Bethlehem the birthplace of Christ, as foretold by the
prophets.--Cyrus, the deliverer and ruler referred to by
Micah the prophet.--The Lamentations of Jeremiah spoken of
by Matthew (Chap. ii. 18), refers to the Jews, and not to
the massacre of the infants by Herod.
When Herod inquired of the wise men where Christ should be born, they
said unto him, "In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the
prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least
among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that
shall rule my people Israel." (_Matt_. ii. 5, 6.)
The passage is taken from the prophet Micah, who was a cotemporary with
Jeremiah, and prophesied under the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah. He lived during the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the great
enemy of the Jewish nation, and witnessed a large share of the miseries
he inflicted upon that people. We would infer from the first verse of
the fifth chapter, that his book was written at a time when the armies
of the king of Babylon were encamped around the walls of Jerusalem.
"Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: _he hath laid siege
against us_; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the
cheek." Looking forward to the time when the Jewish people will be
delivered from the power of Nebuchadnezzar and the Assyrian nation,
and of their conquest by some other power, the prophet, aroused by a
prophetic spirit, announces that the time is coming when Israel shall
again be free: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet opt of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time
that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his
brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand
and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the
Lord his God; and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the
ends of the earth." (_Micah_ v. 2, 3, 4.)
In the tenth verse of the fourth chapter, the captivity of the Jews, and
their transportation to Babylon, is distinctly announced, and they are
told that while in the hands of the Assyrians, they shall be as a woman
in travail; but that, like her, they should in time be delivered from
suffering. The third verse of the fifth chapter declares that God will
not interfere in the mean time, and that they must wait for deliverance,
and submit to their sufferings, as unavoidable as in the case of the
woman; that at the appointed time a deliverer would come, who would save
and bring back a remnant of the people, who shall grow powerful and "be
great to the ends of the earth."
Now it is deliverance from Assyrian captivity that is referred to, and
it is to violate the fitness of time, place, history, and the state of
the Jews to apply it to anything else. Amidst the awful fate impending
over the Jewish people, they wanted something to encourage and sustain
them; and the prophet undertook to do so, by a promise, that in time
their captivity should cease, and they be allowed to return to their own
country.
But deliverance is to come from Bethlehem Ephratah--words which
sufficiently indicate from what quarter the deliverer was to come; and
to give a false direction the word Ephratah is omitted in the text in
Matthew. Bethlehem in Judea is surely not intended, but the country
watered by the river Euphrates. A little poetic license to create
obscurity--a peculiarity of the Jewish prophets--does not at all render
the meaning doubtful. Cyrus was king of all the country watered by the
Euphrates; and the Assyrian empire ceased to exist when he restored
the Jews to their own country. Cyrus was a ruler in Israel. He took
the direction of their affairs, ordered the temple to be rebuilt, and
directed how the means were to be provided to pay the expense. (Letter
of Cyrus to Sisinnes and Sathrabouzanes. Josephus, Antiq., book xi.
chap. 1, sec. 3.) Cyrus is the ruler alluded to, and not Christ. The
deliverer was to be at the head of a very ancient people--the Medes and
Persians--who "have been from old--from everlasting." When did Christ
rule over Israel? Never.
That Jesus lived at Nazareth until he grew to be a young man could not
be disputed, and no doubt the fact was stated in the Hebrew Gospel of
Matthew. He might live there, but he must be born in Bethlehem, and some
excuse must be had to get Mary there at the precise time when his birth
took place. The device of the tax to take her there at the time is weak
and puerile, and proves that those who got it up were neither wise nor
learned. Matthew barely alludes to Bethlehem as the place of Christ's
birth. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of
Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."
Luke is more specific. "And it came to pass in those days that there
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed." (_Luke_ ii. 1.) "And all went to be taxed, every one into his
own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth, into Judea, into the city of David, which is called Bethlehem
(because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with
Mary his espoused wife, being great with child." (Luke ii. 3, 4, 5.)
The Jews were taxed at the place where their property, real or personal,
was at the time of taxing, and not where their ancestors happened to be
born. A law or decree of the kind mentioned would involve a movement of
almost the entire population of Judea, and for no reason, unless it was
to give the people a chance to defraud the tax-gatherer by concealing
their effects.
The Cyrenius mentioned was sent out by Caesar "to be a judge of that
nation (the Jews) and take an account of their substance." (Josephus,
_Antiq_., book xviii. chap. 1, sec. I.) It would not be necessary
for Joseph to go to Bethlehem, seventy-five miles away, where he had
nothing, to give an account of his substance, when all he had was in
Nazareth. Besides, Judea was at this time under the government of Rome,
and if there ever had been a law among the Jews requiring each one of
them to go to his native city to be taxed, the Romans could not have
any object in enforcing it. Admit that Joseph was required to go to
Bethlehem because David was born there several hundred years before, to
be taxed: why was it necessary for Mary to go with him? He was to give
to the Roman officer "an account of his substance:" and did this require
the presence of Mary?
The writer of Luke fixes the time when this tax was to be levied. It
was when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria. Now this Cyrenius, according to
Josephus, was a Roman senator, who was sent to Judea "to take an account
of the substance of the people," as a basis of taxation. This was after
Archelaus, the son of Herod, had been deposed, and ten years after
the death of Herod. Christ was ten years old when Cyrenius was made
Governor, so that the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem was ten
years before the decree to tax was made. The following are the words of
Josephus: "Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through
other magistracies and had passed through them till he had been Consul,
and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this
time into Syria, with a few others sent by Caesar, to be a judge of
that nation, _and to take an account of their substance_." (Josephus,
_Antiq_., book xviii. chap. I, sec. I.)
Had the writer of Matthew known anything of Jewish history, he never
would have made so gross a blunder, and saved the immense amount of
labor that it has taken to explain away the effects of his ignorance.
One explanation of this mistake is, that there were two assessments--one
about the time Jesus was born, and the other ten years after. The first
has been proven to be a forgery, and was never made. (Renan's _Life of
Christ_, chap. I. See note.) "In Ramah was there a voice of lamentation
and weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and
would not be comforted." This, it is claimed, referred to the cruelties
of Herod, to escape from which Joseph and Christ were forced to fly into
Egypt; so that his subsequent return to Nazareth would answer to the
prophecy, which says, "_Behold, from Egypt I have called my Son_."
In the first place, the story of Herod's cruelties in the case of the
infants is an invention, without the least claim to truth, and was a
lame excuse, as we have just stated, to get Christ into Egypt. "Then
Herod, when he saw he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth,
and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in
all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the
time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." A very short
time, not more than two or three days, elapsed after the birth of
Christ, when Herod, not hearing from the wise men, gave the command for
the wholesale murder of the infants. It was certainly giving Herod more
credit for cruelty than was necessary, even on that occasion, for as
Christ was only a few days old when the order was given, it was useless
murder to include all under two years: ninety-five per cent, of the
infants might as well have been spared as not.
It is a matter of surprise that Josephus, the Jewish historian, who
suffers nothing deserving notice to escape his pen, has made no mention
of a fact which, if true, would have filled Bethlehem and the country
round about it with mourning. He could afford to make mention of the
quarrels in Herod's family; but not one word to say about the wholesale
slaughter of the infants. The story is so absurd, so easily exposed, and
of no possible use, that it is omitted in Mark, Luke, and John.
But if the story is true, what has it to do with the troubles of Rachel?
The passage from Jeremiah refers to a time in the history of the Jews
when Jerusalem was taken and held by the Assyrians, and a great number
of that people had taken refuge in Egypt. The Jews were undergoing
great afflictions, and God, through Jeremiah, undertakes to console and
comfort them. The Lord, in plain language, says: I know that there is
great suffering in Ramah--much lamentation and bitter weeping. Israel
has lost many of her children, and she suffers great sorrow and grief.
"Thus saith the Lord: Refrain thy voice from weeping, for thy work shall
be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land
of the enemy." (_Jeremiah_ xxxi. 15, 16.) What has this to do with the
cruelty of Herod?
We have stated that the massacre of the infants was an invention to
form an excuse to get Jesus into Egypt; for his return from that country
would serve to prove that he was the one referred to when the Lord is
made to say, "Out of Egypt I have called my son." Here, we confess, we
are at a loss to express our astonishment. In the eleventh chapter of
Hosea, the Lord complains of the ingratitude of the Jewish nation, and
reminds them what he had done for them in times past. He expresses the
love he had for them when the nation was young, and required the power
of his arm to protect them. "_When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and called my son out of Egypt_" (_Hosea_. 1.) It need not be said, that
this refers to the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of Pharaoh.
Israel is the son spoken of who had _already_ passed out of Egypt. "And
he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, _He shall be called a Nazarene_."
(_Matthew_ ii. 23.) There is no such prophecy to be found in the Old
Testament.