The following readings take part in the infancy narratives of Jesus. After Jesus has been born the Magi visit the Holy Family to pay the Christ child homage after telling Herod the reason for their visit. Herod the Great filled with paranoia in his later years sought to kill all those who threatened his power and the Magi had told him they were here to see the new King of the Jews. He will deal with this information by killing all the baby boys up to the age of two in the region he controls, these are the Holy Innocents who we celebrate on this feast day.
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
The timeline is very confusing considering the provided information of the Gospels but people forget that not everything happens immediately after the previous verse or chapter. This means we can in fact harmonise the accounts.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem and after 40 days Jesus is presented in the Temple as narrated in Luke and returned to Bethlehem to stay with Joseph’s relatives who were located there. It was typical (as it is even now) for those early stages of a new child to stay with family members because of the assistance needed with a baby. The Magi who are the “they” that depart in this verse would have visited maybe a few months after Jesus is actually born during their return to Bethlehem. They followed the Star (planet) around the time Jesus was born but by the time they had arrived, some months had passed. So at this point in verse 13 Jesus is a couple of months old at least.
The Angel of Lord appears in a dream to Joseph, this is the second time of such an occurrence. The Angel is not named but people assume it is Gabriel because of his presence in the infancy narratives of Luke. Joseph is the guardian of both Mary, his wife and Jesus is adopted son, because of this role the Angel appears to him to instruct him in how he is to look after the family.
The Angel tells Joseph to take the child and his mother to Egypt because Herod is searching for them. This might give the impression of being sent from one hostile location to another but many things have changed for Egypt since the Exodus and there was a thriving Jewish community in both Alexandria and Hierapolis. Although the journey may have be arduous, their destination was a home away from home, a safe place for Jesus to be.
14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt,
The very moment Joseph wakes from his dream, in the middle of the night, he takes Jesus and his mother and leaves straight away for Egypt. This is why many figures through church history and recent Bishops like Fulton Sheen suggest that Joseph is a young man, not too much older than Mary. This was a difficult journey and they leave in the night immediately. Although not impossible for an elderly widow as some traditions suggest, the idea of a young Joseph just seems more fitting. Regardless of the age conversation, this passage speaks to Joseph’s obedience to God and him being a man of few words or no words but absolutely a man of action.
15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
They remained either in Alexandra or Hierapolis until Herod’s death. Although many secular scholars put this to 3 or 4 BC there is evidence of 1BC being an acceptable date for Herod the Great’s death. Considering our year dating system was inspired by the divine but not divinely inspired, it is off by about 2 years. Jesus being born in 2BC, leaving for Egypt and staying there for a year until Herod’s death and then coming Nazareth makes perfect sense.
Matthew quotes from the Hosea “Out of Egypt Have I called my son”. This passage from the Old Testament is the prophet Hosea recalling the story of the Exodus of the time of Moses but the Holy Spirit guided Matthew to view this as a prophecy for Jesus. This little insight into prophecy and how/when they are interpreted leaves literal interpreters of later prophetic statements rather clueless. Many people assume prophecies are literal in their interpretation and in their articulation but Matthew, in his Gospel, gives a glaringly obvious contrary idea of prophecy.
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.
Herod was furious at being tricked. Historical evidence of both Herod the Great’s anger and paranoia, especially toward the end of his life. He was even so paranoid people would not be sad at his funeral that he arranged the murder of important people at the time of his death so even if people did not mourn his death, they would still be mourning anyway.
His rage is directed at the Magi who did not return to tell him where the Christ Child was born so he, in his rage and paranoia at the new King who has been born, orders the death of all baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and in the rest of the region. Based on the information that he received from the wise men, Herod knows Jesus cannot be older than two years old so that is why he picked that age range.
17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
Matthew again will refer to an Old Testament passage, this time Jeremiah.
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.”
He quotes Jeremiah 31:15 which had an immediate fulfilment in Jeremiah’s time, the destruction of the First Temple and the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Ramah is the location that the exiles were rounded up and traditionally considered to be the place of Rachel, from the Book of Genesis’, burial location. Bethlehem will become the “new” Ramah, a place of sorrow.
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