Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 2]
purpose of Herod in these three verbs). In Egypt Joseph was to
keep Mary and Jesus till the death of Herod the monster. Matthew
quotes Ho 11:1 to show that this was in fulfilment of God's
purpose to call his Son out of Egypt. He may have quoted again
from a collection of _testimonia_ rather than from the
Septuagint. There is a Jewish tradition in the Talmud that Jesus
"brought with him magic arts out of Egypt in an incision on his
body" (_Shabb_. 104b). "This attempt to ascribe the Lord's
miracles to Satanic agency seems to be independent of Matthew,
and may have been known to him, so that one object of his account
may have been to combat it" (McNeile).
2:16 {Slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem}
(\aneilen pantas tous paidas tous en B•thleem\). The flight of
Joseph was justified, for Herod was violently enraged (\ethum•th•
lian\) that he had been mocked by the Magi, deluded in fact
(\enepaichth•\). Vulgate _illusus esset_. Herod did not know, of
course, how old the child was, but he took no chances and
included all the little boys (\tous paidas\, masculine article)
in Bethlehem two years old and under, perhaps fifteen or twenty.
It is no surprise that Josephus makes no note of this small item
in Herod's chamber of horrors. It was another fulfilment of the
prophecy in Jer 31:15. The quotation (2:18) seems to be from
the Septuagint. It was originally written of the Babylonian
captivity but it has a striking illustration in this case also.
Macrobius (_Sat_. II. iv. II) notes that Augustus said that it
was better to be Herod's sow (\hus\) than his son (\huios\), for
the sow had a better chance of life.
2:20 {For they are dead} (\tethn•kasin\). Only Herod had sought
to kill the young child, but it is a general statement of a
particular fact as is common with people who say: "They say." The
idiom may be suggested by Ex 4:19: "For all are dead that
sought thy life."
2:22 {Warned in a dream} (\chr•matistheis kat' onar\). He was
already afraid to go to Judea because Archelaus was reigning
(ruling, not technically king, \basileuei\). 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.
So Joseph went to Galilee. Matthew has had nothing about the
previous dwelling of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth. We learn that
from Luke who tells nothing of the flight into Egypt. The two
narratives supplement one another and are in no sense
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