Matthew 2 CJB: Which epiphany?

 

Guide: CJB emphasis in bold (CJB online), text in green; NIV in magenta ; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Ken Tipton. My continually improved statement about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this. Today, I perceive that Paul’s letters to early churches preceded the 4 gospels and refute Genesis 1:26-28. I prefer Yeshua’s civic influence and discourage Pauline arrogance.

In the story of Yeshua’s birth are many epiphanies. In Luke 2, lowly shepherds are the first to celebrate. In Matthew 2, kings from the East announce the newborn Jewish king to Herod, who connects the Messiah. In John 1, the birth is lessened by the beginning. Yosef, protective father, moved from Judah to Galilee. Yeshua’s circumcision seems in conflict with his adult baptism. The intense political and spiritual conflict is clarified when Herod has infant boys slaughtered.

T.S. Eliot perhaps expresses a “born again” conversion from Unitarianism to Anglo-Catholicism in his poem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_of_the_Magi. It seems conflicting: “this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death”. My discovery, through 45 years with UBC, especially Nomads, convinced me I had always been under Yeshua’s civic influence, a totally joyous epiphany, if I may use that term.

A map for Yeshua’s time shows east of Bethlehem the NW middle of the Dead Sea, which is fed by the Jordan River. East of the Dead Sea is ancient Perea, rugged mountain country and land of Herod the Great. South of Perea is ancient Nabate, Bedouin Arab inhabited and now Yemen. North of Perea is ancient Decapalis, including Philadelphia now Amman, the capital of Jordan. Further north is Damascus, now the capital of Syria.

A map of Palestine for 4 BC affirms the above comments.

The text:

^2:1 After Yeshua was born in Beit-Lechem in the land of Y’hudah during the time when Herod was king, Magi from the east came to Yerushalayim ² and asked, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard of this he became very agitated, and so did everyone else in Yerushalayim. ⁴ He called together all the head cohanim and Torah-teachers of the people and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?” ⁵ “In Beit-Lechem of Y’hudah,” they replied, “because the prophet wrote,

⁶ ‘And you, Beit-Lechem in the land of Y’hudah,
are by no means the least among the rulers of Y’hudah;
for from you will come a Ruler
who will shepherd my people Isra’el.’” ^{Micah 5:1, “But you, Beit-Lechem near Efrat Bethlehem Ephrathah,
so small among the clans of Y’hudah, out of you will come forth to me the future ruler of Isra’el, whose origins are far in the past, back in ancient times.”}

⁷ Herod summoned the Magi to meet with him privately and asked them exactly when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Beit-Lechem with these instructions: “Search carefully for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had listened to the king, they went away; and the star which they had seen in the east went in front of them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ Upon entering the house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam; and they prostrated themselves and worshipped him. Then they opened their bags and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² But they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they took another route back to their own country.

¹³ After they had gone, an angel of Adonai the Lord appeared to Yosef in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until Herod died. This happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,

“Out of Egypt I called my son.” ^{Hosea 11:1, ““When Isra’el was a child, I loved him;
and out of Egypt I called my son.”}

¹⁶ Meanwhile, when Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in and around Beit-Lechem who were two years old or less, calculating from the time the Magi had told him. ¹⁷ In this way were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Yirmeyahu,

¹⁸ “A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and lamenting loudly.
It was Rachel sobbing for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no longer alive.” ^{Jeremiah 31:14(15), “This is what Adonai says: “A voice is heard in Ramah,} lamenting and bitter weeping. It is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no longer alive.”

¹⁹ After Herod’s death, an angel of Adonai appeared in a dream to Yosef in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to Eretz-Yisra’el, Israel for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Eretz-Yisra’el. ²² However, when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Y’hudah, he was afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, he withdrew to the Galil ²³ and settled in a town called Natzeret, so that what had been spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he will be called a Natzrati.

[I think Genesis 1:26-28 informs humankind to flourish in necessary goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Acceptance of the power, authority, and responsibility to rule on earth is human being (verb). Human-beings pursue necessary-goodness to actual-reality. The rest of the Bible discloses the chaos that ensues if most individuals choose wanton behavior -- neglect the laws of physics and progeny, e.g., biology and psychology.

The civic collective cannot rule if most fellow citizens practice/accommodate badness and allow evil.

Political and religious philosopher Yeshua affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, e.g. in Matt 5:48 (be as perfect as goodness), 18:18 (expect consequences rather than error-correction), and 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness). 

Today there are more than 8,000 religions and 45,000 Christian sects on earth. Today is the time for individuals to accept the power, the authority, and the responsibility to practice civic integrity. “Ourselves” may either continue to leave reliable responsibility to “our Posterity”, referring to the preamble to the US Constitution, or practice necessary goodness.

Notes re modern perspective:

1.      Since monotheism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “The God, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility.

a.      Blue highlight is to emphasize the pronoun usages, our and we.

b.     Perhaps the “we” infers an androgynous pair, like a married couple

c.      It seems human choice may and can conform to the laws of physics.

d.     Yet human inspiration and motivation are driven by goodness

e.      When goodness is uncertain, humility is an option.

2.      Scholars understand that humankind in its present mutation is Homo sapiens (HS)

a.      Distinguished by brains with synapses and neurons continuously developing speed and capacity to handle exponential complexities

b.     Indeed the dominant species on earth and its extensions

c.      Yet HS is challenged-to, perhaps will-not, control earth as much as possible

d.  Unfortunately, after 200,000 years, sexual-attraction rather than necessary goodness dominates society.

3.      The rest of the Holy Bible expresses the validity of Genesis 1:26-28:  Humankind may and can choose to rule on earth.

a.      Genesis 1 predates the existence of Israel by at least 1500 years.

b.     About 2000 years have passed since Yeshua lived.

c.      Yet war in the Middle East threatens humankind’s opportunity.

d.     It seems time to pay more attention to primitive thought – psychological and civic discovery during the period 8000 years ago to 4000 years ago.]