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Matthew's Birth Narrative - 6 Pieces that Explain it All

 

Matthew's birth narrative is...

2 Parts History

• Historical leader King Herod**
• Historical controversy: Jesus coming from Nazareth / Messiah expected to come from Betheleham****

3 Parts Israel's early history with Egypt

• Joseph (who took Isreal into Egypt)
  
  • 1A. Took the family of Israel into Egypt because of threat on family's survival** / from famine (Genesis)
  • 1B. Joseph (father of Jesus) takes family into Egypt because of threat on child's life / because of murderous ruler Herod (see Moses life parallels below - for second part here)
  • 2A. Joseph was man of dreams.  His dreams that symbolically / divinely predicted his future greatness took him into Egypt (given his brothers jealous reaction) with his first fall from grace.  His ability to interpret the divine / symbolic meaning of the dreams of others lead to his coming to power in Egypt after his second fall from grace.  His overall story is defined by what God communicates through dreams.
  • 2B. Joseph (father of Jesus) only acts in response to divine messages in his dreams.  He takes four actions in the birth narrative - marrying Mary despite her pre-marital pregnancy*, moving the family to Egypt**, moving the family back from Egypt***, moving the family to Nazareth instead of back to Betheleham****.
  • 3A. Joseph is the son of Jacob.
  • 3B. Joseph (Jesus' father) is also the son of Jacob (Joseph's father is named differently in Luke's nativity and also reflects Luke's apparent Old Testament sources.)

• Moses (who lead Israel out of Egypt)
  
  • His life was threatened as a baby because of the murderous Pharoah's killing all the young male Jews/Israelites.
  • Jesus life is threatened as a baby becuase of the murderous Herod's killing all the young male Jews (Something no other historical document - even the Jewish Josephus that otherwise critcises Herod's acts as ruler - mentions this event).
  • Moses after a threat against his life as an adult ends is called back from where he has escaped / moved to: God says - "Come back to the land of Egypt, for all those who sought your life are dead." (paraphrase)***.
  • God commands Joseph move Jesus / the family back from Egypt where they escaped to in a dream saying: "Come back for all those who sought the child's life are dead."
  • The Old Testament talks about Moses leading Israel out of the land of Egypt in Hosea with the words, "When Israel was a child, I loved him.  And out of Egypt I called my son." (paraphrase.)
  • When Joseph (father of Jesus) takes the family back out of Egypt in Matthew's birth narrative, Matthew quotes the second half of the verse in Hosea above.
• Prophecy of Balaam (Prophecy about David / first in the messianic line - during the time of Israel under the leadership of Moses after leaving Egypt)
  • Balaam prophecies about David speaking of a star that will come out of Jacob.
  • When Jesus is born as the messiah / successor to David, he is born under a large bright star (which Christians associate with this prophecy of Balaam from Numbers 24:17)
  • Balaam is a foreign traveler / non-Israelite who in the contemporary (to the gospels) writigns of Philo is called "a magi" (greek word used)
  • When Jesus is born under the star of David, foreign traveling magi come and visit him.
  • A passage in Isaiah speaks of foreign travelers bringing Gold and Frankincense.
  • When Jesus is born under the star, the foreign traveling magi bring him Gold and Frankincense (as well as Myrr - which cane be understood as specifically associated with Egypt direclty.)

1 Parts Isaiah 7:14

• Isaiah 7:14 in its Greek translation speaks of a young virgin being with child
• Matthew tells us that Jesus is born to Mary as a Virgin*
• Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the young woman will give the child the name Immanuel
• Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 but changes it to say that "they" instead of "she" will give the child his name - fitting Matthew's having Joseph be a part of the naming of Jesus in response to the command in the dream (And fitting Matthew's overall echoing of the Israel to Egypt story having Joseph be his primary parent / protagonist and someone who always acts in response to dreams.)

 

 

*The first dream of Joseph is commanding him to Marry Mary despite her being pregnant because it was God and not her being promicuous.

**The second dream of Joseph involves him being commanded to move the family to Egypt to escape the murderous threat of Herod that echoes the murderous threat of Pharoah against Moses as a baby.

***The third dream of Joseph involves God telling Joseph "to move back for all who have sought the life of the child are dead" echoing God's calling Moses to move back to Egypt because all those who sought his life are dead.

****The fourth dream of Joseph involves God telling Joseph to move the child to Nazarath instead of Egypt because the child's life would still be threatened in Egypt (huh?) - addressing the historical controversy over Jesus being known to come from Nazareth while the Messiah was suppose to be born in Betheleham (as David himself was.)

Luke's Nativity and Genesis (Part 1)

Lately I've been doing my best to construct an explanation of the relationship between Luke's birth narrative and the stories of the Patriarchs found in Genesis.

There are basically three things about this relationship that I believe everyone deeply interested in the New Testament should come to grasps with; and they are as follows:

(1) There is virtually nothing that happens in Luke's birth narrative that does not involve a parallel (or echo) of the Patriarchal stories in Genesis.

Please note that I am decidedly not saying that every single thing that happens in Luke's birth narrative is in and of itself in parallel to some facet of the patriarchal stories in Genesis.  But rather, I am saying that at a basic level, each thing that happens in Luke's birth narrative includes - or involves - at least one parallel (or echo) from the Patriarchal stories in Genesis (and often more than one).

Therefore it is central to my task to explain how parallels/echoes from the Patriarchal stories in Genesis appear each and every step of the way across Luke's birth narrative.

(2) There are some clear patterns or trends to how the five basic sections of Luke's birth narrative involve these echoes of the patriarchal stories in Genesis.  Mainly three patterns worth noting - and as so stated:

P1) All the content in parallel to the Patriarchal stories in Genesis that is to be found in the two sections of Luke's birth narrative that are specifically / exclusively about the story of John and his parents (sections 1 and 4) are in parallel to (or in echo of) the story of Abraham and Sarah in particular; that is but for one single exception; and this one exception is readily textually explainable to that end.

P2) Some of the echoes of the story of Abraham and Sarah seen in the story of John and his parents in sections 1 and 4 of Luke's birth narrative ("P1") are repeated in the corresponding sections of the story of Jesus (sections 2 and 5) in Luke's birth narrative (with specifically three of the related five Abraham/Sarah echoes in section 1 repeating in section 2 and two of the related four Abraham/Sarah echoes in section 4 repeating in section 5.)

P3) All of the dozen or so echoes from Genesis in section 5 of Luke's birth narrative, the second of the two sections in Luke's birth narrative that are specifically/exclusively about the story of Jesus and his parents, are echoes of the life of Jacob with but one exception (other than the two repeat echoes of the Abraham and Sarah story from section 4 mentioned above, which are not counted in the "dozen or so echoes" mentioned here.)  And that exception is another echo from the life of Abraham which itself appears in section 5 of Luke's narrative right along side - or rather intertwined with - one of the many echoes of the life of Jacob found in this section.

Therefore it is central to my task to explain or demonstrate how the content in Luke's birth narrative echoing the Patriarchal stories in Genesis does so along the lines of these three patterns or trends.

(3) Two of the parallels or echoes from the patriarchal stories in Genesis appearing in Luke's birth narrative can be understood to meaningfully relate to - or even largely explain - the basic structure of Luke's birth narrative as a whole. 

E1.) The most important echo of Genesis in section three of Luke's birth narrative (the only of the five basic sections in Luke's birth narrative that brings together the stories of John and Jesus simultaneously), can explain the story of John coming before the story of Jesus in Luke's birth narrative as a whole (section 1 coming before section 2 - and section 4 coming before section 5 respectively) as well as explain the placement of section 3 following sections 1 and 2 (given it requires the full context of both to have its full meaning.)

(Moreover, this Patriarchal story detail  may potentially even have been the inspiration for Luke's dual birth narrative structure in the first place - if all this should lead to conclusion that Luke most probably used Genesis directly in constructing it.)

E2.) The three-part form of the promise of Isaac in the story of Abraham and Sarah that's echoed for both John and Jesus in sections 1 and 2 of Luke's birth narrative can be understood to structurally relate to both sections 4 and 5 to the degree that there is distinct content in every part of sections 4 and 5 that somehow speaks to the fulfillment of one of the three facets of the form of the promise of each child (John/Jesus) in parallel to the promise of Isaac in sections 1 and 2. 

Further, in the promise's fulfillment for both John/Jesus, Luke's birth narrative also partially follows the original promise's fulfillment in the early life of Isaac in Genesis 21 (more so for John than for Jesus, per patterns "P1" and "P2") - while also including other content speaking to the fulfillment of one or more facets of the three-part promise for each child independent of the Abraham and Isaac story (Especially so in Jesus case, for example, where this other content that nevertheless speaks to a facet of the original promise of the child - most often involves Genesis parallels from the life of Jacob in particular - or "P3".)

It's therefore key to my task to explain how these two parallels in particular can be understood to relate to the overall structure of Luke's birth narrative and the ordering of - and the contents within - its basic five parts.

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To be continued...

5 Great Live Artists

A list of 5 artists/bands I've really enjoyed seeing perform in the last year or so.

1) Phantogram

 

 

2) Deftones

 

 

3) Pretty Lights

 

 

 4) Darwin Deez

  

 

5) Underoath

 

 

Poladroid - Great App for Photography

I discovered this great App called Poladroid last night - which transforms your photos into polaroid style photos - like this:

I decided to feed a few images through the App and ended up with a Pinterest Board full.

You can download the App here for FREE. 

It's available for both the Mac and PC now.

Enjoy!