വ്യാഖ്യാനം നിലവിൽ ഇംഗ്ലീഷിൽ മാത്രമേ ലഭ്യമാകൂ. മലയാള പരിഭാഷ പുരോഗമിക്കുകയാണ്.
Matthew 2 — Out of Egypt Have I Called My Son
Wise men come from the east to Jerusalem — where is he that is born King of the Jews? Herod, troubled, gathers the chief priests; Bethlehem is named from Micah. The star reappears; the magi worship and present gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Warned in a dream, they depart another way. Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt. Herod orders the slaughter of Bethlehem's infants — Rachel weeping for her children. After Herod's death the family returns and settles at Nazareth — He shall be called a Nazarene.
“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”
— Matthew 2:11
- v.1-12 The visit of the magi
- v.13-15 The flight into Egypt
- v.16-18 The slaughter of the innocents
- v.19-23 Return to Nazareth
Three gifts traditionally read as theological — gold for a King, frankincense for the Priest, myrrh for the One who would die. Even at infancy the future is encoded in the offerings.
Fell down, and worshipped him. The proper posture before Christ at any age — His or ours. Worship before gifts; the worship is itself the chief gift.
Out of Egypt have I called my son. Hosea 11:1, originally about Israel, applied to Christ. He recapitulates Israel's story — going down to Egypt, called out, tested in the wilderness — and succeeds where Israel failed.
Christ is the true Israel. The Old Testament patterns are not coincidental; they were always pointing to Him. Matthew's use of prophecy assumes a Bible woven around its central Person.
A reminder that the coming of Christ provoked the deepest evil. The same world that needed His salvation tried to kill Him at birth. The mothers of Bethlehem paid a price; the cross was the path through such valleys.
Rachel weeping... would not be comforted. The verse honors the irreducible weight of human grief. The Christmas story includes Bethlehem's tears. The same Christ would later weep at Lazarus's tomb.
The magi traveled because they knew the destination. The scribes knew the destination and stayed put. Bible knowledge that does not move toward Christ is the saddest religion in the chapter. If you have known the address of Bethlehem all your life and never gone, the chapter asks: what is the next step toward the One the scriptures point to?
Matthew 2 places Christ on the world's stage from infancy. Wise men from afar, a tyrant king, a sojourn in Egypt, weeping mothers — all of it staged so that the One who came was the King of the Jews and the desire of the nations, the true Israel called out of Egypt, the Saviour who would weep with mothers and bear their grief on a cross.
The magi — Gentiles from a distant land — come to worship the King of the Jews. The chief priests will quote the prophecy and not go to Bethlehem. The first to seek Christ are outsiders; the religious establishment knows the address and stays home.
Are come to worship him. They traveled far for what the locals would not walk two hours to see. The chapter's gentle rebuke to every nominal believer with the Bible on the shelf.