Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

Matthew II. 1, 2. 185
early church, moreover, looked upon these Magi as the rciDrcscnta-
tivcs of the heathen world, which, in them, offered its homage to
the Lord—a rational thought, full of deep truth ! Agreeably to
Old Testament hints of this fact (Ps. Ixviii. 30, 32 ; Ixxii. 10 ; Isa.
xlix. 7 ; Ix. 8, 6), the Magi were early taken to be kings, and, in
the legend, bore the names of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
It was an easy step for the advocates of myths- in the New Testament,
to view this occurrence of the appearance of the Magi,
before the new-born Kedeemer, as a philosophical myth, without
any historical foundation whatever, by which tradition intended to
express the idea awakened by the passages of the Old Testament
just referred to, that the Messiah would exercise a universal influ-
ence, extending beyond the limits of the Jewish people. "•' But it is
at variance with this view that Matthew is the Evangelist in whom
this universal character of Christ's mission is least prominent. As
related by contemporaries, this narrative if destitute of historical
truth, could be nothing but gross deception.
Ver. 2.—The words which the family memoirs here employed by
Matthew attribute to the Magi, indicate a knowledge of the special
relation in which the new-born one stood to the Jewish people. The
" King of the Jews" is not a king who rules over the Jews alone—
the Magi represent their own subjection under his (spiritual) power
by their symbolical action—but a King, who springs from the Jews,
and from them, as a centre, extends his kingdom. Thus it expresses
properly the true idea, " salvation is of the Jews" (John iv. 22).
As the sure sign of his birth, they mention the sight of his star
(eldoiiEv avTov rbv darepa). They knew, therefore, that a heavenly
sign would stand connected with the earthly appearance of this
(spiritual) king. That great events on earth had their correspond-
ing appearances in the heavens, which shewed themselves principally
in stars, was a very general opinion of antiquity (see, for instance,
Justin. Hist, xxxvii. 2. Sueton. vit. C^s. c. 88), and not without
. truth, though it commonly served the purposes of superstition.*
In the life of the Saviour, the surmise expressed in this opinion at-
tained to reality and truth. In what this o.ott'jq BaaiXecog, king's
them to Bethlehem and the very house ? The narrative imphes surely no spiritual con-
ception of the new-born king.—K.
* The advocates of the mythical view are quite arbitrary in using sometimes this and
sometimes that circumstance, to defend their view, without regarding internal consistency.
At one time, they make the apostles imagine that the mission of the Messiah was to be
confined to the people of Israel ; and yet, on the other hand, they make them invent
myths, for the purpose of shewing his universal mission.
f In the tract, Talkut Rubeni, it is said: "Qua hora natus est Abrahamus stetit sidus
quoddam in oriente, et deglutivit quatuor astra, quse erant in quatuor coeli plagis." (See
Beriholdti Christol. Jud. page 55.) The words evidently describe a conjunction of planets,
according to the sensible impression. Four stars united and formed a whole, so that one
great star seemed to have swallowed the four little ones.