December 28th in the West and 29th in the East is the day set aside to commemorate the children slain by Herod after he had been told by the Magi of the birth of a king of the Jews. (Matt.2.1-18) This observance dates to early times and is mentioned by many of the Fathers of the Church. Origen 185-253 says that “their memorial has continually been observed, according to their deserving, in the Church, and that the first martyrs went forth from Bethlehem, where Christ was born.”
The problem for modern Western biblical critics is that there is no contemporary record of the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem. Even so there is abundant evidence that Herod the Great was capable of such a thing. This has led many to conclude that the Nativity story in Matthew’s Gospel is pious legend generated by the first generation of the Christian Church. It is generally agreed that Matthew the tax collector, who became a disciple in the Gospel, was not the author of the first gospel, and that his name was added to it sometime later. What is clear is that the author was not an eyewitness as Matthew the apostle would have been. The author was a Jew writing for a community of Christians who were mainly Jewish converts. It is natural therefore that the author claims for Jesus a relation, specific and unique, to his people, the Jews, and to the Jewish Law. One theme underlies all others and provides the focus of the gospel: Jesus’ similarity to Moses.
Matthew’s birth story is best understood when viewed as far as possible through Jewish eyes. It is a creative composition (midrash) of events, prophecies, and miracles from scripture. The story opens “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise” (Matt.1.18), nowadays we might say “It happened like this”, and it goes on to tell of dreams, angels, prophecies, portents, and Wise Men following a star from the exotic east. It is a text of its time; the content, style, and significance of such stories were all familiar to his readers. They would understand that in Jesus a new Moses was born. This claim is established with five (the number of the Books of Moses) prophecies and the collective memory of the slaughter of the Jewish boys by the Pharoah of ancient Egypt. The story related by the Jewish historian Josephus says, “the Pharoah ordered that every son born to the Israelites should be thrown in the river and killed”. The baby hidden in the bullrushes by Pharoah’s daughter became the great prophet and lawgiver of Israel.
Told by the Magi of the birth of a new king, Herod the Great, the new Pharoah, tried in his brutal way to eliminate all possible rivals. The children of Bethlehem, two years old and under, were massacred. (Matt2.1-18) and the prophet Jeremiah is cited, “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Rachael the wife of Jacob was effectively the mother of the Jewish people; her tomb is near Bethlehem. The baby Jesus must be rescued from Herod’s soldiers; he escapes to Egypt until it is safe to return. The prophet Hosea is quoted “Out of Egypt have I called my son” to establish that Jesus is the new Moses.
Both Pharoah and Herod are long gone but the baby they tried to kill lives on leading those who follow him into a community of their own “on earth as it is in heaven”: the Church.
Christopher Jobson
Feature Image: Frari (Venice) Left transept – The massacre of innocents by Niccolò Bambini early eighteenth century – WikiCommons, PD