Judah is told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution and as a result she is now pregnant.” Judah responds angrily, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!” When she is confronted she coolly replies, “I am pregnant by the man who owns these” and she produces the seal and staff of Judah. Judah embarrassed, replies, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t giver her my son Shelah.” Tamar, exonerated, gives birth to twins Perez and Zerah. Perez becomes a progenitor of the kings of Judah. Truly, “God moves in mysterious ways.”