Discovery BoxMatthew 1:18--2:23 
Context1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, 1 she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 1:19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, 2 was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her 3 privately. 1:20 When he had contemplated this, an 4 angel of the Lord 5 appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him 6 Jesus, 7 because he will save his people from their sins.” 1:22 This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: 1:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him 8 Emmanuel,” 9 which means 10 “God with us.” 11 1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord 12 told him. He took his wife, 1:25 but did not have marital relations 13 with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named 14 Jesus.
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem 15 in Judea, in the time 16 of King Herod, 17 wise men 18 from the East came to Jerusalem 19 2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose 20 and have come to worship him.” 2:3 When King Herod 21 heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, 22 he asked them where the Christ 23 was to be born. 2:5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:
2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 24
2:7 Then Herod 25 privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. 2:8 He 26 sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.” 2:9 After listening to the king they left, and once again 27 the star they saw when it rose 28 led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. 2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. 29 2:11 As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down 30 and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, 31 and myrrh. 32 2:12 After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, 33 they went back by another route to their own country.
2:13 After they had gone, an 34 angel of the Lord 35 appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod 36 is going to look for the child to kill him.” 2:14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during 37 the night, and went to Egypt. 2:15 He stayed there until Herod 38 died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” 39
2:16 When Herod 40 saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men 41 to kill all the children in Bethlehem 42 and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men. 2:17 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud wailing, 43
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she did not want to be comforted, because they were 44 gone.” 45
2:19 After Herod 46 had died, an 47 angel of the Lord 48 appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 2:20 saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 2:21 So 49 he got up and took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel. 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus 50 was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, 51 he was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the regions of Galilee. 2:23 He came to a town called Nazareth 52 and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus 53 would be called a Nazarene. 54
1 tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).
2 tn Grk “husband.” See following note for discussion.
3 tn Or “send her away.”
sn In the Jewish context, “full betrothal was so binding that its breaking required a certificate of divorce, and the death of one party made the other a widow or widower (m. Ketub. 1:2; m. Sota 1:5; m. Git. passim…)” (R. H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art, 21).
4 tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
5 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” Linguistically, “angel of the Lord” is the same in both testaments (and thus, he is either “an angel of the Lord” or “the angel of the Lord” in both testaments). For arguments and implications, see ExSyn 252; M. J. Davidson, “Angels,” DJG, 9; W. G. MacDonald argues for “an angel” in both testaments: “Christology and ‘The Angel of the Lord’,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, 324-35.
6 tn Grk “you will call his name.”
7 sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.
8 tn Grk “they will call his name.”
9 sn A quotation from Isa 7:14.
10 tn Grk “is translated.”
11 sn An allusion to Isa 8:8, 10 (LXX).
12 tn See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20. Here the translation “the angel of the Lord” is used because the Greek article (ὁ, Jo) which precedes ἄγγελος (angelos) is taken as an anaphoric article (ExSyn 217-19) referring back to the angel mentioned in v. 20.
13 tn Or “did not have sexual relations”; Grk “was not knowing her.” The verb “know” (in both Hebrew and Greek) is a frequent biblical euphemism for sexual relations. However, a translation like “did not have sexual relations with her” is too graphic in light of the popularity and wide use of Matthew’s infancy narrative. Thus the somewhat more subdued but still clear “did not have marital relations” was selected.
14 tn Grk “and he called his name Jesus.” The coordinate clause has been translated as a relative clause in English for stylistic reasons.
15 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
16 tn Grk “in the days.”
17 sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37
18 sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).
19 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
20 tn Or “in its rising,” referring to the astrological significance of a star in a particular portion of the sky. The term used for the “East” in v. 1 is ἀνατολαί (anatolai, a plural form that is used typically of the rising of the sun), while in vv. 2 and 9 the singular ἀνατολή (anatolh) is used. The singular is typically used of the rising of a star and as such should not normally be translated “in the east” (cf. BDAG 74 s.v. 1: “because of the sg. and the article in contrast to ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, vs. 1, [it is] prob. not a geograph. expr. like the latter, but rather astronomical…likew. vs. 9”).
21 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.
22 tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.
23 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.
24 sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.
25 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.
26 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
27 tn Grk “and behold the star.”
28 tn See the note on the word “rose” in 2:2.
29 tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”
30 tn Grk “they fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
31 sn Frankincense refers to the aromatic resin of certain trees, used as a sweet-smelling incense (L&N 6.212).
32 sn Myrrh consisted of the aromatic resin of certain shrubs (L&N 6.208). It was used in preparing a corpse for burial.
33 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.
34 tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
35 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.
36 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Herod the Great was particularly ruthless regarding the succession to his throne.
37 tn The feminine singular genitive noun νυκτός (nuktos, “night”) indicates the time during which the action of the main verb takes place (ExSyn 124).
38 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.
39 sn A quotation from Hos 11:1.
40 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.
41 tn Or “soldiers.”
42 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
43 tc The LXX of Jer 38:15 (31:15 ET) has “lamentation, weeping, and loud wailing”; most later
44 tn Grk “are”; the Greek text uses a present tense verb.
45 sn A quotation from Jer 31:15.
46 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. When Herod the Great died in 4
47 tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
48 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.
49 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s instructions.
50 sn Archelaus took after his father Herod the Great in terms of cruelty and ruthlessness, so Joseph was afraid to go there. After further direction in a dream, he went instead to Galilee.
51 sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.
52 sn Nazareth was a very small village in the region of Galilee (Galilee lay north of Samaria and Judea). The town was located about 15 mi (25 km) west of the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke 1:26, Mary was living in Nazareth when the birth of Jesus was announced to her.
map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.
53 tn There is no expressed subject of the third person singular verb here; the pronoun “he” is implied. Instead of this pronoun the referent “Jesus” has been supplied in the text to clarify to whom this statement refers.
54 tn The Greek could be indirect discourse (as in the text), or direct discourse (“he will be called a Nazarene”). Judging by the difficulty of finding OT quotations (as implied in the plural “prophets”) to match the wording here, it appears that the author was using a current expression of scorn that conceptually (but not verbally) found its roots in the OT.
