Mateus 2
A.T. Robertson · Citado em PreceptAustin
Mateus 2
Robertson - Matthew does not propose to give biographic details of the supernatural birth of Jesus, wonderful as it was and disbelieved as it is by some today who actually deny that Jesus was born at all or ever lived, men who talk of the Jesus Myth, the Christ Myth, etc. “The main purpose is to show the reception given by the world to the new-born Messianic King. Homage from afar, hostility at home; foreshadowing the fortunes of the new faith: reception by the Gentiles, rejection by the Jews” (Bruce). Robertson on Bethlehem - There was a Bethlehem in Galilee seven miles northwest of Nazareth (Josephus, Antiquities XIX. 15). This Bethlehem (house of bread, the name means) of Judah was the scene of Ruth’s life with Boaz (Ruth 1:1f.; Matt. 1:5) and the home of David, descendant of Ruth and ancestor of Jesus (Matt. 1:5). David was born here and anointed king by Samuel (1 Sam. 17:12). The town came to be called the city of David (Luke 2:11). Jesus, who was born in this House of Bread called himself the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the true Manna from heaven. Matthew assumes the knowledge of the details of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem which are given in Luke 2:1–7 or did not consider them germane to his purpose. Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem from Nazareth because it was the original family home for both of them. The first enrollment by the Emperor Augustus as the papyri show was by families (κατʼ οἰκιαν [kat’ oikian]). Possibly Joseph had delayed the journey for some reason till now it approached the time for the birth of the child. Related Resources: Is Micah 5:2 a Messianic prophecy? Why was Jesus born in a manger? What year was Jesus Christ born? When was Jesus born? Easton's Bible Dictionary Bethlehem Fausset Bible Dictionary Bethlehem Holman Bible Dictionary Bethlehem Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible Bethlehem Hastings' Dictionary of the NT Bethlehem International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Bethlehem Star of Bethlehem Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia Bethlehem The Nuttall Encyclopedia Bethlehem In the days of Herod the king - The Herod mentioned here (Mt 2:1, 3, 7, 12, 13, 16, 19, 22) and Lk 1:5+ is known to history as Herod the Great, because of all the great works of building he accomplished, but in reality he was "Herod the Paranoid!" He ruled Palestine from 37 B.C. until he died in 4 B.C. His family was nominally Jewish but actually Idumaean (Edomite, Ge 36:1). He was known for his extensive building projects (including the temple in Jerusalem) and for his cruelty. (See Herod’s Temple in the Time of Jesus and Temple Complex in the Time of Jesus). The Romans had appointed his grandfather, Antipas (died 78 B.C.) governor of Idumaea, and Julius Caesar had made his father, Antipater, procurator of Judea (47 - 43 B.C.). The Roman triumvir, Mark Antony, appointed Herod the Great tetrarch of Galilee in 37 B.C. He greatly increased the splendor of Jerusalem, erecting the Temple, which was the center of Jewish worship in the time of our Lord. Robertson on in the days of Herod - This is the only date for the birth of Christ given by Matthew. Luke gives a more precise date in his Gospel (2:1–3), the time of the first enrollment by Augustus and while Cyrenius was ruler of Syria. More will be said of Luke’s date when we come to his Gospel. We know from Matthew that Jesus was born while Herod was king, the Herod sometimes called Herod the Great. Josephus makes it plain that Herod died B.C. 4. He was first Governor of Galilee, but had been king of Judaea since B.C. 40 (by Antony and Octavius). I call him “Herod the Great Pervert” in Some Minor Characters in the New Testament. He was great in sin and in cruelty and had won the favour of the Emperor. The story in Josephus is a tragedy. It is not made plain by Matthew how long before the death of Herod Jesus was born. Our traditional date A.D. 1, is certainly wrong as Matthew shows. It seems plain that the birth of Jesus cannot be put later than B.C. 5. The data supplied by Luke probably call for B.C. 6 or 7. Arnold Fruchtenbaum on Herod the Great - He was a very clever, ruthless ruler who was constantly on the watch for insurrection and intrigue. His life reads like the worst kind of soap opera of villainy and murder. He became so evil that he killed three or possibly four of his sons, and his favorite wife Miriamne. He had ten wives, and offspring who were constantly conspiring against each other. He was so paranoid that he built incredibly elaborate fortresses in a planned escape route in a line towards Egypt, which included Masada (which he fortified in the 30’s B.C.). He was an Idumean, a race forcibly converted to Judaism earlier in history, and while he practiced Judaism (not eating pork) he was not ethnically Jewish. This is one reason the Jewish people hated him. Barton on Herod the Great (what a sad misuse of the word "great"!) - Herod had expanded and beautified the Jerusalem temple, but he had placed a Roman eagle (picture) over the entrance and also had built pagan temples. When he helped the Jews, it was for political purposes and not because he cared about them or their God. Evil and ruthless, Herod the Great later ordered a massacre of infants (Mt 1:16-18) in a futile attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom some were calling the new "king of the Jews" (Mt 2:1-2). Herod the Great ruled from 37 to 4 b.c. (Life Application Bible Commentary – Luke) Related Resources: Easton's Bible Dictionary Herod the Great Wikipedia - Herod the Great International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Herod (includes Herod the Great) BEHOLD - Again the NASB and NET both omit the important demonstrative particle (idou) which means “Lo and behold!”, serving to call attention to something external or exterior to oneself. Behold (2400) is the second person singular aorist middle imperative of eidon which means to see, perceive, look at. In the NT idou is used as a demonstrative particle that draws attention to what follows. Idou in the middle voice means "you yourself look, see, perceive!" The aorist imperative is a command emphasizing "Do it now! Don't delay!" In 2Cor 5:17 Paul uses idou, to get his reader's attention as he introduces the truth that the one who in now in Christ is a qualitatively new person. (see also notes above on "behold")
Mateus 2
Robertson says that "In a fret at last before his death Herod had changed his will again and put Archelaus, the worst of his living sons, in the place of Antipas." Archelaus (4 B.C.-A.D. 6) ruled over Judah, Idumea and Samaria. Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea (he had John the Baptist executed Mt 14:1-2 and examined Christ the night before He was crucified - Lk 23:7-12). Philip became tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis (cf. Lk 3:1). Archelaus was a bloody king, hated by the Jews and even worse in the eyes of Rome was the fact that he was an ineffective ruler. As a result Augustus made him ethnarch, a title with less prestige than that of "king." He pursued the building of public works but was a repressive ruler. Early in his reign a riot broke out in Jerusalem during Passover. Three thousand people were killed by his soldiers, and it is probably this fact that contributed to Joseph's migration to Galilee. After a deputation of the Jewish aristocracy from Judea and Samaria visited Rome to protest the rule of Archelaus, he was deposed and banished by Caesar Augustus in A.D. 6 to Gaul. Louis Barbieri - Archelaus, noted for tyranny, murder, and instability, was probably insane as a result of close family intermarriages. (BKC) Edersheim has this background on Herod's dreadful demise - The cup of Herod’s misdeeds, but also of his misery, was full. During the whole latter part of his life, the dread of a rival to the throne had haunted him, and he had sacrificed thousands, among them those nearest and dearest to him, to lay that ghost. And still the tyrant was not at rest. A more terrible scene is not presented in history than that of the closing days of Herod. Tormented by nameless fears; ever and again a prey to vain remorse, when he would frantically call for his passionately-loved, murdered wife Mariamme, and her sons; even making attempts on his own life; the delirium of tyranny, the passion for blood, drove him to the verge of madness. The most loathsome disease, such as can scarcely be described, had fastened on his body, and his sufferings were at times agonising. By the advice of his physicians, he had himself carried to the baths of Callirhoe (east of the Jordan), trying all remedies with the determination of one who will do hard battle for life. It was in vain. The namelessly horrible distemper, which had seized the old man of seventy, held him fast in its grasp, and, so to speak, played death on the living. He knew it, that his hour was come, and had himself conveyed back to his palace under the palm-trees of Jericho. They had known it also in Jerusalem, and, even before the last stage of his disease, two of the most honoured and loved Rabbis—Judas and Matthias—had headed the wild band, which would sweep away all traces of Herod’s idolatrous rule. They began by pulling down the immense golden eagle, which hung over the great gate of the Temple. The two ringleaders, and forty of their followers, allowed themselves to be taken by Herod’s guards. A mock public trial in the theatre at Jericho followed. Herod, carried out on a couch, was both accuser and judge. The zealots, who had made noble answer to the tyrant, were burnt alive; and the High-Priest, who was suspected of connivance, deposed. After that the end came rapidly. On his return from Callirhoe, feeling his death approaching, the King had summoned the noblest of Israel throughout the land to Jericho, and shut them up in the Hippodrome, with orders to his sister to have them slain immediately upon his death, in the grim hope that the joy of the people at his decease would thus be changed into mourning. Five days before his death one ray of passing joy lighted his couch. Terrible to say, it was caused by a letter from Augustus allowing Herod to execute his son Antipater—the false accuser and real murderer of his half-brothers Alexander and Aristobulus. The death of the wretched prince was hastened by his attempt to bribe the jailer, as the noise in the palace, caused by an attempted suicide of Herod, led him to suppose his father was actually dead. And now the terrible drama was hastening to a close. The fresh access of rage shortened the life which was already running out. Five days more, and the terror of Judæa lay dead. He had reigned thirty-seven years—thirty-four since his conquest of Jerusalem. Soon the rule for which he had so long plotted, striven, and stained himself with untold crimes, passed from his descendants. A century more, and the whole race of Herod had been swept away. We pass by the empty pageant and barbaric splendour of his burying in the Castle of Herodium, close to Bethlehem. The events of the last few weeks formed a lurid back-ground to the murder of ‘the Innocents.’ As we have reckoned it, the visit of the Magi took place in February 750 A.U.C. On the 12th of March the Rabbis and their adherents suffered. On the following night (or rather early morning) there was a lunar eclipse; the execution of Antipater preceded the death of his father by five days, and the latter occurred from seven to fourteen days before the Passover, which in 750 took place on the 12th of April. It need scarcely be said, that Salome (Herod’s sister) and her husband were too wise to execute Herod’s direction in regard to the noble Jews shut up in the Hippodrome. Their liberation, and the death of Herod, were marked by the leaders of the people as joyous events in the so-called Megillath Taanith, or Roll of Fasts, although the date is not exactly marked. Henceforth this was to be a Yom Tobh (feast-day), on which mourning was interdicted. (Life and Time of Messiah - Chapter 9 - The Child - Life in Nazareth) Bruce on Archelaus - “A man of kindred nature, suspicious, truculent (Jospehus Antiquities, 17.11.2), to be feared and avoided by such as had cause to fear his father.” Then after being warned (see chrematizo in Mt 2:12) by God in a dream (onar) he left (anachoreo) for the regions of Galilee - This is the fourth communication from God to Joseph using a dream (onar - Mt 1:20, Mt 2:12, Mt 2:19, Mt 2:22). This is the fourth use of departed (left - anachoreo) in this chapter (Mt 2:12, Mt 2:13, Mt 2:14, Mt 2:22). In this dream warning there is no mention of which region or town to go to specifically.