Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.
While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn. There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.”
Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
When the angels went away from them into the sky, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough. When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child. All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.
When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 21 That is, the inhabitants of every city should have…
That is, the inhabitants of every city should have their names taken, and their goods rated at a certain value, that the Emperor might understand, how rich every country, city, family, and house was.
Christ the son of God, taking upon him the form of a servant, and making himself of no reputation, is poorly born in a stable: and by the means of Augustus the mightiest prince in the world (thinking nothing less) hath his cradle prepared in Bethlehem, as the Prophets forewarned.
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So far as the Empire of the Romans did stretch.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 1 And it came to pass in those days,…
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
Ver. 1. A decree from Caesar Augustus] By a sweet providence of God, that Christ might be born at Bethlehem, according to the Scriptures. Howbeit Augustus thought not so (as it is said in another case of Nebuchadnezzar, Isa 10:1), but ambitiously sought the setting forth of his own greatness, and large command, and carried it without punishment; whereas David smarted sore for a like offence. But God will take that from others that he will not bear with in his own, Amo 3:2.
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That all the world] That is, the Roman world; but such was their ambition, that though they had but a part, yet they styled themselves lords of all the world. So the Pope (the image of that beast) will needs be styled universal bishop. The great Turk (that Eastern antichrist) calls himself God on earth, sole monarch of the world, commander of all that can be commanded, &c., and by many other such like swelling titles.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
Ver. 2. When Cyrenius, &c.] Quirinus, the Latin writers call him. Now that the sceptre was departed, Shiloh came.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21 Octavius Caesar (called Augustus, for his prosperous achievements) was…
Octavius Caesar (called Augustus, for his prosperous achievements) was the first Roman emperor properly so called, (for Julius Caesar had but the title of perpetual dictator), in the forty-second year of whose reign Christ was born, (Josephus saith, in the one and thirtieth year, Antiq. cap. 10.), Herod the Great being at that time king of Judea, being so declared by the senate of Rome near forty years before. It was the custom of the Romans to take a particular account of the numbers and qualities of all persons inhabiting countries under their jurisdiction, in order to the laying of taxes upon them. About the time of the birth of Christ there was a decree issued from the Roman emperor for such a census or account to be taken of the Jews, who, some think, are here only understood by the term, all the world; others think that it was a decree which reached all that part of the world which was subject to the Roman emperor. This trust it seemeth was committed to Cyrenius, governor of Syria; whether he was at that time governor, or afterwards made governor, and at this time only a commissioner for this business, is not agreed. That this Cyrenius was the same whom the Roman historians call Quirinius is pretty well agreed. Great endeavours are used to reconcile what Luke saith here to Josephus and the Roman historians, who make Varus, not Quirinius, at this time the president of Syria. Those who desire to be satisfied as to those things may read Mr. Pool’s Synopsis Criticorum upon this text, &c. Where civil historians differ from what we have in holy writ, we are obliged to believe them mistaken, not the penmen of holy writ, who were guided by an infallible Spirit. Leaving therefore those disputes, and in what sense this census is called the first, or is said to be first begun, when Cyrenius or Quirius was president, as being of no great concern, (for other historians grant Quirinius at this time a commissioner with Caius Caesar, and within ten years after president, in succession to Varus), let us rather herein observe the wonderful providence of God in the ordering of things for the fulfilling of his word, while we think of no such things, to which purpose doubtless this is premised by the evangelist. According to the counsel of God, declared by his prophets, Mic 5:2, Christ was to be born at Bethlehem, the metropolis of Judea; so the chief priests and scribes tell Herod, Mat 2:5. Mary his mother, and Joseph his supposed father, lived at a great distance from Bethlehem, in Nazareth, a city of Galilee. God so ordereth it, that the Roman emperor (under whose power the Jews were at this time) orders a numbering of all his subjects, either in all his dominions at the same time, or at least in Judea, and an account to be taken of their persons and qualities, in order to the laying taxes upon them, to defray the charges of the empire. The account of the Jews being to be taken according to their tribes, those who belonged to each tribe were ordered to convene in the chief city belonging to the tribe of which they were. Joseph and Mary were both of the tribe of Judah. This occasion brings them both to Bethlehem, being the chief city of their tribe, to meet the emperor’s commissioners. So Christ came to be born in Bethlehem, according to the word of the Lord, from which a tittle shall not fail; and little Bethlehem becomes not the least amongst the thousands of Judah, one coming out of it to be a Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth were of old, even from everlasting.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 13, 15, 21 The conclusion of the former chapter acquainted us with…
The conclusion of the former chapter acquainted us with the birth of John the Baptist; the beginning of ths chapter relates the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the remarkable circumstances which did attend it.
And here we have observable, 1. The place where he was born, not at Nazareth, but at Bethlehem, according to the prediction of the prophet Micah, Mic 5:2. "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel."
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We may suppose, that the blessed virgin little thought of changing her place, but to have been delivered of her holy burden at Nazareth, where it was conceived. Her house at Nazareth was honoured by the presence of the angel; yea, by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost: that house therefore, we may suppose, was most satisfactory to the virgin’s desire. But he that made choice of the womb where his son should be conceived, it was fit he should also choose the place where his son should be born. And this place, many hundred years before the nativity, was foretold should be Bethlehem.
Observe, 2. How remarkable the providence of God was in bringing the virgin up from Nazareth the Bethlehem, that Christ, as it was prophesied of him, might be born there. Augustus, the Roman emperor, to whom the nation of the Jews was now become tributary, puts forth a decree, that all the Roman empire should have their names and families enrolled, in order to their being taxed. This edict required, that every family should repair to that city to which they did belong, to be enrolled and taxed there.
Accordingly, Joseph and Mary, being of the house and lineage of David, have recourse to Bethlehem, the city of David, where, according to the prophecy, the Messias was to be born.
Here note, how the wisdom of God overrules the actions of men, for higher or nobler ends than what they aimed at. The emperor’s aim was by this edict to fill his coffers. God’s end was to fulfil his prophecies.
Observe, 3. How readily Joseph and Mary yielded obedience to the edict and decree of this heathen emperor. It was no less than four days journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem: how just an excuse might the virgin have pleaded for her absence! What woman ever undertook so hazardous a journey, that was so near her delivery? And Joseph, no doubt, was sufficiently unwilling to draw her forth into so manifest a hazard.
But as the emperor’s command was peremptory, so their obedience was exemplary. We must not plead difficulty for withdrawing our obedience to supreme commands. How did our blessed Saviour, even in the womb of his mother, yield homage to civil rulers and governors!
The first lesson which Christ’s example taught the world, was loyalty and obedience to the supreme magistrate.
Observe, 4. After many weary steps, the holy virgin comes to Bethlehem, where every house is taken up by reason of the great confluence of people that came to be taxed; and there is no room for Christ but in a stable: the stable is our Lord’s palace, the manger is his cradle.
Oh, how can we be abased low enough for him that thus neglected himself for us! What an early indication was this, that our Lord’s kingdom was not of this world!
Yet some observe a mystery in all this: an inn is domus publici juris, not a private house, but open and free for all passengers, and a stable is the commonest place in the inn; to mind us, that he who was born there, would be a common Saviour to high and low, noble and base, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile; called therefore so often the Son of man; the design of his birth being the benefit of mankind.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 21 The fulness of time was now come, when God…
The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law; and it was foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem. Now here we have an account of the time, place, and manner of it.
I. The time when our Lord Jesus was born. Several things may be gathered out of these verses which intimate to us that it was the proper time.
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1. He was born at the time when the fourth monarchy was in its height, just when it was become, more than any of the three before it, a universal monarchy. He was born in the days of Augustus Caesar, when the Roman empire extended itself further than ever before or since, including Parthia one way, and Britain another way; so that it was then called Terraram orbis imperium - The empire of the whole earth; and here that empire is called all the world (Luk 2:1), for there was scarcely any part of the civilized world, but what was dependent on it. Now this was the time when the Messiah was to be born, according to Daniel's prophecy (Dan 2:44): In the days of these kings, the kings of the fourth monarchy, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
2. He was born when Judea was become a province of the empire, and tributary to it; as appears evidently by this, that when all the Roman empire was taxed, the Jews were taxed among the rest. Jerusalem was taken by Pompey the Roman general, about sixty years before this, who granted the government of the church to Hyrcanus, but not the government of the state; by degrees it was more and more reduced, till now at length it was quite subdued; for Judea was ruled by Cyrenius the Roman governor of Syria (Luk 2:2): the Roman writers call him Sulpitius Quirinus. Now just at this juncture, the Messiah was to be born, for so was dying Jacob's prophecy, that Shiloh should come when the sceptre was departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, Gen 49:10. This was the first taxing that was made in Judea, the first badge of their servitude; therefore now Shiloh must come, to set up his kingdom.
3. There is another circumstance, as to the time, implied in this general enrolment of all the subjects of the empire, which is, that there was now universal peace in the empire. The temple of Janus was now shut, which it never used to be if any wars were on foot; and now it was fit for the Prince of peace to be born, in whose days swords should be beaten into plough-shares.
II. The place where our Lord Jesus was born is very observable. He was born at Bethlehem; so it was foretold (Mic 5:2), the scribes so understood it (Mat 2:5, Mat 2:6), so did the common people, Joh 7:42. The name of the place was significant. Bethlehem signifies the house of bread; a proper place for him to be born in who is the Bread of life, the Bread that came down from heaven. But that was not all; Bethlehem was the city of David, where he was born, and therefore there he must be born who was the Son of David. Zion was also called the city of David (Sa2 5:7), yet Christ was not born there; for Bethlehem was that city of David where he was born in meanness, to be a shepherd; and this our Saviour, when he humbled himself, chose for the place of his birth; not Zion, where he ruled in power and prosperity, that was to be a type of the church of Christ, that mount Zion. Now when the virgin Mary was with child, and near her time, Providence so ordered it that, by order from the emperor, all the subjects of the Roman empire were to be taxed; that is, they were to give in their names to the proper officers, and they were to be registered and enrolled, according to their families, which is the proper signification of the word here used; their being taxed was but secondary. It is supposed that they made profession of subjection to the Roman empire, either by some set form of words, or at least by payment of some small tribute, a penny suppose, in token of their allegiance, like a man's atturning tenant. Thus are they vassals upon record, and may thank themselves.
According to this decree, the Jews (who were now nice in distinguishing their tribes and families) provided that in their enrolments particular care should be had to preserve the memory of them. Thus foolishly are they solicitous to save the shadow, when they had lost the substance.
That which Augustus designed was either to gratify his pride in knowing the numbers of his people, and proclaiming it to the world, or he did it in policy, to strengthen his interest, and make his government appear the more formidable; but Providence had another reach in it. All the world shall be at the trouble of being enrolled, only that Joseph and Mary may. This brought them up from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because they were of the stock and lineage of David (Luk 2:4, Luk 2:5); and perhaps, being poor and low, they thought the royalty of their extraction rather than a burden and expense to them than a matter of pride. Because it is difficult to suppose that every Jew (women as well as men) was obliged to repair to the city of which their ancestors were, and there be enrolled, now, at a time when they kept not to the bounds of their tribes, as formerly, it may be offered as a conjecture that this great exactness was used only with the family of David, concerning which, it is probable, the emperor gave particular orders, it having been the royal family, and still talked of as designed to be so, that he might know its number and strength. Divers ends of Providence were served by this.
1. Hereby the virgin Mary was brought, great with child, to Bethlehem, to be delivered there, according to the prediction; whereas she had designed to lie in at Nazareth. See how man purposes and God disposes; and how Providence orders all things for the fulfilling of the scripture, and makes use of the projects men have for serving their own purposes, quite beyond their intention, to serve his.
2. Hereby it appeared that Jesus Christ was of the seed of David; for what brings his mother to Bethlehem now, but because she was of the stock and lineage of David? This was a material thing to be proved, and required such an authentic proof as this. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, two of the earliest advocates for the Christian religion, appeal to these rolls or records of the Roman empire, for the proof of Christ's being born of the house of David.
3. Hereby it appeared that he was made under the law; for he became a subject of the Roman empire as soon as he was born, a servant of rulers, Isa 49:7. Many suppose that, being born during the time of the taxing, he was enrolled as well as his father and mother, that it might appear how he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Instead of having kings tributaries to him, when he came into the world he was himself a tributary.
III. The circumstances of his birth, which were very mean, and under all possible marks of contempt. He was indeed a first-born son; but it was a poor honour to be the first-born of such a poor woman as Mary was, who had no inheritance to which he might be entitled as first-born, but what was in nativity.
1. He was under some abasements in common with other children; he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, as other children are when they are new-born, as if he could be bound, or needed to be kept straight. He that makes darkness a swaddling band for the sea was himself wrapped in swaddling bands, Job 38:9. The everlasting Father became a child of time, and men said to him whose out-goings were of old from everlasting, We know this man, whence he is, Joh 7:27. The Ancient of days became an infant of a span long.
2. He was under some abasements peculiar to himself.
(1.) He was born at an inn. That son of David that was the glory of his father's house had no inheritance that he could command, no not in the city of David, no nor a friend that would accommodate his mother in distress with lodgings to be brought to bed in. Christ was born in an inn, to intimate that he came into the world but to sojourn here for awhile, as in an inn, and to teach us to do likewise. An inn receives all comers, and so does Christ. He hangs out the banner of love for his sign, and whoever comes to him, he will in no wise cast out; only, unlike other inns, he welcomes those that come without money and without price. All is on free cost.
(2.) He was born in a stable; so some think the word signifies which we translate a manger, a place for cattle to stand to be fed in. Because there was no room in the inn, and for want of conveniences, nay for want of necessaries, he was laid in a manger, instead of a cradle. The word which we render swaddling clothes some derive from a word that signifies to rend, or tear, and these infer that he was so far from having a good suit of child-bed linen, that his very swaddles were ragged and torn. His being born in a stable and laid in a manger was an instance, [1.] Of the poverty of his parents. Had they been rich, room would have been made for them; but, being poor, they must shift as they could. [2.] Of the corruption and degeneracy of manners in that age; that a woman in reputation for virtue and honour should be used so barbarously. If there had been any common humanity among them, they would not have turned a woman in travail into a stable. [3.] It was an instance of the humiliation of our Lord Jesus. We were become by sin like an out-cast infant, helpless and forlorn; and such a one Christ was. Thus he would answer the type of Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver of the Old Testament, who was in his infancy cast out in an ark of bulrushes, as Christ in a manger. Christ would hereby put a contempt upon all worldly glory, and teach us to slight it. Since his own received him not, let us not think it strange if they receive us not.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–21 And this taxing was first made,.... Or "this was…
And this taxing was first made,.... Or "this was the first enrolment, or taxing" in the Jewish nation; for there was another afterwards, when Judas the Galilean arose, and drew many after him, Act 5:38.
When Cyrenius was governor of Syria; or "of Cyrenius" "governor of Syria"; that is, it was the first that he was, concerned in; who not now, but afterwards was governor of Syria; and because he had been so before Luke wrote this history, and this being a title of honour, and what might distinguish him from others of that name, it is given him; for as Tertullian says (c), Sentius Saturninus was now governor of Syria, when Cyrenius was sent into Judea, to make this register, or taxing; and which is manifestly distinguished from that, which was made during his being governor of Syria, when Archelaus was banished from Judea, ten or eleven years after Herod's death; which Josephus (d) gives an account of, and Luke refers to, in Act 5:37. Moreover, the words will bear to be rendered thus, "and this tax, or enrolment, was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria"; being used for as in Joh 1:15. This Cyrenius is the same whom the Romans call Quirinius, and Quirinus; a governor of Syria had great power in Judea, to which it was annexed, when Cyrenius was governor there. It is reported of R. Gamaliel, that he went to take a licence, , "from a governor of Syria" (e); i.e. to intercalate the year: and Syria was in many things like to the land of Judea, particularly as to tithes, and the keeping of the seventh year (f),
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(c) Contr. Marcion, l. 4. c. 19. (d) Antiqu. l. 18. c. 1. (e) Misn. Ediot. c. 7. sect. 7. (f) T. Bab. Gittin. fol. 8. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 14, 20, 21 That all the world should be enrolled - That…
That all the world should be enrolled - That all the inhabitants, male and female, of every town in the Roman empire, with their families and estates, should be registered.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21 The decree of Augustus to enrol all the Roman…
CHAPTER II.
The decree of Augustus to enrol all the Roman empire, 1, 2.
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Joseph and Mary go to their own city to be enrolled, 3-5.
Christ is born, 6, 7.
His birth is announced to the shepherds, 8-14.
They go to Bethlehem, and find Joseph, Mary, and Christ, 15-20.
Christ is circumcised, 21.
His parents go to present him in the temple, 22-24.
Simeon receives him: his song, 25-35.
Anna the prophetess, 36-38.
The holy family return to Nazareth, 39, 40.
They go to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover, and leave
Jesus behind in Jerusalem, 41-44.
They return seeking him, and find him in the midst of the
doctors, 45-47.
His mother chides him, 48.
His defence of his conduct, 49, 50.
They all return to Nazareth, 51, 52.
NOTES ON CHAP. II.
Verse 1. Caesar Augustus] This was Caius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, who was proclaimed emperor of Rome in the 29th year before our Lord, and died A.D. 14.
That all the world should be taxed.] πασαν την οικουμενην, the whole of that empire. It is agreed, on all hands, that this cannot mean the whole world, as in the common translation; for this very sufficient reason, that the Romans had not the dominion of the whole earth, and therefore could have no right to raise levies or taxes in those places to which their dominion did not extend. οικουμενη signifies properly the inhabited part of the earth, from οικεω, to dwell, or inhabit. Polybius makes use of the very words in this text to point out the extent of the Roman government, lib. vi. c. 48; and Plutarch uses the word in exactly the same sense, Pomp. p. 635. See the passages in Wetstein. Therefore the whole that could be meant here, can be no more than that a general CENSUS of the inhabitants and their effects had been made in the reign of Augustus, through all the Roman dominions.
But as there is no general census mentioned in any historian as having taken place at this time, the meaning of οικουμενη must be farther restrained, and applied solely to the land of Judea. This signification it certainly has in this same evangelist, Lu 21:26. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, τη οικουμενη this land. The whole discourse relates to the calamities that were coming, not upon the whole world, nor the whole of the Roman empire, but on the land of Judea, see Lu 21:21. Then let them that are in Judea flee to the mountains. Out of Judea, therefore, there would be safety; and only those who should be with child, or giving suck, in those days, are considered as peculiarly unhappy, because they could not flee away from that land on which the scourge was to fall: for the wrath, or punishment, shall be, says our Lord, εν τω λαω τουτω, ON THIS VERY PEOPLE, viz. the Jews, Lu 21:23. It appears that St. Luke used this word in this sense in conformity to the Septuagint, who have applied it in precisely the same way, Isa 13:11; Isa 14:26; Isa 24:1. And from this we may learn, that the word οικουμενη had been long used as a term by which the land of Judea was commonly expressed. Ἡ γη, which signifies the earth, or world in general, is frequently restrained to this sense, being often used by the evangelists and others for all the country of Judea. See Lu 4:25; Jos 2:3.
It is probable that the reason why this enrolment, or census, is said to have been throughout the whole Jewish nation, was to distinguish it from that partial one, made ten years after, mentioned Ac 5:37, which does not appear to have extended beyond the estates of Archelaus, and which gave birth to the insurrection excited by Judas of Galilee. See Josephus, Ant. book xx. c. 3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 21 Luk 2:1. And it came to pass in those…
Luk 2:1. And it came to pass in those days — That is, about the time in which John the Baptist was born, and Christ conceived, in the manner related in the preceding chapter; there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus, the Roman emperor, that all the world should be taxed — the word οικουμενη, here rendered world, “means strictly the inhabited part of the earth, and therefore, πασα η οικουμενη, all the world, in the common acceptation of the phrase. But it is well known that this expression was, in ancient times, frequently employed to denote the Roman empire. It was probably a title first assumed through arrogance, afterward given by others through flattery, and at last appropriated by general use to this signification. That it has a more extensive meaning in this place is not pretended by any. But there are some who, on the contrary, would confine it still further, making it denote no more than Judea and its appendages. Of this opinion are several of the learned; Beausobre, Doddridge, Lardner, Pearce, and others. In support of it they have produced some passages in which this phrase, or expressions equivalent, appear to have no larger signification. But, admitting their explanation of the passages they produce, they are not parallel to the example in hand. Such hyperboles are indeed current, not only in the language of the evangelists, but in every language. In those cases, however, wherein they are introduced, there rarely fails to be something, either in what is spoken or in the occasion of speaking, which serves to explain the trope. For example: the term, a country, in English, denotes properly a region, or tract of land, inhabited by a people living under the same government. By this, which is the common acceptation, we should say that England is a country. Yet the term is often used without any ambiguity in a more limited sense. Thus an inhabitant of a country town or parish says to one of his neighbours, speaking of two persons of their acquaintance, ‘All the country says they are soon to be married;’ yet so far is he from meaning by the phrase, all the country, all the people of England, that he is sensible not a thousandth part of them know that such persons exist. He means no more than all the neighbourhood. Nor is he in the smallest danger, by speaking thus, of being misunderstood by any hearer. But if he should say, ‘The parliament has laid a tax on saddle-horses, throughout all the country,’ nobody could imagine that less than England was intended by the term country, in this application. Here the term must be considered as it stands related to parliament; in other words, it must be that which, in the style of the legislature, would be named the country. In like manner, though it might not be extraordinary that a Jew, addressing himself to Jews, and speaking of their own people only, should employ such an hyperbole as, all the world, for all Judea; it would be exceedingly unnatural in him to use the same terms, applied in the same manner, in relating the resolves and decrees of the Roman emperor, to whom all Judea would be very far from appearing all the world, or even a considerable part of it. Add to this, that the Syriac interpreter (as also all the other ancient interpreters) understood the words in the same manner: all the people in his (the emperor’s) dominions.” — Campbell. The chief, if not the only objection to this sense of the expression is, the silence of historians. But what Grotius observes, greatly lessens the force of that objection; “I do not so understand the evangelist,” says he, “as if a census were made through the whole Roman world, at one and the same time; but when Augustus wished thoroughly to know the whole power of the Roman empire, he appointed a census to be made through all the kingdoms and provinces subject to it, at one time in one part, and at another in another. Thus Dion, επεμψεν αλλους αλλη, τα τε των ιδιωτων και τα των πολεων απογραψομενους, he sent some persons one way and some another, who might take an account of the property, as well of private persons as of cities. Of the census made through Gaul by order of Augustus, Claudius, in an oration which is preserved at Ancyra, the abbreviator of Livy, and Dio, have made mention.”
Should be taxed — Greek, απογραφεσθαι, enrolled: that is, that all the inhabitants, male and female, of every town in the Roman empire, with their families and estates, should be registered. Many of the modern translations, particularly those into Italian, French, and English, have rendered the word taxed: and as registers were commonly made with a view to taxing, it may, no doubt, in many cases, be so rendered with sufficient propriety: but, “as in this place there is some difficulty, it is better to adhere strictly to the import of the words. For though it was commonly for the purpose of taxing that a register was made, it was not always, or necessarily so; and in the present case we have ground to believe that there was no immediate view to taxation, at least with respect to Judea. Herod, called the Great, was then alive, and king of the country, and though in subordination to the Romans, of whom he may justly be said to have held his crown, yet, as they allowed him all the honours of royalty, there is no ground to think that, either in his lifetime, or before the banishment of his son Archelaus, the Romans levied any toll or tribute from the people of Judea. Nay, we have the testimony of Josephus, that they did not till after the expulsion of Archelaus, when the country was annexed to Syria, and so became part of a Roman province.” — Campbell. The reader will observe, such a census, or account, as that here spoken of, “used to be taken of the citizens of Rome every fifth year, and they had officers on purpose appointed for it, called censors. Their business was to take an account, and make a register, of all the Roman citizens, their wives and children, with the age, qualities, trades, offices, and estates of them all. Augustus first extended this to the provinces. He was then at work on the composure of such a book, containing such a survey and description of the whole Roman empire, as that which our Doomsday-book doth of England. In order whereto, his decree for this survey was made to extend to the depending kingdoms, as well as the provinces of the empire: — however, taxes were only paid by the people of the provinces to the Romans; and those of the dependant kingdoms to their own proper princes, who paid their tributes to the Roman emperors. Three times during his reign he caused the like description to be made. The second is that which St. Luke refers to. The decree concerning it was issued out three years before that in which Christ was born. So long had the taking of this survey been carrying on through Syria, Cœlo-Syria, Phœnicia, and Judea, before it came to Bethlehem. No payment of any tax was made (on this survey) till the twelfth year after. Till then Herod, and after him Archelaus his son, reigned in Judea. But when Archelaus was deposed, and Judea put under the command of a Roman procurator, then first were taxes paid to the Romans for that country.” — Prideaux.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21 In those days - About the time of the…
In those days - About the time of the birth of John and of Christ.
A decree - A law commanding a thing to be done.
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Caesar Augustus - This was the Roman emperor. His first name was Octavianus. He was the nephew of Julius Caesar, and obtained the empire after his death. He took the name “Augustus - i. e., august,” or honorable - as a compliment to his own greatness; and from him the month “August,” which was before called “Sextilis,” received its name.
That all the world - There has been much difficulty respecting this passage, from the fact that no such taxing of “all the world” is mentioned by ancient writers. It should have been rendered “the whole land” - that is, the whole land of Palestine. The “whole land” is mentioned to show that it was not “Judea” only, but that it included also “Galilee,” the place where Joseph and Mary dwelt. That the passage refers only to the land of Palestine, and not to the whole world, or to all the Roman empire, is clear from the following considerations:
The fact that no such taxing is mentioned as pertaining to any other country. The account of Luke demands only that it should be understood of Palestine, or the country where the Saviour was born. The words “world” and “whole world” are not unfrequently used in this limited sense as confined to a single country.
See Mat 4:8, where Satan is said to have shown to Christ all the kingdoms of “the world,” that is, of the land of Judea. See also Jos 2:3; Luk 4:25 (Greek); Luk 21:26; Act 11:28.
Should be taxed - Our word “tax” means to levy and raise money for the use of the government. This is not the meaning of the original word here. It means rather to “enroll,” or take a “list” of the citizens, with their employments, the amount of their property, etc., equivalent to what was meant by census. Judea was at that time tributary to Rome. It paid taxes to the Roman emperor; and, though Herod was “king,” yet he held his appointment under the Roman emperor, and was subject in most matters to him. Farther, as this “enrollment” was merely to ascertain the numbers and property of the Jews, it is probable that they were very willing to be enrolled in this manner; and hence we hear that they went willingly, without tumult - contrary to the common way when they were “to be taxed.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21 By the whole world, is understood the Roman empire.…
By the whole world, is understood the Roman empire. (Witham) --- This decree was promulgated in the 752d year of Rome, in the 3970th year of the world, and the 42d year of the reign of Augustus, when there was universal peace, and the temple of Janus remained shut for 12 years. (Jansenius, concord. Evan.) --- It was the custom among the Jews to be numbered according to their tribes and families. Hence arose the necessity of the journey of the Holy Family to Nazareth [to Bethlehem?]. This enrolment probably included the number, as well as the property of each family, that the taxes might be proportioned. (Jansenius, concord. Evan.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Luke Chapter 2
Luke Chapter 2
In the next chapter (2) the scene changes. Instead of the relations of God with Israel according to grace, we see first the pagan emperor of the world-the head of Daniel’s last empire-exercising his power in Emmanuel’s land, and over the people of God, as though God did not know them. Nevertheless we are still in presence of the birth of the Son of David, of Emmanuel Himself; but He is outwardly under the power of the head of the beast, of a pagan empire. What a strange state of things is brought in by sin! Take special notice however that we have grace here: it is the intervention of God which makes all this manifest. Connected with it are some other circumstances which it is well to observe. When the interests and the glory of Jesus are in question, all this power-which governs without the fear of God, which reigns, seeking its own glory, in the place where Christ should reign-all the imperial glory is but an instrument in the hands of God for the fulfilment of His counsels. As to the public fact, we find the Roman emperor exercising despotic and pagan authority in the place where the throne of God should have been, if the sin of the people had not made it impossible.
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The emperor will have all the world registered, and every one goes to his own city. The power of the world is set in motion, and that by an act which proves its supremacy over those who, as the people of God, should have been free from all but the immediate government of their God, which was their glory-an act which proves the complete degradation and servitude of the people. They are slaves, in their bodies and in their possessions, to the heathen, because of their sins (see Neh 9:36-37). But this act only accomplishes the marvellous purpose of God, causing the Saviour-king to be born in the village where, according to the testimony of God, that event was to take place. And, more than that, the divine Person, who was to excite the joy and the praises of heaven, is born among men, Himself a child in this world.
The state of things in Israel and in the world, is the supremacy of the Gentiles and the absence of the throne of God. The Son of man, the Saviour, God manifested in the flesh, comes to take His place-a place which grace alone could find or take in a world that knew Him not.
This registration is so much the more remarkable, in that, as soon as the purpose of God was accomplished, it was carried no farther; that is to say, not till afterwards, under the government of Cyrenius. [4] The Son of God is born in this world, but He finds no place there. The world is at home, or at least by its resources it finds a place, in the inn; it becomes a kind of measure of man’s place in, and reception by, the world; the Son of God finds none, save in the manger. Is it for nothing that the Holy Ghost records this circumstance? No. There is no room for God, and that which is of God, in this world. So much the more perfect therefore is the love that brought Him down to earth. But He began in a manger and ended on the cross, and along the way had not where to lay His head. The Son of God-a child, partaking in all the weakness and all the circumstances of human life, thus manifested-appears in the world. [5] But if God comes into this world, and if a manger receives Him, in the nature He had taken in grace, the angels are occupied with the event on which depends the fate of the whole universe, and the accomplishment of all the counsels of God; for He has chosen weak things to confound things that are mighty. This poor infant is the object of all the counsels of God, the upholder and heir of the whole creation, the Saviour of all who shall inherit glory and eternal life.
Some poor men who were faithfully performing their toilsome labours, afar from the restless activity of an ambitious and sinful world, receive the first tidings of the Lord’s presence on earth. The God of Israel did not seek for the great among His people, but had respect to the poor of the flock. Two things here present themselves. The angel who comes to the shepherds of Judea announces to them the fulfilment of the promises of God to Israel. The choir of angels celebrate in their heavenly chorus of praise all the real import of this wondrous event.
“Unto you,” says the heavenly messenger who visits the poor shepherds, “is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” This was proclaiming good tidings to them and to all the people. [6] But in the birth of the Son of man, God manifest in the flesh, the accomplishment of the incarnation had far deeper importance than this. The fact that this poor infant was there, disallowed and left (humanly speaking) to its fate by the world, was (as understood by the heavenly intelligences, the multitude of the heavenly host, whose praises resounded at the angel’s message to the shepherds) “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good pleasure [of God] in men.” These few words embrace such widely extended thoughts, that it is difficult to speak suitably of them in a work like this; but some remarks are necessary. First, it is deeply blessed to see that the thought of Jesus excludes all that could oppress the heart in the scene which surrounded His presence on earth. Sin, alas! was there. It was manifested by the position in which this wondrous infant was found. But if sin had placed Him there, grace had placed Him there. Grace superabounds; and in thinking of Him, blessing, grace, the mind of God respecting sin, that which God is, as manifested by the presence of Christ, absorb the mind and possess the heart, and are the heart’s true relief in a world like this. We see grace alone; and sin does but magnify the fulness, the sovereignty, the perfection of that grace. God, in His glorious dealings, blots out the sin with respect to which He acts, and which He thus exhibits in all its deformity; but there is that which “much more aboundeth.” Jesus, come in grace, fills the heart. It is the same thing in all the details of Christian life. It is the true source of moral power, of sanctification, and of joy.
We see next, that there are three things brought out by the presence of Jesus born as a child on the earth. First, glory to God in the highest. The love of God-His wisdom-His power (not in creating a universe out of nothing, but in rising above the evil, and turning the effect of all the enemy’s power into an occasion of shewing that this power was only impotence and folly in presence of that which may be called “the weakness of God”)-the fulfilment of His eternal counsels-the perfection of His ways where evil had come in-the manifestation of Himself amidst the evil in such a manner as to glorify Himself before the angels: in a word, God had so manifested Himself by the birth of Jesus, that the hosts of heaven, long familiar with His power, could raise their chorus, “Glory to God in the highest!” and every voice unites in sounding forth these praises. What love like this love? and God is love. What a purely divine thought, that God has become man! What supremacy of good over evil! What wisdom in drawing nigh to the heart of man and the heart of man back to Him! What fitness in addressing man! What maintenance of the holiness of God! What nearness to the heart of man, what participation in his wants, what experience of his condition! But beyond all, God above the evil in grace, and in that grace visiting this defiled world to make Himself known as He had never yet been known!
The second effect of the presence of Him who manifested God on the earth is, that peace should be there. Rejected-His name should be an occasion of strife; but the heavenly choir are occupied with the fact of His presence, and with the result, when fully produced of the consequences, wrapped up in the Person of Him who was there (looked at in their proper fruits), and they celebrate these consequences. Manifested evil should disappear; His holy rule should banish all enmity and violence. Jesus, mighty in love, should reign, and impart the character in which He had come to the whole scene that should surround Him in the world He came into, that it might be according to His heart who took delight therein (Pro 8:31). [7] See, as regards a smaller scale, Psa 85:10, Psa 11:1-7. The means of this-redemption, the destruction of Satan’s power, the reconciliation of man by faith, and of all things in heaven and earth with God-are not here pointed out. Everything depended on the Person and presence of Him who was born. All was wrapped up in Him. The state of blessing was born in the birth of that child.
Presented to the responsibility of man, man is unable to profit by it, and all fails. His position thereby becomes only so much the worse.
But, grace and blessing being attached to the Person of Him just born, all their consequences necessarily flow forth After all it was the intervention of God accomplishing the counsel of His love, the settled purpose of His good pleasure. And, Jesus once there, the consequences could not fail: whatever interruption there might be to their fulfilment, Jesus was their surety. He was come into the world. He contained in His Person, He was the expression of, all these consequences The presence of the Son of God in the midst of sinners said to all spiritual intelligence, “Peace on the earth.”
The third thing was the good pleasure [8]-the affection of God-in men. Nothing more simple, since Jesus was a man He had not taken hold of angels. It was a glorious testimony that the affection, the good pleasure, of God was centred in this poor race, now far from Him, but in which He was pleased to accomplish all His glorious counsels. So in John
1 the life was the light of men.
In a word, it was the power of God present in grace in the Person of the Son of God taking part in the nature, and interesting Himself in the lot, of a being who had departed from Him, and making him the sphere of the accomplishment of all His counsels, and of the manifestation of His grace and His nature to all His creatures. What a position for man! for it is indeed in man that all this is accomplished. The whole universe was to learn in man, and in what God therein was for man, that which God was in Himself, and the fruit of all His glorious counsels, as well as its complete rest in His presence, according to His nature of love. All this was implied in the birth of that child of whom the world took no notice. Natural and marvellous subject of praise to the holy inhabitants of heaven, unto whom God had made it known! It was glory to God in the highest.
Faith was in exercise in those simple Israelites to whom the angel of the Lord was sent; and they rejoiced in the blessing fulfilled before their eyes, and which verified the grace that God had shewn in announcing it to them. The word, “as it was told unto them,” adds its testimony of grace to all that we enjoy by the lovingkindness of God.
The child receives the name of Jesus on the day of His circumcision, according to Jewish custom (see Luk 1:59), but according to the counsels and revelations of God, communicated by the angels of His power. Moreover everything was performed according to the law; for historically we find ourselves still in connection with Israel. He who was born of a woman was born under the law.
The condition of poverty in which Jesus was born is also shewn by the sacrifice offered for the purification of His mother.
But another point is here made prominent by the Holy Ghost, insignificant as He may apparently be who gave occasion to it.
Jesus is recognised by the godly remnant of Israel, so far as the Holy Ghost acts in them. He becomes a touchstone for every soul in Israel. The condition of the remnant taught by the Holy Ghost (that is, of those who had taken the position of the remnant) was this: They were sensible of the misery and ruin of Israel, but waited upon the God of Israel, trusting to His unchangeable faithfulness for the consolation of His people. They still said: How long? And God was with this remnant. He had made known to those who thus trusted in His mercy the coming of the promised One, who was to be the fulfilment of this mercy to Israel.
Thus, in presence of the oppression of the Gentiles, and of the iniquity of a people who were ripening or rather ripened in evil, the remnant who trust in God do not lose that which, as we saw in the preceding chapter, belonged to Israel. In the midst of Israel’s misery they had for their consolation that which promise and prophecy had declared for Israel’s glory.
The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he should not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. That was the consolation, and it was great. It was contained in the Person of Jesus the Saviour, without going farther into the details of the manner or the time of the accomplishment of Israel’s deliverance.
Simeon loved Israel; he could depart in peace, since God had blessed Him according to the desires of faith. The joy of faith ever dwells on the Lord and on His people, but sees, in the relationship that exists between them, all the extent of that which gives rise to this joy. Salvation, the deliverance of God, was come in Christ. It was for the revelation of the Gentiles, till then hidden in the darkness of ignorance without a revelation; and for the glory of Israel, the people of God. This indeed is the fruit of the government of God in Christ, that is to say, the millennium. But if the Spirit revealed to this pious and faithful servant of the God of Israel the future which depended on the presence of the Son of God, He revealed to him that he held the Saviour Himself in his arms; thus giving him present peace, and such a sense of the favour of God that death lost its terrors. It was not a knowledge of the work of Jesus acting on an enlightened and convicted conscience; but it was the fulfilment of the promises to Israel, the possession of the Saviour, and the proof of the favour of God, so that the peace which flowed from thence filled his soul. There were the three things: the prophecy that announced the coming of Christ, the possession of Christ, and the effect of His presence in the whole world. We are here in connection with the remnant of Israel, and consequently find nothing of the church and of purely heavenly things. The rejection comes afterwards. Here it is all that belongs to the remnant, in the way of blessing, through the presence of Jesus. His work is not the present subject.
What a beautiful picture, and what a testimony rendered to this child, by the manner in which through the power of the Holy Ghost He filled the heart of this holy man at the close of his earthly life! Observe also what communications are made to this feeble remnant, unknown amid the darkness that covered the people. But the testimony of this holy man of God (and how sweet it is to think how many of these souls, full of grace and of communion with the Lord, have flourished in the shade, unknown to men, but well known to and beloved of God; souls who, when they appear, coming out of their retreat according to His will in testimony to Christ, bear so blessed a witness to a work of God which is carried on in spite of all that man is doing, and behind the painful and embittered scene that is unfolding on the earth!), Simeon’s testimony here, was more than the expression of the deeply interesting thoughts which had filled his heart in communion between himself and God. This knowledge of Christ and of the thoughts of God respecting Him, which is developed in secret between God and the soul, gives understanding of the effect produced by the manifestation to the world of Him who is its object. The Spirit speaks of it by the mouth of Simeon. In his previous words we received the declaration of the sure fulfilment of God’s counsels in the Messiah, the joy of his own heart. Now it is the effect of the presentation of Jesus, as the Messiah to Israel on the earth, which is described. Whatever may have been the power of God in Christ for blessing, He put the heart of man to the test. He should thus be, by revealing the thoughts of many hearts (for He was light), and so much the more that He was humbled in a world of pride, an occasion of falling to many, and the means of rising to many from their low and degraded condition. Mary herself, although the mother of the Messiah, should have her own soul pierced through by a sword; for her child should be rejected, the natural relationship of the Messiah to the people broken and disallowed. This contradiction of sinners against the Lord laid all hearts bare as to their desires, their hopes, and their ambition, whatever forms of piety might be assumed.
Such was the testimony rendered in Israel to the Messiah, according to the action of the Spirit of God upon the remnant, amid the bondage and misery of that people: the full accomplishment of the counsels of God towards Israel, and towards the world through Israel, for joy of heart to the faithful who had trusted in these promises, but for a test at that moment to every heart by means of a Messiah who was a sign spoken against. The counsels of God and the heart of man were revealed in Him.
Malachi had said that those who feared the Lord in the evil days, when the proud were called happy, should often speak together. This time had arrived in Israel. From Malachi to the birth of Jesus, there was but the passage of Israel from misery to pride-a pride moreover that was dawning even in the days of the prophet. That which he said of the remnant was also being accomplished; they “spake together.” We see that they knew each other, in this lovely picture of God’s hidden people: “She spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Israel.” Anna, a holy widow, who departed not from the temple, and who deeply felt the misery of Israel, had besieged the throne of God with a widowed heart, for a people to whom God was no longer a husband, who were really widowed like herself, and she now makes known to all who pondered on these things together, that the Lord had visited His temple. They had looked for redemption in Jerusalem; and now the Redeemer-unknown of men-was there. What a subject of joy to this poor remnant! What an answer to their faith!
But Jerusalem was not after all the place in which God visited the remnant of His people, but the seat of pride of those who said “the temple of the Lord.” And Joseph and Mary, having performed all that which the law required, return with the child Jesus to take their place together with Him in the despised spot which should give Him its name, and in those regions where the despised remnant, the poor of the flock, had more their place, and where the testimony of God had announced that the light should appear.
There His early days were spent in the physical and mental growth of the true humanity which He had assumed. Simple and precious testimony! But He was not less conscious, when the time was come for speaking to men, of His real relationship to His Father. The two things are united in that which is said at the end of the chapter. In the development of His humanity is manifested the Son of God on earth. Joseph and Mary, who (while marvelling at all that happened to Him) did not thoroughly know by faith His glory, blame the child according to the position in which He formally stood towards them. But this gives occasion to the manifestation of another character of perfection in Jesus. If He was the Son of God and had the full consciousness of it, He was also the obedient man, essentially and ever perfect and sinless-an obedient child, whatever sense He also had of another relationship unconnected in itself with subjection to human parents. Consciousness of the one did not injure His perfection in the other. His being the Son of God secured His perfection as a man and a child on the earth.
But there is another important thing to remark here; it is, that this position had nothing to do with His being anointed with the Holy Ghost. He fulfilled, no doubt, the public ministry which He afterwards entered on according to the power and the perfection of that anointing; but His relationship to His Father belonged to His Person itself. The bond existed between Him and His Father. He was fully conscious of it, whatever might be the means or the form of its public manifestation, and of the power of His ministry. He was all that a child ought to be; but it was the Son of God who was so. His relationship to His Father was as well known to Him, as His obedience to Joseph and to His mother was beautiful, becoming, and perfect.
Here we close this touching and divine history of the birth and early days of the divine Saviour, the Son of man. It is impossible to have anything more profoundly interesting. Henceforward it is in His ministry, in His public life, that we shall find Him, rejected of men, but accomplishing the counsels and the work of God; separate from all, in order to do this in the power of the Holy Ghost, given to Him without measure, to fulfil that course with which nothing can be compared, with respect to which it would be lowering the truth to call it interesting. It is the centre and the means, including His death, His offering Himself without spot to God-and the only possible means-of all relationship between our souls and God; the perfection of the manifestation of His grace, and the foundation of all relationship between any creature and Himself.
Footnotes for Luke Chapter 2
4: I have no doubt that the only right translation of this passage is, “The census itself was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.” The Holy Ghost notes this circumstance to shew that, when once the purpose of God was accomplished, the decree was not historically carried out till afterwards. A great deal of learning has been spent on what I believe to be simple and clear in the text.
5: That is to say, as an infant. He did not appear, like the first Adam, coming out, in His perfection, from the hand of God. He is born of a woman, the Son of man, which Adam was not.
6: “All the people” (not, as in the Authorised Version, “all people”).
7: This quotation leads to a glorious apprehension, both of what was then doing, and of our blessing. The special interest of God is in the sons of men; wisdom (Christ is the wisdom of God) daily Jehovah’s delight, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth, before creation,so that it was counsel, and His delight in the sons of men. His incarnation is the full proof of this. In Matthew we have our Lord, when He takes His place with the remnant as this is, fully revealed, and it is in the Son’s taking this place as man and being anointed of the Holy Ghost, that the whole Trinity is fully revealed. This is a wonderful unfolding of God’s ways.
8: This is the same word as when it is said of Christ, “In whom I am well pleased.” It is beautiful to see the unjealous celebration, by these holy beings, of the advancement of another race to this exalted place by the incarnation of the Word. It was God’s glory, and that sufficed them. This is very beautiful.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 13, 21
SECOND SECTION
THE HISTORY OF THE NATIVITY
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Luk_2:1-20
A. The highest Gift of Heaven. Luk_2:1-7
(Luk_2:1-14, the Gospel for Christmas.)
1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree [or edict, δόγμα] from Cæsar Augustus, that all the [Roman] world should be taxed [registered, enrolled].1 2(And this taxing [enrolment, ἀπογραφή]2 was first [the first, πρώτη]3 made when Cyrenius 3[Quirinius]4 was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed [enrolled], every one into [to] his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage [family, πατριᾶς] of David), 5To be taxed [enrolled] with Mary his espoused [betrothed] wife5 being great with child. 6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling-clothes [bands], and laid him in a manger;6 because there was no room for them in the inn.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_2:1. In those days.—Shortly after the date of John’s birth. Comp. Luk_1:36.
All the world.—ΙΙ ᾶσαἡ οἰκου μένη denotes not merely the country of the Jews, but the whole Roman empire (orbis terrarum); and the enrolling (ἀπογρὰφεσθαι) was undertaken to obtain a registry of the inhabitants of the country, and of their respective possessions, whether for the purpose of levying a poll-tax, or of recruiting the army.
Luk_2:2. The registering itself took place as the first, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.7—The difficulties found in this remark of Luke, and the various efforts which have been made to solve this chronological enigma, are well known. (See among others, Winer, in voce, Quirinius, Real-wörterbuch, ii. 292 ff.)
[The difficulties are found in the following statements:
1. That the emperor Augustus ordered a general census throughout the empire (Luk_2:1). But it is certain from heathen authorities that Augustus ordered at least three times, A. U. 726, 746, and 767, a census populi, and also that he prepared himself a breviarium totius imperii, which was read, after his death, in the Roman senate. Comp. the Monumentum Ancyranum; Tacitus, Annal. 1, 11; Sueton. Octav. 28, 101. The census of 726 and that of 767 can not be meant by Luke; that of 746 may be the same, but it seems to have been confined to the cives Romani. It is more probable that the census here spoken of was connected with the breviarium totius imperii, in which was noted also quantum sociorum (including King Herod) in armis.
2. That a Roman census was ordered for Judæa at the time of Christ’s birth (Luk_2:3), i.e., during the reign of Herod the Great and before Palestine became a Roman province (A. U. 759). But Herod was a rex socius, who had to pay tribute to the Romans; and, then, this census may have been ordered not so much for taxation, as for statistical and military purposes to make out a full estimate of the whole strength of the empire. The same object is contemplated in the decennial census of the United States.
3. That Luke assigns the census here spoken of to the period of the presidency of Quirinus (Cyrenius) over Syria, while, according to Josephus, Antiq. xvii. cap. 13, § 5; xviii. 1, 1, this Quirinus became governor of Syria after the deposition of Archelaus and the annexation of Judæa to Syria, A. U. 758 or 760, that is about eight or ten years after Christ’s birth, which preceded Herod’s death in 750 A. U. (According to the isolated, and hence unreliable, statement of Tertullian, Adv. Marc. iv. 19, Christ was born when Q. Saturninus was governor of Syria.) I shall give the passage of Josephus in full, that the reader may judge better of the nature of the difficulty and the attempts to solve it.
(Antiq. xvii. Luke 13, §5): “So Archelaus’s country was laid to the province of Syria; and Quirinius(Cyrenius), who had been consul was sent by Cæsar to take account of the people’s effects in Syria, and to sell the house of Archelaus. (B. xviii. ch. i § 1.) Now Quirinius, 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, being sent by Cæsar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance. Coponius, also, a man of the equestrain order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover,Quirinius came himself into Judæa, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus’s money. But the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further oppositon to it, by the persuasion of Joazer, who was the son of Bœthus, and highpriest; so they being over-persuaded by Joazer’s words, gave an account of their estates, withouth any dispute about it. Yet was there one judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Saddiuk, a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who both said, that this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert tgeir liberty, as if they could procure them happiness and socurity for what they possessed, and assured enjoyment of a still greater good, which was that of the honor and glory they would thereby acquire for magnanimity.”
The census of Quirinius here described by Josephus, is evidently the same to which Luke alludes in Act_5:37 : “After this man arose Judas the Galilean, in the days of the enrolment (ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ἀπογραφῆς), and drew away much people after him,” etc. Josephus calls this rebellious Judas a Gaulonite because he was of Gamala in Lower Gaulanitis; but in Antiq. xx. 5, 2 and De Bello Jud. ii. 8, 1 he calls him likewise a Γαλιλαῖος. In regard to this census, then, the Jewish historian entirely confirms the statement of the sacred historian.
But now the trouble is to find room for another census in Palestine under the superintendence of the same Quirinius and at the time of Christ’s birth. This is the real and the only difficulty, and has given rise to various solutions, which are noticed below.
Besides the article of Winer to which Dr. van Oosterzee refers, the following authorities may be consulted on this vexed question: Philipp Eduard Huschke (a learned lawyer of Breslau): Ueber den zur Zeit Christi gehaltenen Census, 1840. Tholuck: Glaubwürdigkeit der evang. Geschichte. Wieseler: Chronologische Synopse, pp. 73–122. Henry Browne: Ordo Sœclorum, Lond. 1844, pp. 40–49. Fr.. Bleek: Synoptische Erklärung der drei ersten Evangelien, 1862, p. 67 ff. A. W. Zumpt: De Syria Romanorum provincia, &.c, 1854 (pp. 88–125). R. Bergmann: De inscriptione latina, ad P. Sulpicium Quirinium referenda, Berol. 1851. H. Gerlach: Die röm. Statthalter in Syrien u. Judäa von 69 a. C. bis 69 P. C. Berl. 1865, p. 22. H. Lutteroth: Le recensement de Quirinius en Judée, Par. 1865.—P. S.]
We reject as inadmissible: 1. The attempt to remove the difficulty in a critical way, whether by rejecting the whole verse as an erroneous gloss (as Venema, Valckenaer, Kuinoel, Olshausen, and others), or by altering the well-supported reading as by the omission of the article (with Lachmann). 2. The conjecture, that Quirinius instituted this census, not as ordinary Proconsul of Syria, but as extraordinary legatus Cœsaris;8 for, in this case, Luke would certainly have employed another word than ἡγεμονεύειν. 3. The explanation, that this enrolment took place before Quirinius was governor of Syria (Tholuck and Wieseler). Luke writes better Greek than to use πρώτη in the sense of προτέρα.9 4. The evasion, that ἀπογραφή means registration as well as taxation (Ebrard), and that the former took place now, the latter eleven years after under Quirinius. 5. Entirely arbitrary and gratuitous is the supposition of Schleiermacher, that it was merely a priestly taxing that took the parents of Jesus to Bethlehem, which Luke incorrectly confounds with the Roman census.
Setting these aside, we believe we may render the passage thus: the taxing itself was made, for the first time, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. With Paulus, Lange, and others, we read αύτή for αὓτη; a reading which no one can deem inadmissible, who considers that Luke himself wrote without accents. We believe that the Evangelist inserts this remark, to distinguish the decree for the enrolment, which brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, from the enrolment itself, which was not carried into execution till several years later. From the mention of the governor of Syria and Judæa it is evident that Luk_2:2 speaks of the enrolment in the country of Judæa, while Luk_2:1 refers to the enrolment of the whole Roman empire. Nothing prevents us from supposing that the ἀπογραφή was really ordered and begun at the birth of Christ, but was interrupted in Judæa for a time by the death of Herod, and the political changes consequent on that event, and subsequently resumed and carried out with greater energy under Cyrenius, so that it might rightly be said to have been made, or completed, when he was governor.10 The remark of Luke, that this taxing was the first that was made in Judæa, is no doubt designed to make prominent the fact that the birth of Jesus occurred just at the time when the deepest humiliation of the Jewish nation by the Romans had begun. Perhaps also in the fact that our Lord should, so soon after His birth, have been enrolled as a Roman subject, he may have discovered a trace of that universality which characterizes his Gospel.
Thus viewed, the account of Luke contains nothing that compels us to charge him with a mistake of memory, in so public and important a fact. Had he not investigated everything from the beginning (Luk_1:1-3), and does he not show (Act_5:37) an accurate acquaintance with the taxing which took place eleven [ten] years later, and was the cause of so many disorders? The decree of Augustus was not improbable in itself; and from the account of Tacitus (Ann. i. 11) it may be inferred, that it was actually promulgated. For he tells us, that after the death of Augustus, Tiberius caused a statistic account, in the handwriting of Augustus, to be read in the senate, in which, among other particulars, were stated the revenue and expenditure of the nation, and the military force of the citizens and allies. Now, Augustus could not have obtained such information concerning Judæa without an ἀπογραφή, nor is it at all inconceivable, that the territory even of an ally, such as Herod was, should have been subjected to so arbitrary a measure. It appears also from Josephus (Ant. Jud. xvi. 4, 1; xvii. 5–8, 11), that Herod was not at all indulged at Rome, but was regarded with a considerable measure of disfavor, and perhaps the enrolment could be affected in a milder manner in the dominions of an ally, than among the inhabitants of a conquered province. The monumentum Ancyranum at all events, proves, that in the year 746 A. U. C. an enrolment of Roman citizens took place, and that, therefore, such enrolments were by no means uncommon in the days of Augustus. The notices of this enrolment by Cassiodorus (Var. iii. 52) and Suidas (in voce, ἀπογραφή) prove less, since both these authors, being Christians, might have drawn their information from Luke. But the silence of Josephus, concerning this whole transaction, may easily be accounted for, especially if we allow that the enrolment was indeed begun under Herod, but not at once completed. Suetonius speaks but very briefly of the whole period; while in Dion Cassius we find no notice at all of the history of the five years preceding the Christian era. They cannot, therefore, be cited as evidence against Luke; and we should certainly be mistaken in supposing, that the complete imperial δόγμα was, in all places, immediately complied with, as if by magic. Should any feel, however, that all these considerations fail to remove the existing difficulties, we can only advise them to assign such data to the ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσι, in which the great treasure of the gospel is deposited.
[There is another and better solution of the chronological difficulty which should be mentioned, viz., the assumption that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria, once three years before Christ down to the birth of Christ (A. U. 750–753), and once about 6–11 after the birth of Christ (760). A double legation of Quirinius in Syria has recently been made almost certain by purely antiquarian researches from two independent testimonies, viz.: 1. From a passage in Tacitus, Annales, iii. 48, as interpreted by A. W. Zumpt: De Syria Romanorum provincia ab Cœsare Augusto ad T. Vespasianum (Comment. Epigraph. ad antiq. Rom. pert. Berl. 1854, vol. ii. pp. 88–.25), and approved by Mommsen: Res gestœ divi Augusti, pp. 121–124; comp. also Zumpt’s recent article in Hengstenberg’s Evang. Kirchenzeitung for Oct. 14, 1865 (against Strauss: Die Halben und die Ganzen). 2. From an old monumental inscription discovered between the Villa Hadriani and the Via Tiburtina, and first published at Florence, 1765, and more correctly by Th. Mommsen, 1851, which must be referred, not to Saturninus (as is done by Zumpt), but to Quirinius (according to the celebrated antiquarians, Mommsen and Bergmann), and which plainly teaches a second governorship in these words: Proconsul Asiam provinciam ob[tinuit legatus] Divi Augusti iterum [i.e., again, a second time] Syriam et Ph[œnicem administravit or obtinuit]. Comp. Rich. Bergmann: De inscriptione latina, ad P. Sulpicium Quirinium, Cos. a. 742 U. C., ut videtur, referenda, Berol. 1851, together with a votum of Mommsen, ibid. pp. iv.–vii.; also Herm. Gerlach: Die rŏmischen Statthalter in Syrien und Judäa von 69 vor Chr. bis 69 nach Chr. Berl. 1865, p. 22 ff. We hold, then, to a double census under Quirinius: the first (πρὼτη) took place during his first Syrian governorship, and probably in connection with a general census of the whole empire (the breviarium totius imperii), including the dominion of Herod as a rex socius, and this is the one intended by Luke in our passage; while the second took place several years afterwards, during his second governorship, and had reference only to Palestine, with the view to fix its tribute after it had become a direct Roman province (A. U. 759), and this is the census mentioned in Act_5:37, and Josephus, in Antiq. xvii. 1, § 1. It is certain that Augustus held at least three census populi of the empire.—P. S.]
Luk_2:4. Joseph also went up.—The usual expression for going from Galilee to the much more elevated region of Jerusalem. The enrolment would naturally take place in Judæa, in consideration of the claims of nationality. The policy of Rome, as well as the religious scruples of the Jews, demanded it. For this reason, each went to be registered, every one to his ancestral city; though, in other cases, the Romish census might he taken either according to the place of residence or the forum originis. Bethlehem.—Comp. the remarks of Lange on Mat_2:1.
Luk_2:5. With Mary.—The conjecture that Mary was an heiress (Olshausen and others) who had possessions in Bethlehem, and was obliged to appear there to represent an extinct family, cannot be proved, and is also unnecessary. Undoubtedly, according to the Roman custom, women could be enrolled without their personal appearance; nor did the Jewish practice require their presence. But if no edict obliged Mary to travel to Bethlehem, neither did any forbid her accompanying her husband; and her love for the city of David seems to have overcome all difficulties. Would not a contemplative spirit like hers, perceive that the δόγμα of Cæsar Augustus was but an instrument, in the hand of Providence, to fulfil the prophecy of Micah (Luk_5:1), with respect to the birth-place of Messiah; and now that all was cleared up between her and Joseph, could she have been willing to await the hour of her delivery alone in Galilee, while he was obliged to travel into Judæa?
Luk_2:7. In a manger.—Probably some cave or grotto used for sheltering cattle, and perhaps belonging to the same shepherds to whom the “glad tidings” were first brought. Justin Martyr, in his Dial. c. Tryph., speaks of a σπηλαῖον σύνεγγυς τῆς κώμης. Compare also Origen, Contra Cels. 1, 55. At all events, even if this tradition be unfounded, it cannot be proved that it arose from a misunderstanding of Isa_33:16. In any case, it deserves more credit than the account in the Protevangelium of James, Luke 18, and Hist. de nativit. Mariœ, Luke 13, that during her journey the time of Mary’s delivery arrived, and that she was obliged to seek refuge in this cave. Luke, on the contrary, gives us reason to conclude that she had arrived at Bethlehem, and sought, though in vain, a shelter in the κατάλυμα. It is not probable that the φάτνη formed part of the caravanserai; nor can we agree with Calvin’s view, that descendants of the royal race were designedly harshly and inhospitably treated by Roman officials. It is more likely that Mary and Joseph would not, in their state of poverty, be thought worth the distinction of any special mortification.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The days of Herod form the centre of the world’s history. Every review of the state of the Jewish and heathen world at the time of Christ’s birth, confirms the truth of the remark of St. Paul, ὅτε δὲ ἦλθεν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου, κ.τ.λ., Gal_4:4.
2. As the time of Herod is the turning-point between the old and new dispensations, so is it also the most brilliant period in the revelations of God. God, man, and the God-Man, are never presented to us under a brighter light.
3. God manifests all His attributes in sending His Son: His power, in making Mary became a mother through the operation of the Holy Ghost; His wisdom, in the choice of the time, place, and circumstances; His faithfulness, in the fulfilment of the word of prophecy (Mic_5:1); His holiness, in hiding the miracle from the eyes of an unbelieving world; and especially His love and grace (Joh_3:16). But, at the same time, we see how different, and how infinitely higher, are His ways and thoughts than ours. His dealings with His chosen ones seem obscure to our finite apprehension, when we see that she who was most blessed of all women, finds less rest than any other. God brings His counsel to pass in silence, without leaving the threads of the web in mortal hands. Apparently, an arbitrary decree decides where Christ is to be born. Still, when carefully viewed, a bright side is not wanting to the picture. God as the Almighty carries out His plan through the free acts of men; and without his knowledge Augustus is an official agent in the kingdom of God.
4. Man also manifests himself at the birth of the Lord: his nothingness in the midst of earthly greatness is shown in Cæsar Augustus; his high rank and destiny in the midst of earthly meanness, in Mary and Joseph.
5. The God-Man, who here lies before us as a πρωτότοκος, is at the same time the absolute miracle and the most inestimable benefit. God and man, the old and new covenants, heaven and earth, meet in a poor manger.
“Den aller Weltkreis nie beschloss
Der liegt hier in Mariens Schooss,” etc.
He who, either secretly or openly, denies this truth, can never understand the significance of the Christmas festival—perhaps never experience the true Christmas joy. The denial of the divinity of Christ by the Rationalist preacher is annually punished at the return of every Christmas celebration.11
6. When we are once convinced who it is that came, the manner in which He came becomes a manifestation not only of the love of the Father, but also of the grace of the Son. 2Co_8:9.
The lowly birth of the Saviour of the world coincides exactly with the nature of His kingdom. The origin of this kingdom was not of earth; its fundamental law was to deny self, and for love to serve others; its end, to become great through abasement, and to triumph by conflict: all this is here exhibited before our eyes as in compendio.
7. The more our astonishment is excited by the miracle of the incarnation, the more must we be struck by the infinite simplicity—we could almost say barrenness, and chronicle-like style—of St. Luke’s account of it. Few internal evidences of authenticity are more convincing than those furnished by a careful comparison of the canonical and apocryphal narratives of the Nativity. The contrast is as indescribable, as between a calm summer night enlightened by tender moonbeams, and a stage-scene of tree and forest lit up with Bengal lights. Such a delineation could only be the work of one resolved to say neither less nor more than the truth.
8. In contemplating what the sacred history says, we must not overlook what it passes over in silence. Of a birth without pain, salva virginitate, nulla obstetricis ope, and other similar commenta, in which a fancy not always pure has delighted itself, not a jot or tittle is mentioned. How early, however, such play of human wit began and found favor, may be seen, among others, in the example of Ambrosius, who in his treatise De instit. Virg., Opera, tom. 2. p. 257, finds the maternal lap of Mary described in Eze_44:2, of which he sang:
“Fit porta Christi pervia,
Referta plena gratia,
Transitque rex et permanet
Clausa, ut fuit per sæcula.”
9. The designation, “her first-born son,” does not necessarily imply that the union of Joseph and Mary was blessed with other children. The first born might also be the only child.12 The question, therefore, whom we are to understand by the ἀδελφοί of Jesus must be decided independently of this expression.
[Comp. on this difficult question my annotation to Lange’s Matthew, p. 256 ff.; the commentators on Mat_1:25; and also Bleek: Synoptische Erklärung, etc., vol. i. p. 76. Bleek remarks, that πρωτότοκος may indeed apply to the only child of a mother, but only at the time of his birth, or at least as long as there is some prospect of other children. The Evangelists, however, looking back to the past history, could not well use this term of Jesus, if they had known that Mary had no other children.—P. S.]
10. The first reception which Jesus met with in this world, is in many respects of a typical character. Comp. Joh_1:11. Bengel well remarks: “etiam hodie Christo rarus in diversoriis locus.”
[11. St. Bernard: “Why did our Lord choose a stable? Evidently that He might reprove the glory of the world, and condemn the vanities of this present life. His very infant body has its speech.” Dr. Pusey: “Christ’s attendants were the rude cattle, less rude only than we, the ox and the ass, emblems of our untamed rebellious nature, yet owning, more than we, ‘their master’s crib.’ Isa_1:3; Psa_32:9.”—P. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The decree of the earthly emperor, and the over-ruling arrangement of the heavenly King.—The lowly birth of the Saviour of the world Isaiah , 1. surprising, when we consider who He is that comes; 2. intelligible, when we ask why He comes; 3. a cause of joy, when we see for whom He comes.—The King of Israel, a Roman subject.—“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He turneth it whithersoever He will.”—The stem of Jesse hewn down, yet shooting anew, Isa_11:1.—Bethlehem, the house of bread for the soul, Joh_6:33.—The journey of Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem, a type of the believer’s pilgrimage: dark at its beginning, difficult in its progress, glorious in its end.—The city of David, the least of all the cities of Judah, and the most remarkable of all cities on earth.—Mary’s first-born son, the only-begotten Son of God, and the First-born among many brethren.—Room in the inn for all, except Him.
The manger of Jesus, 1. the scene of God’s glory, 2. the sanctuary of Christ’s honor, 3. the foundation-stone of a new heaven and a new earth.—The Saviour of the world is (2Co_9:15), 1. a gift of God, 2. an unspeakable gift, 3. a gift for which we must give Him thanks.—The birth of Jesus, the new birth of the human race: 1. Without it, the new birth of mankind is impossible; 2. with it, the new birth is begun; 3. by it, the new birth is assured.—The Christmas festival the festival of the faithfulness of God.—The coming of the Son of God in the flesh, a manifestation of the infinite wisdom of God: this wisdom evidenced in the time (Luk_2:1-2), the place (Luk_2:3; Luk_2:5), and the mean circumstances (Luk_2:6-7) of His appearing.—The manger, 1. what it conceals, 2. what it reveals.—The whole world summoned to be enrolled as subjects of this King.—“Behold, I make all things new:” 1. A new Revelation , 2. a new covenant, 3. a new man, 4. a new world.—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, equally manifested and glorified in the manger of Bethlehem.—Christmas, the celebration of, 1. the highest honor, and 2. the deepest disgrace, of man.—The manger of the Nativity, a school of, 1. deep humility, 2. stead-fast faith, 3. ministering love, and 4. joyful hope.—The coincidences between the birth of Christ in us, and the birth of Christ for us: The birth in us Isaiah , 1. carefully prepared for, 2. quietly brought to pass, 3. as much misunderstood by the world, yet, 4. as quickly manifested upon earth, and rejoiced over in heaven, as the birth for us.
Starke:—The first lesson given us by the new-born Christ is, Obey.—Even before we are born, we are wanderers in the world.—Jesus has consecrated all the hard places on which we are obliged to lie in this world.
Heubner:—Earthly kingdoms are obliged to serve the heavenly kingdom.—The enrolment of Jesus among the children of men, the salvation of millions.—Our birth on earth, an entrance into a strange country.
F. W. Krummacher:—The threefold birth of the Son of God, 1. begotten of the Father before all worlds, 2. born of flesh in the world, 3. born of the Spirit in us.
C. Harms:—Christ in us conceived by the operation of the Holy Spirit, born in poverty and weakness, exposed to peril of death soon after birth, remains for years unknown, experiences, on appearing, great opposition, is persecuted and oppressed, but soon rises again, raises itself into heaven, and in His spirit they that cleave to him carry forward and complete His work.
Kuchler:—It is necessary for a due celebration of Christmas, that we should recognize the Son of God in the new-born child; for, without this recognition, we should lack, 1. the full reason for, and due appreciation of, this celebration; 2. we should observe it without the right spirit; and 3. fail to obtain its true blessing.
Fuchs:—The Son of God born in the little town of Bethlehem, a proof, 1. that the Lord certainly performs what He promises; 2. that with God nothing is impossible; 3. that nothing is too mean or too lowly for God.
Florey:—The festival of Christmas, a children’s festival: 1. It leads us to a child; 2. it fills the world of children with joy; 3. its due celebration demands a childlike spirit.
Ahlfeld:—The birth of the Lord the greatest turning-point of history: 1. The world and the heart before the birth of Christ; 2. the world and the heart after the birth of Christ.
Tholuck:—The characteristics of Christmas joy; it is a secret, silent, childlike, modest, elevating joy.
Jaspis:—How the celebration of the first Christmas still glorifies itself in the heart of believing Christians.
Dr. Thym:—Christmas joy over the Christmas gift.
[M. Henry:—Christ was born in an inn, to intimate: 1. That He was homeless in this world; 2. that he was a pilgrim on earth, as we ought to be; 3. that He welcomes all comers, and entertains them, but without money and without price.—P. S.]
Footnotes:
[1]Luk_2:1.—To register or enrol is the proper term for ἀπογράφεσθαι (lit. to write off, to copy, to enter in a list; see the Greek Dictionaries). This may be done with a view to taxation (ἀποτίμησις, census), or for military, or statistical, or ambitious purposes. We know from Tacitus, Annal. i. 11, Suetonius, Aug. 28, 101, that Augustus drew up with his own hand a rationarium or breviarium otius imperii, in which “opes publicæ continebantur; quantum civium sociorumque in armis; quot classes, regna, provinciæ, tributa aut vectigalia et necessitates ac largitiones” (Tacitus). Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, the Genevan Version, the Bishops’, and King James’ have all taxed; Rheims Version: enrolled; Norton, Sharpe, Campbell, Whiting, the revised N. T. of the Am. B. V.: registered; Luther: schätzen; Ewald: aufschreiben; Meyer, van Oosterzee: aufzeichnen.
[2]Luk_2:2.—The usual reading is αὕτη ἡ ἀπογραφὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο. But Lachmann, on the authority mainly of the Vatican MS., omits the article ἡ, and this omission to which Wieseler assents, is now sustained by the Sinait. MS. The article is not necessary where the demonstrative pronoun takes the place of the prædicate; comp. Rom_9:8 : ταῦτα τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ sc. ἐστίν; Gal_3:7; Gal_4:24; 1Th_4:3; Luk_1:36; Luk_21:22, and Buttmann: Grammatik des N. T. 1859, p. 105.—Dr. van Oosterzee translates: die Aufzeichnung selbst geschah als erste, the registering itself took place as the first, etc. He reads with Paulus, Ebrard, Lange, Hofmann αὐτή, (ipsa) itself, instead of αὕτη, this (which may be done, since the sacred writers and oldest MSS. used no accents at all), and he bases upon this his solution of the chronological difficulty of the passage. See his Exeg. Notes. I cannot agree with this solution.
[3]Luk_2:2.—Αὕτη (ἡ) ἀπο γραφὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο, κ.τ.λ., This enrolment was the first made when, i.e., the first that was made or took place, Quirinus being then governor of Syria. The Vulgate: Hæc descriptio prima facta est a præside Syriæ Cyrino. This is, grammatically, the most natural rendering of πρώτη, which probably refers to a second census under Quirinus, held about ten years after Christ’s birth, and mentioned by Luke in Act_5:37 (ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ἀπογραφῇς), and by Josephus at the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th book of his Antiquities. Meyer translates likewise: Dieser Census geschah als der erste während Quirinus Præses von Syrien war. There are, however, other translations of πρώτη, which arise more or less from a desire to remove the famous chronological difficulty involved in this incidental remark of Luke. (1) The authorized E. V., Bishop Middleton, Whiting, and others, take the word adverbially = πρῶτον, πρῶτα, primum: “This enrolment was first made when,” etc., i.e., did not take effect until Quirinius was governor of Syria. But this sense would require a very different phrase such as οὐ πρότερον ἐγένετο πρὶν ἤ, or τότε πρῶτον ἐγένετο ὅτε, or ὕστερον δἤ ἐγένετο, κ.τ.λ. (2) Huschke, Tholuck, Wieseler, Ewald, and other eminent scholars solve the chronological difficulty by taking πρώτη in the sense of προτέρα, prior to, or before Quirinius was governor. Ewald compares the Sanscrit and translates: Diese Schatzung geschah viel fruher als da Quirinus herrschte (Geschichte Christus’, p. 140; but not in his earlier translation of the Synoptical Gospels of 1850 where he translates: Dieser Census geschah als der erste während Quirinus über Syrien herrschte). Meyer objects to this interpretation, but both he and Bleek admit that πρῶτός τινος may mean before some one. This usus loquendi is justified by Joh_1:5; Joh_1:30 : πρῶτός μου, prior me; Joh_15:18 : πρῶτον ὑμῶν, priorem vobis; Jer_29:2 : ὕστερον ἐξελθόντος (אַחֲרֵי עֵאת) Ἰεχονίου τοῦ βασιλέως, after the departure of Jeconiah the king (here, however, ἐξελθόντος is gen. abs., and πρώτη does not occur), and by several passages from profane writers (see Huschke, Wieseler, Meyer, and Bleek). But it cannot be denied that this sense of πρώτη is at least very rare, and no clear case can be adduced where it occurs in connection with a participle; while, on the other hand, Luke might have expressed this sense much more clearly and naturally in his usual way by πρὸ τοῦ ἡγεμονεύειν (comp. Luk_2:21 of this chapter; Luk_12:15; Act_23:15), or by πρίν or πρὶν ἤ. Hence this translation, though not impossible, philologically, is yet not natural, and should only be adopted when the chronological difficulty can not be solved in a more satisfactory way. See the Exeg. Notes.
[4]Luk_2:2.—Κυρη νιος is the Greek form for the Latin Quirinius (not Quirinus, although Meyer insists on this form). His full name was Publius Sulpicius Quirinius; he was first consul at Rome, then præses of Syria, and died at Rome A. D. 21. See Tacitus, Annal. iii. 48; Sueton. Tiber. 49, and Josephus, Antiq. Book xvii. at the close, and Book xviii. at the beginning.
[5]Luk_2:5.—The oldest and best authorities, including Cod. Sin., omit γυναικί, which is no doubt a later supplement.
[6]Luk_2:7.—The text. rec. (and Tischendorf in ed. 7) reads the article, ἐν τῇ φάτνῃ, in the manger; but the article is wanting in Codd. Sin., A., B., D., L., etc., and thrown out by Lachmann, Meyer, Alford, so that the Authorized Version is here (accidentally) correct. The article was added here and in Luk_2:12 by a copyist, in order to designate the particular, well known manger of our Saviour. Sharpe, Wakefield, Scarlett, Campbell, and Whiting have prematurely corrected the E. V. and inserted the definite article on the basis of the Elzevir text.—P. S.]
[7][We give here, as usual in the Exegetical and Critical Notes, the author’s own version, which reads: Die Aufzeichnung selbst geschah als erste, da, etc. He bases upon it his solution of the chronological difficulty, with which I cannot agree. See my Crit. Note 2, on Luk_2:2.—P. S.]
[8][Browne, also, in his learned work on Biblical chronology, entitled Ordo Sæclorum, p. 40 ff., solves the difficulty by taking ἡγεμών in a wider sense and assuming that Quirinius was at the head of an imperial commission of the census for Syria.—P. S.]
[9][Comp., however, πρῶτός μου, Joh_1:15; Joh_1:30; Joh_15:18, and my Critical Note 3 above.—P. S.]
[10][The objection to this solution of the difficulty is, that Luk_2:3 ff. relate the enrolment itself, or the execution of the imperial edict.—P. S.]
[11][The author, in the second edition, has a long note protesting against a superficial and inconsiderate review in Rudelbach and Guericke’s Zeitschrift for 1860, p. 502, which did him great injustice, and asserting his unqualified belief in the full Divinity of our Saviour for which he has long borne the reproach of Christ in Holland.—P. S.]
[12][So Jerome on Mat_1:25, Theophylact in Luk_2:7 (πρωτότοκος λέγεται ὁ πρῶτος τεχθεὶς, κἄν μὴ δεύτερος ἐπετέχθη), and all the Roman Catholic commentators, but evidently under the influence of the dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary which obtained from the fourth century.—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 first . . . when Cyrenius, &c.--a very perplexing…
first . . . when Cyrenius, &c.--a very perplexing verse, inasmuch as Cyrenius, or Quirinus, appears not to have been governor of Syria for about ten years after the birth of Christ, and the "taxing" under his administration was what led to the insurrection mentioned in Act 5:37. That there was a taxing, however, of the whole Roman Empire under Augustus, is now admitted by all; and candid critics, even of skeptical tendency, are ready to allow that there is not likely to be any real inaccuracy in the statement of our Evangelist. Many superior scholars would render the words thus, "This registration was previous to Cyrenius being governor of Syria"--as the word "first" is rendered in Joh 1:15; Joh 15:18. In this case, of course, the difficulty vanishes. But it is perhaps better to suppose, with others, that the registration may have been ordered with a view to the taxation, about the time of our Lord's birth, though the taxing itself--an obnoxious measure in Palestine--was not carried out till the time of Quirinus.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 § 8.—JESUS’S BIRTH, Luk_2:1-7.
§ 8.—JESUS’S BIRTH, Luk_2:1-7.
1. In those days—The evangelist having detailed the fact of the birth of Messiah’s forerunner gives now a narrative of the manifestation of Messiah himself. He furnishes a circle of facts obtained by him, perhaps from James, the son of Mary and Joseph, or even from the blessed mother herself, omitted by all the other evangelists.
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Cesar Augustus—Under the power and genius of the celebrated Julius Cesar the Roman republic fell, and the imperial government was established. He was succeeded by his nephew, Augustus Cesar, under whom the world of New Testament history was subdued. During his reign the temple of Janus was shut, in token of universal peace, and the Prince of peace made his advent.
The world—The Roman world.
Should be taxed—Not taxed, but the census taken, and the names of all enrolled. No contemporary historian gives any account of this census, but authentic mention is made of a breviarium, or summary of the resources of the empire, which must have been the result of something of this nature. From other sources than contemporary history also we know that there was a topographical survey made of the geographical extent of the empire.
Palestine was not indeed in form a province of the Roman empire, inasmuch as Herod was its king. But his kingdom was a gift from Augustus, who spared his life and placed him in power, although he had forfeited all by taking side with Anthony in the war for the empire against Augustus. The Jews were required to take an oath of allegiance to Augustus as well as to Herod. Augustus was little likely to hesitate to include Palestine in his census, though it is very likely that so vast an enrolment as the whole civilized world would require years, would be executed by different provinces quite separately, and completed by each in accordance with its own customs and institutions.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21 Ch. Luk_2:1-7. The Birth of Jesus Christ
Ch. Luk_2:1-7. The Birth of Jesus Christ
1. there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed] Rather, that there should be an enrolment of the habitable world. The verb apographesthai is here probably passive, though we have the aorist middle apograpsasthai ‘to enroll himself’ in Luk_2:5. The registration (apographç) did not necessarily involve a taxing (apotimçsis), though it was frequently the first step in that direction. Two objections have been made to the historic credibility of the decree, and both have been fully met.
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1. It is said ‘that there is no trace of such a decree in secular history.’ The answer is that (α) the argumentum e silentio is here specially invalid because there happens to be a singular deficiency of minute records respecting this epoch in the ‘profane’ historians. The history of Nicolaus of Damascus, the flatterer of Herod, is not extant. Tacitus barely touches on this period (Ann. i. 1, “pauca de Augusto”). There is a hiatus in Dion Cassius from a.u.c. 748–752. Josephus does not enter upon the history of these years. (β) There are distinct traces that such a census took place. Augustus with his own hand drew up a Rationarium of the Empire (a sort of Roman Doomsday Book, afterwards epitomised into a Breviarium), which included the allied kingdoms (Tac. Ann. i. 11; Suet. Aug. 28), and appointed twenty Commissioners to draw up the necessary lists (Suidas s. v. ἀπογραφή).
2. It is said ‘that in any case Herod, being a rex socius (for Judaea was not annexed to the Province of Syria till the death of Archelaus, a. d. 6), would have been exempt from such a registration.’ The answer is that (α) the Clitae were obliged to furnish such a census though they were under an independent prince, Archelaus (Tac. Ann. vi. 41; cf. I. ii, regna). (β) That Herod, a mere creature of the Emperor, would have been the last person to resist his wishes (Jos. Antt. xiv. 14. 4; xv. 6. 7; xvi. 9. 3). (γ) That this Census, enforced by Herod, was so distasteful to the Jews that it probably caused the unexplained tumults which occurred at this very period (Jos. Antt. xvii. 2. 4; B. J. i. 33, § 2). This is rendered more probable by the Targum of Jonathan on Hab_3:17, which has, “the Romans shall be rooted out; they shall collect no more tribute (Kesooma=census) from Jerusalem” (Gfrörer, Jahrh. d. Heils, i. 42). That the Emperor could issue such a decree for Palestine shews that the fulfilment of the old Messianic promises was near at hand. The sceptre had departed from Judah; the Lawgiver from between his feet.
As regards both objections, we may say (i) that St Luke, a writer of proved carefulness and accuracy, writing for Gentiles who could at once have detected and exposed an error of this kind, is very unlikely (taking the lowest grounds) to have been guilty of such carelessness. (ii) That Justin Martyr, a native of Palestine, writing in the middle of the second century, three times appeals to the census-lists (ἀπογραφαὶ) made by Quirinus when he was first Procurator, bidding the Romans search their own archives as to the fact (Apol. i. 34, 46; Dial. c. Tryph. 78), as also does Tertullian (Adv. Marc. iv. 7. 19). (iii) If St Luke had made a mistake it would certainly have been challenged by such able critics as Celsus and Porphyry;—but they never impugn his statement. On every ground therefore we have reason to trust the statement of St Luke, and in this as in many other instances (see my Life of St Paul, i. 113) what have been treated as his ‘manifest errors’ have turned out to be interesting historic facts which he alone preserves for us.
all the world] Rather, the habitable world, i. e. the Roman Empire, the orbis terrarum (Act_11:28, &c.; Polyb. vi. 50).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21 (1) There went out a decree.—The passage that follows…
II.
(1) There went out a decree.—The passage that follows has given rise to almost endless discussion. The main facts may be summed up as follows:—(1) The word “taxed” is used in its older English sense of simple “registration,” and in that sense is a true equivalent for the Greek word. The corresponding verb appears in Heb_12:23. It does not involve, as to modern ears it seems to do, the payment of taxes. The “world” (literally, the inhabited world, οἰκουμένη, œcumenè,—the word from which we form the word “œcumenical” as applied to councils) is taken, as throughout the New Testament, for the Roman empire. What Augustus is said to have decreed, was a general census. (2) It may be admitted that no Roman or Jewish historian speaks distinctly of such a general census as made at this time. On the other hand, the collection of statistical returns of this nature was an ever-recurring feature of the policy of Augustus. We read of such returns at intervals of about ten years during the whole period of his government. In B.C. 27, when he offered to resign, he laid before the Senate a rationarium, or survey of the whole empire. After his death, a like document, more epitomised—a breviarium—was produced as having been compiled by him. There are traces of one about this time made by the Emperor, not in his character as Censor, but by an imperial edict such as St. Luke here describes. (3) Just before the death of Herod, Josephus (Wars, i. 27, § 2; 29:2) reports that there was an agitation among the Jews, which led him to require them to take an oath of fidelity, not to himself only, but to the Emperor, and that 6,000 Pharisees refused to take it. He does not say what caused it, but the census which St. Luke records, holding out, as it did, the prospect of future taxation in the modern sense, sufficiently explains it. (4) It need hardly be said that the whole policy of Herod was one of subservience to the Emperor, and that though he retained a nominal independence, he was not likely to resist the wish of the Emperor for statistics of the population, or even of the property, of the province over which he ruled. (5) It may be noted that none of the early opponents of Christianity—such as Celsus and Porphyry—call the accuracy of the statement in question. St. Luke, we may add, lastly, as an inquirer, writing for men of education, would not have been likely to expose himself to the risk of detection by asserting that there had been such a census in the face of facts to the contrary.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21 Vers. 1-20. The Redeemer"s birth.
Vers. 1-20. The Redeemer"s birth.
There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed; more accurately, that there should be a registration, etc.; that is, with a view to the assessment of a tax. On the historical note of St. Luke in this passage much discussion has arisen, not, however, of much real practical interest to the ordinary devout reader. We will glance very briefly at the main criticism of this and the following verse. Respecting this general registration it is alleged
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(1) no historian of the time mentions such a decree of Augustus.
(2) Supposing Augustus had issued such an edict, Herod, in his kingdom of Judaea, would not have been included in it, for Judaea was not formally annexed to the Roman province of Syria before the death of Archelaus, Herod"s son; for some years after this time Herod occupied the position of a rex socius. In answer to (1), we possess scarcely any minute records of this particular time; and there are besides distinct traces in contemporary histories of such a general registration. In answer to (2), in the event of such an imperial registration being made, it was most unlikely that Herod would have claimed exemption for his only nominally independent states. It must be remembered that Herod was an attached dependent of the emperor, and in such a matter would never have opposed the imperial will of his great patron.
Vers. 1-7. The birthplace and the birth.
Two travelers, coming up from Galilee, approach the city of David. The knowledge they possessed of the event in which the glories of David"s house were to culminate must have invested every feature with a peculiar sacredness of interest. Note Dean Stanley"s description of Bethlehem, on the crest of a ridge of black hills terraced with vineyards. As beheld by Joseph and Mary, what a stream of patriotic memories, mixed with the inspirations which spring from the sense of ancestry, must have flowed over their souls! There is the scene of the notable gleaning of the gentle Moabitess who had accompanied Naomi from those mighty hills which rear their pinnacles in the distance behind. There, Jesse with his seven stalwart sons had lived. In those fields and gorges the youngest of the seven had learned to sling his stones and sing his psalms had been prepared for the future which lay before him. From that city had come the mightiest of David"s warriors Joab and Abishai and others. Lo! there, too, by the gate is the famous well of Bethlehem, of which David had longed to drink, but, faint as he was, would not, because the drawing of its water had been at the cost of life, strength, and blood. Manifold is the appeal to the heart of the pilgrims, who, lowly as their condition is, are scions of Israel"s royal house. They are nearing the place of which prophecy had said, (Mic_5:2) "Out of thee shall One come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting." They know that the fulfillment is at hand. Whither shall they go? High time that one should be at rest. Shall they go to the inn the khan or caravanserai? (See Farrar"s sketch of that strange shelter for man and beast.) But the inn is full. There is no place in it for such as they. The necessity is urgent. And their refuge so a tradition mentioned by Justin Martyr says is a grotto or cave in the limestone rock on which the village stands, used as a stable for horses and a pen for cattle. The horses" manger is the cradle for the King of kings. Born there and thus, the precise date of the birth is not apparently determinable.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-20. The Savior"s birth and type angel"s sermon.
We now pass from the person of the forerunner to that of his greater Successor. The priest"s son was great, but the Virgin"s Son was greater. John was a great gift to the world, as every true reformer must be; but a Savior is God"s supreme Gift to the children of men. Now, in this narrative before us we learn
I HOW THE WILL OF EVEN HEATHEN MONARCHS IS MADE TO FULFIL THE WILL OF GOD. The Divine will, expressed seven centuries before this time by Micah the prophet (v. 2), was that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem. But until a short time before his birth appearances seemed to show that he must be born in Nazareth. When lo! Augustus, the heathen emperor at Rome, demands a census, and the Jewish families must enrol themselves at the tribal cities. This simple circumstance, whose purpose was the levy of men or the levy of money, brought Mary to Bethlehem in time to become, in the appointed place, the mother of the Lord. It surely shows the full command which God has over the wills even of those who are not his worshippers. He is the Sovereign of all men, whether they like it or know it or not. Cyrus was his shepherd, although he did not know God; (Isa_44:28 Isa_45:4) and Augustus orders a census and "keeps books" in subservience to Divine purposes and fulfillment of Divine promises.
II HOW LITTLE WELCOME DID THE WORLD GIVE ITS NEWBORN SAVIOR. The birth in Bethlehem was the most important birth which ever took place in our planet. Had the world appreciated the advent, it would have heralded it on every shore; but so little wisdom was there in the world that the precious Child had, so to speak, to steal into the world in a stable and among the cattle. It was humiliating to be born, even had palace halls received him; but how humiliating to be born in the common cattle-pen, because there was no room for Mary in the inn! And yet, in thus making his advent, he identified himself not only with the poorest, but also made common cause with the beasts. They, too, have benefited through Christ being born there is less cruelty to animals in Christian than in other lands; and the religion of love he came to embody and proclaim will yet do more to ameliorate the condition of the beasts. Meanwhile let us notice how sad it is if men have no hospitality to show to Jesus, but still exclude him from their hearts and homes!
III THE FIRST GOSPEL SERMON WAS PREACHED BY AN ANGEL. The importance of the birth at Bethlehem, if unrecognized by man, is realized by angels. Heavenly hosts cannot be silent about it. They must begin the telling of the glad tidings. If we suppose that the shades of night threw their mantle over Mary when the Babe was born, then it would seem that interested angels looked for an immediate audience to hear the wondrous story. Where shall one be found? The inn is full of sleepers or revellers; they are not fit to hear the message of peace and joy. But outside Bethlehem in the fields are shepherds humble men, doubtless, and despised as in all ages. Still, they are kind to the sheep in some sense, of the dumb animals they tend and feed and now in the night watches they are awake and watchful. Here, then, is the angel"s audience. Does it not instruct preachers to be content with very humble hearers, and it may be sometimes very few hearers? An audience may be most important, even though few and despised. But we must next notice the message.of the angel. Coming with dazzling light, perhaps the Shechinah-glory encircling him, he first scared the poor shepherds. They were "sore afraid." It was needful, therefore, that he should first put to flight their fears, and then proclaim the glad tidings of a Savior"s birth, which gospel is intended for all people. The sign also which he gives is that the Babe shall be found in swaddling-clothes and lying in a manger. It is a message about a Savior in apparent weakness but in real power. Such is the gospel. It is a message about a personal Savior, who, in spite of all appearances, is "the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, and the Prince of Peace". (Isa_9:6) We must "preach Christ" unto men if we know what it is to preach the gospel. Again, we must notice the angelic choir.
The angel has arranged for a "service of praise" along with his preaching. There is the angel"s sermon and then the angels" song. The sermon is short, but its contents are of priceless value. The same may be said of the angels" song. It speaks simply of "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased" (Revised Version). It must have been a melodious service such music as heavenly harmony secures; angelic choristers doing their best to interest and elevate a few poor shepherds. Another lesson, surely, to those who would "sing for Jesus." The preaching of the gospel should be backed up by the singing of the gospel. Praise has its part to play as well as preaching and prayer. It was at the praise part of the dedication service in Solomon"s temple that The glory of the Lord appeared. (2Ch_5:11-14)
IV THE AUDIENCE PUT THE PREACHING TO AN IMMEDIATE TEST. The shepherds, as soon as the angels passed away, went at once to Bethlehem. They were resolved to see for themselves. There was a risk in this, for the sheep might be endangered in their absence; but they resolve to run the risk if they can see the Savior. "Never venture, never win." Hence they came with haste to Mary, and gaze with rapture on her Child. They see and believe. They are ready to accept this "little Child" as the Savior of the world. A little Child was leading them! Next we find them becoming his witnesses. They tell all who will listen to them what the angel said, and what they consequently had been led to Bethlehem to see. Having found a personal Savior, they cannot but proclaim him to others. One who listened to their story and profited by it was Mary. She pondered their sayings in her heart. The shepherds have become important witnesses for the incarnate Savior. So should all be who have really seen him by the eye of faith. But yet again, the shepherds, like the-angels, burst into praise. "They returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them." This is the real end of gospel preaching when it leads the audience up to praise. Hence this is represented as the chief employment of the redeemed. Experience is only perfected when God is praised.
V WE SEE HERE A HUMAN SUCCEEDING AN ANGELIC MINISTRY, It does seem strange that such a gospel should not be preached by angels. That they are anxious to do so appears from this narrative. We may be sure that they would esteem it highest honor to proclaim the message of salvation unto man. But after short visits and short sermons, the angels are withdrawn, and these poor shepherds spread the glad tidings, telling in a very humble way what they have seen and heard. It is God"s plan, and must be best. It is those who need and have found a Savior who are best adapted to proclaim him to others. A human ministry is more homely and sympathetic and effectual than perhaps any angelic ministry could be. Besides, a human ministry is less cavilled at and objected to than an angelic would be. We thus learn at Bethlehem important lessons about preaching to humble audiences, and out o them manufacturing preachers. The angels were doubtless satisfied as they looked down upon the shepherds who had listened so eagerly to their story, and saw them becoming preachers in their turn. To multiply Christ"s witnesses is the great work of preachers whether angelic or human. R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 A decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world…
Luk_2:1-7
A decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed
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There is no grand reason, you see, given why Mary and Joseph should go to Judaea.
The angel who is said to have announced the coming birth does not appear again to tell them that they must travel, since otherwise the Son of David will not be connected with His ancestral dwelling-place. They go because every one else is going. A decree of the Caesar obliges the man to register himself in the village, whatever it is, to which he belongs. It may be an awkward contrivance, as a modern writer says it is, to make the conception of royalty fit with the facts. Assuredly the critic, or any ingenious man in this day, could have invented a better tale. And if forgers of that day had, as he supposes, an unlimited command of supernatural incidents, these poor peasants might have been transported by any kind of celestial machinery to the spot in which they were required to be. Nor can we doubt that a Frenchman now, or an Oriental then, would have introduced such an event with becoming pomp. If it was part of the scheme that the birth should be humble, he would have taken pains that we should observe that part of it. There would have been starts of surprise, exclamations at the stooping of the Highest of all to the lowest place. Here is nothing of the kind. Events, the belief of which has affected all the art and speculation of the most civilized nations in the modem world, are recorded in fewer words, with less effort, than an ordinary historian, or the writer of a newspaper, would deem suitable to the account of the most trivial transaction. Such marvellous associations have clung for centuries to these verses, that it is hard to realize how absolutely naked they are of all ornament. We are obliged to read them again and again to assure ourselves that they really do set forth what we call the great miracle of the world. If, on the other hand, the mind of the evangelist was possessed by the conviction that he was not recording a miracle which had interrupted the course of history, but was telling of a Divine act which explained the course of history and restored the order of human life, one can very well account for his calmness; if that conviction was a true one, we might account for the impression which his brief sentences have made on later ages. That the poll-tax of the first emperors should be the instrument of bringing forth the King before whom the Caesars were to bow, would then seem one of those incidents in the drama of the universe which discover a God who is not suddenly interfering to untie knots that are too difficult for human hands, but who is directing all the course of the action, from the beginning to the catastrophe; not crushing the wills of the persons in the drama, but leading them on, by methods which we cannot see or conjecture, to fill their places in it. And the birth in the manger would be felt, not as an embellishment of the narrative, but as a part of the revelation. The King, who proves His title and His Divinity by stooping to the lowest condition of His subjects, is brought into direct contrast with him who had risen by intrigues, proscriptions, and the overthrow of an ancient order, to be hailed as the Deliverer and highest God of the earth. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
The child and the emperor
Was that infant at Bethlehem no more than a subject of the Roman emperor? Was Christianity the mere product of these outward favouring circumstances? Not so. It is true that from these circumstances the fulness of time took its shape and colour. Without that shelter it would not have been, humanly speaking, what now it is. But the spark of life itself was independent of any local or national state. The very characteristic of the life of Christ is that which soared above any such local limit. Therefore it is that He was born, apart from all the stir and turmoil of the world, in a humble stall, in a dark cavern, in a narrow street of an obscure mountain village. Therefore it is that He lived for thirty years in the secluded basin of the unknown, unconsecrated Nazareth; that He passed away without attracting a single word of notice from any contemporary poet or philosopher of that great court, which has made the reign of Caesar Augustus proverbial to all time as the Augustan age. Born under the empire, there was in Jesus Christ nothing imperial, except the greatness of His birth. Born under the Roman sway, there was nothing in Him Roman except the world-wide dominion of His Spirit. From Caesar Augustus comes out a decree that all the world should be taxed, subdued, civilized, united. All honour to him for it! All vigilance, all exertion, all prudence, be ours to watch and seize all the opportunities that are given to us. But it is from God that there come these flashes of life and light, of goodness and of genius, which belong to no age, but which find their likeness in that Divine Child, which was born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This, then, is the double principle of which the birth of Christ is the most striking example; external circumstances are something, but they are not everything The inward life is the essential thing; but for its successful growth it needs external circumstance. There are a thousand ways in which this double lesson is forced upon us, but the most striking illustration is still to be found in the contrast of the same double relation to the circumstances of world, century, country, or Church in which we live. And, on the other hand, there is our own separate existence and character with its own work to do--its own special nourishment from God. (Dean Stanley.)
A political era associated with high religious experiences
It was remarkable that the birth of Christ should take place in connection with the process of a great political engagement. Whilst men were moving from all quarters, in response to the decree of Caesar Augustus, the angels of heaven were gathering around the worlds greatest event. We need historical landmarks to help our memory of the best things. Blessed is that nation whose political eras are associated with the highest religious experiences. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Historical difficulties of the census
Great as are the historic difficulties in which this census is involved, there seem to be good independent grounds for believing that it may have been originally ordered by Sextius Saturinus, that it was begun by Publeius Sulpicius Quirinus, when he was for the first time legate of Syria; and that it was completed during his second term of office. In deference to Jewish prejudices, any infringement of which was the certain signal for violent tumults and insurrections, it was not carried out in the ordinary Roman manner, at each persons place of residence, but, according to Jewish custom, at the town to which their family originally belonged. The Jews still clung to their genealogies and to the memory of long-extinct tribal relations; and though the journey was a weary and distasteful one, the mind of Joseph may well have been consoled by the remembrance of that heroic descent which would now be authoritatively recognized, and by the glow of those Messianic hopes to which the marvellous circumstances of which he was almost the sole depositary would give a tenfold intensity. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The empire of Rome and the stable at Bethlehem
I. 1. Consider the decree that went forth from the emperor. How important it must have appeared to the Roman authorities!
2. Consider also the scene that night at Bethlehem. Little knew the people who were filling that inn whom they were turning out!
II. 1. Learn that God is working in all the events of life, great or small; bringing out of them issues very different from the issues intended by the actors in those events. Emperors are but officials in Gods Temple, and their decrees are but means by which He carries out His.
2. Learn that Gods work does not appeal to the outward senses. It is born at lowly Bethlehem rather than in powerful Rome or in self-righteous Jerusalem. Yet it lasts to eternity.
3. Learn also how the work of Christ in us is like His work in the world. He has to be born in each one of us. (Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
God overrules
Augustus, while sending forth his edicts to the utmost limits of the East, little knew that on his part he was obeying the decrees of the King of kings. God had foretold that the Saviour should be born in Bethlehem. In order that this might be accomplished He made use of Augustus, and through this prince the order was given for the census of the whole people. At the sight of those wars and revolutions that upset the world you feel inclined to imagine that God no longer governs the world or those in it. You are mistaken, God permits that these awful catastrophes should take place, just for the salvation and perfection of this or that person whom the world knows not. (De Boylesve.)
Gods time arrives
I. DIVINE POWER IN THE INCARNATION. II. WISDOM
(1) in the time;
(2) place;
(3) circumstances.
III. FAITHFULNESS.
IV. HOLINESS. Hiding His wonders from unbelievers.
V. Love (Joh_3:16). (Van Doren.)
1. Caesar Augustus. Son of Octavius and Aria; licentious and treacherous. Superstitious--oft borne to the temple before day, for prayer. Generous, vain, ambitious, warlike, another Louis XIV. Cruel--three hundred senators and two hundred knights murdered with his consent. Defeated at sea, he dragged Neptunes statue into the sea. His daughter Julia, by her infamy, embittered his last days. Reigned 44 years, died aged 76. A long and splendid reign. In Augustus, see mans nothingness, amid earthly splendour. In Mary, see highest destiny, amid earthly meanness. (Van Doren.)
The birth of Jesus Christ
There is a fine propriety in celebrating once a year the nativity. Our ignorance of the date is no valid objection. We do not hesitate to date our letters and documents Anno Domini 1887, although in doing so we commit an error of at least four years, and perhaps six. The all-important thing here is not the time of the nativity, but the fact of the nativity. And, if one day in every week the Church of Immanuel celebrates the resurrection of her Lord, is it unbecoming that she should one day in every year celebrate that nativity without which there had never been either resurrection or redemption, or even the Church herself? And now let us attend to the story of the birth of Immanuel. More than seven centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the prophet Micah gave utterance to the following remarkable prophecy:
Thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,
Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,
Out of thee shall One come forth unto me
Who is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.
That same Almighty God who, through the restlessness of a Persian monarch, had rescued from annihilation the national stock from which His Anointed was to spring, prepared a birthplace for His Anointed through the edict of a Roman emperor. For, when the fulness of the time had come, and the Christ was to be born, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that all the world should be enrolled. And thus a minute prophecy, a thousand times imperilled in the course of seven centuries, was at last minutely accomplished. Oh, who does not feel that a God is here? Who can resist the conviction that this God has had from the beginning His purposes, and actually controls every movement of every human will? Yet there is no reason for supposing that Augustus Caesar, in issuing his decree for a universal census, was conscious that in so doing he was preparing the way for the accomplishment of an ancient prediction. A Roman, he cared nothing for the Hebrews. A pagan, he knew nothing of Messianic prophecies. His issuing a decree of enrolment was nothing unnatural or extraordinary; it was one of the commonest acts of a political ruler, and he himself was one of the most methodical of men. Yet who can doubt that Caesar Augustus, in issuing this decree, was accomplishing a predetermined purpose of the Ancient of Days? Nevertheless, nothing is clearer than this: Caesar Augustus, in publishing this edict, and Joseph and Mary, in visiting Bethlehem in accordance with its requirements, acted as perfectly free, voluntary beings. Now, I have not alluded to this matter for the purpose of attempting to solve a frequently propounded problem--namely, the reconciliation of Divine sovereignty and human freedom. Considered practically in its matter-of-fact aspect, this subject presents no difficulty. It is only when we pry into that domain of infinite problems which God has not opened to us that we become bewildered and lost. Duty, not metaphysics, is our rule for life. Let me conclude with three reflections.
I. THE BIRTH AT BETHLEHEM CONSECRATED AND GLORIFIED ALL INFANCY. AS Athena was fabled to have sprung full-grown and panoplied from the cloven brow of Zeus, so the Christ and Son of God might have descended into humanity an unborn, adult Adam; for the distance between babe and man is infinitely less than the distance between man and God. But, no; He descended into humanity through the avenue of birth and babyhood, coming, like any other infant, under the law of growth, and so consecrating all life from cradle to grave, hallowing birth as well as death. The birth at Bethlehem made babyhood a sacred thing. And so the very infancy of Jesus is a gospel.
II. THE TREATMENT OF THE HOLY FAMILY AT BETHLEHEMS INN WAS A PROPHECY OF THE WORLDS TREATMENT OF JESUS CHRIST EVER SINCE. It is, I repeat, a picture of the worlds treatment of Jesus Christ ever since. It does not repulse Him; it simply has no room for Him. The world seizes the inn; Christianity must put up with a stable. (G. D Boardman.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v8 Chapter 5
Chapter 5
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.- Luk_2:8-21
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THE Gospel of St. Mark omits entirely the Nativity, passing at once to the words and miracles of His public ministry. St. John, too, dismisses the Advent and the earlier years of the Divine Life with one solitary phrase, how the Word, which in the beginning was with God and was God, "became flesh and dwelt among us". {Joh_1:14} St. Luke, however, whose Gospel is the Gospel of the Humanity, lingers reverently over the Nativity, throwing a variety of side-lights upon the cradle of the Holy Child. Already has he shown how the Roman State prepared the cradle of the Infancy, and how Caesar Augustus unconsciously wrought out the purpose of God, the breath of his imperial decree being but part of a higher inspiration; and now he proceeds to show how the shepherds of Judaea bring the greetings of the Hebrew world, the wave-sheaf of the ripening harvests of homage which yet will be laid, by Jew and Gentile alike, at the feet of Him who was Son of David and Son of man.
It is generally supposed that these anonymous shepherds were residents of Bethlehem, and tradition has fixed the exact spot where they were favored with this Advent Apocalypse, about a thousand paces from the modern village. It is a historic fact that there was a tower near that site, called Eder, or "the Tower of the Flock," around which were pastured the flocks destined for the Temple sacrifice; but the topography of ver. Luk_2:8 is purposely vague. The expression "in that same country," written by one who both in years and in distance was far removed from the events recorded, would describe any circle within the radius of a few miles from Bethlehem as its center, and the very vagueness of the expression seems to push back the scene of the Advent music to a farther distance than a thousand paces. And this view is confirmed by the language of the shepherds themselves, who, when the vision has faded, say one to another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing that is come to pass"; for they scarcely would have needed, or used, the adverbial "even" were they keeping their flocks so close up to the walls of the city. We may therefore infer, with some amount of probability, that whether the shepherds were residents of Bethlehem or not, when they kept watch over their flocks, it was not on the traditional site, but farther away over the hills. Indeed, it is difficult, and very often impossible, for us to fix the precise locality of these sacred scenes, these bright points of intersection, where Heavens glories flash out against the dull carbon-points of earth; and the voices of tradition are at best but doubtful guesses. It would almost seem as if God Himself had wiped out these memories, hiding them away, as He hid the sepulcher of Moses, lest the world should pay them too great a homage, and lest we might think that one place lay nearer to heaven than another, when all places are equally distant, or rather equally near. It is enough to know that somewhere on these lonely hills came the vision of the angels, perhaps on the very spot where David was minding his sheep when Heaven summoned him to a higher task, passing him up among the kings.
While the shepherds were "watching the watches of the night over their flock," as the Evangelist expresses it, referring to the pastoral custom of dividing the night into watches, and keeping watch by turns, suddenly "an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them." When the angel appeared to Zacharias, and when Gabriel brought to Mary her evangel, we do not read of any supernatural portent, any celestial glory, attending them. Possibly because their appearances were in the broad daylight, when the glory would be masked, invisible; but now, in the dead of night, the angelic form is bright and luminous, throwing all around them a sort of heavenly halo, in which even the lustrous Syrian stars grow dim. Dazzled by the sudden burst of glory, the shepherds were awed by the vision, and stricken with a great fear, until the angel, borrowing the tones and accents of their own speech, addressed to them his message, the message he had been commissioned to bring: "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." And then he gave them a sign by which they might recognize the Savior Lord: "Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger."
From the indefinite wording of the narrative we should infer that the angel who brought the message to the shepherds was not Gabriel, who had before brought the good tidings to Mary. But whether or not the messenger was the same, the two messages are almost identical in structure and in thought, the only difference being the personal element of the equation, and the shifting of the time from the future to the present tense. Both strike the same key-note, the "Fear not" with which they seek to still the vibrations of the heart, that the Virgin and the shepherds may not have their vision blurred and tremulous through the agitation of the mind. Both make mention of the name of David, which name was the key-word which unlocked all Messianic hopes. Both speak of the Child as a Savior-though Gabriel wraps up the title within the name, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus"; for, as St. Matthew explains it, "it is He that shall save His people from their sins." Both, too, speak of Him as the Messiah; for when the angel now calls Him the "Christ" it was the same "Anointed" one who, as Gabriel had said, "should reign over the house of Jacob for ever"; while in the last august title now given by the angel, "Lord," we may recognize the higher Divinity-that He is, in some unique, and to us incomprehensible sense, "the Son of the Most High". {Mt 1} Such, then, is the triple crown the angel now bears to the cradle of the Holy Child. What He will be to the world is still but a prophecy; but as He, the Firstborn, is now brought into the world, God commands all the angels to worship Him; {Heb_1:6} and with united voice-though the antiphon rings back over a nine months silence-they salute the Child of Bethlehem as Savior, Messiah, Lord. The one title sets up His throne facing the lower world, commanding the powers of darkness, and looking at the moral conditions of men; the second throws the shadow of His throne over the political relations of men, making it dominate all thrones; while the third title sets up His throne facing the heavens themselves, vesting Him with a supreme, a Divine authority.
No sooner was the message ended than suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying-
"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men in whom He is well pleased."
The Revised Version lacks the rhythmic qualities of the Authorized Version; and the wordy clause "among men in whom He is well pleased" seems but a poor substitute for the terse and clear "good-will toward men," which is an expression easy of utterance, and which seemed to have earned a prescriptive right to a place in our Advent music. The revised rendering, however, is certainly more in accord with the grammatical construction of the original, whose idiomatic form can scarcely be put into English, except in a way somewhat circuitous and involved. In both expressions the underlying thought is the same, representing man as the object of the Divine good-pleasure, that Divine "benevolence"-using the word in its etymological sense-which enfolds, in the germ, the Divine favor, compassion, mercy, and love. There is thus a triple parallelism running through the song, the "Glory to God in the highest" finding its corresponding terms in the "peace among (or to) men in whom He is well pleased on earth"; while altogether it forms one complete circle of praise, the "good-pleasure to man," the "peace on earth," the "glory to God" marking off its three segments, And so the song harmonizes with the message: indeed, it is that message in an altered shape; no longer walking in common prosaic ways, but winged now, it moves in its higher circles with measured beat, leaving a path from the cradle of the Infancy to the highest heavens all strewn with "Glorias." And what is the triplicity of the song but another rendering of the three august titles of the message-Savior, Messiah, Lord? The "Savior" being the expression of the Divine good-pleasure; the "Messiah" telling of His reign upon earth who is Himself the Prince of peace; while the "Lord," which, as we have seen, corresponds with "the Son of the Most High," leads us up directly to the "heavenlies," to Him who commands and who deserves all doxologies.
But is this song only a song in some far-distant sky-a sweet memory indeed, but no experience? Is it not rather the original from which copies may be struck for our individual lives? There is for each of us an advent, if we will accept it; for what is regeneration but the beginning of the Divine life within our life, the advent of the Christ Himself? And let but that supreme hour come to us when place and room are made for Him who is at once the expression of the Divine favor and the incarnation of the Divine love, and the new era dawns, the reign of peace, the "peace of God," because the "peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then will the heart throw off its "Glorias," not in one burst of song, which subsides quickly into silence, but in one perpetual anthem, which ever becomes more loud and sweet as the day of its perfected redemption draweth nigh; for when the Divine displeasure is turned away, and a Divine peace or comfort takes its place, who can but say, "O Lord, I will praise Thee?"
Directly the angel-song had ceased, and the singers had disappeared in the deep silence whence they came, the shepherds, gathering up their scattered thoughts, said one to another (as if their hearts were speaking all at once and all in unison), "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing that is come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us." The response was immediate: They do not shut out this heavenly truth by doubt and vain questioning; they do not keep it at a distance from them, as if it only indirectly and distantly concerned themselves, but yield themselves up to it entirely; and as they go hastily to Bethlehem, in the quick step and in the rapid beating of their heart, we can trace the vibrations of the angel-song. And why is this? Why is it that the message does not come upon them as a surprise? Why are these men ready with such a perfect acquiescence, their hearts leaping forward to meet and embrace this Gospel of the angels? We shall probably find our answer in the character of the men themselves. They pass into history unnamed; and after playing their brief part, they disappear, lost in the incense-cloud of their own praises. But evidently these shepherds were no mean, no common men. They were Hebrews, possibly of the royal line; at any rate they were Davids in their loftiness of thought, of hope and aspiration. They were devout, God-fearing men. Like their father Jacob, they too were citizens of two worlds; they could lead their flocks into green pastures, and mend the fold; or they could turn aside from flock and fold to wrestle with Gods angels, and prevail. Heavens revelations come to noble minds, as the loftiest peaks are always the first to hail the dawn. And can we suppose that Heaven would so honor them, lighting up the sky with an aureole of glory for their sole benefit, sending this multitude to sing to them a sweet chorale, if the men themselves had nothing heavenly about them, if their selfish, sordid mind could soar no higher than their flocks, and have no wider range than the markets for their wool?
"Let but a flute Play neath the fine-mixed metal; Then shall the huge bell tremble, then the mass With myriad waves concurrent shalt respond In low, soft unison."
But there must be the music hidden within, or there is no unison. And we may be sure of this, that the angel-song had passed by them as a cold night-wind, had not their hearts been tuned up by intense desire, until they struck responsive to the angel-voice. Though they knew it not, they had led their flock to the mount of God; and up the steps of sacred hopes and lofty aspirations they had climbed, until their lives had got within the circle of heavenly harmonies, and they were worthy to be the first apostles of the New Dispensation.
In our earthly modes of thinking we push the sacred and the secular far apart, as if they were two different worlds, or, at any rate, as opposite hemispheres of the same world, with but few points of contact between them. It is not so. The secular is the sacred on its under, its earth ward side. It is a part of that great whole we call duty, and in our earthly callings, if they are but pure and honest, we may hear the echoes of a heavenly call. The temple of Worship and the temple of Work are not separated by indefinable spaces; they are contiguous, leaning upon each other, while they both front the same Divine purpose. Nor can it be simply a coincidence that Heavens revelations should nearly always come to man in the moments of earthly toil, rather than in the hours of leisure or of so-called worship. It was from his shepherding the burning bush beckoned Moses aside; while Heavens messenger found Gideon on the threshing-floor, and Elisha in the furrow. In the New Testament, too, in all the cases whose circumstances are recorded, the Divine call reached the disciples when engaged in their every-day task, sitting at the receipt of custom, and casting or mending their nets. The fact is significant. In the estimate of Heaven, instead of a discount being put upon the common tasks of life, those tasks are dignified and ennobled. They look towards heaven, and if the heart be only set in that direction they lead too up towards heaven. Our weeks are not unlike the sheet of Peters vision; we take care to tie up the two ends, attaching them to heaven, and then we leave what we call the "week-days" bulging down earthward in purely secular fashion. But would not our weeks, and our whole life, swing on a higher and holier level, could we but recognize the fact that all days are the Lords days, and did we but attach each day and each deed to heaven? Such is the truest, noblest life, that takes the "trivial rounds" as a part of its sacred duties, doing them all as unto the Lord. So, as we sanctify lifes common things, they cease to be common, and the earthly becomes less earthly as we learn to see more of heaven in it. In the weaving of our life some of its threads stretch earthward, and some heavenward; but they cross and interlace, and together they form the warp and woof of one fabric, which should be, like the garment of the Master, without seam, woven from the top throughout. Happy is that life which, keeping an open eye over the flock, keeps too a heart open towards heaven, ready to listen to the angelic music, and ready to transfer its rhythm to their own hastening feet or their praising lips.
Our Evangelist tells us that they "came in haste" in search of the young Child, and we may almost detect that haste in the very accents of their speech. It is, "Let us now go across even to Bethlehem," allowing the prefix its proper meaning; as if their eager hearts could not stay to go round by the ordinary road, but like bees scenting a field of clover, they too must make their cross-country way to Bethlehem. Though the angel had not given explicit directions, the city of David was not so large but that they could easily discover the object of their search-the Child, as had been told them, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. It has been thought by some that the "inn" is a mistranslation, and that it really was the "guest-chamber" of some friend. It is true the word is rendered "guest-chamber" on the other two occasions of its use, {Mar_14:14, Luk_22:11} but it also signified a public guest-house, as well as a private guest-chamber; and such evidently is its meaning here, for private hospitality, even had its "guest-chamber" been preoccupied, would certainly, under the circumstances, have offered something more human than a stable. That would not have been its only alternative.
It is an interesting coincidence, and one serving to link together the Old and the New Testament, that Jeremiah speaks of a certain geruth, or inn, as it may read, "which is by Bethlehem". {Jer_41:17} How it came into the possession of Chimham, who was a Gileadite, we are not told; but we are told that because of the kindness shown to David in his exile by Barzillai, his son Chimham received special marks of the royal favor, and was, in fact, treated almost as an adopted son. {1Ki_2:7} What is certain is that the khan of Bethlehem bore, for successive generations, the name of Chimham; which fact is in itself evidence that Chimham was its builder, as the well of Jacob retained, through all the changes of inheritance, the name of the patriarch whose thought and gift it was. In all probability, therefore, the "inn" was built by Chimham, on that part of the paternal estate which David inherited; and as the khans of the East cling with remarkable tenacity to their original sites, it is probable, to say the least, that the "inn of Chimham" and the inn of Bethlehem, in which there was no room for the two late comers from Nazareth, were, if not identical, at any rate related structures-so strangely does the cycle of history complete itself, and the Old merge into the New. And so, while Prophecy sings audibly and sweetly of the place which yet shall give birth to the Governor who shall rule over Israel, History puts up her silent hand, and salutes Bethlehem Ephratah as by no means the least among the cities of Judah.
But not in the inn do the shepherds find the happy parents-the springtide of the unusual immigration had completely flooded that, leaving no standing-place for the son and daughter of David-but they find them in a stable, probably in some adjoining cave, the swaddled Child, as the angels had foretold, lying in the manger. Art has lingered reverently and long over this stable scene, hiding with exquisite draperies its baldness and meanness, and lighting up its darkness with wreaths of golden glory; but these splendors are apocryphal, existing only in the mind of the beholder; they are the luminous mist of an adoring love. What the shepherds do find is an extemporized apartment, mean in the extreme; two strangers fresh from Nazareth, both young and both poor; and a new-born infant asleep in the manger, with a group of sympathizing spectators, who have brought, in the emergency, all kinds of proffered helps. It seems a strange ending for an angel-song, a far drop from the superhuman to the subhuman. Will it shake the faith of these apostle-shepherds? Will it shatter their bright hope? And chagrined that their auroral dream should have so poor a realization, will they return to their flocks with heavy hearts and sad? Not they. They prostrate themselves before the Infant Presence, repeating over and over the heavenly words the angels had spoken unto them concerning the Child, and while Mary announces the name as "Jesus," they salute Him, as the angels had greeted Him before, as Savior, Messiah, Lord; thus putting on the head of the Child Jesus that triple crown, symbol of a supremacy which knows no limit either in space or time. It was the "Te Deum" of a redeemed humanity, which succeeding years have only made more deep, more full, and which in ever-rising tones will yet grow into the Alleluias of the heavens. Savior, Messiah, Lord! These titles struck upon Marys ear not with surprise, for she has grown accustomed to surprises now, but with a thrill of wonder. She could not yet spell out all their deep meaning, and so she pondered "them in her heart," hiding them away in her maternal soul, that their deep secrets might ripen and blossom in the summer of the after-years.
The shepherds appear no more in the Gospel story. We see them returning to their task "glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen," and then the mantle of a deep silence falls upon them. As a lark, rising heavenward, loses itself from our sight, becoming a sweet song in the sky, so these anonymous shepherds, these first disciples of the Lord, having laid their tribute at His feet-in the name of humanity saluting the Christ who was to be-now pass out of our sight, leaving for us the example of their heavenward look and their simple faith, and leaving, too, their "Glorias," which in multiplied reverberations fill all lands and all times, the earthly prelude of the New, the eternal Song.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 21 1. Went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus. Augustus…
1. Went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus. Augustus Cæsar, the nephew and heir of Julius Cæsar, the first of the Roman emperors, was now the ruler of the civilized world. Though Judea was ruled by Herod as king, he was dependent upon and the servant of Augustus Cæsar. That all the world. The Roman empire which embraced all the world then known to civilization; all southern and western Europe, western Asia and northern Africa. Should be enrolled. A census was to be taken as a preliminary to a poll tax in the provinces.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 21 Luk_2:1. All the world.—I.e. the Roman world (orbis terrarum).…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_2:1. All the world.—I.e. the Roman world (orbis terrarum). Taxed.—Rather, “enrolled,” something like a modern census, but with a view to taxation.
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Luk_2:2. This was the first enrolment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria (R.V.).—As Quirinius was governor of Syria in A.D. 6, ten years later than this, and then carried out a census, some have supposed that St. Luke made a mistake in referring to him here. This can scarcely be, as St. Luke himself mentions this second “taxing” in Act_5:37. The most satisfactory explanation of the matter seems to be that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria, in B.C. 4 as well as in A.D.
6. This seems to be a well-established fact, though there is no other authority than the Evangelist’s for the “taxing” or “enrolment” during his first term of office.
Luk_2:3. Every one into his own city.—As Judæa was a semi-independent kingdom, the registration ordered by the Roman emperor was carried into effect in accordance with Jewish customs. The Roman custom was to enroll persons at the place of residence.
Luk_2:5. His espoused wife.—Rather, “who was betrothed to him” (R.V.). “It is uncertain whether her presence was obligatory or voluntary; but it is obvious that, after so trying a time, and after what she had suffered (Mat_1:19), she would cling to the presence and protection of her husband” (Farrar).
Luk_2:7. First-born.—No inference can be safely drawn from this as to Mary’s having other children afterwards. The first-born had a peculiar position assigned to him in the law (Exo_13:2; Exo_22:29). Inn.—A mere caravanserai, affording little else than shelter. The stable may have been an adjoining cave, as reported by Justin Martyr and the apocryphal gospels.
Luk_2:8. Keeping watch, etc.—This affords no ground for concluding that the nativity cannot have taken place in winter. After the rainy season, at the end of December, shepherds in Palestine are still accustomed to lead out their flocks. The traditional date (December 25th) is of late origin. Christmas was not celebrated in the Church till after A.D. 350, and seems to have been substituted for a heathen festival. Their flock.—Dr. Edersheim has shown that sheep needed for the daily sacrifices in the Temple were fed near Bethlehem.
Luk_2:9. The angel of the Lord.—Rather, “an angel of the Lord” (R.V.). Came upon them.—“Stood by them” (R.V.). Glory of the Lord.—“By it we are to understand that extreme splendour in which the Deity is represented as appearing to men, and sometimes called the Shechinah—an appearance frequently attended, as in this case, by a company of angels” (Bloomfield). Sore afraid.—Lit. “feared a great fear.”
Luk_2:10. To all people.—Rather, “to all the people” (R.V.), i.e. to Israel. The wider import of the advent is foreseen by Simeon (Luk_2:32).
Luk_2:11. A Saviour.—The name Jesus is not given, but the title Saviour is equivalent to it. Christ the Lord.—Christ is the Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew word Messiah, and both mean the Anointed One. The Lord is the uniform name used in the LXX. as a substitute for the ineffable name Jehovah. It is twice used in Luk_2:9 of God.
Luk_2:12. The babe.—Rather, “a babe” (R.V.).
Luk_2:13. Heavenly host.—The army of angels which is represented as surrounding the throne of God (cf. 1Ki_22:19; Psa_103:20-21; Psa_148:2). From this the title of Lord of hosts (Sabaoth) is taken.
Luk_2:14. In the highest.—In the highest places, i.e. heaven (Job_16:19; Psa_148:1). Good-will toward men.—Rather, “among men.” By the insertion of a single letter the nominative case of the word translated “good-will” is changed to the genitive, and the rendering would be, “among men of [God’s] good-will,” i.e. in whom He is well pleased. This is the reading of the four most ancient MSS. and of the Vulgate (hominibus bonæ voluntatis), and is followed by the R.V. It yields, however, a somewhat awkward and unintelligible sense. The great mass of ancient authorities is in favour of the rendering in our A.V., which is more in accordance with the spirit of the passage than the other.
Luk_2:16. Found.—Lit. “discovered,” after search. Mary and Joseph.—Her name naturally comes first, in view of the peculiar nature of her motherhood. A manger.—Rather, “the manger” (R.V.), that spoken of by the angel.
Luk_2:19. Pondered.—I.e. revolved, put together the various circumstances. She had evidently not a full understanding of the matter.
The order of events: The flight into Egypt was from Bethlehem, and must have occurred after the presentation in the Temple. The forty days of purification (Luk_2:22) are too short for the journey into Egypt and a return to Jerusalem. The adoration of the Magi must have occurred immediately after the presentation. That it could not have occurred before it is rendered certain from the facts that the revelation of danger to the child Jesus would render a visit to Jerusalem unsafe, and the gifts offered by the Magi would have provided means for a richer sacrifice than that described in Luk_2:24. The return to Bethlehem after the presentation may indicate that the holy family would have taken up their abode there instead of returning to Nazareth, but for the danger to which they were exposed by the jealousy of Herod. Bethlehem was only six miles from Jerusalem.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_2:1-20
The Voluntary Self-humiliation of Jesus.—This history, it has been said, begins with great majesty, as it tells of the Emperor Augustus, at whose feet lay the whole known world, and to whose command obedience was rendered in every country, and city, and village. It descends to tell of the humble circumstances in which a child was born in one of the obscurest villages in one of his provinces; but it rises again into majesty as it describes the appearance of angels to celebrate the true glory and greatness of this child. But we may see in the passage a detailed account of that great act of self-renunciation of which the apostle speaks: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet … He became poor.” The Evangelist first records the lowly circumstances that attended His advent to earth, and reveals the true majesty that clothed Him even then.
I. There is nothing to distinguish Him to outward appearing from multitudes of other of His fellow-subjects in the kingdom of Herod, or the empire of Caesar Augustus. His parents are enrolled with their neighbours in the register at Bethlehem; for though they are of royal descent, their claim to exceptional rank has fallen into abeyance. It is now a mere genealogical curiosity, and the fact that the carpenter of Nazareth can trace up his lineage to David is not likely to trouble the peace of the most jealous of tyrants. It is as the son of an artisan that the name of Jesus would be enrolled.
II. Poverty and hardship mark His nativity.—Not even a house to shelter her can His mother find when the time comes for His birth. The inn was full: no friendly roof afforded the comfort and hospitality of which she stood in need, and it was a stable that first covered His head, and a manger that formed His first cradle.
III. He passed through the stage of helpless and unconscious infancy—being in all things made like His brethren. No preternatural glory shone about Him: it is by His wearing the first childish swathings, hastily extemporised perhaps by His virgin mother, and by the rude fashion of His resting-place, that the shepherds are to discover Him. Yet even while He lies on His hard bed in poorest guise there are not wanting signs of His great and unapproachable majesty. 1 Heaven opens, and angels descend to proclaim and celebrate His birth; the glorious light that breaks in upon the darkness of earth, the multitude of celestial beings, and the song of praise, bear witness to the greatness and significance of the event that has just taken place in Bethlehem.
2. In no uncertain terms the angel speaks of Jesus as the possessor of a mightier throne than that of Caesar. He is Lord of angels and of men. He is the Anointed One, whose power, and authority, and dignity are typified and faintly shadowed forth in kingly, priestly, and prophetic offices.
3. He not only deserves but receives homage and worship from men. The shepherds hasten to find the new-born babe, that they may kneel at His feet; and in them He receives the first-fruits of that loyal service which one day will be fully rendered to Him by all created beings.
It is by the eye of faith that the majesty of Christ is discerned; it is the loving heart that believes the heavenly message. If, therefore, we would follow the example of the angels and of the shepherds, and receive Christ in His true character as our God and Saviour, we must have a faith and love like theirs.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_2:1-20
Luk_2:1. “A decree from Cæsar Augustus.”—The providence of God is discovered to us in the Bible, overruling the actions of mankind, and adapting them to ends and purposes of which their authors were little conscious. Thus the present “taxing,” whether dictated by the ambition, or the curiosity, or the avarice of the Roman emperor, is shown to have furnished an occasion for drawing this holy pair from their remote home in Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem of Judæa—the village which the finger of Providence had long before pointed out as destined to be the place of Messiah’s birth; so entirely was Augustus ministering to the Divine pleasure, while in the exercise of imperial power he followed the dictates of his own unfettered will.—Burgon.
Cæsar’s Unconscious Obedience to God.—The unconscious obedience of Cæsar Augustus to the Divine will illustrates the statement in Pro_21:1 : “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.”
“The whole world.”—The whole habitable world is related to Jesus, who was willing to be enrolled in the same catalogue with them, and not with Jews alone.—Wordsworth.
A Testimony to Christ’s Greatness.—The whole world was moved to bring about the fulfilment of the prophecy: this a testimony to the pre-eminent greatness of Jesus.
“Should be taxed.”—Though Judæa was still under the rule of a king of her own, he was subject to Cæsar, and even this semblance of independence was now passing away. This “first enrolment” was but preparatory to the subsequent transformation of Judæa into a Roman province. “The sceptre was just departing from Judah” (Gen_49:10) when Christ was born.
Luk_2:4. “Joseph also went up … to Bethlehem.”—It had been foretold that there Christ was to be born. Yet the fulfilment of the prophecy was not brought about by any human contrivance or plan. Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem in obedience to the emperor’s decree; and, so far as the fulfilment of the prophecy was concerned, were led like the blind by a Divine hand.
Luk_2:7. “She brought forth her firstborn son.”—As by a woman death had been conveyed to all mankind, so was now a woman made the blessed instrument whereby He who is our life came into the world.—Burgon.
“Swaddling clothes and … a manger.”—No man will have cause to complain of his coarse robe, if he remembers the swaddling clothes of this Holy Child; nor to be disquieted at his hard bed, when he considers Jesus laid in a manger. The lowly circumstances connected with the birth of Jesus served two purposes:
1. They concealed the great event from the eyes of the thoughtless, sinful world.
2. They revealed the Divine condescension—the Son of God, who, though rich, for our sakes became poor (2Co_8:9; Php_2:5-8). The humility of His birth was characteristic of His whole spirit and life. “For our sakes He was born a stranger in an open stable; He lived without a place of His own wherein to lay His head, subsisting by the charity of good people; and He died naked on a cross in the close embraces of holy poverty” (a saying of St. Francis of Assisi). His example rebukes the worldly spirit which prizes outward pomp, and wealth, and rank, and despises things that are unpretentious and lowly—which is captivated by the transitory and blind to the eternal.
Christ in the Manger.—In the manger, where lay the food for cattle, there now lies the bread of angels, the sacred body, which nourishes us for eternal life.—Bede.
“No room for them in the inn.”—“He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not” (Joh_1:11). The silent entrance of the Son of God into the world is very striking. “The unfathomable depths of the Divine counsels were moved; the fountains of the great deep were broken up; the healing of the nations was issuing forth; but nothing was seen on the surface of human society but this slight rippling of the water.”
The Purpose of Christ’s Humiliation.—We see what sort of beginning the Son of God had, and in what cradle He was placed. Such was His condition from His birth, because He had taken upon Him our flesh, that He might “empty Himself” (Php_2:7) on our account. When He was thrown into a stable and placed in a manger, and a lodging refused Him among men, it was that heaven might be opened to us, not as a temporary lodging, but as our eternal country and inheritance, and that angels might receive us into their abode.—Calvin.
Luk_2:8-20. “The herald angels sing.”
I. The angel is the first evangelist.—Mark how steadily his words climb up from the cradle to the throne. The full joy and tremendous wonder of the first word are not felt till we read the last. It was much that there was born a Saviour, a Messiah; but the last word “Lord” crowns the wonder and the blessing, while it lays the only possible foundation for the other two names.
II. The message is for men.—“To you” first, to Israel; but its proffer stretches far wider, and includes all mankind. The angel speaks as one who has no share in the blessing. There is no envy, but there is the consciousness of non-participation. Yet the blessed life and death which are our salvation are their instruction in depths of Divine love, which could not else be disclosed to them who never fell.
III. The confirming sign.—This might rather have seemed fitted to contradict the glad tidings. It is a strange mark by which to identify one born to such lofty tasks and dignities, that He is, like all other infants, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and, unlike the child of the poorest, lies in a manger. Humiliation is the sign of majesty, the depth of lowliness, a witness of the height of glory. The cradle that was too poor for a child of man is fitting for the Son of God.
IV. The angelic chorus.—The one angel voice has barely time to tell its message, when, as if unable longer to be silent, “suddenly” the “multitude of the heavenly host pours out its praise.” I adhere to the old reading which divides the angel chorus into three clauses, of which the first and second may be regarded as the double result of that birth, while the third describes its deepest nature. The incarnation and work of Christ are the highest revelation of God. The wondrous birth brings harmony to earth.—Maclaren.
The First Gospel Preaching.
I. The message is good news.—Christianity is not a mere re-enactment of the moral law, but news of salvation to those who have broken that law.
II. Of great joy.—Neither conviction of sin, nor admonition of punishment, is the gospel, for these are not messages of great joy; they are the groundwork of preparation for the gospel. Nothing is gospel that is not joy-producing in those receiving it.
III. To all people.—To all ages, all nations, all classes, in society. Primarily, to the Jewish people, but the larger meaning is implied in this and in the preceding chapter.
IV. The cause of this joy.—The advent of a “Saviour” to save His people from their sins. “Christ” the anointed High Priest of God; “the Lord,” the very incarnation of Jehovah Himself.
V. The sign.—The proof of His divinity—the very humility of love; that He should be found cradled in a manger.—Abbott.
Luk_2:8. “Shepherds.”—This employment of tending sheep had been honoured in the earlier times of the Jewish people by its having been that in which Jacob, Moses, and David had been engaged; but now it was a calling that was looked upon by the Jews with contempt. The prophets had often made use of it in figurative descriptions of the work of the Messiah; and our Lord frequently spoke of Himself as having that relation to His people which a shepherd has to his flock.
The Spiritually-minded first hear of the Advent.—It was necessary that, as Christ had been born into the world, the fact should be communicated to men. He must be known in order that men might be drawn unto Him. But the annunciation of His advent was not made, in the first instance, to the rulers of the people or to the priests; for, as far as we can judge, both these classes of men were under the influence of worldly thoughts and ambitions, which blinded them to spiritual things. These shepherds, on the other hand, if we may judge from analogy, belonged to the class of those who were “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” The character of the others, to whom the special revelations recorded in these first two chapters of St. Luke’s Gospel were given—of Zacharias, Elisabeth, Simeon, and Anna—justifies our coming to this conclusion.
“Keeping watch over their flock.”—It was while they were engaged in their calling that they saw the heavenly vision—a privilege denied the hermit-like Essenes, who forsook secular employments, and gave themselves up to mystical contemplations, and to what they regarded as exclusively sacred exercises.
Luk_2:9. “The glory of the Lord.”—At every period in the humiliation of Christ some notable declaration of His Divine glory is given. In this place, it is by the angel’s message; in His circumcision, it is by the name Jesus; in His presentation in the Temple, it is by the testimony of Simeon; in His baptism, it is by the protest of John; and the same fact was manifested in many ways in the course of His passion.—Bengel.
“They were sore afraid.”—The cause of their fear was a sense of sinfulness and of alienation from God, and a dread of His righteous displeasure. This fear could only be dispelled by an authoritative declaration, such as that now given, of God’s compassion towards the sinful, and of His gift of a Saviour. These good tidings were the source of true joy; for until men have peace with God, through Christ, all joy is deceitful and short-lived.
Luk_2:10-11. The First Christmas Sermon.—We are justified in calling it a sermon because of the angel’s words: “I bring you good tidings”; or, “I preach the gospel” (εὐαγγελίζω).
I. The preacher.—“The angel.” So great was the message that no less a personage was worthy to bear it. The angels desire to look into the things that concern the salvation of men. God’s dealings with men reveal to them the depths of Divine wisdom and love. They are intimately associated with the history of Christ’s redeeming work. Angels told beforehand of His birth, and that of His forerunner; here they celebrate and announce His birth; they ministered to Him after His temptation in the wilderness; an angel strengthened Him during His agony in the garden; an angel rolled away the stone from His sepulchre; and angels announce to the disciples the fact that He had risen from the dead, and at His ascension angels prophesy of His second coming.
II. The audience.—“Said unto them,” i.e. to the shepherds. As the message the angel bore concerned all men, any men might have been selected to hear it first: any on whom he chanced to come would have been qualified to receive it—for he came to tell of the birth of a Saviour of whom all stand in need. But there was special appropriateness in these shepherds being the first to hear of it. For they were Jews, and therefore acquainted with the promises of deliverance and redemption which now were to be fulfilled in Christ: they followed a simple mode of life, and were evidently of a devout frame of mind, so that they were not likely to be biassed by the prejudices and misconceptions which prevented so many from recognising the Divine glory of Christ; and then, too, they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the place where this great event had occurred.
III. The message.—“Be not afraid,” etc.
1. The first words are to allay their fears—“Fear not”; it is not ill news he brings, but good news: they are to be made partakers of a “great joy”—a joy so great as to gladden the heart of every member of their nation and of the human race.
2. Then the glad tidings are fully unfolded. “To-day,” in the village hard by, One has been born who is “a Saviour”—for the sick, the sinful, the lost, and the perishing—who is “Christ,” anointed of God to fulfil all the offices of expiation, enlightenment, and rule, prefigured and signified by priests, prophets, and kings—and who is of Divine nature, “the Lord.” Others had in some special emergency and for a portion of their lives been deliverers or saviours of God’s people from temporal evils; but He is Saviour from the first, and all through His life, and the evils from which He delivers are the worst which assail and destroy the bodies and souls of men.
The duties that rest upon us are to hear the glad tidings as specially concerning us, and as being the best news that could be brought to our knowledge, and to receive the Saviour sent to us from heaven.
Luk_2:10-15. Luke’s Narrative of the Incarnation.—The leading ideas of the narrative of the Incarnation in Luke’s Gospel, the aspects from which he regarded it, and from which he wished the Church to regard it, are suggested in a summary form by this glorious passage.
I. The Incarnation is real.—The Saviour is no shadowy, unreal being. He is really born, a real babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in a definite place, at a definite date in human history. It was a true human birth; it was a true human body. There was with equal truth a true human soul. The reality of the Incarnation, according to Luke, was twofold:
1. Physiological (Luk_1:35). It is natural that the physician-evangelist should note the successive stages in the early development of Him who was so wonderfully born. He is “conceived in the womb of Mary”; “the fruit of her womb”; “the Holy Thing to be born”; “the Babe”; “Her Son”; “the Child”; “the Boy”; the Man “about thirty years old.”
2. Historical. See Luk_1:3. In the present section the reality is emphasised by a date which was intended to fix its place in the domain of history (“the taxing under Cyrenius”). This is supplemented by other chronological marks which touch upon the records of several governments, and which, when compared with the statement of the Saviour’s age, materially aid in bringing us to the period of His birth.
II. The universality of the Incarnation.—The remedy is not merely for the Jewish race, or for a selected few, the special favourites of Heaven. It is for the whole diseased material of human nature; for all the sinful, the weary, the suffering; for the whole great army of the miserable and guilty in every land. Hence in Luke’s Gospel Jesus meets all who cross His path with impartial sympathy. Hence just before He leaves the earth He commands. His disciples to preach “repentance and remission of sins in His name among all the nations.”
III. The Incarnation is joy-bringing.
When the voice of her who had conceived “the Holy Thing which was to be born” reached Elisabeth, the Holy Ghost filled her with a sweet surprise, and “the Babe leaped in her womb for joy.” The angel of the Lord upon the first Christmas eve struck the key-note not only of the Incarnation prelude, but of the whole gospel. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” As it begins, so it ends. “And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”—Alexander.
Luk_2:10. “Good tidings of great joy … to all people.”—The word “joy” fills a larger place in Scripture than in ordinary Christian life. In Scripture we find joy not only as a promise, but as a precept, imperative, unconditional, oft-repeated: “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Joy is the overflow of happiness. Before joy in the Christian sense there must be happiness.
I. The messenger of joy.—An angel. To a fallen being great joy can only come in the form of tidings from heaven. Earth is dark with sin and woe. Happiness is out of reach of the sinner, unless God shall say to him some entirely new thing. “Revelation” is the one hope for all that concerns happiness of the creature that has sinned. “Tidings” then—but what tidings? A new revelation of duty, or a new gospel?
II. The message of joy.—A birth. The gospel is a Divine incarnation; the removal not by us, but for us, through the death of the God-man, of human guilt. Believe this, and you have life. Christ born on purpose that He might die—this is the gospel.
III. The recipients of joy.—“All people.” Joy to the whole of each people. The Jewish people was only the sample of all peoples. “Whosoever will” is the gospel call. It is our bounden duty to present the gospel to the world as good tidings of great joy to all people. The gospel preached as joy for all people, so large and free that it has room for all, unites all, has a voice for all characters, and prevails already with all kinds—this is God’s gospel. Let this be the joy of each receptive heart.—Vaughan.
“To all the people” (R.V.).—While there is a seeming restriction, the word chosen, “to all the people,” would in due time bear its largest and most comprehensive application.—Pope.
“Good tidings.”—The words of the angel to the shepherds fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa_61:1), which Christ afterwards quoted as setting forth the greatest of the blessings He was to bestow: “The poor have good tidings [the gospel] preached to them” (Mat_11:5).
“Great joy.”—These words show us that until men have peace with God, and are reconciled to Him through the grace of Christ, all the joy they experience is deceitful and of short duration. Ungodly men frequently indulge in frantic and intoxicating mirth; but if there be none to make peace between them and God, the hidden, stings of conscience must produce fearful torment. The beginning of solid joy is to perceive the fatherly love of God toward us, which alone gives tranquillity to our minds.—Calvin.
“To all people.”—The announcement is national in its character, for “the people” here referred to are the descendants of Abraham. Yet the message is sent to Israel in order that it may be communicated by them to all mankind. Both in Luk_2:14 (“good-will toward men”) and in Luk_2:32 (“a light to lighten the Gentiles”) the wider import of Christ’s birth is recognised. See how the circle widens:
1. Good tidings to the shepherds (“I bring you).
2. Joy for “all the people,” i.e. the Jewish people.
3. God’s mercy and love are for all mankind (“good-will toward men,” Luk_2:14).
Luk_2:11-12. “Christ the, Lord … the Babe.”—The angel of the Lord described Jesus Christ by most remarkable names—the Saviour, Christ the Lord, and the Babe! This marvellous combination of almightiness and helplessness has its counterpart in the whole doctrine and history of Christianity itself. Viewed in its merely human and literary aspect, what can be less pretentious than Christianity—expounded in the smallest of books, upheld by unlearned and ignorant men, without a temple, a priesthood, a ritual? On the other hand, viewed in its spiritual aspects, what can exceed in grace and glory the idea of subduing, regenerating, and glorifying the whole world?—Parker.
Luk_2:11. “Unto you.”—The words are emphatic, and perhaps may be taken as implying that the anticipation of a coming Saviour had been strong in these men’s minds.
“City of David.”—It is taken for granted that the shepherds were acquainted with those prophetic passages of Holy Scripture which
(1) declared that the coming Deliverer would spring from the house of David, and
(2) which pointed out Bethlehem as the place where He would be born.
“A Saviour.”—The name Jesus is not given here, but the title of the “Saviour “is equivalent to it.
Salvation.—It is a curious fact that “Saviour” and “salvation,” so common in St. Luke and St. Paul (in whose writings they occur forty-four times), are comparatively rare in the rest of the New Testament. “Saviour” only occurs in Joh_4:42; 1Jn_4:14, and six times in 2 Peter and Jude; “salvation” only in Joh_4:22, and thirteen times in the rest of the New Testament.—Farrar.
Luk_2:12. “A sign.”—Rather, “the sign” (R.V.). A sign is not asked for by them, yet one is given them. God does not always call for the manifestation of a heroic faith, but is sometimes pleased, in His mercy, to strengthen faith when it is subjected to a test that might break it down. It put, indeed, no slight strain upon faith to be asked to believe that an infant, a few hours old, and born in poverty and obscurity, was Christ and Lord. The sign given served a twofold purpose:
(1) it enabled the shepherds to identify the child of whom the angel spake, and
(2) it confirmed their faith in the good tidings brought to them.
Luk_2:13. “Suddenly.”—As if eager to break in as soon as the last words of the wonderful tidings had dropped from their fellows’ lips.—Brown.
“A multitude.”—Among men the testimony of “two or three witnesses” (Mat_18:16) is sufficient to remove all doubt. But here is a heavenly host with one consent and one voice bearing testimony to the Son of God.—Calvin.
“Praising God.”—It was the birthday of the new creation. A new corner-stone was being laid. Well, therefore, may the morning stars have sung together, and all the sons of God have shouted for joy.—Burgon.
Luk_2:14. “Glory to God in the highest.”—The song of the angels expresses the wonder and joy which God’s redeeming love towards mankind excites in their hearts (cf. 1Pe_1:12). It consists of a twofold prayer:
(1) that praise may ascend from earth, and pass through the heavens to the throne of God exalted above them all;
(2) that all through the earth there may be that peace that comes from reconciliation with God: and it closes with a statement of the reason for this praise and of the ground of this peace—God’s good-will is now made manifest to men and dwells among them. “Glory [be] to God in the highest, and on earth [let there be] peace, [because of His] good-will toward men.”
The Worship of Angels.—The words of the angels present us with an example of the worship rendered to God in heaven, which consists, as we see, of praise and thanksgiving, without petitions or supplications. With it we may fitly compare the adoration rendered in heaven by redeemed souls (Rev_5:9-10).
“Glory to God,” etc.—The hymn consists of three propositions, which may be taken either as expressions of desire or of actual fact: “Glory [be] to God”; or, “Glory [is] to God.” It seems more natural to take the first and second propositions as being of the nature of prayers, and the third as a statement of the fact upon which the devout aspirations which precede it are based. In the first—“Glory to God in the highest”—the angels who have come down upon the earth ask that, in the heavens above them up to the very throne of God, the blessed spirits of whom they are but a small company, should begin a song of praise in honour of the Divine perfections which shine forth in the wonderful gift bestowed upon men. The second—“on earth peace”—is the complement of the first. The angels ask that on this earth, troubled by sin and disturbed by strife, the Divine peace which they themselves enjoy may descend—a peace which should result from the reconciliation implied in this birth. And then the third—“good-will toward men”—affords justification of the two preceding prayers. This is the reason why praise should be rendered to God in heaven, and why peace should henceforth reign on earth. God has manifested in a signal manner His special good-will towards men.—Godet.
The Angels’ Song.—The whole life of our Saviour was a commentary on these words. His aim was to glorify His Father’s name, to establish peace between heaven and earth, and to manifest God’s good-will to men.
I. Glory to God.—This is the first thought in the angels’ minds, and should be our ruling motive in all our conduct. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1Co_10:31). In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus has taught us to utter prayers and aspirations for the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His will, before we offer petitions on our own behalf.
II. Peace on earth.—Christ was the ambassador telling us that God was willing to pardon our sins, and to lay aside His just anger against them, and seeking to lead us by repentance and submission to a firm and lasting peace with Him. His object was to abolish all fear, and anxiety, and enmity: to give our disturbed consciences rest; to free us from the cares, and doubts, and perplexities which so often distract our thoughts; and to fill our hearts with love to God and to our brethren.
III. “Good-will to men.”—God’s good-pleasure toward us, and not any merits of our own, forms the ground on which we look for salvation. His pity for us in our helplessness moved Him to send His Son for our redemption. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom_5:8). The thought of this great and undeserved love that has been shown to us should fill our hearts with humility, and gratitude, and faith.
The Angelic Doxology.—The angels themselves retire, no more to be seen until the second coming of the Lord—their Lord and ours. But their song of sympathy with man remains, to be studied and echoed in innumerable songs by those whom it most concerned. Their doxology is at once prophecy and hymn. Its strain makes heaven and earth one. In Christ, on the night beginning His new life in human nature, they behold accomplished redemption. “Glory” redounds to God in the accomplishment of His eternal counsel for the salvation of men; and that glory is declared by anticipation to be rendered on earth, as it is already rendered in heaven. As to man, the prophetic doxology of the angels speaks of “peace”—the peace of a reconciling gospel, proclaiming the Divine reconciliation to the world. We hear in the angels’ hymn the most perfect tribute to the finished work of “Christ the Lord.”—Pope.
Luk_2:15. “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.”—The angels withdraw from the scene; the shepherds at once seek the infant Redeemer. That which to the heavenly visitants is a matter of interest is to men a matter of concern, for He is their Saviour.
The Hidden Beauties of Bethlehem.
I. The darkness that enfolds the wonderful Incarnation by night.—We would have expected the “Light of the world” to be born in the sunniest hour of the day—the day most full of light in that brilliant Eastern land. Yet it is far otherwise. Does He not love to be born in our souls, now, not in the noontide of sin and passion, but in sad and lonely hours, in dark seasons?
II. Notice next the stillness around Bethlehem.—The strange, awful peace reigning in this cavern nursery. The villagers are not thronging the streets in wonder. What a surprise to the shepherds to find the streets empty, and none crowding in before them at the stable door! They look in. Only a poor Jewish maiden, and an old man, bending over a little child. In this silence we learn one of the greatest secrets of our holy religion. Jesus can only come to the silent, waiting, prayerful soul.—Mellor.
Luk_2:16. The Manger Scene.
I. The scene as a whole.—It represents pre-eminently the disclosure of Divine love, God’s self-disclosure. God’s revelation of Himself all through the universe has here reached its culminating point.
II. Each particular figure in the group.—
1. Jesus in His helpless infancy. The lesson of humility, the lesson of obedience. Realise the sin of man’s claim—utterly false claim—to be independent of God. Jesus teaches that the true worth of human life is just in proportion as men learn to obey. Look at the infant Saviour, and learn this dignity of utter, boundless dependence upon God.
2. Mary bending over the cradle. What is the secret of this majestic pattern of womanhood and motherhood? It is the same thing under another form. Eve’s disobedience was a demand to be independent of God. Mary reverses the disobedience of Eve. “Be it unto me according to Thy word.” Mysterious and majestic was the claim which came upon her. In principle the same claim comes upon us. God needs us, has work for us to do. Our self-surrender, our correspondence with God, makes it possible for God to use us. Will we correspond? Will we take Mary’s words into our lips, “Be it unto me according to Thy word”?
3. Joseph is the third in the group. We do not think enough of his glory in that he yields himself with such quiet dignity to the strange claims of God upon him. He accepted the extraordinary claim which religion laid upon him. He constituted himself the foster-father, the protector, of Mary and her Divine Child. And there is asked of us all an ordinary thing, which does lay upon men something of the same sort as was laid upon Joseph—the requirement that we should be the protectors of religion, even though it costs us much.—Gore.
The Beginning of Christian Worship.—When the shepherds with Joseph and Mary knelt at the manger-cradle, they inaugurated Christian worship, and the communion of saints: by making known “the saying told them concerning this Child,” they became the first preachers of the gospel. They received no commission to spread the glad tidings; but doubtless they felt like Peter and John, “we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Act_4:20).
Luk_2:17. “They made known abroad the saying.”—We see in the shepherds an example
(1) of faith in the message from heaven;
(2) of obedience to the command to seek the Saviour;
(3) of zeal in communicating to others the glad tidings concerning Jesus, and
(4) of attention to present duties; for after adoring their Saviour they return (Luk_2:20), with love to God in their hearts, and with praise to Him on their lips, to the duties of their daily life.
Luk_2:18-19. “Wondered … pondered.”—The impressions formed upon different hearts by witnessing these great events, or by hearing of them:
1. Mere wonder excited, which soon passed away.
2. A retention of them and meditation upon them.
Luk_2:19. The Grace of Meditation.—The text gives more than a mere feature of Mary’s character: it presents to us her main and distinctive quality.
I. She kept these things in her heart.—How marvellous the experience of that one year! The Annunciation, the Birth, the Angelic Choir, the Shepherd Visitors,—well can we understand how she, the blessed and honoured mother, kept all these sayings in her heart; lost not the remembrance by day or by night, but treasured it in her inmost soul as that which could not pass nor be forgotten.
II. She pondered them in her heart.—The word denotes putting together, combining and harmonising; that process which is a first condition of all true knowledge. Much, in her case, needed such harmonising. Who was she, to have such a destiny? Who was He of whom she had become the mother? The wonder is, not that she long pondered, but that she ever believed. The very possession of the earthly presence must have impeded rather than facilitated the realisation of the heavenly. Do we, however, follow Mary’s example? We have in its full compass, God’s revelation—our own individual history—our spiritual condition—our hopes for the future—abundant materials for meditation. But we must first realise such things before we can either keep them or ponder. One great temptation of our age is to neglect reflection. How different our restless modern life from the still, tranquil life of the villages of Palestine. We are in danger of dissipating even religious thoughts, and of drowning the very voice of conscience in the multitude of our professions and the variety of our doings. Let us then cultivate the peculiar grace which shone in the Lord’s mother. If we read little, let us keep it well: if we read much, let it be because we have time to ponder. Haste in Divine things is ever a sign of heartlessness. A moment spent in self-recollection is worth hours of sacred reading without it. The test of true religion lies, for every man, in this self-examination. Without this there cannot be a heart right with God, nor a mind resolutely set on things above. Where there is a want of this pondering, of this musing and meditating, on the things of God, there can be but a feeble hold upon spiritual realities. Mere familiarity with the sound of God’s revelation may lead as much to spiritual ignorance as to intellectual knowledge.
III. There are many ways of practising this grace of meditation.—Firm, resolute self-examination is one of these; and earnest, steady contemplation of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit as revealed to us in the Scriptures is another one of these; and praying over a verse or two of the Bible, on the strength of their being true, and in reference to their spiritual teaching, is another of these. So, too, a most impressive exercise is the act of Holy Communion. There we ponder His truth in His presence; there in an especial manner is the Master with His disciple, and the Revealer with His word.—Vaughan.
Luk_2:20. “Glorifying and praising God.”—The greatness of the work, and the goodness of God, as manifested by it, are respectively implied in these two words, “glorifying” and “praising.”—Godet.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 21 Luk 2:1-7. “It came to pass in those days…
THE BIRTH OF JESUS
Luk 2:1-7. “It came to pass in those days [i.e., in the days above mentioned, with reference to John the Baptist and the annunciation of the coming Christ], a decree went forth from Augustus Caesar to enroll all the world.” The battle of Actium, between Augustus Caesar and Mark Antony, gave the former the sole dominion of the known world, his crown radiating the rays of an unsetting sun, and his scepter sweeping the circumference of the globe. “This enrollment first took place, Cyrenius being the governor of Syria, and all went to be enrolled, each one into his own city. And Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he is of the house and family of David, to be enrolled, along with Mary his wife, being betrothed to him, being in an advanced state of pregnancy.” Nazareth is away up north, in the tribe of Zebulun, while Bethlehem is about one hundred miles south of it, in the tribe of Judah. It so happened that they were not living in their own township. Bethlehem is a compound Hebrew word, and means house of bread; very significant, as it is the nativity of Christ, who is the Bread of life to all the world. I have several times visited Bethlehem, which is this day a beautiful little city of eight thousand, much revived by Jewish capital and industry. The great Church of the Nativity — Greek, Latin, and Armenian each denomination holding daily service at respective hours, contains the manger, hallowed to receive the world’s Redeemer, being wrapped in swaddling-cloths, and laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn. As His parents were poor, He had no fine clothes, and there was no room for Him in the tavern, where the moneyed people lodged. It is literally true, as a rule, this day, that the Savior is excluded from the houses where the well-to-do people abide. Why was the incarnation of the Savior, the most important event of all ages, postponed four thousand years, while multiplied millions swept into eternity?
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a. Christ was in the world excarnate — i.e., out of the place from the beginning and through all the ages preceding His birth at Bethlehem; He was here, and omnipotent to save. Hence there was a gracious possibility in all ages for all to be saved.
b. It was necessary that the important event of His incarnation should be postponed beyond the prehistoric ages of myth and fable, lest it be lost in the fogs of ignorance and superstition, and history should not be able to apprehend, appropriate, and transmit it intelligently to all coming ages.
c. Such was the incorrigible propensity of fallen humanity to go into creature worship — i.e., idolatry — that it was necessary to give it the field unobstructed, and opportunity to run its race, do its execution, culminate, and fall into dilapidation, before the great and notable event of our Lord’s incarnation and evangelization to all the nations of the earth.
This was actually done. The Baal idolatry — i.e., the worship of the sun- god, as well as many other forms of idolatry had actually monopolized the world, received the adoration of all nations four thousand years, proved unsatisfactory; ostensibly inadequate to the consolation of the human heart, and the solution of the great problem of humanity: Who am I? whence came I? and what is my destiny?
d. Human learning, unsanctified by grace, has in all ages fostered pride and arrayed itself against God.
Hence it was important to give it rope enough to hang itself, and time and opportunity to do it. This was done in the four thousand years postponement. If you will travel through Egypt, Greece, and Rome, you will certify me that the surviving monuments of human art, genius, and learning forces on us the conclusion that in the anti-Christian ages, they actually made greater proficiency and reached loftier achievements that the attainments of any subsequent period; therefore, when infidelity arrays human learning against the Bible, and would extol its superiority as an antidote to the wants of humanity, the argument breaks down, from the simple fact that the arts, sciences, and every ramification of human learning, had the world four thousand years, unobstructed by the revealed Word, meanwhile making the loftiest attainments possible, and still signally failing to satisfy the longings of the immortal soul, condole the griefs of a broken heart, and deliver humanity from guilt and sin, and solve the great problem of experimental salvation.
e. When the postdiluvians, under the leadership of Nimrod, resolved to build a tower so high that another flood could never pass over it, God arrested their impious enterprise by confounding their language, and thus filling the world with innumerable dialects.
In order to the universal propagation of the gospel, it was important to girdle the globe with one common language, spoken by all the nations of the earth. This was done by the universal conquest of Alexander the Great, placing the Greeks, with their beautiful, vivacious, and comprehensive language, in the leadership of every nation under heaven, thus enveloping the globe with one common language.
f. As the world was occupied by an infinite variety of different nations, so that an army could scarcely pass out of the shadow of its own capital without invading the territory of its neighbor, and all these arrayed against each other in deadly conflict — amid this state of infinite and antagonistical political divisions, it would have been impossible to verify the Commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
A great, universal military Government was an indispensable prerequisite to the world’s evangelization. This actually obtained in the universal conquests of Rome, throwing the Briarean arms of a powerful military despotism around all the nations of the earth. Under this universal military Government, the apostles were permitted to go to the ends of the earth — Matthew to Ethiopia and Central Africa; Mark to Egypt and Northern Africa; Peter to Rome; Paul to Eastern Asia and Western Europe; the two Jameses to Jerusalem and Palestine; Andrew to Armenia; Philip to Syria; Bartholomew to Phrygia; Jude to Tartary; Thomas to India; and Simon Zelotes to the British Islands, their comrades actually dispersing to the ends of the earth. If all these countries had not been under the one great military Government of Rome, it would have been impossible for them to carry out the Commission in the peregrination of the globe; for as soon as they passed into another nation, they would have been arrested, imprisoned, and probably put to death. Now that all of these important and indispensable events. have transpired, Pagan polytheism has run its race without a competitor, and is on the universal decline. Human learning, with the world for its dominion, has gone to the acme, and signally failed to solve the grand problem of human life and destiny. The Alexandrian conquest has put the Greek language, the finest the world ever saw, in every nation, actually making it the shibboleth of the globe; while the Romans have triumphed on all the battle-fields of earth, enveloping all nations in the mystical network of an invincible universal despotism, thus obliterating the incorrigible obstructions of national boundaries, unifying the world, and turning it over to the heralds of gospel grace.
g. Besides the removal of the above difficulties, and the opening of all nations to the ingress of the gospel, there has already sprung up a universal anticipation, not simply among Jews, blessed with the light of prophecy, but all the Gentile world have, in some way, received the impression and reached the conclusion that a Divine messenger is about to come into the world — really, all nations are on tiptoe with anticipation of the coming Messiah.
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers: Prepare the way! a God, a God appears!
Lo! earth receives Him from the bending skies; Sink down, ye mountains; ye valleys, rise; With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods, give way; The Savior comes, by ancient bards foretold; Hear him, ye deaf; and all ye blind, behold!”
The advent of Christ is the greatest event that has ever transpired upon the earth, actually inundating the globe with the grace of God, and bringing salvation within the reach of every fallen son and daughter of Adam’s lost race. While His first advent floods the world with grace, the second will inundate the world with glory; thus His two advents constituting the great salient epochs of the world’s history — the one, the ineffable transition out of legal bondage into the triumphs of free grace; and the other, sweeping on from grace to glory. As the Incarnate Christ is the very impersonation of redeeming grace, inexhaustible and omnipotent, poured out on every human being without money and without price, so when the Lord comes again, He will be the incarnation of glory, bringing His glory with Him, and freely transmitting it to all His saints. I do not see that His glorious coming will do away, or even supersede His omnipotent grace; but it will be an accession to it, both grace and glory surviving, accumulating, and augmenting through all eternity.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Luk 2:1-7
Luk 2:1-7
The Child and the Emperor.
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I. "It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." In the original meaning of these words, they express the fact that it is by the vast network, so to speak, of the Imperial Government at Rome, reaching to every corner of the Empire, that the humble family at Nazareth were drawn from their home in the Galilean hills to the birthplace, or city, of David at Bethlehem. But there are a solemn march and swell in the words, that give them a fuller and ampler scope. It was not without reason, that in the earlier ages this portion of Scripture was read publicly in the churches on Christmas Day, by kings and emperors. It was felt truly that the words awakened the sense of the great historical personages and events in the midst of which Christianity was born. They gave us a thread, slight indeed in itself, but forming part of a vast tissue which bound the cradle of Bethlehem—the birth, the growth of Christianity, round the throne of the imperial Cæsar.
II. Born under the empire, there was in Jesus Christ nothing imperial, except the greatness of His birth. Born under the Roman sway, there was nothing in Him Roman, except the world-wide dominion of His Spirit. Born in the first century, He belongs more to the full development of the nineteenth century than He does to the imperfections of the first. This, then, is the double principle of which the event of Christmas Day is the most striking example; external circumstances are something, but they are not everything. The inward life is the essential thing; but for its successful growth it needs external circumstance. The main element in the foundation—the main pledge for the future progress of Christianity—was the character, the personal character, of its Founder. Had Christ been other than He was, had He been a mere spectre or phantasm, however Divine, such as He is represented in some well-known systems, without human affection, or persuasive words, or energetic actions, or constraining will, the course of the empire would have rolled on its way, and His place in history and in the hearts of men would have been unknown. But being what He was—the impersonation of goodness and truth, containing within Himself all those elements of character which win, convince, stimulate mankind—His religion, so far as it was derived from Himself, became all-pervading and all-embracing.
A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 401.
References: Luk 2:1.—W. Leask, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 283. Luk 2:1-20.—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 10. Luk 2:5-8.—A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, p. 55. Luk 2:6, Luk 2:7.—G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 410.
Luk 2:7
Christ waiting to find room.
In the birth and birthplace of Jesus there is something beautifully correspondent with His personal fortunes, afterwards also of the fortunes of His Gospel. Even down to our own age and times He comes into the world, as it were, to the taxing, and there is scant room for Him even at that.
I. The reason why Jesus cannot find room for His Gospel is closely analogous to that which He encountered in His birth—viz. that men’s hearts are preoccupied. They do not care, in general, to put any indignity on Christ; they would prefer not to do it; but they are filled to the full with their own subjects already.
II. If we speak of what is called Christendom, comprising, as it does, all the most civilised and powerful nations of mankind, those most forward in learning, and science, and art, and commerce, it may well enough seem to us when they fix the name Christendom—Christ dominion—on these great powers of the earth, that Christ has certainly gotten room, so far, to enter and be glorified in human society. And it is a very great thing, doubtless, for Christ to be so far admitted to His kingly honours; more, however, as a token of what will sometime appear than as a measure of power already exerted. Still, what multitudes of outlying populations there are that have never heard of Him. And the states and populations that acknowledge Him, how little of Christ, take them all together, appears to be really in them. Now and then a saint appears, a real Christly man, but the general mass are sharp for money and dull to Christ.
III. Our Gospel fails hitherto of all its due honours, because we so poorly represent the worth and largeness of it. What multitudes are there under the name of disciples, who maintain a Christian figure securely up to the line of common respect—penurious, little, mean, sordid, foul in their imaginations, low-minded, coarse-minded every way! The work, however fitly ordered as respects the machinery, lingers till Christ gets room to be a more complete inspiration in His followers. They give Him the stable, when they ought to be giving Him the inn.
H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 1.
So, by the ordering of Providence, that fell out at Bethlehem which was to foreshadow all that has happened since. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not."
I. At Bethlehem it was but an ordinary accident. The very limited means of accommodation in a poor village had been extended as far as they would go. Those who came first would be first served, and those who could pay the best would be most carefully attended to. The travellers were not bidden to go elsewhere; they were not left in the street to seek lodging on a winter’s night; what could not be found in the house might, since nothing better could be offered, be found in an outhouse. And so the Saviour of the world was born in a stable, and cradled in a manger.
II. What occurred then undesignedly has been repeated of deliberate intention ever since. That inn at Bethlehem was the type and similitude, to a greater or less degree, of every human heart that has ever beaten since. Who is there but must be constrained to own that while his heart has been swept and garnished for other guests, and all its chambers filled, the poorest, narrowest, least-honoured place about it has been allotted to Jesus? The lamentable but plain truth is this, that from first to last the world which He has made has found no room for God.
III. Let us try to realise who it is that knocks at our hearts, and for whom we are unwilling or careless to find room. It is the majesty and awfulness of the Guest that seeks admission—the awfulness of such an Indwelling Presence—the restraints which it involves and lays upon us—which cause us to shrink from the contemplation of it, and to share the feeling of the Apostle when he exclaimed, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" But is He to seek admission, and are we so say that we have "no room?" That be far from us! Let us welcome Him without reserve, and His love and grace will do the rest.
F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. i., p. 30.
References: Luk 2:7.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 343; Church of England Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 13; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 520; vol. iii., p. 333; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 485; E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 151; J. Keble, Sermons from Christmas to Epiphany, p. 97; H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 24.
Luk 2:8-9
Whilst there is a striking contrast, between the Divine dignity of our Lord and the lowly earthly circumstances of His birth, there is at the same time a no less striking harmony between the events, and dispositions, and persons attending it. The time, the place, the tidings, the listeners, are all in unison. The shepherds were upon historic ground. On those same slopes, on those same hillsides, David of old had fed his father’s flocks; and it was from those same fields that he went forth at God’s command to change his shepherd’s crook for the royal sceptre; and his lowly dress for the purple of a king. When the angels came to earth, they came to the peaceful hillsides, where the dew was upon the grass, and the flock was sleeping in the fold; and there to humble and prepared hearts they gave their message and revealed their glory.
I. And that humble shepherds were the first to receive the glad tidings is as instructive as it is strange. It shows us plainly that there is no respect of persons with God; that in His eye the loftiest and the lowliest are as one; that in the blessings of the everlasting Gospel there is no difference between the monarch on the throne, and the beggar on the dunghill.
II. Not only was the message of the angel given to shepherds, it was given to them whilst they were pursuing their work. Idle men do not receive visions. Industry rather than idleness qualifies for the blessing of God. These were not the kind of men to start at shadows. They were strong, sturdy men, holding a position of danger and difficulty, and yet their humble hearts were waiting upon the Lord.
III. The shepherds at first were "sore afraid." "Flesh and blood were not made to inherit the kingdom of heaven," and thus the "mercifulness of God is seen in the very commonplaces of life." The shaded light, the veiled heaven, the hidden glory, testify as much to His goodness as the open vision and the third-heaven revelation. But the fear of the shepherds soon gave place to action; they took the proper attitude to the Divine announcement, they instantly believed it. How different this journey of the shepherds to the manger, from the hasting of the disciples afterwards to the tomb! These men went "to see the thing which had come to pass," but when Peter and John ran to the sepulchre it was to see if it had come to pass; and the one journey was marked by confidence and truthfulness, while the other was all impatience and haste.
H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 285.
Luk 2:8-11
The Great Joy of Christmas.
When we hear an angel from heaven declaring good tidings of great joy, which should be to all people, the heart is straightway set on remembering how wondrous true this declaration of his has proved already; set on considering how infallibly true it will prove to the end. The fountain head of the river of our bliss is the manger at Bethlehem. Every separate stream of our rejoicing is to be traced back thither. The source and beginning of it all is in the Infant Saviour, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, and why?
I. Because He is the pledge of God’s forgiveness and of God’s love towards man. We were before at emnity with God. We lay under a curse. The sentence of death had been passed on all our race. Behold the beginning of the undoing of the curse, the dawn of light and life to a dead and benighted world. All saving mysteries were contained in Christ’s Incarnation—somewhat as a forest may be said to be contained in an acorn. And hence first it is that Christmas is the season of our greatest joy.
II. Immediately out of this flows our gratitude as a Church. For do let us consider what was the condition of the world till Christ was born. On one nation only, and that the smallest, had the dew of the Divine blessing as yet descended. What had we been in this far land, but for the substance of the angels’ message to the shepherds?
III. As individuals, we find here our personal grounds of gratitude and rejoicing: for Christ’s coming into the world it was which hallowed every relationship, and blessed every age and estate. By His precepts, His example, His grace, He has guided us through life’s mazy path; planted in us high principles of action and the very divinest motives; sanctified affliction, and sweetened sorrow, and beatified poverty, and made infancy most precious, and old age most honourable.
IV. Then, lastly, consider how entirely from the coming of Christ in the flesh it comes to pass that the mourner learns to dry his tears. This privilege of Christian faith and hope was unknown to the heathen. But now the daystar arises in the darkest season of bereavement, and (as on summer nights) there is a token of the morning almost before the hour of sunset has quite passed away. And if the progress of decay in ourselves, and the prospect of death is not very terrible—whence is it, but because as on this day was born to us a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord? In Him we know that we are more than conquerors. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me."
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 11.
Reference: Luk 2:8-14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 439.
Luk 2:10
The days of life are not lived on one level range. There are days that are lifted, and days that are depressed; days which stand out radiant with opportunity, as summits of mountains stand forth to the eye when the sun shines upon them. When Christianity was born a sun rose into the darkness of the world. Men saw what they had felt must be, but what they had never before seen.
I. Chiefest among all sights revealed stood God. The heaven was no longer a vacuum; the spaces beyond the sight of the eye, were no longer a mockery. Within the heavens and filling them there was Deity, and through the farther spaces they were told that that Deity at death would receive them, as children are received to a home. As the stars move round the sun, so do the souls of men revolve round their Deity. We are tied to our spiritual orbits by our knowledge of God; we should become vagrant with the intellectual and spiritual vagrancy of the old-time heathenism if the impelling, guiding, controlling influence which God, through our knowledge of Him, puts ceaselessly upon us, were intermitted.
II. The first reason, then, why Christianity is glad news is, because it revealed God to man; and the second and emphatic reason is, as it seems to me, because it revealed man to himself. Never till Jesus was born, and never till He had lived and passed away, did man know the nobility of his species. Never until God dwelt in the flesh could any man know what flesh might become. Never until the fulness of God was in man bodily, might the race get even a hint of that Divine receptiveness that above all else, perhaps, most nobly characterises human nature. Man had been one sort of a being before Christ came; after that, he was another sort of a being. The birth at Bethlehem gave a new significance to birth, made motherhood a new thing, and gave fatherhood a larger sanctity; Christ showed what man might be, and thereby fixed his value.
III. The third great reason why Christianity is glad news, is found in the fact that it reveals God in man, The proclamation of the angels is confirmed in our experience, and corroborated by our knowledge, that the birth of Christianity was indeed glad news unto men, because it brought God out of distance and darkness into light, and made Him nigh, as He is nigh who shares our burdens, consoles our sorrows, and in every pinch and stress of disastrous fortune, rescues us from peril and saves us from loss.
W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 201.
Luk 2:10-11
When Jesus was born, the possibilities of human nature began to be realised. Humanity took a new start. The highest hope of all time was realised, and the possibilities of human nature had expression. Christianity comes to every one of us as an inspiration. It hangs, a star in the darkened sky of our lives. Jesus had faith in Himself, and therefore He had faith in the race to which He belonged. He knew that His own capacities typed the capacities of mankind. And on this He built His hope when He said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me."
I. Observe the universality of the good tidings. The angel said, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Jesus, in birth, became an organic member of the race. His connection was race-wide: He was brother to humanity everywhere. Within the circle of His sublime brotherhood stand peasant and king, serf and czar. The relationship which every person sustains to the Saviour overwhelms all earthly distinctions.
II. Christianity relates not only to the future of mankind, but to the present. It is not an arrangement of forces which shall begin to operate upon man when he has passed out of the body, but an arrangement to operate upon him while in the body. It teaches us earthly duties. It controls the daily adjustments of our lives. It is a thing of today, rather than of tomorrow.
III. When we consider what the birth of Jesus meant, in its application to human progress, we can well understand why the angels should call it tidings of great joy. For the birth of such a Being should mean nothing less than joy to man. A clear, hopeful, joyful spirit animates all Gospel history. It sounds out through the promises of Jesus; it speaks in His invitations; it rises like a strain of sweetest music in the Beatitudes; it can be distinguished even in His warnings. And the strong clear notes of hope and gladness, sounded first in Him at His departure into heaven, His disciples took up and prolonged. The fact that music has always been the handmaid of our religion is in itself sufficient to characterise that religion as impulsively happy and emotionally jubilant. Music cannot survive on grief. The fact that the Bible is a book of music is enough to characterise the religion that it teaches us. The fact that heaven would be imperfect without its harp reveals to us that religion is not only happy in its origin and progress, but happier still in its culmination.
W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 485.
Consider why the proclamation of Christ’s birth should be an occasion of joy.
I. Because Christ came to make atonement for the world’s guilt and sin. The greatest plague a man can have is the plague of a guilty conscience. Most other miseries may, by skill and time, be removed, and all come to an end in the grave. But a guilty conscience is something no one can remove, either from himself or from others. This forms its peculiar sting—that after death it pursues to the judgment-seat, and will torment us in the abodes of despair. And so the fact, that, in Jesus Christ, His incarnation and death, we have an antidote for the uneasiness of a guilty conscience, ought to lessen, yea to allay altogether, the disquiet of the guilty soul that has received the good tidings of great joy.
II. Christ’s birth is good tidings of great joy, because it is the coming to us of a loving and joy-giving Friend. The joy of deliverance, to be complete, must be associated with the love of a personal friend. And in the goodness and wisdom of God in saving us from our wretchedness He has given us the love and joy of a heavenly Friend. It is quite possible for one to be a real friend, and yet the announcement of His coming to be other than good tidings of great joy; although friendly, He may be stern and morose. But Christ is a Friend in whose presence is fulness of joy, although our Lord was a Man of Sorrows.
III. Christ’s birth should be to us "good tidings of great joy," because He has come to secure us a home above. He abides with us always; His presence and joy remain with us to the end of life. And even then He does not leave us, for His guiding, supporting, and joy-giving presence accompanies us when we enter upon that dark valley which separates the tabernacle on earth from that everlasting home in heaven.
Pulpit Analyst, vol. iv., p. 678.
Christmas Day Lessons.
I. Christmas Day brings before us the relation of Christianity to the religion which went before; for the birth at Bethlehem was itself a link with the past. The coming of Jesus Christ was not unheralded or unforeseen; other nations had prided themselves on their illustrious origin in times long past, delighted to think that their first fathers had sprung from a god, a demigod, or a hero; the Jewish nation alone had hardly anything of this feeling. Its best and wisest spirits turn steadily towards the future—the King, the Deliverer, the Glory of the golden times of their people was far in advance; and as years rolled on this belief grew deeper and stronger. It was the hope of the whole nation, it became like a natural instinct within them; like an instinct of duty, of immortality of self-preservation. Jesus of Nazareth, the Child born this day in the city of David, was at once the satisfaction and realisation of these ancient forebodings.
II. The recollections of this day also combine it with the future. If so much of what went before led up to it, so all that is most important in what followed leads us back to it. If we trace the laws, the morals, the literature, the art, of the modern world back to their source, we shall find that for the largest part of their peculiarities there is no event adequate to produce the immense transformation until we reach the same point as that in which the ancient prophecies ended.
III. This decisive world-historical birthday took place in a small inn of a small village of a small province of a small nation. It was the greatest of events on the smallest of scales. There are some who think that all events and characters are to be measured by the magnitude of the stage on which they appear; there are some who are perplexed by the thought that this globe, on which the history of man is enacted, is now known to be a mere speck in the universe. But the moment we go below the surface we find that the truth conveyed to us by the birth of the world’s Redeemer in the little village of Bethlehem is the likeness of a principle which ramifies far and wide. The great nations of the world have almost always been amongst the smallest in size. "Many are called, but few are chosen."
A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 417.
Luk 2:10, Luk 2:14
We have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons: instead of anxiety within, and despondence without—instead of a weary search after great things—to be cheerful and joyful; and again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which the world passes over and thinks scorn of.
I. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to the shepherds? What was in them which attracted the attention of the angels, and the Lord of angels? Were these shepherds learned, distinguished, or powerful? Were they especially known for piety and gifts? Nothing is said to make us think so. Why then were they chosen?—for their poverty’s sake and obscurity. Almighty God looks with a sort of especial love upon the lowly. Perhaps it is that man—a fallen, dependent, and destitute creature—is more in his proper place when he is in lowly circumstances; and that power and riches, though unavoidable in the case of some, are unnatural appendages to man as such. The angel appeared to the shepherds as if to show that God had chosen the poor in this world to be the heirs of His kingdom, and so to do honour to their lot.
II. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message. He disclosed good tidings so much above this world as to equalise high and low, rich and poor, one with another. Surely the lesson of joy which the Incarnation gives us is as impressive as the lesson of humility. Let us seek the grace of a cheerful heart, an even temper, sweetness, gentleness, and brightness of mind, as walking in His light, and by His grace. Let us pray Him to give us the spirit of ever-abundant, ever-springing love which overpowers and sweeps away the vexations of life by its own richness and strength, and which above all things unites us to Him who is the Fountain and Centre of all mercy, lovingkindness, and joy.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 244.
We learn from the text—
I. That the Gospel is not originated by man, but is brought to him.
II. That in revealing the Gospel the ministry of angels is only temporary.
III. That the Gospel is inseparably identified with the highest joy.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 307.
Religious Joy.
We have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons: instead of anxiety within and despondence without—instead of a weary search after great things, to be cheerful and joyful; and again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which this world passes over and thinks scorn of.
I. First, what do we read just before the text?—that there were certain shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, and angels appeared to them. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to these shepherds? Were they learned, distinguished, or powerful? Nothing is said to make us think so. They were chosen for their poverty’s sake, and obscurity. Almighty God looks with a sort of especial love upon the lowly.
II. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. v., p. 326.
I. There is no news equal to the news of Christmas. To those who receive it, who feed on it in their hearts, it is like news of a great victory. It tells of an enemy defeated—and a cruel, malicious enemy, an enemy who is alike the foe of God and man, and that is the devil. Satan’s power was shaken to its centre on the day that the angels sang their hymn of joy in the fields about Bethlehem. Today, instead of the "gods many and lords many," we are presented with a truer and nobler Object of our homage. We have shown to us One who is the brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of His Person.
II. What is it that distinguishes the glad tidings of Christmas from the tidings of Easter, or of Ascension, or of Whit-Sunday? It is this, that the Son of God has come into the world, and come as a Son of Man, and come not for a day, or for a year, but to be ever with us unto the end of time: Emmanuel, God with us. Christmas speaks to us of One who is Partner with us in all our sorrows, all our joy, all the changes and chances of our mortal life. Are there any here who mourn? Christ mourns with them. Is anyone here perplexed and troubled, from whatever cause? There is One come who is able to unravel for us our difficulties, and to make our way plain before our face. Let us seek the Lord, and pray Him to come into our hearts, and fill us with peace and joy, and gentleness, and goodness, and to make our hearts a copy of His own.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 4th series, p. 98.
References: Luk 2:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1330; vol. xii., No. 727; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 435; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 49. Luk 2:10, Luk 2:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1026; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 104. Luk 2:10-14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 321. Luk 2:11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 556; vol. vii., p. 341.
Luk 2:12
The Sign of the Babe reveals Four Things.
I. That our Saviour was a real man. "Ye shall find the Babe." In the flesh—our flesh—Christ came; as truly man as He was truly God; and infinite though the mystery may be, that is the truth gathering about the Babe wrapt in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger.
II. That our Saviour was simply a man. "Ye shall find the Babe "just a babe—no more. He was almost an outcast babe—no interest evidently gathered about Him when He came. We can say very little more about Him than this: He was a babe. We cannot put any of the ordinary adjectives and say He was a royal babe, or a wealthy babe, or a promising babe, or a learned man’s babe: He was just a babe.
III. The sign shows us our Saviour as a loving man. Christ came to begin the reign of love; to make love for ever the one force that should rule man’s spirit, man’s intercourse, man’s relationship. Therefore, He came as a babe to win first a mother’s heart, and through that mother’s heart to win his way into the very heart of mankind.
IV. The sign shows us our Saviour, for the most part, a rejected man—"wrapt in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." It was the custom in the East to dress very young children merely in folds of linen and woollen. But the giving of this description by the angel, "swaddling clothes," seems to intimate some peculiar unreadiness for Christ. He came unexpectedly, and the best that could be done had to be arranged for Him in the circumstances. The world was not even ready for Him as a babe.
R. TUCK, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 404.
I. The text teaches us how everywhere and in all things the Divine veils and even hides Itself in the outward. This shall be your sign—not the march of a conqueror, not the splendour of a king, but the babe wrapt in its swaddling bands; and the babe lying in a manger. Wherever God is the presence is secret. What, for example, is the Book of God—the Bible—but an example of this sanctity in commonness; a heap of leaves, marked with ink and hand, stamped with signs for sounds, multiplied by printing-press and steam engine, conveyed hither and thither by railways, bought and sold in shops; tossed from hand to hand in schools and homes, lost and dissipated by vulgar wear and tear. Yet in this Book of books—thus material, thus earthly, thus human in its circumstances—there lie concealed the very breath and spirit of God Himself mighty to stir hearts, and mighty to regenerate souls. The swathing bands of sense and time enclose the living and moving power which is of eternity, which is Divine—nay, the sign of the true Deity is the fact that the form is human.
II. The same thing which is true of the Bible is true also of the Church and of the Christian. Where is it, we ask, that God in Christ dwells most certainly, most personally, on this earth? It is no word of man’s invention which answers to the Church: "Ye collectively are the temple of God;" and to the Christian: "Your body is the shrine of the Holy Ghost which is in you." The treasure of Divine light is always held in earthen vessels: not until the pitcher is broken at the fountain shall the full radiance shine out so as to be read of all men. Meanwhile, the sign of God is the commonness. Christ came not to take men out of the world, but to consecrate and keep them in it.
III. And was it not exactly thus with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself—not only in the circumstances of His birth, but throughout His human life and His earthly ministry? Even when the preparation was ended, and the life beyond all other lives was begun, still was it not true that the Godhead veiled itself in the humanity? The sign of the birth was the sign also of the life. Christ the Lord is here, and therefore the human—the very human—is the token.
C.J. Vaughan, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 999.
This verse presents to us, in the most striking manner, that our Lord, however mysteriously His human nature was pervaded and exalted by a Divine nature, was, notwithstanding such ineffable and inexplicable complication, one of ourselves: that He passed through the ordinary gradations of humanity, increasing in wisdom, increasing in stature, keeping pace with both these developments by a corresponding progress in the love and admiration of those about Him, and in the favour and approval of His Heavenly Father.
I. In the grief of Mary for the temporary loss of her Child we may trace a suggestion for those who find themselves to be undergoing in their own inward experience a similar separation. Would it not be well that those who experience this loss—this privation of the Divine Comforter—should go straight back, like Mary, from the point at which they are to the point where they last enjoyed it, and retrace the steps that led them away from it, and return to the house of God, the presence of God, the ordinances of God, if haply they may recover what they have lost? And let them be encouraged to do this by the fact that the parents not only sought but found Christ at Jerusalem.
II. There were, in connection with the Temple, apartments where the Jewish rabbis were accustomed to give lectures on the Mosaic law, to which the Jewish youths who contemplated devoting themselves to the office of teacher were permitted to resort, and to elicit the information they required by putting questions, which were answered by the rabbis. In one of these halls or porches dedicated to religious learning He was discovered by His parents. He was engaged in asking questions, and in listening to the answers. If there should seem to be something almost like peremptoriness, abruptness, independence, in the Divine Child’s reply to His mother, that incongruous and jarring sort of feeling will be dissipated by adverting to the perfectly filial submission to parental authority recorded in Luk 2:51: "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." Christ came to brighten the homes of poverty, and to make nobility consist in something else than birth—to set up a new patent of nobility. Let the humble craftsman look at Him as a holy Brother.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 227.
Luk 2:13-14
The Angels’ Hymn.
I. "Glory to God in the highest." This is the first jubilant adoring exclamation of the angels, as they beheld the fulfilment of that eternal counsel of God, which, partially known no doubt long since and foreseen in heaven, was now at length actually accomplished upon earth; as they beheld the Lord of glory, Him whom they had worshipped in heaven, become an infant of days, and as such laid in that rugged cradle at Bethlehem. But what is the exact force of these words? Can God receive increase of glory, more than He has already? Is it not the very idea of God that He is infinitely glorious, and that this He always has been, and ever will be? Assuredly so; in Himself He is as incapable of increase as of diminution of glory. But we may ascribe more glory to Him; more, that is, of the honour due unto His Name; as we know Him more, as the infinite perfection of His being, His power, His wisdom, His love, are gradually revealed to us. So, too, may angels, and the heavenly host declare in this voice of theirs that the Incarnation of the Son of God was a new revelation, a new outcoming to them of the unsearchable riches of the wisdom, the power, the love, that are in God.
II. "On earth peace, good will toward men." That same wondrous act which brought such glory to God, namely, the taking of our flesh by the Son of God, brought also peace on earth, and declared God’s good will towards men. (1) Christ made peace for man with his God. Man was alienated and estranged from God by wicked works; he knew that he hated God, and he feared that God hated him. But now the child was born who should kill the enmity in the heart of man, who should make a propitiation to enable the love of God to flow freely forth on the sinner as it could not flow before. (2) In setting men at peace with God, Christ sets them at peace with themselves. (3) But man, at enmity with God and with himself, is also at enmity with his brother; selfishness is the root of all the divisions upon earth, from the trivial brawl that disturbs the peace of a village to the mighty war which makes a desolation over half the world. But He who was as upon this day born came to uproot this selfishness in the heart of man, to plant love there in its room: and distant as that day may be, it will yet arrive, when the nations shall not learn war any more. It was, then, with threefold right that the angels hailed His advent as the advent of "peace on earth, good will toward men."
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 68.
References: Luk 2:13, Luk 2:14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 44; J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 12; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 50.
Luk 2:14
The Angels’ Christmas Hymn.
I. "Glory," so the angels began, "to God in the highest!" Why was the birth of Christ glory to God in the highest? Besides other deep mysteries, which there may be in that saying, God did thus begin to make known to the holy angels, to those who serve Him in the highest, His manifold wisdom in respect of the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is evermore His special glory among them, as any condescending act of a great and beloved king is his glory among his subjects: namely, that He is now Man as well as God; He hath lowered, abased, emptied Himself, so unspeakably as to have taken our nature into His own, and in it to have suffered for us the worst of pain and shame—love taking on itself what sin deserved.
II. The birth of Christ is also peace on earth, peace between God and man, the blessed way to His favour which is better than life. Many of us may know something of the heartfelt, extreme, unutterable delight, when parents or brethren, or dear friends whom we depend upon, are reconciled to us after any kind of falling out; how the whole soul, before unquiet and restless, is restored to sweet assurance of safety and repose! Now people say to themselves over and over, "Come what will, now we have that which we most craved for; we have the heart which we thought we had lost; we know now that we are still dear to him whom we feared we had affronted for ever." Like to this, only unspeakably more than this, is the sense of being reconciled to God, the knowledge of how grievously soever we have fallen from Him, He still cares for us as our Father; and this blessing is solemnly renewed to us as often as Christmas comes round, in the very words of the angel: "On earth peace."
III. And it is, also, good will towards men; not peace only, but grace; not forgiveness only, but every blessing flows from it. There is nothing too good or too great to be expected, hoped, and prayed for, by those whom the Eternal Son owns for brethren and the Eternal Father for children, and into whom the Eternal Spirit has entered, to join them as true members to the Son.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. viii., p. 278.
The tidings of the coming of Christ, which were communicated to the shepherds by the angel appointed of God, are no longer confined to the spot and to the period which were rendered memorable by their disclosure. They have ceased to be tidings. They are no longer new. Now they have a history. Time itself has been God’s commentator. The ages have rolled away, nations and kingdoms have changed, but this truth of the coming of Christ has not been rolled away, and it has changed only to grow.
I. If theology could exclude the truth that Christ is God, it would remain as poetry. The world would not let it fall. Humanity would enshrine it; we would dream it; we would wake to believe; we would follow it wherever it should lead us.
II. The true work of Christ was to reveal to men their sins, to humble them, to empty them before God, to bring them under the complete control of the Divine will; and this became a sieve, as it were, which separated men one from another. It was the spiritual power of Christ’s purity that arrayed the Scribes and Pharisees against Him, and led to His arrest and crucifixion. It was the contrast between His life and theirs, the influence of His doctrines upon their self-conceit, and the power of His soul upon their nature and conduct, that aroused their opposition to Him.
III. For eighteen hundred years Christ has been ostensibly received and rejoiced in as a spiritual power; and yet during this whole period, those who have really received Him according to His errand of the soul, in a way that humbled them, cast them down into condemnation, judged them and raised them up into life, have been relatively the few, the despised and the outcast. Christ has been accepted almost universally throughout the world as an external power; but Christ as a purifier, Christ as a Saviour from sin, taking sides with the weak, the oppressed, the wronged, has been almost universally rejected throughout the world. How many myriads of men are there, who on Christmas Day, wear flowers in memory of Christ, chant hymns in honour of Christ, and present gifts in celebration of the birth of Christ, who will not let the Master enter one step unto their hearts to purify them! Let us beware lest we fall into this error, which so widely prevails in these latter days, of receiving Christ outwardly and rejecting Him inwardly.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 45.
References: Luk 2:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 168; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 343; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 80; W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 27; Ibid., vol. iv., p. 401; E. J. Willis, Ibid., vol. x., p. 120; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 91; New Manual of Sunday School Addresses, p. 234; H. Wace, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 195. Luk 2:15.—J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 108; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 45; Ibid., vol. x., p. 337; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 72; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children, p. 45; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., pp. 557, 558; vol. xv., p. 360; Expository Sermons on the New Testament, 65; H. G. Robinson, Man in the Image of God, p. 155. Luk 2:15-21.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 10.
Luk 2:16
The Hidden God.
I. It is said in the Bible that God is a God that hideth Himself; and yet there is nothing of which we are more sure than this—that if any man will heartily, and by all appointed means, seek and feel after the Lord, he will not fail to find Him; for not only doth He promise that he that seeks shall find Him, but He even saith, "I am found of them that sought Me not:"—whence we may learn, that God hides Himself from some, and makes himself known to others, as in His unsearchable wisdom and justice He thinks good. And this appears plainly in the history of our Lord and Saviour, God manifest in the flesh. God’s own Son, being the true and Eternal God, had taken upon Him our flesh, and had been born into the world. This most wondrous fact had actually taken place. And yet of the many thousands, and hundreds of thousands, of the men that He had made, who were then dwelling on the face of His earth, who knew it? Were they among the great or learned among the scribes or chief priests, or interpreters of the Law? No; it pleased God to pass by these, and to make known His blessed Son to poor, unlettered shepherds. And herein our tender and merciful Father is giving great comfort for poor people who are obliged to work hard for their bread, late at night and early in the morning. Let them only do their duty as in His sight, and strive, amid their earthly employments, to raise their thoughts to their Maker, and He will be mindful of them, and visit them, and make known unto them, in the depths of their hearts, the secrets of His love.
II. The first step towards heavenly wisdom in all men, learned or unlearned, is a deep and true lowliness of heart. They that have this are always willing to receive instruction, especially from those who are duly appointed to instruct them. And it is to such simple souls that God has always been pleased to make known Himself and His holy will. The shepherds, doubtless, like the other Jews, expected that the Christ, or anointed Saviour, whom their prophets foretold, would come as a great King and Conqueror. It must have been, therefore, a trial to their faith, to find Him in the lowest poverty, laid in the manger in the inn stable. But yet, like St. Paul, they were not disobedient to the heavenly vision, and they found Him, whom truly to know is eternal life.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii. p. 302.
The Holy Family.
I. This was the first Christmas family that was ever gathered together in this world—the first, the most notable, and the holiest. The exceeding beauty of the group, its surpassing interest and attractiveness, its close affinity with our innermost instincts and profoundest sympathies,—have been attested by the multiplied forms into which the hand of art has shaped it, under the familiar title of the Holy Family—than which, perhaps, no subject in the world has been more frequently depicted.
II. It is not too much to apply the term "domestic religion" to the sentiments which periodically crave the blameless indulgence of Christmas gatherings, and to the affections which are stimulated, sustained, and kept in exercise by these annual observances. Are not those feelings and affections a part of religion. Have not Christ’s Apostles classed domestic virtues and affections among the graces and fruits springing out of inward and spiritual life? Even in the old and more austere Testament we find "Brethren," i.e. members of one family, "dwelling together in unity," compared with the genial exhalation of the dews of Hermon to refresh and fertilise the sister slopes of Zion.
III. There is such a thing not only as innocent enjoyment, but innocent mirth too; and though actual religious exercise or contemplation be suspended, the spirit of Christ’s characteristically humane social teaching may be present. The blazing Christmas log shedding its happy gleam on happy faces gathered round will serve to kindle or rekindle warm affections which may, if it please God, retain their warmth all the more genially in consequence through the coming year.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 130.
References: Luk 2:17.—J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 87. Luk 2:17-20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 660. Luk 2:18.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 26. Luk 2:18, Luk 2:19.—J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 258. Luk 2:19.—Ibid., p. 118; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 27; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 369.
Luk 2:20
Think what a changed world it has become because Jesus was born at Bethlehem.
I. Remember that the Christian change of the world’s history is a fact. The influx through Christ of a new power into the life of humanity is a known fact of experience, as certain as the battle of Gettysburg, or the dawn of day.
II. In Christianity we breathe a different air. Humanity has crossed a boundary line. Up to Bethlehem, bleak and cold—down from Bethlehem, another and a happier time.
III. Jesus has been to the world (1) a new revelation of God, (2) a new revelation of man.
N. Smyth, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 362.
References: Luk 2:21.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 24; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 12; vol. iv., p. 88; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children, p. 48. Luk 2:21-35.—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 10.
Luk 2:22
I. The entrance of our Lord into His Temple had been foretold by Malachi four hundred years before (Mal 3:1). But the Lord did not now come in His glory, like as before when that bright cloud, the sign of His presence, filled the new-built Temple in the time of King Solomon: He came now in our flesh, in the form of a helpless babe. For though it was still in deed and in truth the Lord of Hosts coming into His Temple, yet now to the fleshly eyes what was to be seen? No visible glory, but two persons in mean condition and of poor estate, bringing what was supposed to be their first-born infant to present Him according to the law.
II. Christ was presented as One willing to offer Himself up for us; He came even as it had been foretold of Him, saying, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He was come into the world to do away with the sacrifices of the law, by offering up Himself as the true and perfect sacrifice once for all on the Cross. And His presentation in the Temple was (as it were) a foreshowing, or rather a beginning, of that sacrifice which He accomplished on the Cross as on an altar where He presented Himself before His Father as bearing our sins and making a full satisfaction for them.
III. We were presented to God once, and that pure and clean, after our baptism. And now when we have sinned, as we all see, we are permitted to present ourselves with confession and prayers, either at home or here in His own sacred house; like the holy Simeon and Anna we come here to present ourselves before the Lord with confession, prayers, and praise; thus, if we persevere in constant devout waiting upon God, we may trust we shall, like them, find Christ here and obtain of Him the gifts of holiness, and in union with Him be presented acceptable and pure before God. For when we come hither to pray for the pardon of our sins, and the cleansing of our whole man from our wretched defilements, we do in a manner, by our very appearance, if we bring our hearts with us, present and plead before the Father the merits of Christ’s sacrifice. Let it therefore be our endeavour to present ourselves at His Holy Table each time more and more, as we would present ourselves before His presence on His throne of judgment at the last day.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii., p. 21; see also J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 146.
References: Luk 2:22.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 57. Luk 2:22-40.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 26; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, vol. i., p. 264.
Luk 2:25
Some Aspects of the Presentation in the Temple.
I. Two points strike us in Simeon pre-eminently, whether they are marks of a school of Jewish interpretation, or rather traits of a single soul, simpler and more receptive than most. One is—that starting merely with prophecy, and not concerned to image to himself the details of its fulfilment, he hears in it a note which hardly sounded as clearly even to Apostles: "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles." The other is—that the sadder and more mysterious tones of prophecy come back to him as well as the more triumphant ones—the stone of stumbling—the gainsaying people—the sword that is to awake against the Shepherd. There is set in the forefront of the new revelation, side by side with triumphant hopes and promises, the record of a prevision of limitation, drawbacks, it would seem, even of partial failure. These are accepted from the first as necessary conditions; accepted and proclaimed by the same prophetic voice, which speaks most strongly of its satisfying, universal, eternal blessedness.
II. The words of Simeon touch three points, which correspond roughly with the three mysteries of human life. (1) He sees that the Gospel is to bring pain as well as happiness: "A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." The nearer to Christ the surer and deeper the pain. He sees that it is to be the occasion of evil as well as of good—to lower as well as to lift—to be the stone of stumbling as well as a ladder on which men may rise to heavenly places. He sees that though it brings light, it is light which cannot be visible to all eyes. (2) The second note is one still harsher to our ears. Pain is a condition of which, if we cannot see the full explanation of its necessity, we can see a certain purpose—we understand its disciplinary power, and we see its limit. But evil touches the soul; reaches into the infinite world to where the sense of limit is lost. What a strange forecast to the everlasting Gospel, that it should be for the fall, the moral fall, as well as the rising of men! And so it has been in the chequered after-history. If goodness has taken subtler and deeper forms, so has badness. Men’s hearts have been widened to embrace all humankind, and they have been narrowed and hardened into persecutors. (3) In the sphere of reason there is also a note of incompleteness: "A sign spoken against." These words may stand as a figure of the clamour of voices outside the Church, questioning and denying; and of the whispers of timorous and distracted souls within, misdoubting their own hopes. It is no answer to say that they are due to the perversity and weakness of men. We do not even mean by that that they are unforeseen accidents which have befallen the revelation. They were made account for in its ordering. These limitations, whatever they are, were foreseen; they are a part of the Divine plan—foreseen before the angels sang "Peace on earth," or prophets’ voices welcomed the coming light and glory.
E. C. Wickham, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Feb. 7th, 1884.
What is it that is here described by the words, "the consolation of Israel?".
I. Israel was God’s own people, constituted in their first father Abraham, blessed with various renewals of the promise, and the covenant. From that time onwards, they had long formed the one bright spot in the midst of the darkness of the nations. God was with them. He was their God, so that, as compared with the nations round, Israel’s consolation was already abundant. Still, Israel had, and looked for, a consolation to come. God’s people differed in this also from every people on earth. The brightness and the glory of every Gentile race was past; but Israel’s glory was ever in the future. They looked for a deliverer; for one of whom their first covenant promises spoke; of whom their psalms and prophets were full, to whom every sacrifice and ordinance pointed. When, then, we use the words, "the consolation of Israel," we mean Christ, in the fulness of His constituted Person and Office as the Comforter of His people. And when we say "waiting for the consolation of Israel," we imply that aptitude of expectation, anxious looking for, hearty desire of, this consolation, which comes from, and is in fact, Christ Himself.
II. Christ is the consolation of His people (1) inasmuch as He delivers them from the bondage of sin. In the history of that nation which was a parable for the Church of God, this mighty deliverance was prefigured by their bringing up out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. And correspondent, but far more glorious, is the deliverance which Christ accomplishes for those who wait for and receive His consolation, even till we depart in peace, having seen His salvation, and the consolation which we have waited for is poured in all its fulness around us. (2) Christ consoles His people not only from guilt but in sorrow. It is His especial office to bind up the broken heart, to give the oil of joy for sorrow, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. This He does directly and indirectly. Directly, inasmuch as His Spirit is ever testifying within the sorrowing soul of the believer in Him,—cheering him with better hopes and more enduring joys. Indirectly, inasmuch as His holy example is ever before us; His compassionate tone; His promises of help and comfort; His invitations to all that are weary and heavy-laden.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 271.
References: Luk 2:25.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 659; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 127; Homilist, vol. ii., p. 572. Luk 2:25-35.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 77.
Luk 2:26
I. This revelation was made to an old man who had waited on God continually in the Temple service, cherishing in his secret heart the promise given to the first fathers of his race, renewed from time to time by the mouth of God’s holy prophets, and at length by one of them defined as to the time of its fulfilment, and brought within the limits of a certain expectation and hope. Simeon’s prayers and meditations, his converse with men like-minded, his observations of passing events, possibly his knowledge of the words of certain wise men who had lately arrived at Jerusalem enquiring for a King that was to be born, had at length convinced him that the time was at hand; and it pleased God to confirm his hope by an inward revelation of the Spirit. "It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, till he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
II. Who ever saw a Christian man or woman die in faith, but heard them almost say old Simeon’s words, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation?" And whence comes this strength of salvation to the eyes of dying men? Whence comes it but through that Child whom Simeon held in his arms as he prophesied the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and the piercing of the soul of the Virgin Mother with the sword of grief. No life but that which Jesus Christ endured on earth, no death but that which He died on Mount Calvary, could ever establish the truth of the Gospel to the poor. All the wisdom and learning that could have been brought to bear, all the worldly power, even power to command stones to become bread—all this would have been in vain. No sign could have convinced a poor man so effectually of God’s sympathy with him in his low estate as the birth of his Saviour of a poor Jewish maiden, and the manifestation of the Gospel in a person so humble. And to those who view human life in all its bearings it is obvious at once that no system of religion could be true which does not imply this at its basis, that the poor, the vast multitude of men, are the chief consideration. Educate as you will; legislate as you will; double by chemical science and skilfulness of labour the productiveness of the earth; bind yourself together in associations to provide against all contingencies of evil; there will still be the poor. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only Gospel that reaches the needs of the poor. When Jesus Christ humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a servant, when He dwelt at Nazareth with His parents, and was subject unto them in a low estate, He ennobled the state of poverty for ever.
Bishop Claughton, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 620.
References: Luk 2:26.—Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 43. Luk 2:28-30.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1417.
Luk 2:29
Old Age.
The examples of Simeon and Anna combine to set before us a picture of that old age which we must allow to be the most befitting, which we must wish to see realised in our own case—an old age free from wordly harass and desires—with leisure for higher things; occupied with the care of the soul; calmly waiting for the great change; employed much in religious meditation and prayer; anxious for nothing which the world can give; anxious only to be found of the Lord; ready and prepared when He arrives; walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
I. Such an old age is not, we fear, very commonly seen. For the most part, as men grow in years, they grow more worldly; and instead of putting off the cares, and pleasures, and occupations of youth and middle life, they cleave to these with an unwise tenacity. We seldom see any who, like Barzillai, or Simeon, or Anna, have detached themselves from all unnecessary business, in order to walk the closer with God; who have set their affections not upon things on the earth, but upon things above.
II. St. Paul tells us, in a few words, the qualities which ought to adorn old age—sobriety, gravity, temperance, wisdom. The old should be known among us for these things. They should be examples and guides to youth in the ways and works of godliness. To them we should look for counsel, for advice, for help, in the practice of a Christian life. Above all, they should be examples of piety, of reverent respect for all God’s holy ordinances. It is recorded of Simeon and of Anna, that in their old age they were diligent in their attendance upon God’s worship. The place where they were to be found was the Temple. The service which most occupied them was the service of God. And so, surely, ought it to be with the old amongst ourselves. No place so well befits them as the sanctuary. If any, they most of all should be able to say, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 4th series, p. 107.
Luk 2:29-30
The Glory and Work of Old Age.
What were the gains which blessed this old man’s age?
I. The first was prophetic power; not so much the power of foretelling, as the power of insight into God’s doings. He saw the Child, and he knew that It was the Saviour of the world: "Mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation." And in a moment, before his inward eye, he beheld the Sun of Redemption rising in glory, not only over his own people, but in a light which should lighten the Gentiles also. This is the glory of a Christian’s old age—vividness of spiritual vision. The spirit does its own peculiar work better than in youth and manhood. It sees more clearly into the life and realities of things. It has gained security of faith and hope for itself, and in all matters pertaining to the spiritual progress of mankind it sees into God’s plans, and rejoices in them.
II. Another remarkable gain blessed the old age of Simeon, the possession of a liberal religious view. We find the old man set free from the exclusiveness and bigotry of his time and of his youth. Those were strange words upon the lips of a Jew, "A light to lighten the Gentiles." Those who heard Simeon would be likely to call him a dangerous Liberal. The true liberality of old age is not indifference. It is gained by the entrance of the soul into the large region of the love of God, by deeper communion with the infinite variety of the character of Christ.
III. The crowning blessing of old age is deep peace. "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word." We can contend no more; we have scarcely anything left to contend against; we have slain all our foes in the power of Christ; we have exhausted all our doubts; and as the clouds disperse, the star of hope rises soft and clear in the pale pure light of the heavenly dawn. We look on it, and are at rest; we lay down our armour; we lie back contented in the arms of God.
IV. The special work of age is partly outward, partly inward. Its outward work is the spreading of charity. Its inward work consists (1) in the edifying of the heart in noble religion in consideration of the past; (2) in rounding the soul into as great perfection as possible.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 393.
Christ and Old Age.
Scripture tells us of a "good old age," and we would ask today what that is. For assuredly all old age is not good. If there is an old age which makes, there is an old age that mars reputations. There are those who, for their fame, have lived too long: have survived their usefulness and their honour, and whose obituary, when at length we read it, awakens little interest and no sorrow.
I. Few men, in the abstract, desire old age; few men, in their own experience, find it desirable. Like all things of importance—like success, like honour, like love, like sorrow, pain, and death itself—it needs practising for. A good old age comes to no man by accident. A well-principled and self-controlled patience, under its special trials and disabilities, is one condition of a good old age.
II. There is another of a less negative kind and of equal importance. There is a natural tendency as life advances to an impatience of the new. One of the foremost conditions of a good old age is the preservation, the perpetual renewing, of a thorough harmony and unity with the young. An old man may be young in feeling, and, when he is so, there is no attraction like his for the young. Secure of his sympathy, they can use his experience; there is a repose which even the young can delight in, in that mellowness of character which is at once love and wisdom.
III. Nor can we forget this one further characteristic of the good old age. If there are trials which must be borne with patience—if there are special risks which must be jealously counteracted—in the circumstances of an old man, there are also incomparable privileges which must be treasured up and occupied. A long life, lived with eye and ear and heart open, lays up a store of memories which no chronicles can rival, and no libraries supersede. The influences of old age are incalculable. Let a man give himself to the work, and he may mould the young almost to his will. Such a work requires, for its accomplishment, an Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ to the old.
C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 88.
References: Luk 2:29, Luk 2:30.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 1014; Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 39. Luk 2:29-32.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 272; B. Warfield, Expositor, 3rd series; vol. ii., pp. 301, 321.
Luk 2:32
The song of Simeon was very beautiful in its arrangement. First the believer’s personal appropriation of a promise, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation;" next the expansion of a Christian’s Catholic spirit, "A Light to lighten the Gentiles," and then the holy patriotism of a Jewish heart, "and the glory of Thy people Israel."
I. The question will naturally arise, What is the distinction, if any, between Christ as the "Light of the Gentiles" and Christ as the "Glory of Israel?" Is it only a difference of degree? Sight, growing into deeper intensity and glow, becomes glory. So Christ illuminates, indeed, all people, but not with that lustre with which He will one day encircle Jerusalem. And it is therefore "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."
II. Or, once more—the actual presence of the Lord, in beauty and power, is glory. Where shall that Presence be at the last? At Jerusalem. Very great will be the irradiation of the whole earth. But still it will be only the distant beam of a full meridian sun, which is blazing in Palestine "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."
III. As Gentiles then, we ask, What is our proper privilege and portion? And we have the answer—Light. Christ a light; of these simple words no one will know the power who has never felt the narrowing in of a moral darkness on his mind. But ask the man who has ever known a season of deep sorrow which shrouded all his earthly prospects, and left nothing before him but a thick night over the future and one rayless expanse. Or, still more, hear the soul, which, under the conscious hiding of God’s countenance, has felt the shadows of conscience deepen over his spirit into the blackness of despair. And those are the men who will understand the words, "Christ a Light."
IV. Turn next to Israel’s glory. When Abraham’s outcasts and Judah’s dispersed ones shall all come back—come back first in their unconverted state, by a political restoration, to their own country; then to trials and afflictions commensurate with the deed which their fathers perpetrated; then to majesty unprecedented upon this earth—when, the subjects of the visible King of kings and Lord of lords, they shall hold high court and be supreme among the nations of the world, that Infant Jesus, in Simeon’s arms, shall be "the glory of His people Israel," when He "reigns in Mount Zion, and before His ancients gloriously."
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1871, p. 217.
References: Luk 2:32.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 826. Luk 2:33.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 341.
Luk 2:34
The Dual Aspect of Christ’s Advent.
The words of Simeon in the text seem to be intended to check natural but undue expectations about the effect of the first coming of Christ. The Child of Mary, the everlasting Son of the Father, is set by the counsels of God, set in Jewish history, in human history, for the fall and rising again of many a human soul.
I. Let us here remark, that Christ’s coming into the world was not to have a uniform effect upon human souls. It would act on one soul in one way, and on another in another, it would act differently on the same soul at different periods of its history. God’s good will is limited by the free action of men. Men can, if they like, reject Him, and in fact they do. He is the glory of His people at large, but of the individuals who compose it many will lose, as many will gain, by His coming among them. That is the sense of Simeon’s words, "Behold this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel."
II. Of the two effects of Christ’s Advent Simeon mentions, as first in order, the fall of many in Israel. It must strike us as bold to the very verge of paradox thus to associate His blessed Name, who came to be the health and Saviour of men, with spiritual failure. And yet this language was in keeping with what the prophecy must have led men to expect. Isaiah had said that the Lord Himself would be a "stumbling-stone and a rock of offence" to both the houses of Israel; and this was shown to be the case again and again through the centuries of Israel’s history. The worst faults of this people were occasioned by the misuse of privileges and opportunities designed to lead up to God.
III. Christ is also set for the rising of many in Israel. This was His original purpose in coming among us; a purpose which was only limited in its operation by the free but perverted will of man. When our Lord had His own way with souls, it was to raise them to newness of life. He did not simply promote this resurrection in men. He was Himself, so He said, the "Resurrection." To come into contact with Him was to touch a life so intrinsically buoyant and vigorous that it transfused itself forthwith into the attracted soul, and bore it onwards and upwards.
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 401.
Luk 2:34-35
I. That is the claim which Christ has upon us; that He knows us. As it is said, "He knew what was in man," and He does not merely know our faces, our forms, but our true selves. You know nothing of any science or thing until you know its hidden inner secret. Man has a great hidden nature, waiting for revealment and development. Christ is the true Revealer of the hidden nature of man. He walked amidst the mysteries of man’s spirit, as one there perfectly at home.
II. Knowledge of human nature is essential to all teaching. Have you not noticed that scarcely any mind can cross the broad disc of our Lord’s even temporary association, without revealing, as it passes, its state. It seems as if any mind coming into the neighbourhood of His Divine character is compelled to yield itself up. Not only to His perfect knowledge, in the memorable events of His life, is illustrated how that which is done in secret is proclaimed on the housetops. The teaching of our Lord had the same influence as His personal character; it revealed the thoughts of the heart. (1) His knowledge was and is absolute. (2) Hence His authority over man. Whenever a man makes you feel his power it is because he knows you, because he reads you. (3) He revealed our thoughts in His sympathy.
III. Christ not only revealed the thoughts of many hearts by eliciting their peculiar moral character; but He spoke to the universal heart of men in all ages, both by His deeds and by His words. He transformed the great instincts of men in all ages into absolute revelations.
IV. You will see how eminently our Saviour knew us, if you think of the four things which it was necessary should be done for us, and which He, as our Saviour, wrought out, to make His righteousness ours. (1) He saw that human nature was dark, He came to enlighten it. (2) He saw the hardness as well as the darkness of man. He came to soften the world’s heart. (3) He consecrated humanity. He revealed the holy destiny of man, for He knew what was in man. He knew that darkness and hardness were the indissoluble associates of impurity, therefore He came to consecrate human nature. (4) He came to sublime and to crown human nature, to reveal to man His brightest, boldest thought—eternal life—immortality.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 116.
References: Luk 2:34.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 907; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, p. 129; Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 44; Good Words, vol. vi., p. 242. Luk 2:34, Luk 2:35.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 365; Homilist, vol. ii., p. 523. Luk 2:35.—J. Keble, Sermons from Lent to Passiontide, p. 397. Luk 2:36-38.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 6. Luk 2:37.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 55. Luk 2:39-52.—E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 148.
Luk 2:40
I. "The Child grew." He grew in stature, and He grew in character and goodness. He did not stand still. Although it was God Himself who was revealed to us in the life of Jesus Christ, yet this did not prevent us from being made like unto Him in all things, sin only excepted. Each one of us, whether old or young, must remember that progress, improvement, going on, advance, is the only condition, the only way of our becoming like Christ, and therefore like God. The world moves, and we must all move with it.
II. And then come three things which the text puts before us as those in which our Lord’s earthly education, in which the advance and improvement of His earthly character, added to His youthful and childlike powers. (1) It speaks of His strength and character. It says "He waxed strong in spirit." What strength is to the body, that strength of character is to the mind. (2) And the next thing which the text speaks of is wisdom. It says the Child was "filled with wisdom." Wisdom, as it were, was poured into Him, and His mind opened wider and wider to take it in. He drank in whatever wisdom there was in the knowledge of those about Him; He drank in the heavenly wisdom also which comes down from the Fountain of all wisdom. You, too, have this to gain day by day. (3) And the next thing is the grace or favour of God—or, as it says at the end of the chapter, the grace, or favour, of God and man;—the grace, the goodness, the graciousness of God, which calls forth grace and goodness and graciousness in man. Our blessed Lord had this always, but even in Him it increased more and more. So may it be with you.
A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 136.
Holiness in Childhood.
In the history of the saints there are two things chiefly remarkable. One is the depth of personal religion which they have displayed at an age when, in these days, we are wont to look upon the children as little more than sentient and irresponsible beings. The other remarkable feature is their precocity of general character and powers. I speak of the precocity of moral and spiritual life; the integrity and strength of character which youths have shown. They have begun to live and act as men among men, while as yet they were hardly in the dawn of manhood. These later ages have lost faith in the miraculous conception and holy Childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the type and pledge of our regeneration in holy baptism, and of the development of our regenerate life.
I. Note what is the effect of sin after Baptism upon the regenerate nature. Its effect is to hinder the advance of our sanctification; and if so, it is no less than a direct antagonist of our regeneration, and a defeat of the purpose of God in our new birth of the Spirit; it is a resistance to the preventing grace of God, a refusal to be led by Him, and to follow His guidance and illumination. How little parents seem to know what they are doing when they make light of their children’s early sins. They are doing nothing less than their best to undo God’s grace in their regeneration, to make their salvation doubtful, and their future sorrows and losses many and inevitable.
II. We may learn what is the true relation of repentance to regeneration. The necessity for repentance arises out of the disobedience of the regenerate, and from the falls of those that sin grievously after baptism. The repentance of baptized men is as the difficult and precarious recovery of those who, after the partial cure of a death-sickness, fall into relapse. The powers of nature are wasted, the virtues of medicine baffled, and the disease grows doubly strong—a sad exchange for them who once walked in white raiment and were numbered among the children of God.
III. Note in what it is that they who have been kept and sanctified from their regeneration exceed the blessedness of penitents. They have never fallen away from their first estate. Let us then, by prayers and labours, by word and by example, strive to rear up the elect of God, from their childhood, in the sanctity of Jesus Christ.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 17.
Luk 2:40, Luk 2:49, Luk 2:52
(with Mar 6:3; Joh 4:34, Joh 10:18, Joh 10:30)
The Germ of Christian Manhood.
Man and God are in eternal relation. As you cannot have an upper without an under; a brother without sister or brother; a son without a father or mother, so you cannot have a true conception of man without God. It lies in the very nature of the Father that He will not leave us men, and it is in our structure that we cannot rest without our Father. Man had lost God. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God’s mighty and age-filling effort to put Himself within the throbbing heart of humanity.
I. This perfect correspondence between Jesus the Son and God the Father is the source of all true and enduring growth. Man getting into his true relationship to the Father gets to the source of all life and progress. Apart from God true manhood is an impossibility. We must come into fellowship with Him, be partakers of His nature. That is the one and only garden in which the plants of righteousness can be grown.
II. Such trust in a communion with the Father is the source of cheerful patience and serene self-control. It is hurry that enfeebles us and takes the beauty out of our work. We will not mature. Our "hour" is always come, and we are restless for the tented field. We do not compel leisure, or seek the strength that is born in solitude, and so we are poor weaklings, beaten by the first foe we meet and able to offer nothing to God that will stand the test of His consuming fires.
III. The spontaneity of self-sacrifice, one of the surest marks of a perfecting manhood, is due to this trust in the Father, and consequent acceptance of His will and work, as the absolute rule and business of life. Nothing reveals the prodigious interval between us and Christ like the difficulty we find in sacrificing ourselves for the welfare of His Church and of the world.
IV. This, too, is the secret of the plenary power of men. If there is one thing science has fixed beyond all question, it is this, that you cannot get the living from the dead; that a man must be in order to do. Jesus Himself partakes of the fulness of the Father, and so becomes the fulness of the Godhead, and out of His fulness we receive—grace for grace. Partaking of God’s nature, by being possessed of the mind of Christ, we live His victorious life, and get His full use of nature, His fine self-control, and His ever-fruitful service.
J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, p. 34.
References: Luk 2:40.—G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 72; Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 34; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 89; B. F. Westcott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 17. Luk 2:40-52.—R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 119; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 127; W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 31.
Luk 2:41-42
It was at twelve years old that Jewish boys came personally under the obligations of the law of Moses. Up to that age they had been treated as children, taught by their parents at home, but not yet expected to obey the harder precepts, such as fasting, or attending at Jerusalem at the three great feasts of the year. But at twelve years old they were called "Sons of the Law" or "Sons of the Precept;" and this signified that they now entered upon the second stage of life, and were no longer mere children. Henceforth they were old enough to have knowledge of their own, and to obey for themselves. When, therefore, our Lord was come to this age, Joseph and Mary, who had gone regularly up to Jerusalem in the former years by themselves, took, for the first time, their wonderful Child with them, not doubting that in this as in everything else, it was their duty to fulfil all righteousness—that is, to obey the rules and orders of the law of God under which they lived.
I. Observe, first, that when the Lord is old enough, there is no question at all on the part of Mary and Joseph as to whether He shall be brought to Jerusalem for Jewish Confirmation. They did not doubt at all about it, they simply came at the due time to Jerusalem.
II. Still less did the heavenly Child Himself object. He was altogether obedient and dutiful to His mother, and to him who was called His father. No shadow of that wilfulness and uncorrected disobedience which we see so often in families, when boys and girls are allowed to do very much as they will, and judge for themselves whether they will do this thing or that, or whether they will refrain from it.
III. Observe how instantly our Lord feels that He is engaged in something higher now even than obedience to His earthly mother. It is His Father’s business! Obedience to His mother has brought Him there, and fitted Him to come there. But now He is old enough to feel that he is engaged in God’s business; in His heavenly Father’s business. His brow is loftier. His look is changed. The sweet and dutiful Child has become, visibly, the Servant and Son of God. So I understand the words of the text, which says that they understood not the words which He spake unto them. They found Him altered; not less dutiful nor less sweet and obedient than before; but there was a loftier tone in His duty, and a deeper cause for His obedience, for He had begun to be, in His own Person, a Son of the Lord, and the obligation of His heavenly Father’s business at once weighed upon His spirit and lifted it up.
G. Moberly, Plain Sermons at Brighstone, p. 12.
Luk 2:41-52
This passage is one of peculiar interest, as this account which it gives is the only circumstance mentioned of our blessed Lord from His childhood till He was thirty years of age. And while it contains much matter for deeper reflection, it bears at once on the surface this information—that He was living in strict obedience to the law of Moses, and in wonderful lowliness and meekness, was being brought up as any child of human parents might be.
I. Our Lord does not appear before us in His childhood like the child Samuel, dwelling always in the Temple, removed from the ways of common men; but He is disclosed to us in very great humility in the ways of common life, as ordinary children are brought up in subjection and retirement, differing only in that quick understanding in things divine which arises from the love and fear of God. Of this, perhaps, one reason was that our Lord has called upon us to imitate Him more especially in meekness and lowliness; and humility is best secured and guarded in the most ordinary stations of life, and in the most common circumstances of obscurity and poverty. Another reason for our blessed Saviour’s thus taking upon Himself this ordinary condition as a child may be this: in order that all men in their station in life may be able to imitate and follow Him, which they could not do so well if He had appeared as one set apart from other men, as some of His own prophets and servants had been. A third reason may be that our Lord thus learned, as man, to sympathise and have a fellow-feeling with the lot of mankind; in all their infirmities, in all their trials; to be a Child among children, in a condition not differing from theirs,—this was the choice of His love for them.
II. We hear nothing more of our Lord’s childhood, but it is quite enough if we know and receive this. It at once raises the common life of us all, especially of all children, up to heaven. If God, then, was so wonderfully present and hiding Himself in that lowly condition, in things that appeared outwardly like those of other children, and the usual ways of life, He may be now also spiritually present in the hearts and lives of children who are born again in Baptism as the sons of God, although the world knows nothing of it.
I. Williams, Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. i., p. 119.
We have here—
I. A glimpse of our Lord’s outward life in childhood. The evangelists tell us almost nothing of the events of our Lord’s outward life during His first thirty years. There was perhaps little to tell. One day would pass much like another, and the words of St. Luke with reference to the childhood of John the Baptist were probably true also of the childhood and youth of our Lord: "He was in the desert, till the time of His showing to Israel." Our Lord passed through a truly human development, and was thus in all things like unto His brethren. The outward scene of this development was the quiet household circle of Joseph and Mary. Of their life St. Luke has only one thing of importance to tell us: "And His parents went every year to Jerusalem to the Feast of the Passover." Yet this simple fact is sufficient; it gives us a concise summary of the calm piety which ruled the spirit of the family life in Joseph and Mary’s home. In those few words the evangelist paints for us, in this picture of the life in which our Lord grew up, the three noblest things which, since the Fall, our earthly life has had to show: piety, household virtue and happiness, patriotism.
II. On one of these yearly journeys an event happened which gives us a glimpse of the inward life of our Lord during His childhood. In the Temple, whither He went with His parents, He felt Himself at home, far more than in Nazareth. Here He felt as if in His Father’s house; here were the scenes of dear memories and work. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?" How is it that ye sought Me? Since I was not with you, where could I be but in the Temple? Ah, yes, if we rightly understood the heart of Christ, we would never be in perplexity, never in error, where we have to seek Him, when He is lost to us. Wist ye not—have ye not heard it from the mouth of angels, shepherds, magi, Simeon and Anna and above all from the words of prophecy—that I must be about My Father’s business? Another Father than Joseph seeks Me; I am not alone your son, O Mother! but the Son of the Highest. My true element is the life of direct communion and nearness to Him, about His most direct charge and business; yes, even in His house. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work."
R. Rothe, Nachgelassene Predigten, vol. i., p. 239.
References: Luk 2:41, Luk 2:42.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 45. Luk 2:41-52.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 16; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 56. Luk 2:41-52.—Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 159.
Luk 2:42
Society in Religion.
I. Companionship in religion is evidently the will of God, and is expressly commanded us by Him. Thus, in the Old Testament, we find the appointment of certain solemn feasts, at which the Israelites were to meet and rejoice before God in Jerusalem—at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. That rejoicing was to be universal, was to be shared by all. Every class, every age, father and child, master and servant, stranger and homeborn, were to join in celebrating the Lord’s goodness, and take part together in setting forth His praise. Nor was it only on occasions of gladness that there was to be this combining of all classes of the people together; but on other occasions as well. In mourning, as in rejoicing, they were to unite. The Jewish religion was eminently a social religion. It had a place for all classes and all ages of the people; and all, of every age, sex, and rank were expected to fill that place.
II. Nor is it otherwise when we pass to the New Dispensation. There, too, as of old, religion takes a social shape. There, too, men are seen uniting in worship. Such was our religion at its first beginning. The multitude were together; they worshipped together; they were much in one another’s company, and because they were together they were strong. The weak brother was kept from falling, the waverer was made firm by the countenance and encouragement of companions more established in the faith. And so it is still. To be united in religion; to walk to the House of God as friends; to have one another’s aid and countenance in resisting temptation, and in striving after good; to feel that other hearts besides our own love the Lord Jesus Christ—this is at once our truest happiness and best comfort. They who are so bonded together will ever experience the greatest blessing, and they will at the same time be conferring a blessing on their fellows. They will be like lights in the world. All who see them, who come within reach of their influence, will be obliged to confess that God is in them of a truth. And from confessing this they will often be led to imitate them, and so the little leaven of godliness will spread as was promised; and Christ will come to be honoured, more and more, in the hearts and lives of His people.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons preached in Country Churches, p. 33.
References: Luk 2:42.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 31. Luk 2:42-45.—B. Warfield, Expositor, 3rd series, vol. ii., pp. 301, 321. Luk 2:42-51.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 406. Luk 2:43.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, vol. ii., p. 523. Luk 2:44.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1724.
Luk 2:46
I. Christ has a house here below as well as in heaven above. Here is the light of His Word imparted to us; here is His dwelling and here are His provisions; the table which He furnishes for us. We must not surely think to find our Saviour in the highways of ambition and pride, in the pleasures of wealth or luxury, or in the eager pursuit of anything belonging to this world. These things are not to be found in the house of His Father, neither may they come nigh His dwelling. But if we seek for Christ we shall find Him in the methods of virtue and the paths of God’s commandments; in the persons of the poor, and in the blessed privilege of waiting upon the distressed; in the hours of our own most serious retirements. We shall find Him in holy readings and pious meditations, in the offices of religion and in the house of prayer.
II. Sure enough Christ is here; here most especially does He show and manifest Himself to the humble, devout, and faithful soul. For although He is here, and here He manifests Himself, yet all do not see Him here, but only the pure in heart; even as He Himself afterwards taught in the Sermon on the Mount, saying, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." So it was indeed when at the first He came to His Temple veiled in our flesh, forty days only after His birth; for the holy Simeon, the devout Anna, the blessed Virgin, the righteous Joseph saw the Lord; but from other eyes He was hidden: to the thoughtless and the worldly, to the self-willed, and to the proud, the Child that day presented in the Temple seemed merely the ordinary offspring of mean parents, only those faithful servants of God saw Him that should redeem Israel, and be a Light to lighten the Gentiles. An habitual delight in God’s House; an habitual reverence and awe here; and a continual remembrance, when we return to the world, of the things we have heard and seen and professed, and of which we have been partakers here—these are the only sure signs that we do not come here in vain—that we here learn of Christ, and have a real communion with Him.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii., p. 7.
Luk 2:46-47
The story of our Lord’s listening to the doctors in the Temple and questioning them shows how He compelled a set of men, who were the slaves of words or rather of letters, who believed that all power lay in them, to confess a mightier power in Him.
I. This is the subject which is especially forced upon us by the text. There were met in the Temple a number of grave men, full of all the learning which could be got from the traditions of the past; full, as they thought, of all the learning which could be got from the words and lives of patriarchs, lawgivers, holy men. Age and the knowledge of what former times had bequeathed were theirs. They were the shepherds of the people. Whether the sheep went right or wrong depended mainly on their submission to this guidance or their neglect of it. Into this grave and venerable consistory there enters a Boy just twelve years of age. He stands among the Rabbis, not affrighted certainly by their dignity, with no sign of bashfulness, but also with none of forwardness. He is not eager to speak. He wishes to listen. He pronounces on nothing. He is not above the scribes, but is sitting at their feet. He desires to know what they think about this commandment in the law, about this sentence of David or Isaiah: "All who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers."
II. The subject is for us no less than for the Rabbis. Consider some of the lessons which lie in it. (1) There is in many divines, and in many Christians who are not divines, a great fear of questions. "Certain things," they say, "have been settled long ago. To disturb the settlement is perilous. If we are humble and modest we shall be content without knowledge of Divine things. Probabilities, distant approximation to knowledge, are all to which creatures such as we are can aspire." But we find Christ beginning His pilgrimage as a questioner. I believe that Christ has been asking questions from that day to this; that He is asking questions of us all, divines and laymen, now; that the questions come to us in multitudes of shapes, through a multitude of lips. I am greatly afraid that when we try to silence any of these questions we are trying to silence the voice of Christ, in others and in ourselves. (2) Statements like these are liable to be misunderstood, as if one wished to discourage reverence for the past, as if one thought there were no oracles of God which were stronger and deeper than all the reasonings and speculations of men. Just because I would uphold reverence for the past, I dare not stifle one anxious question of men respecting the faith of other days, respecting the oracles of God. The Rabbis did not reverence the past. They accepted its decrees. They had no fellowship with the life and sufferings of its men. No men needed so much to become little children to recover the wisdom of children. That they might attain that wisdom the Child came amongst them, listened to them, asked them questions, answered their questions. That same Child, who has the government on His shoulders, hears us, questions us, answers us for the same end.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v., p. 91.
Reference: Luk 2:47.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 88.
Luk 2:48-49
The Finding of Christ in the Temple.
I. One of the things which it would have been absolutely impossible for the intellect of a human infant to grasp would be the idea of Divine Sonship, the idea of that relation in which the Son of God stands to the Eternal Father. There must have been a period, then, in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, in which He awoke, as it were, to spiritual consciousness, and came to know who and what He really was. The light of this knowledge may have broken in upon Him by degrees. It probably did so. There were probably voices that came and went, voices that whispered into the ear of that wondrous Child mysterious hints of the unseen world and of the abandoned glory, long before they spoke out with distinct and unmistakable utterance: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
II. "He went down with them." He, knowing now who He was, and for what He was intended, He, consciously now the incarnate Son of God, "went down with them and was subject unto them; but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart." We gather one or two concluding lessons from this verse. (1) A lesson of the importance of patient waiting and preparation and biding of God’s time, for all true workers for God. None ever longed as Jesus longed to be about His Father’s business, and to exalt His Father’s glory, and yet, at the Father’s bidding, He went quietly away to spend eighteen years of preparation and discipline, until the time came for His manifesting unto Israel. (2) A lesson as to the perfect understanding and sympathy which the life of Jesus establishes between Him and His people. Jesus did not anticipate the various stages of life; He did not crowd the duties of one period in amongst the duties of another; His human existence was one of gradual, regular, perfect development. (3) A lesson as to the dignity of human life. It has been a pleasure to some persons to cast contempt on the nature they wear and on the race to which they belong. Writers of note have done this. But surely such persons must forget or disbelieve that the eternal Son of God condescended to wear the nature they vilify, and to engage in the occupations and pursuits on which they pour out the malignity of their scorn. One glance at that humble home of Nazareth dispels such thoughts and throws a halo of dignity and honour round our common humanity.
G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to My Friends, p. 90.
References: Luk 2:48.—Phillips Brooks, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 353. Luk 2:48, Luk 2:49.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 122.
Luk 2:49
These are brave, heroic words. They breathe a spirit of ardour and devotion to duty. They are not the language of one who is to make pleasure his grand aim in life, and is minded to give himself to indolence and ease. They betoken a high and manly principle, a noble self-respect, a strong decision of character.
I. Each of us is to make the Lord Jesus Christ our one supreme model. From the earliest stages of His life, He stands before us as our faultless pattern. In His childhood, in His young manhood, He claims our closest imitation. Just as He entered upon life, so should you. Though the story of His life be short, it is wonderfully comprehensive. It seems as though He touched humanity at every point. Hardly an aspect of our earthly life in which He may not be seen. Whatever noble ideals of life you have do not forget to set Jesus Christ above them all.
II. The character of one’s career in life may generally be augured from its outset. These first recorded words of Jesus struck the keynote of His whole after-life. Now, it is safe to say, that the ten years that intervene between the ages of twelve and twenty-two are almost decisive of a man’s subsequent course. This is the formative period; and in so far the most important part of life. It is then that the character is formed. It is then that the moral nature is taking shape. If habits of indolence are formed; if languor and irregularity are indulged; if selfishness and conceit are encouraged; almost in all certainty your life will be a failure. The man who carries the day is he whose strong sense of personal duty and responsibility replies to all who would tempt him to idleness and self-indulgence, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?"
III. Learn from the text that the present life is intended for work, labour, and business. "I must be about—business," said the Divine Youth, who is our only perfect model. We are not sent into this world for play, nor for self-indulgent ease; Jesus was not. We are not sent here to enjoy the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of toil; that is a wrong conception of life altogether; work is not a mere means to an end, a hardship to be submitted to, as an avenue to enjoyment; nay, the world is intended to be a great workshop, and each of us is to take his own share, and find his own fitting department.
IV. If we are Christians, our daily work, whatever it be, is to be viewed as our Father’s business. The most effective of all ways in which God is served, is by living to Him in everything, consecrating to His glory all the details of our ordinary prosaic life.
J. Thain Davidson, Sure to Succeed, p. 251.
The Child Jesus a Pattern for Children.
I. The Child Jesus was a diligent Scholar. He did not neglect His tasks, or slur them over anyhow, or think, as perhaps some of you think, that getting out of school was the best part of the whole business. We might be quite sure that He diligently attended to the wise Rabbis who asked and answered questions, who uttered so many wise and witty proverbs, and told so many pretty stories, if only because He Himself was, in after years, so wise in asking and answering questions, and spoke so many proverbs and parables which the world will never let die. When Joseph and Mary brought Him up all the way from Nazareth to Jerusalem, He was so charmed to listen to what the wise men of Jerusalem had to say, that He stayed on in the Temple three days after his parents had left the city. And it was not to see the beautiful courts and colonnades that He stayed; nor to listen to the exquisite singing of the choirs; nor to see the priests offering sacrifices on the altars; much less was it to gaze on the wonders of the streets, the markets, the bazaars,—He stayed simply that He might sit at the feet, i.e. attend the classes, of the learned and venerable doctors of the Jerusalem schools, both asking them questions and answering the questions they asked of Him.
II. Mark again that this good Scholar was also a good Son. The Hebrew boys of our Lord’s time were taught good manners, as well as good morals. They were enjoined by their parents and their masters, to salute everyone they met in the streets, to say to him, "Peace be with thee." And the Boy Jesus was well brought up, and was full of courtesy and kindness and good will; for not only did He grow in favour with men in general, but He had a large circle of kinsfolk and friends who loved Him and were glad to have Him with them. We know, too, that He had never grieved His parents before; in His eagerness to learn He let them go on their way home without Him. For when they had found Him in the Temple they were so astonished that He should have given them the pain of seeking Him sorrowfully that they cannot blame Him as for a fault, but can only ask Him why He has treated them thus. He must indeed have been a good son to whom His mother could speak as Mary spoke to Jesus.
III. This good Scholar and good Son was also a good Child of God. He was always about His Father’s business. He felt that He must be about it, wherever He went, whatever He did. The one great thing He had to do, the one thing which above all others He tried to do, was to serve God His Father, not simply to become wise, and still less to please Himself, but to please God by growing wise in the knowledge and obedience of His commandments.
S. Cox, The Bird’s Nest, p. 16.
Luk 2:49-50
The Epiphany of Work.
This Gospel may be called the Epiphany of Christ to the world of youth—to that large portion of the great human family which has life before it, with its boundless capacities of use and abuse, of happiness and misery, of good and evil. How and in what sense is it an Epiphany to the world of youth? To answer this question intelligently, and at the same time to give breadth to the subject, is by no means limited to one age or one circumstance of human life; we combine the two in the words of the text—"Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?" and "He went down with His parents and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them."
I. The Epiphany before us, is, in the first place, that of the two lives, the seen and the unseen, the relative and the personal; in other words the human relationship to the Divine. For a considerable portion of the life of all men the two relationships are at one. The parent represents God to the child, and the child sees God through the parent. It is a sweet and lovely time for the mother, which Nature perhaps would bid her protract. She feels that only good can come of it; so pure and so heavenward are her own aspirations for her child. Cannot her son continue to seek heaven except through her? Is there any moral blank, is there any spiritual necessity to forbid her saying, as a thing for all time and for all life, "So be it, it is good for us to be thus"? Yes; she must learn the great lesson, "All souls are Mine!" The child has a Father in heaven, and at the first dawn of reason he must be about his Father’s business.
II. "He went down with them and was subject unto them." And this is all that is told us of the boyhood of the Saviour. The one feature of His thirty years’ education upon which the Word of God dwells, is subjection; all else is taken for granted; the industry and the piety and the beautiful example, and this only is dwelt upon. "He was subject" because, being interpreted, He was courteous, He was reverent, He was generous, He was courageous, He loved Himself last, He thought Himself least; He practised in youth the graces of charity; He trod from His boyhood the way to the Cross. His Father’s kingdom was the interest of His boyhood, and submission was its work; from this beginning it was but a natural progress to the long self-repression of the village home and the drudging workshop, thence to the Baptism in Jordan, and the temptation in the desert, thence into the homeless unrest of the ministry, the scorn and rejection of men, the dulness and coldness even of His own, and at last the agony of Calvary and the shameful death of the Cross.
C. J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 49.
References: Luk 2:49.—A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 421; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 59; A. C. Price, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 273; vol. iii., p. 292; B. S. Bird, Ibid., vol. x., p. 126; H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. 185; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College, p. 1; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 228.
Luk 2:51
The Christian Family.
I. The household is the parents’ kingdom. Only here can each one find food for every faculty. The family gives a practical solution to the great problems of moral truth. It is the typical form of the vast organisations that belong to human life. It teaches subordination in love, and subordination is only another word for fitting together. In a society like this, though subordination inside of the family is natural and easy, outside of the family it is reluctant and mechanical, and is very often unjust. Weak men are perpetually governing strong men. Ignorance is in ascendency over knowledge. In a democratic community subordination is founded on the actual conditions which subsist between man and man; but in the family mutual subjection is taught, and the man who is thoroughly radicated in the intelligence and love of mutual subjection in the household is essentially fitted to become a peaceable and good citizen.
II. Order and government are likewise taught in the family, and it is the government or order which springs from parental love that carries with it a sense of its fitness and necessity. Love is the supreme necessity. Love is not a thing that is for ever submitting, as many suppose it to be. It is regent, it is imperial in its very nature. It tends to command, and in the family fitly. There we have the roots of order of government, and nowhere else in anything like so perfect a state.
III. The family also teaches, as we can scarcely find it taught otherwise, the true doctrine of sin and penalty. There is but one place where penalty can be justified; namely, where it is a remedy for the sufferer or a safeguard for those who are round about him; and where it is administered in the physician’s spirit. The administration of pain and penalty in governments and courts is exceedingly rude and imperfect; but the administration of pain and penalty in the family is beautiful from the beginning to the end.
IV. We learn in the family, likewise, the doctrine of the liberty of law. There is no law in the household that overruns sickness or weakness, or change of mind. Law, if rightly employed, is helpful, is strengthening, is nursing; and in the household you see how expansible and adaptable it is.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 372.
References: Luk 2:51.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 74; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 125; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 372. Luk 2:51, Luk 2:52.—G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, 2nd series, p. 85.
Luk 2:52
The text naturally divides itself into four heads. There is a twofold development spoken of, and a twofold result or concomitant. We are called upon to observe the growth of Jesus: (1) in bodily stature; (2) in wisdom, and as a concomitant of these, to behold Him increasing; (3) in favour with men, and (4) in favour with God.
I. We know that among the Jews no one was qualified to be a priest who had any bodily defect or blemish. It behoved the sacred historian therefore to show that our great High Priest had no bodily disqualification for His office. He was destined, after thirty years’ spiritual obscurity, to lead a life of energetic labour and endurance of hardship for the space of three years. In this a frame capable of ordinary fatigue was surely necessary. Even for the toil of this daily employment, Jesus needed those bodily powers of which St. Luke briefly describes the increase.
II. We may assume that, whatever the age of our Lord was, His wisdom corresponded to His age. There is a prescient wisdom, sometimes found in early years, which gives way to and is succeeded by the maturer wisdom of the man, just as that in its turn passes on to the grave and retrospective wisdom of the elder. Jesus increased in growth and in that wisdom which suited His years. He is represented to us, in the sacred narrative, not only as receiving wisdom from above, but as acquiring wisdom by communication with others. In the development of Jesus there was nothing like forcing, no hurry or impatience, no attempt either to produce a sensation, or to impress His brethren and neighbours with an idea of His extraordinary powers.
III. We see the Child Jesus increasing in favour with men—all, that is, who came into communication with Him. The favour of men is a test of certain qualities, without which no Christian character can lay claim to even relative perfection. No selfish, or ill-tempered, or peevish, or morose, or arrogant, or deceitful person can ever secure the favour even of relatives, much less that of any mixed society. The Child Jesus commended Himself to all who knew Him by every amiable and lovely quality, and grew up like some tender plant in the quiet vale of existence.
IV. And we are called upon to regard Him as increasing in favour with His heavenly Father. This is a sure concomitant of spiritual growth. We have to contemplate the Child Jesus, not as possessing at once the full favour of God, but as increasing in favour with Him. This shows the Saviour to be one of us. This marks His life on earth as progressive, passing through successive stages—each perfect of its kind, but one kind of perfection being higher than another.
G. Butler, Sermons in Cheltenham College, p. 27.
Silent Growth.
I. Times come to all when the great realities of life and death stand out clear, if it is but for a moment, and the heart sees and feels what is of value and lasting and true. We want such times: the beginners want them to teach them how to begin; the older want them to encourage them to go on. But yet these critical times are as nothing compared to the daily, hourly, momentary appeal that is being made to everyone. Whether we know it or not, not a moment passes which does not add or take away something of our power of judging and seeing the things of God. This power of judging and seeing the things of God is a power of the Spirit, and is given by the Holy Spirit of God to those who open their hearts to God’s truth, and live by it. This power of seeing, of putting the feeling in accord with higher feeling, of the getting the heart to thrill with the thrilling of Divine truth, and the mind to think out God’s thoughts, is wisdom. It is the harvest gathered from life. God’s world is all about us—God’s world of created nature, fields and trees, rivers and sky; God’s world of men and women, with all their hopes and fears; God’s world of right and wrong, with all the strange permitted evil, and all the wonderful bringing out of good. To read God’s thought in God’s world is wisdom. "And Jesus increased in wisdom." The little valley and the country town, the lonely life, the quiet village amongst the hills, the grass beneath, the stars above, the life within the narrowing heights, the life views that streamed over them from outside,— gave all the material wanted for wisdom. To Christ the sower that went forth to sow was a presence touching the heart, the mustard-seed cast into the ground a message of heavenly power. Not a sparrow, but His eye knew it as a part of God’s alphabet. The women grinding corn, the very leaven in the daily bread, all were to Him thoughts thought out and passed on to us, lighted up with the light of the everlasting.
II. What a lesson of patient waiting this gives! The mind feels a sort of breathless awe when it tries to call up the idea of the Lord of lords, sitting a poor Man on the hillside, and day by day, for thirty years, holding within His heart the wondrous knowledge of a Divine mission, and all the time treated by the villagers as one of themselves. All the sense of inward power, the thoughts that pierced the secrets of the world, the reformer’s eye that saw through the tangle of human life, of its sorrows and its sins, conscious of the Redeemer’s power to heal; the gathering greatness, the danger and the sacrifice grew more and more distant day by day to the solitary unacknowledged King on the hillside; and yet He waited and waited, and gathered in new thoughts daily where others saw nothing, and grew in wisdom and was strong in spirit; and being strong in spirit did not move before His time.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 213.
References: Luk 2:52.—S. James, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 76; R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. i., p. 112; H. G. Robinson, Man in the Image of God, p. 167. Luk 3:1-23.—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 37.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Subdivision 2. (Luk 2:1-52.)
Subdivision 2. (Luk 2:1-52.)
A Saviour, and a testimony to Him.
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As compared with Matthew -the only other Gospel which gives at all the circumstances of His birth or infancy -the account of the Lord’s coming into the world is clearly in keeping with the Gospel of the Manhood. There is no incident that the two have in common; and each maintains its own character with the most perfect consistency. In the one the Gentile magi may come to do homage to a King of the Jews; in the other, to shepherds in the field heaven opens to announce a Saviour. The testimony of Simeon and Anna is also to a Saviour and salvation. His circumcision, and the offerings at His presentation to the Lord, alike show Him to us in the "likeness of sinful flesh"; while His growth and development testify to the verity of His Manhood. These things are in full accord with the truth presented in Luke, -each one being necessary to it.
1. How thorough is the humiliation into which He is come is shown by the circumstances of His birth. Caesar is lord of the world, and orders it as he will, for his own purposes. How different a world from that which He had made at the beginning; yet He is in it as under Caesar’s rule, Joseph and Mary being brought out of Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled as of David’s line. Spite of all this, the power of the world is unconsciously working to fulfil a prophecy concerning One it knows not; and this being accomplished, the design drops through as if it had never been: "the census itself first took place when Cyrenius (or Quirinus) was governor of Syria" -some years afterward.
Thus the Lord of all is born a Man, among men His creatures, and laid in a manger, because there is no room for them in the inn. Sad sign; surely, of men’s condition; when their Maker, come to be their Saviour, prophesied of in every particular as coming, heralded even now by angelic visitation; could come after all unnoticed and unknown!
2. As already said, in Luke the announcement is, not of a King of the Jews, but of a Saviour; and it is not to the great or wise, but "to the poor the gospel is preached." To shepherds keeping watch over their flocks, the news is brought of the Good Shepherd who goeth after that which is lost; and here it is not a star in the heavens that is the sign, but heaven itself opens, and the angels bring a direct face to face message, while the glory of the Lord shines round about. Good tidings of great joy there are for all the people: a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And now there is a sign: what is it? Not a sign in heaven, but a little babe, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Not in a king’s palace, but lying in a manger!
How unlike are the thoughts of God to those of men! The Deliverer is a Son of man; nay, the Seed of the woman. Divine power has clothed itself in weakness to accomplish that for which mere power was not competent: for the battle here is not to the strong; an infant bound in swaddling-bands is no symbol of strength, nor a manger that of favoring circumstances, but the very opposite. Still, in such a conflict as is here impending, difficulties may be used to manifest the overcomer, as darkness to bring out the stars, And in a world ruled by God, there must after all be victory in goodness, which the stripping off of mere strength may make plain; nay, the accumulation of all that we conceive as power on the opposite side.
This little babe brings out the praise of angels, if the earth is silent and asleep. The hosts of heaven praise on man’s behalf, and with a fuller praise than when, at creation first, "all the sons of God shouted for joy:" "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men."
Sin has dishonored God, and thus introduced conflict where all was harmony. Man; the image of God, set over all else on earth, has fallen lower than was possible for the beast, and after centuries of trial has only demonstrated the impossibility of self-recovery. The first man has had children in his own image, himself repeated in every one of them but too faithfully. But now, at last, there is a Second Man. At last God is glorified in the scene of His dishonor, nay, in a manner which has given heaven itself such a theme of praise as it has never known before. Here is for earth’s wounds a healing power, for its conflict peace, if delayed yet assured; and for men more than justification of wisdom’s old delight in them. The Second Man becomes the last Adam of a new humanity, the embrace of God for a renewed creation.
So the angels depart, and the shepherds go their way to Bethlehem, to find all as the angels had declared, and to make known to others what they have heard and seen. All who hear it wonder; Mary ponders it in her heart; the shepherds praise and glorify God.
3. After the testimony of angels we have now that of the Spirit of God when Jesus is presented to the Lord: a fitting occasion; and the witness that of One who from the beginning inspired the prophets to speak and write of Him. Besides Simeon and Anna, the types and shadows of the Old Testament find here their suited place, though the Antitype of necessity transcends them all.
(1) First, He is circumcised, and receives at that time the significant name given Him before His birth -that of Jesus. He is afterwards presented to the Lord as a first-born Son; or as the law expresses it, one opening the womb. While next we hear of a sacrifice presented on the part of His mother, as to which He declares in the burnt-offering psalm, "In the volume of the book it is written of Me" (Psa 40:7). All this we must briefly look at.
His circumcision; as the apostle says of this, makes Him "debtor to do the whole law" (Gal 5:3). "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son; come of a woman, come under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal 4:4-5). He thus pledges Himself to full legal obedience, which on His part is to have no relaxation. To others He is to be the Source of a grace which for Himself He is never to know. And the law itself marks out for Him a special place, apart from all others.
At His circumcision it is that He receives the name of "Jesus" (Jehovah the Saviour) of which it was said, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins" (Mat 1:21). He comes under the law as the Redeemer from under it.
As such we find Him directly under the law of the first-born; and presented to the Lord. Every first-born son is holy to the Lord, and thus God claims the whole family as His; thus He acknowledges the claim and presents them to Him. "We have already seen what family this is of which He is the First-born. It is not Mary’s; though through His mother He may have brethren merely human. But the true family must be sons of God, though also human. It is in the very idea, a human family, as He is presented as One opening the womb. On the other hand, the whole human family it is not; while yet again all men are invited and urged to become members of it. Those who do so are thus "sons of God, by faith, in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:26), as He is true Man, and Son of God as Man also.
In Hebrews, in which He is distinctly called "the First-born" (Heb 1:6), occurs the passage in which is affirmed at the same time His kinship with and His great diversity from, those whom, because they are all of one with Him, He is not ashamed to call His brethren (Heb 2:11). Yet He is the Sanctifier, they are the sanctified; and forasmuch as they are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same (ver. 14); for in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (ver. 17, Gk.).
We see, then, what this relationship as First-born involves for Him. He is taking up a path peculiar to Himself. He is acknowledging the claim of God upon that family with which He is in true and abiding relationship, and who are in Him presented to God. But these are sinners: they are those who are to be "sanctified" by Him, -"sanctified," as the epistle itself explains it, "by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ" (Heb 10:10), His priestly work is the offering of Himself (7: 27). Immediately here, therefore, the shadow of this tells over His path: Mary, His mother, must bring her offering for purification (see Lev 12:1-8, Notes). He is "in the likeness" -only in the likeness, but still that -"of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3). His connection with a human mother brings for Him that shadow which acquired its fullest character, as it found its explanation; in the darkness of the Cross. He touches here the margin of that which Be was to know in all its dread reality. For He was to be Himself the sacrifice to put away the shadow, and that how gloriously! shadow dispelling shadow evermore.
The sacrifice here is, as we know, the sacrifice of the poor. It is, at the same time, that which if it does not speak of fullest sacrifice, does surely of the Heavenly One; and the dove or pigeon is the only sacrificial bird required in the law.
(2) It is as thus presented to the Lord that the testimony of the Spirit is given as to Him. We find once again the people who fear God, and with whom the secret of the Lord is, not among the heads of the nation, but little known of men; though in communion with one another as those upon whom the Spirit of God is. Of Simeon we know nothing but his character as just and pious and waiting for the consolation of Israel. It was not merely for his own; even spiritual good: his heart longed for the blessing of the people of God, keenly feeling their condition and what alone could meet it, -Who alone could bring effectual comfort. To him it was given by the Spirit to know that he should not see death till he had seen the Christ, Jehovah’s Anointed.
He comes, therefore, into the temple at the time Jesus is brought in, and taking Him into his arms, breaks out in praise. This praise, moreover, goes far beyond the consolation of Israel, while it includes this: for the bud of God’s promise has a sweeter, richer unfolding than the promise itself implies. Simeon, no doubt, did not realize all that his words pointed to, and there were still developments to be in the day just dawning.
(a) He begins with what is personal to himself. God is acting in His sovereignty, and he can rejoice: for sovereignty with Him means sovereign goodness; He has fulfilled His word to him, and now he may depart in peace. What, indeed, could man have sought or imagined on God’s part so blessed as He has done? Who could have thought of what the Babe in Simeon’s arms meant for the heart that could take it in?
(b) Simeon knew, at last, that here was God’s salvation. If not as yet wrought out, here was the Worker of it; and his faith did not fail as he contemplated the weakness of those infant hands to which it had been committed. Already his eyes had seen it: a salvation which as such, though it might come from Israel, could not be shut up in Israel; nay, God had prepared it before the face of all the peoples. Could it be less in God’s desire than world-wide, with the same need on all sides calling for it?
(c) Israel and the Gentiles must be both in the purpose of God; and so much had the Old Testament already declared should be; but Simeon puts them in another order than the Old Testament. "A light," he says, "for the revelation of the nations:" to bring those that had been hidden; sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, into the light of divine blessing. And then "the glory of Thy people Israel." But this will be more fully declared as we go on.
(3) Simeon does not see the bright side only, nor imagine that even God’s message of salvation will be at once welcomed because of the need men have of it. While Joseph and Mary wonder at the things that are spoken of Him, he turns to the mother with the warning of what divine light will reveal as to the hearts of men. The Child was appointed for the fall as well as the rising up of many in Israel, and as a sign -surely the most significant that could he -yet to he spoken against. Yea. a sword would pierce through her own soul also. For the presence of Christ as light would bring all to light.
(4) Anna completes the number of these witnesses. All else have failed with her; but she has been brought into the wilderness only that God may speak comfortably to her. She is a true child of Asher, the "happy," and of Phanuel, the "face of God;" her name Anna, "grace," identifying her with the principle of a life like hers, where fastings and prayers are but love’s service, and her prophesying the outflow of intercourse with God. A blessed picture! Christ will surely be with such the thanksgiving of the heart, and the theme of the tongue. Already it was so with those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
4. The visit of the magi and the consequent flight into Egypt are omitted in this Gospel; on the other hand we have here the only notice of the Lord’s youth. It naturally finds its place in the Gospel of the Manhood, being evidently intended to show the truly human development of this. The words are simple and natural, with no pretentiousness of knowledge and yet no plea of ignorance; no apology indeed of any kind; no attempt at explanation or reconciliation. We find in them a true, while yet a perfect Child; growing mentally, just as we have no doubt He grew in body; filled with wisdom, no room in Him for folly at any time: His heart turned constantly to God, and so the favor of God resting ever upon Him. Little do we realize how spiritual aim affects the mental capacity. These points are at the end of the chapter taken up once more and emphasized: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
Between these statements we have that story of His youth, which shows what His aim was, -the way in which already, at twelve years old, He was occupied with His Father’s business. This was the age at which the Jewish child began to come up to Jerusalem at the festivals; and here for the first time it was, no doubt, that the schools of the greater Rabbis were open to Him. How great must have been the attraction to Him of the teaching and discussions of the spiritual leaders of Israel, with whom He was to be in relations so different at a later time! Thus He remains at Jerusalem, after the company with whom He had been had left it on the return to Galilee, and is found there by Joseph and His mother on the third day "in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers."
Yet how little did those know Him who should have known Him best upon earth! "And when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother" -she who had learnt of Him from angels, lips, and had been pondering in her heart so much already -"said to Him, Child, why hast Thou dealt thus with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee in distress." From the mere human side of things that was no wonder; but alas that we should be so much at the mere human side of things! "And He said unto them, Why is it that ye sought Me? did ye not know that I ought to be about My Father’s business?" It is strange indeed that any should think that this was His own waking up to such a thought. For in this case how could He speak of it as a strange thing that they should not before have had this thought? On the contrary, it is plain they ought to have understood it from all that they had ever seen of Him. This absolute devotedness had been His "wisdom" ever, only manifested more as His child-life expanded into youth and manhood. Thus this visit to Jerusalem, and to what He afterwards used to call His Father’s house, comes in between His earlier and His later life in Nazareth, giving the character of it all, while He filled too His place in that human family life, which was His Father’s will for Him, subject to the authority of those who at best knew Him so little. Still His mother kept in her heart and thought upon what was still beyond her, God’s favor towards Him more and more manifesting itself as the development went on of that which, for the present, drew out man’s favor also. For as yet He had not come forth into that place of public ministry and appeal on God’s part which would lead on to His rejection by those after whom in grace He had come, and for one brief, awful moment to the transcendent sorrow of the abandonment of the cross also. But thus were His words to be fulfilled, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (Joh 12:32).
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv8, 16, 17 Luk 2:8 - Luk 2:20.
Luke
SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS
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Luk 2:8 - Luk 2:20.
The central portion of this passage is, of course, the angels’ message and song, the former of which proclaims the transcendent fact of the Incarnation, and the latter hymns its blessed results. But, subsidiary to these, the silent vision which preceded them and the visit to Bethlehem which followed are to be noted. Taken together, they cast varying gleams on the great fact of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Why should there be a miraculous announcement at all, and why should it be to these shepherds? It seems to have had no effect beyond a narrow circle and for a time. It was apparently utterly forgotten when, thirty years after, the carpenter’s Son began His ministry. Could such an event have passed from memory, and left no ripple on the surface? Does not the resultlessness cast suspicion on the truthfulness of the narrative? Not if we duly give weight to the few who knew of the wonder; to the length of time that elapsed, during which the shepherds and their auditors probably died; to their humble position, and to the short remembrance of extraordinary events which have no immediate consequences. Joseph and Mary were strangers in Bethlehem. Christ never visited it, so far as we know. The fading of the impression cannot be called strange, for it accords with natural tendencies; but the record of so great an event, which was entirely ineffectual as regards future acceptance of Christ’s claims, is so unlike legend that it vouches for the truth of the narrative. An apparent stumbling-block is left, because the story is true.
Why then, the announcement at all, since it was of so little use? Because it was of some; but still more, because it was fitting that such angel voices should attend such an event, whether men gave heed to them or not; and because, recorded, their song has helped a world to understand the nature and meaning of that birth. The glory died off the hillside quickly, and the music of the song scarcely lingered longer in the ears of its first hearers; but its notes echo still in all lands, and every generation turns to them with wonder and hope.
The selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, the time at which it was given, and the place, are all significant. It was no unmeaning fact that the ‘glory of the Lord’ shone lambent round the shepherds, and held them and the angel standing beside them in its circle of light. No longer within the secret shrine, but out in the open field, the symbol of the Divine Presence glowed through the darkness; for that birth hallowed common life, and brought the glory of God into familiar intercourse with its secularities and smallnesses. The appearance to these humble men as they ‘sat simply chatting in a rustic row ‘symbolised the destination of the Gospel for all ranks and classes.
The angel speaks by the side of the shepherds, not from above. His gentle encouragement ‘Fear not!’ not only soothes their present terror, but has a wider meaning. The dread of the Unseen, which lies coiled like a sleeping snake in all hearts, is utterly taken away by the Incarnation. All messages from that realm are thenceforward ‘tidings of great joy,’ and love and desire may pass into it, as all men shall one day pass, and both enterings may be peaceful and confident. Nothing harmful can come out of the darkness, from which Jesus has come, into which He has passed, and which He fills.
The great announcement, the mightiest, most wonderful word that had ever passed angels’ immortal lips, is characterised as ‘great joy’ to ‘all the people,’ in which designation two things are to be noted-the nature and the limitation of the message. In how many ways the Incarnation was to be the fountain of purest gladness was but little discerned, either by the heavenly messenger or the shepherds. The ages since have been partially learning it, but not till the ‘glorified joy’ of heaven swells redeemed hearts will all its sorrow-dispelling power be experimentally known. Base joys may be basely sought, but His creatures’ gladness is dear to God, and if sought in God’s way, is a worthy object of their efforts.
The world-wide sweep of the Incarnation does not appear here, but only its first destination for Israel. This is manifest in the phrase ‘all the people,’ in the mention of ‘the city of David’ and in the emphatic ‘you,’ in contradistinction both from the messenger, who announced what he did not share, and Gentiles, to whom the blessing was not to pass till Israel had determined its attitude to it.
The titles of the Infant tell something of the wonder of the birth, but do not unfold its overwhelming mystery. Magnificent as they are, they fall far short of ‘The Word was made flesh.’ They keep within the circle of Jewish expectation, and announce that the hopes of centuries are fulfilled. There is something very grand in the accumulation of titles, each greater than the preceding, and all culminating in that final ‘Lord.’ Handel has gloriously given the spirit of it in the crash of triumph with which that last word is pealed out in his oratorio. ‘Saviour’ means far more than the shepherds knew; for it declares the Child to be the deliverer from all evil, both of sin and sorrow, and the endower with all good, both of righteousness and blessedness. The ‘Christ’ claims that He is the fulfiller of prophecy, perfectly endowed by divine anointing for His office of prophet, priest, and king-the consummate flower of ancient revelation, greater than Moses the law-giver, than Solomon the king, than Jonah the prophet. ‘The Lord’ is scarcely to be taken as the ascription of divinity, but rather as a prophecy of authority and dominion, implying reverence, but not unveiling the deepest secret of the entrance of the divine Son into humanity. That remained unrevealed, for the time was not yet ripe.
There would be few children of a day old in a little place like Bethlehem, and none but one lying in a manger. The fact of the birth, which could be verified by sight, would confirm the message in its outward aspect, and thereby lead to belief in the angel’s disclosure of its inward character. The ‘sign’ attested the veracity of the messenger, and therefore the truth of all his word-both of that part of it capable of verification by sight and that part apprehensible by faith.
No wonder that the sudden light and music of the multitude of the heavenly host’ flashed and echoed round the group on the hillside. The true picture is not given when we think of that angel choir as floating in heaven. They stood in their serried ranks round the shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and ‘the night was filled with music,’ not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding forms became all at once visible within the encircling ‘glory,’ on every face wondering gladness and eager sympathy with men, from every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues of men when their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men. They hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which they knew more completely than they were yet allowed to tell.
As was natural for them, their praise is first evoked by the result of the Incarnation in the highest heavens. It will bring ‘glory to God’ there; for by it new aspects of His nature are revealed to those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered ages have known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures, but now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more limited intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending Love stooping to be born. Even they think more loftily of God, and more of man’s possibilities and worth, when they cluster round the manger, and see who lies there.
‘On earth peace.’ The song drops from the contemplation of the heavenly consequences to celebrate the results on earth, and gathers them all into one pregnant word, ‘Peace.’ What a scene of strife, discord, and unrest earth must seem to those calm spirits! And how vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle of an ant-hill! Christ’s work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with God, with men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls at war with themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, and nothing less thorough than a power which removes it can rectify them. That birth was the coming into humanity of Him who brings peace with God, with ourselves, with one another. Shame on Christendom that nineteen centuries have passed, and men yet think the cessation of war is only a ‘pious imagination’! The ringing music of that angel chant has died away, but its promise abides.
The symmetry of the song is best preserved, as I humbly venture to think, by the old reading as in the Authorised Version. The other, represented by the Revised Version, seems to make the second clause drag somewhat, with two designations of the region of peace. The Incarnation brings God’s ‘good will’ to dwell among men. In Christ, God is well pleased; and from Him incarnate, streams of divine complacent love pour out to freshen and fertilise the earth.
The disappearance of the heavenly choristers does not seem to have been so sudden as their appearance. They ‘went away from them into heaven,’ as if leisurely, and so that their ascending brightness was long visible as they rose, and attestation was thereby given to the reality of the vision. The sleeping village was close by, and as soon as the last gleam of the departing light had faded in the depths of heaven, the shepherds went ‘with haste,’ untimely as was the hour. They would not have much difficulty in finding the inn and the manger. Note that they do not tell their story till the sight has confirmed the angel message. Their silence was not from doubt; for they say, before they had seen the child, that ‘this thing’ is ‘come to pass,’ and are quite sure that the Lord has told it them. But they wait for the evidence which shall assure others of their truthfulness.
There are three attitudes of mind towards God’s revelation set forth in living examples in the closing verses of the passage. Note the conduct of the shepherds, as a type of the natural impulse and imperative duty of all possessors of God’s truth. Such a story as they had to tell would burn its way to utterance in the most reticent and shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful message to deliver, or a less needful one? If the spectators of the cradle could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for the witnesses of the Cross to lock their lips!
The hearers of the story did what, alas! too many of us do with the Gospel. ‘They wondered,’ and stopped there. A feeble ripple of astonishment ruffled the surface of their souls for a moment; but like the streaks on the sea made by a catspaw of wind, it soon died out, and the depths were unaffected by it.
The antithesis to this barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the Virgin’s demeanour. She ‘kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.’ What deep thoughts the mother of the Lord had, were hers alone. But we have the same duty to the truth, and it will never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a grip of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too treasure it in our hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls out to receive its transforming power. A non-meditative religion is a shallow religion. But if we hide His word in our hearts, and often in secret draw out our treasure to count and weigh it, we shall be able to speak out of a full heart, and like these shepherds, to rejoice that we have seen even as it was spoken unto us.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Birth and Childhood of Jesus
Birth and Childhood of Jesus
1-5. The census of Quirinius. There are two historical difficulties in connexion with St. Luke's mention of the census of Quirinius: (1) There is no direct evidence, except St. Luke's statement, that Augustus (31 b.c.-14 a.d.) ever held a census of the whole Roman empire. (2) Quirinius was not governor of Syria at the time of our Lord's birth (about 7 or 6 b.c.), but either Sentius Saturninus (9-6 b.c.), or Quinctilius Varus (6-4 b.c.).
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As to (1), the absence of direct confirmatory evidence ought not to be sufficient to discredit a statement which is made as a result of careful enquiry, by a nearly contemporary author who is honestly striving to be accurate (Luk_1:3-4), and which is in itself credible, and in accordance with Augustus's character and methods of administration. In 8 b.c. he carried out a census of Roman citizens throughout the empire, and it is quite possible that he also planned a general census, which, however, owing to administrative difficulties, was not completely executed in every part of the empire. (2) Although Quirinius was not governor of Syria in 7, 6 b.c., he may have been there as 'legatus Cæsaris' to conduct the census, or more probably to carry on the war with the troublesome tribe of the Homonadenses. It was not unusual, when a province was in a disturbed state, for the civil and military administration to be placed in different hands. It is probable, therefore, that, when our Lord was born, Saturninus or Varus was at the head of the civil, and Quirinius of the military, administration of Syria. Quirinius was civil governor of Syria some twelve years later (6 a.d.), when he carried out the well-known census of Act_5:37, mentioned also by Josephus ('Ant.' xviii. 1.1, 2. 1). It is known, however, from an inscription discovered at Tivoli, in 1764, that he held office in Syria at an earlier date, when he subdued the Homonadenses, and for this exploit was honoured by two 'supplicationes' (solemn thanksgivings to the gods), and the decorations of a triumphing general. We may conjecture, therefore, that this was in 7, 6 b.c., at the time when, according to St. Luke, the earlier and less-known census took place.
1. Augustus] The first Roman emperor. His actual reign dated from the battle of Actium 31 b.c. to his death in 14 a.d. Taxed] RV 'enrolled.' This enrolment was perhaps simply a census or numbering of the inhabitants. The second enrolment under Quirinius in 7 a.d. was for purposes of taxation, and excited a rebellion (Act_5:37).
2. Cyrenius] RV 'Quirinius.'
3. Into his own city] It was a fixed principle of Roman government to respect the feelings and even the prejudices of subject peoples, and Herod, being a foreigner whose rule was barely tolerated by patriotic Jews, had every reason not to give offence. He enrolled his pagan subjects, therefore, in the Roman manner, but allowed the Jews the privilege of being enrolled in their place of origin according to their family and tribe.
5. His espoused wife] RV 'who was betrothed to him.' Yet they were probably married, because it was contrary to Jewish custom for betrothed persons to live together, and Joseph would wish to protect Mary by making her his wife as soon as possible.
6. 7. The Nativity. See on Mat_2:1. There is an inward fitness that He, who for our sake emptied Himself of His glory, should be born in a stable and laid in a manger, but assuredly it would never have occurred to any one, Jew or Christian, to invent such a story, which accordingly may be accepted as authentic history. By the manner of His birth Jesus showed His sympathy with the hard lot of the poor, and His contempt for human splendour. He also gave a foretaste of His future manner of life, when He was despised and rejected of men, and had no place to lay His head.
7. Firstborn] A technical term among the Jews, signifying 'that which openeth the womb' (Exo_34:19.), and not implying the birth of other offspring. That St. Luke uses it in this technical sense is clear from Luk_2:22, Luk_2:23. No room] It is clear from Mat_2:11 that as soon as the enrolment was over, and the crowds attending it had dispersed, Joseph and Mary obtained a house in Bethlehem, intending to settle there permanently, since it was the most fitting place for the residence of the Messiah.
8-20. Announcement to the shepherds, who visit the Holy Family. As Jesus was born in a stable, so His birth was first announced to peasants, in token that the gospel was meant for the poor and ignorant, as well as for the rich and learned.
8. Shepherds] David himself had been a shepherd at Bethlehem (1Sa_16:11). The flocks at Bethlehem were destined for the Temple sacrifices, and the shepherds who kept them occupied a higher social position than other shepherds, who were considered outcasts by the scribes because of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances. There was a Jewish tradition that the birth of the Messiah would be proclaimed from the 'Migdol Eder,' 'the tower of the flock,' which lay near Bethlehem on the road to Jerusalem (Edersheim).
10. To all people] RV 'to all the people' (of Israel). There is here no express mention of the Gentiles.
11. A Saviour] The spiritual sense is certainly prominent here—'a Saviour from sin and death.' This title of Jesus is rare in the Gospels, being found only here and in Joh_4:42 several times in Titus and 2 Peter.
Christ the Lord] RM 'Anointed Lord.'
12. Shall be a sign] RV 'is the sign.' The unusual sight of an infant in a manger would be a sign that the angel had spoken the truth.
14. The 'Gloria in excelsis' (Glory.. in the highest), in which the hosts of heaven praised God for His wondrous love to mankind shown in the Incarnation, was expanded into a morning hymn as early as the 2nd cent., and has been sung in the Communion service of the Western Church for many ages. Taking the old reading of the AV, the hymn, which consists of two lines, maybe thus paraphrased: (1) The angels are praising God in highest heaven for Christ's Nativity. (2) On earth men enjoy peace with God, and peace and goodwill with one another. But the reading of the RV ('men of good pleasure') is preferable, and the meaning is, (1) The angels are praising God in highest heaven for Christ's Nativity. (2) There is peace on earth (peace with God and peace with one another) among men to whom God shows His favour by this wondrous birth.
The hymn goes beyond the words of the angel, in declaring that God's favour in Christ is extended to all mankind.
19. Mary's was a quiet and reflective nature: cp. Luk_2:51. These two vv. suggest that it was from her the information contained in these chapters was derived.
21. The Circumcision. Although our Lord was sinless, He was subjected to a rite which symbolised the putting off of the sinful lusts of the flesh. Although He was the Son of God, it behoved Him to be made a child of God through the covenant of Abraham. Now first His redeeming blood was shed, and the pain of the Circumcision was a foretaste of Calvary: cp. Mat_3:15; Rom_8:3; Heb_2:17; Gal_4:4; Under the new covenant the sacrament of Holy Baptism (the circumcision made without hands, Col_2:11) has 'fulfilled,' and taken the place of circumcision.
22-38. The Purification and Presentation in the Temple. Women after childbirth were unclean, for a boy forty days, for a girl eighty days. They were then bound to present an offering for Purification, viz. a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering. Poor women might offer two pigeons, as the mother of Jesus did: see Lev_12:2. A firstborn son was presented to God and redeemed with five shekels of the sanctuary (10 or 12 shillings), Exo_13:2; Num_8:16; Num_18:15 is. Neither of these ceremonies necessitated personal attendance of the mother in the Temple. A woman could offer her sacrifices of purification by proxy, and a firstborn son could be presented, and his redemption price paid to a priest anywhere. Joseph and Mary went to the Temple because they were near, and because they loved the house of God.
22. Her purification] RV 'their purification,' i.e. either, (1) the Jews' purification, or (2) the purification of mother and child. Strictly speaking, however, only the mother (not the child) was ceremonially unclean.
25-35 Simeon and the Nunc Dimittis] Simeon belonged, like Zacharias and Anna, to the class of humble and devout Jews who 'looked for the redemption of Jerusalem,' and whose type of piety was very different from that of the scribes: see Luk_2:37, Luk_2:38. To such persons the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant and the spiritual teaching of the prophets had been a true preparation for Christ, and consequently God shed abroad among them the gift of prophecy, and revealed to them truths to which the doctors of the Law were blind.
25. Devout] more exactly 'God-fearing.' The word is peculiar to St, Luke (Act_2:5; Act_8:2; Act_22:12). The consolation of Israel] a common expression among the rabbis for the Messianic age. 'So may I see the consolation' was a usual form of oath.
26. The Lord's Christ] the same as 'the Christ of God' (Luk_9:20), i.e. 'Him whom God has sent as the Messiah.'
29-32. This beautiful hymn (usually called the 'Nunc Dimittis'), which has been used in the evening service of the Church since the 4th or 5th century, is in thorough harmony with the spirit of this Gospel. It expressly includes the Gentiles in Christ's Kingdom, in accordance with the OT. prophecies.
29. The meaning is, 'My master and owner, now thou givest freedom to thy slave by a peaceful death, according to the prophetic word that thou spakest' (Luk_2:26). Simeon regards his release from the toils and troubles of life as an enfranchisement from slavery, a change to a state of freedom and rest. In peace means 'in a state of peace with God.'
30. Thy salvation] is practically personal, meaning the Messiah.
31. All people] RV 'all peoples,' i.e. all the nations of the earth.
32. A light, etc.] RV 'A light for revelation to the Gentiles,' i.e. the Messiah is the Light of the Gentiles, sent by God to reveal His truth to the heathen world. He is also the glory of the chosen people, because all nations in glorifying the Messiah will glorify the nation from whom the Messiah springs. 'In those days ten men of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you' (Zec_8:23).
33. Joseph and his mother] RV 'his father and his mother.' Since Joseph filled the place of a father to Jesus, he was naturally called his father: cp. Luk_2:27, 'the parents.'
34, 35. These vv. contain the first hint in the NT. of the sufferings of the Messiah, and of His holy mother.
34. Behold this child, etc.] This child will divide Israel into two opposite camps. Some will reject His claims. To such He will be 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence' (Isa_8:14), i.e. the occasion of their spiritual ruin. Others will accept His claims. Such He will raise through their faith to a higher spiritual life, which may be rightly called a resurrection (rising again) from death to life.
35. Yea, a sword] This prophecy was fulfilled when Mary saw her Son rejected, condemned, insulted, scourged, and crucified.
That the thoughts] i.e. that the true characters of men (as shown in their reception or rejection of Jesus) may be made manifest.
36-38. Anna the prophetess also recognises Jesus as the Messiah, and speaks of Him as such among those who 'looked for the redemption of Jerusalem.' Her manner of life is described in detail, because she is a type of the 'widows indeed' of the Christian Church (1Ti_5:5), who did not marry again, but devoted themselves to works of charity and piety.
36. Prophetess] The title shows that Anna was known as a prophetess before this incident. Other instances of prophetesses are Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Huldah, and the daughters of Philip. Aser] RV 'Asher.' It is clear that members of other tribes than Judah and Levi returned from the Captivity.
37. If she was married at 12, which is possible in the East, she must have been 103 years old. Departed not] i.e. was unfailing in her attendance.
38. All them that looked, etc.] see on Luk_2:25-35.
39. Return to Nazareth. St. Luke represents the Holy Family as returning to Nazareth immediately after the Purification, without any allusion to the visit of the Magi, or the flight into Egypt. This seems to indicate that he did not use St. Matthew's Gospel.
40. Growth and spiritual development of Jesus. The information may have been gained from the mother herself. Waxed strong in spirit] RV omits 'in spirit.'
Filled with wisdom] lit. 'becoming full of wisdom': cp. Luk_2:52, 'increased in wisdom.' As Jesus was perfect God and perfect man, so He possessed completely the attributes of both natures. As God He knew all things, but as man He 'waxed strong (in spirit), becoming filled with wisdom,' and 'increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.' As an infant He possessed the knowledge proper to an infant; as a boy, that proper to a boy; as a man, that proper to a man; as the anointed Messiah (Luk_3:22), that proper to one commissioned to establish the Kingdom of God on earth; and as the ascended and glorified Redeemer, that proper to one who, as man, and not simply as God, rules the entire universe (Mat_28:18). What this means we may not be able to say, but we may rest assured He still feels for man, and understands his needs. Although it was always possible for Him who was God as well as man, to draw, if the needs of His mission required it, upon the inexhaustible stores of His divine knowledge (cp. Joh_1:48), yet it was His usual custom to obtain His information through human channels and from human sources, and, even as a teacher, to use chiefly the ample stores of His super-naturally enlightened human knowledge. This supernatural enlightenment far exceeded both in range and in penetration that granted to the greatest of the prophets—it was the knowledge which was granted to the Incarnate Son for the purpose of communicating to man the Father's perfect and final revelation; but it was limited in accordance with its object, and did not embrace matters which it was inexpedient for man to know, and therefore for the Incarnate Son to reveal: see on Mar_1:32, and cp. Act_1:7.
40-52. The boy Jesus in the Temple. We know nothing directly of the childhood of Jesus except this one incident, which is recorded entirely for the sake of the remarkable utterance in Luk_2:49.
41. As women were not obliged to attend, Mary's regular keeping of the feasts is a mark of special piety: cp. Luk_2:22.
42. Twelve years] Jesus accompanied His parents for the first time, because He was approaching his thirteenth year, in which He would become, by Jewish custom, 'a son of the Law,' i.e. subject to its obligations.
43. Tarried behind] Jesus was probably staying with friends, and thought that His parents would remain in Jerusalem for the whole Passover week. Instead of this they seem to have left after two days, as was often done.
46. After three days] They spent one day looking for Him in the caravan, one day in the return journey to Jerusalem, and found Him on the third day. Doctors] i.e. scribes or rabbis. Among the famous men who may possibly have been present were the aged Hillel and Shammai, Rabban Simeon, Gamaliel, Annas, Joseph of Arimathæa, Nicodemus, Johanan ben-Zacchai, Caiaphas. It is said (but it is not certain) that there was a synagogue within the Temple enclosure, where members of the Sanhedrin gave public instruction on sabbaths and festivals. Hearing them] not teaching them, as the Apocryphal Gospels say.
49. How is it] 'Not a reproof, but an expression of surprise. He is not surprised at their coming back for Him, but at their not knowing where to find Him.' About my Father's business] This translation is possible, but that of the RV, 'in my Father's house,' is more probable. The words mean: 'There is only one place in Jerusalem where I, the. Son of God, might be expected to be found, and that is in my Father's house.' The utterance shows that even at this early age Jesus was conscious that His true father was not Joseph (as His mother's words seemed to imply, Luk_2:48), but God.
50. Understood not] The lapse of twelve years during which no miracle had occurred, had partly obliterated the impression made by the remarkable circumstances of the Nativity. This and the next v. furnish another indication that St. Luke's information was obtained from St. Mary.
51. Was subject] The evangelist guards against the possible supposition that Christ's words in Luk_2:49 were intended as a repudiation of His parents' authority over Him.
52. See on Luk_2:40.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 21 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [X. The Birth…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [X. The Birth of Jesus].
X. THE BIRTH OF JESUS. (At Bethlehem of Judæa, B. C. 5.) cLUKE II. 1-7.
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c1 Now it came to pass in those days [the days of the birth of John the Baptist], there went out a decree [a law] from Cæsar Augustus [Octavius, or Augustus, Cæsar was the nephew of and successor to Julius Cæsar. He took the name Augustus in compliment to his own greatness; and our month August is named for him; its old name being Sextilis], that all the world should be enrolled. [This enrollment or census was the first step in the process of taxation.] 2 This was the first [27] enrolment. [Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was governor of Syria, A. D. 6-11, and made a census of his province at that time, as Luke well knew ( Act_5:37). We have no other record showing either his governorship or a census made by him at the time of the birth of Christ. But he was held in high favor by the Emperor, and was, about the time of the birth of Christ, carrying on a war just north of Syria, in Cilicia, and it is therefore easy for us to accept Luke's statement that as imperial commissioner or as governor of Syria he made such a census.] made when Quirinius was governor [Quirinius was doubtless twice governor of Syria, his first term being about B. C. 5-1. The Greek word hegemon, which Luke uses for governor, would be used for either of the Roman titles, viz.: Proprætor, or senatorial governor; or Quæstor, or imperial commissioner. Quirinius may have commenced the enrollment as Quæstor and finished it ten years later as Proprætor. He was well-known character in that age. Harsh and avaricious as a governor, but an able and loyal soldier, earning a Roman triumph for successes in Cilicia, and being honored by a public funeral in A. D. 21] of Syria. [A Roman province including all Palestine, and a tract four or five times as large lying to the northeast of Palestine.] 3 And all went to enroll themselves [The enrollment may have had no reference to taxation. It was more probably to ascertain the military strength of the various provinces. The Romans enrolled each person at the place where he was then residing; but permitted the Jews to thus return to their ancestral or tribal cities and enroll themselves as citizens of these cities], every one to his own city. [The city where his ancestors had been settled by Joshua when he divided the land--Josh. xiii.-xviii.] 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth [see ch. i. 26], unto Judæa, to the city of David [after the lapse of ten centuries the name of David still cast its fragrance over the place of his birth-- 1Sa_17:12], which is called Bethlehem [Meaning "house of bread." It was the later or Jewish name for the old [28] Canaanitish village of Ephrath, the Ephrath near which Rachel died ( Gen_35:19). It was marked by Micah as the birthplace of Messiah-- Mic_5:2, Mat_2:5, Mat_2:6], because he was of the house and family of David; 5 to be taxed with Mary, who was betrothed to him [see Mat_1:25], being great with child. 6 And it came to pass, while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered. [The early Christians made no record of the date of Christ's birth; we find no mention of December 25 earlier than the fourth century. The Eastern church celebrated Christ's birth by a feast called Epiphany, which means manifestation. They chose January 6 as the date for this feast, for they reasoned that if the first Adam was born on the sixth day of creation, the second Adam must have been born on the sixth day of the year. The Western church celebrated Christ's birth on the 25th of December by a feast called Natalis, which means Nativity. But Pope Julius I. (A. D. 337-352) designated December 25 as the proper day, and the Eastern churches soon united with the Western churches in observing this day; and the custom has become universal. We do not observe this day because of the Pope's decree, but because of the tradition on which the Pope's decree was founded.] 7 And she brought forth her firstborn [This word in no way implies that the Virgin subsequently had other children. Jesus, the only begotten, is also called the firstborn-- Heb_1:6] son; and she wrapped [having none to help her, she swathed him in bands with her own hands] him in swaddling clothes [the new-born Jewish child was washed in water, rubbed with salt, and then wrapped in bands or blankets, which confined the limbs closely-- Eze_16:4], and laid him in a manger [Justin Martyr, who born about the beginning of the second century and suffered martyrdom A. D. 165, first tells us the tradition that the stable in which Jesus was born was a cavern. Caves, however, were never used for stables except when opened on the sides of hills. The one at Bethlehem is a cellar fourteen feet under the level [29] surface. Justin must, therefore, be mistaken], because there was no room for them in the inn. [Eastern inns had landlords like our own. The inn was full at this time because of the number who had come to be enrolled. Inns contained rooms for persons and stalls for animals: there was no room in the former, but there was in the latter.]
[FFG 27-30]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15 (Greek - οἰκουμένη = "inhabited earth)." This passage is…
world
(Greek - οἰκουμένη = "inhabited earth)." This passage is noteworthy as defining the usual N.T. use of oikoumene as the sphere of Roman rule at its greatest extent, that is, of the great Gentile world-monarchies Dan 2:7. That part of the earth is therefore peculiarly the sphere of prophecy.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The Birth of Christ at Bethlehem (Luk 2:1-7)
CHAPTER 2
1. The Birth of Christ at Bethlehem (Luk 2:1-7)
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2. The Glad Tidings Announced to the Shepherds. (Luk 2:8-20)
3. The Circumcision and Presentation (Luk 2:21-24)
4. Simeon and His Prophecy (Luk 2:25-35)
5. Anna the Prophetess (Luk 2:36-38)
6. In Nazareth (Luk 2:39-40)
7. In the Temple (Luk 2:41-51)
8. The Increase (Luk 2:52.)
Luk 2:1-7
The appointed time (Gal 4:4) had come. According to prophecy the Saviour had to be born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2). But Mary lived in Nazareth. God in His own marvelous way ordered everything and Caesar Augustus was directed to issue the decree of taxation at such a time and in such a way and also the journey of Joseph and his espoused wife, Mary, that she had to be in Bethlehem when the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. The great Roman Emperor knew nothing of what God was accomplishing by his decree. Then He was born, who left the glory of Heaven and became poor for our sakes. What condescension we behold here! The Maker of Heaven and Earth, born of a woman, taking the creature’s place! The first resting place of Him, who came from the bosom of the Father is a manger! There was no room for Him in the inn.
Luk 2:8-20
Here not the birth of a King is announced as in Matthew, but the birth of a Saviour. The wise men from the East looking for the newborn King are not mentioned by Luke. Poor shepherds hear the glad tidings first. Heaven is opened. The Glory of the Lord shines round about; angels’ voices are heard, telling out in heavenly praise, what will be the ultimate result of the work of the Second Man. “Glory to God in the highest, Peace on Earth, good will toward men.” But the world rejected Him. Good will toward men sounds forth in the glad tidings, but “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth” is yet to come, when He, the Son of Man, appears again. The shepherds were obedient. They made haste. How simple their faith; how great their reward!
Luk 2:21-24
And now we find that He, who came of a woman also was made under the law. The circumcision made Him “debtor to do the whole law” which He alone could fulfill; and then to redeem those upon whom the curse of the law rests, by being made a curse for us. (Gal 3:13). The name announced before His birth is then given to the child. (Mat 1:21). Five other persons in the Bible were named before their birth: Isaac, Gen 17:19; Ishmael, Gen 16:11; Josiah, 1Ki 13:2; Cyrus, Isa 44:28, and John the Baptist. As the firstborn, according to His own law, He is presented unto the Lord. The required sacrifice is brought, in which is written the story of the cross. The sacrifice tells the story of poverty, for the sacrificial birds were only for the poor. “If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtle doves, or two young pigeons.” (Lev 12:6).
Luk 2:25-35
Simeon had the divine revelation that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed. He belonged to the faithful remnant of Israel, who in the dark days of decline and apostasy held fast the Word and waited for its promised fulfillment. The Lord had then a faithful remnant, who waited for His first coming; and now His faithful people wait for the blessed Hope, His coming again to receive them unto Himself. Simeon had the revelation that he should not see death, till He had come. This corresponds to the greater promises in 1Co 15:51 and 1Th 4:17. The Spirit led him into the temple at the right moment. His waiting ended when he held the child in his arms. It was a babe, like any other babe. Yet faith saw in Him what He is, the Lord’s salvation for His people; He who had come to do the great work. “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel.” This is prophetic. The Gentiles are put first. Even so it has come to pass; after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in all Israel will be saved. See Isa 49:5-6; Rom 11:25-26. And Simeon, holding the babe in his arms, blest the mother and Joseph, not the child, for he knew He was the Blesser.
Luk 2:36
Then a daughter of Phanuel, Anna, appeared to add her testimony. What a beautiful woman she must have been in her self-denying service! No sooner had she seen the Lord than she spake at once of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. In the midst of the wicked city, soon to become a city of murderers (Isa 1:21), there was a company of men and women who looked for redemption.
Luk 2:39-40
They returned to Nazareth. The visit of the wise men, the flight into Egypt and the return are omitted. Twelve years passed and it did not please the Holy Spirit to give us a report of them. Spurious Gospels of the Infancy were circulated later; they are all legendary and unreliable. As the true Man He grew from infancy to boyhood. Of all the sinless conditions of the human body He was partaker. He grew both mentally and physically. His heart ever seeking God and being in subjection unto Him.
Luk 2:41-50
Every Jewish boy of twelve years visited Jerusalem at the time of the great festivals. He stayed behind and his anxious mother and Joseph found Him in the temple three days later. For three days He was lost to them. May this not be a reminder of the three days He was thought lost by His disciples? (Luk 24:21). Here the human infirmity of Mary comes to light. She was nervously anxious. Her words have an accusing tone. The greatest mistake she committed was the mentioning of Joseph as “thy Father.” In all this her human failure is in evidence. But how sublime the answer of the twelve year old boy! He is astonished that they should have sought Him; He came to seek them. He is astonished that they did not know that He had to be about His Father’s business. What an answer it is! These are His first words recorded in the Gospels. He corrects His fallible mother, who had said, “thy Father and I.” His Father, He declares, is He in whose house He had gone. It is the first self-witness to His Deity.
Luk 2:51-52
And He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject unto them. He was obedient in all things.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 13, 15, 21 The Birth of Jesus and the Adoration of the…
The Birth of Jesus and the Adoration of the Shepherds.
The reason for the journey to Bethlehem:
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v. 1. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
v. 2. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
The Enrolment Of Quirinius
Many and various are the objections which have been made to Luke’s approximate date of the birth of Christ. He is supposed to have confused the census of 8 B. C. with that of 6-7 A. D. , and imagined that Christ was born in the days of a census held about ten or eleven years after the death of Herod; or, when Herod was king, and yet when a Roman viceroy was organizing the new province of Palestine. "It has been maintained by many scholars in modern times that the census is either a fiction or a blunder; that the circumstances connected with it, which Luke relates, are contrary to history; and, in short, that the story is unhistorical and impossible, not in one way merely, but in several. It is affirmed that Quirinius never governed Syria during the life of Herod, for Herod died in 4 B. C. , and Quirinius was governor of Syria later than 3 B. C. , and probably in 2 or 1 B. C. " All the objections to Luke’s account have been briefly summarized as follows: "1. Apart from the gospel, history knows nothing of a general imperial census in the time of Augustus. 2. There could have been no Roman census in Palestine during the time of Herod the Great, a rex socius 3. Such a census at such a time could not have been carried out by Quirinius, for he was not governor in Syria then, nor till ten years later, when he did make a census which gave rise to a revolt under Judas of Galilee. 4. Under a Roman census it would not have been necessary for Joseph to go to Bethlehem, or for Mary to accompany him."
It would not be absolutely necessary to pay attention to these objections, for the historical account inspired by God will stand against all statements of secular historians. Nevertheless, it is a matter of importance, in this case, to find that the archeological investigations of the last decades have vindicated the account of Luke and are tending more and more to confound the critics of the Bible. Documents have been found which show that enrolments in the Roman Empire were made every fourteen years, that this system was very probably inaugurated by Augustus, that the people went to their own towns for enrolment, that this was made on the basis of kinship. Archeology "has proved that the census was a periodic occurrence once in fourteen years, that this system was in operation as early as 20 A. D. , and that it was customary for people to go to their ancestral abodes for enrolment. It has made it probable that the census system was established by Augustus, and that Quirinius was governor of Syria twice. So far as the new material goes, it confirms the narrative of Luke. " The latest inscriptional evidence shows that Quirinius was a legate in Syria for census purposes in B. C. 8-6. If, as now seems fairly certain, Augustus began this system of a periodic census once in every fourteen years, and if this is what Luke refers to, we are able for the first time to reconcile all previous ’contradictions’ concerning the date of our Lord’s birth—which must now be placed somewhere between 9 B. C. and 6 B. C. The exact year cannot be named, as such general enrolments would necessarily be prolonged, especially in the outskirts of the empire. " The objection that a census could not have been made in Palestine, since Herod the Great was a rex sociu s, is absolutely untenable. Herod was king only by the special grace of Augustus and the Roman senate, and well he knew it. Even if other kings had been excused in such a case, which is not at all plausible, Herod would have been very careful about voicing any objections to a decree of Augustus.
There is no need, therefore, of trying to construe the words of Luke in any but their actual sense. He knew what he was writing, and the Holy Ghost, who supervised every word, had the time fixed in just that way. It is a matter of satisfaction, however, that the science of archeology is aiding in silencing the objections of critics and convincing the gainsayers.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 21 General Information:
General Information:
This gives background to show why Mary and Joseph have to move at the time of Jesus' birth.
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Now
This word marks the beginning of a new part of the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
it came about that
This phrase is used to show that this is the beginning of an account. If your language has a way of showing the start of an account, you may use that. Some versions do not include this phrase.
Caesar Augustus
"King Augustus" or "Emperor Augustus." Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire. (See: How to Translate Names and Introduction of New and Old Participants)
sent out a decree ordering
This command was probably carried by messengers throughout the empire. AT: "sent messengers with a decree ordering" (See: Idiom)
that a census be taken of all the people living in the world
This can be stated in active form. AT: "that they register all the people living in the world" or "that they count all the people in the world and write down their names" (See: Active or Passive)
the world
Here the word "world" represents only the part of the world that Caesar August ruled. AT: "the Empire" or "the Roman world" (See: Synecdoche)
Quirinius
Quirinius was appointed to be the governor of Syria. (See: How to Translate Names)
everyone went
"everyone started off" or "everyone was going"
his own city
This refers to the cities where people's ancestors lived. People may have lived in a different city. AT: "the city in which his ancestors lived" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
to be registered for the census
"to have their names written in the register" or "to be included in the official count"
translationWords
Caesar
decree
census
Rome
govern
Syria
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 2:1-7 Having described John’s birth, Luke gives a parallel…
2:1-7 Having described John’s birth, Luke gives a parallel account of Jesus’ birth, with emphasis on its lowliness. Although he was the glorious Messiah, Jesus entered the world in humble circumstances.
2:1 Caesar Augustus, whose given name was Octavian, ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to AD 14. Prior to his time, Rome was a republic ruled by a senate. The Roman senate gave Augustus supreme authority as emperor, and the republic became an empire. Augustus secured the empire’s borders and established the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”), a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean world. • A census registered the people for tax purposes.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.