out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2 [a P And] this a taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into

b

b1 Sam. xvi. 1, Judæa, unto the city of David,

which is called Beth

4. John vii.

house and lineage of his espoused [rr wife],

lehem ; lehem; because he was of the David: 5 to be taxed with Mary being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, • render, enrolled.

e Matt. i. 25.

q render, enrolment.

a Acts v. $7.

c Matt. 1. 16.

ch. i. 27.

d Matt. i. 18. ch. i. 27.

:

Pomit not in the original.
rrender, enroll himself.
rr omit.

-or that the first did so, and this was subsequent to it. Now both of these senses till recently seemed to be inadmissible. For Quirinus was not known to have been governor of Syria till the year of Rome 758, after the banishment of Archelaus, and the addition of his territory to the province of Syria. And the birth of our Lord occurred at least eight years before this, previous to Herod's death, and when Sentius Saturninus was governor of Syria. But it has been made highly probable, by A. W. Zumpt of Berlin, that Quirinus was TWICE governor of Syria. The substance of his researches is given at length in the note in my Greek Testament. The result of it is, that Zumpt fixes the time of his first governorship at from B.C. 4 to B.C. 1. It is true this does not quite remove our difficulty. But it brings it within such narrow limits, that any slight error in calculation, or even the latitude allowed by the words was first made might well cover it. I may mention it as remarkable, that Justin Martyr (Century 2) three times distinctly asserts that our Lord was born under Quirinus, and appeals to the register then made, as if from it the fact might, if necessary, be confirmed.

We conclude then, that an assessment or enrolment of names with a view to ascertain the population of the empire, was commanded and put in force at this time. It was unaccompanied (probably) by any payment of money. We know that Augustus drew up an account or summary of the whole empire, which took many years to arrange and complete, and of which the enrolment of the inhabitants of the provinces would naturally form a part. Of the data for this compilation, the enrolment in our text might be one. That Judæa was

not a Roman province at this time, is no objection to our text; for the compilation of Augustus contained the "kingdoms" of the Roman empire, as well as the provinces.

3-5.] There is a mixture here of Roman and Jewish customs, which is not at all improbable, considering the circumstances. In the Roman census, men, women, and children were all obliged to go and be enrolled. But then this census was made at their dwelling-place, not at that of their extraction. The latter practice springs from the Jewish genealogical habits, and its adoption in this case speaks strongly for the accuracy of the chronology. If this enrolment was by order of Augustus, and for the whole empire, it of course would be made so as to include all, after the Roman manner: but inasmuch as it was made under the Jewish king Herod, it was done after the Jewish manner, in taking this account of each at his own place of extraction. Mary being apparently herself sprung from the lineage of David (see ch. i. 32), might on this account go to Bethlehem, being, as some suppose, an inheritress; but this does not seem to be the Evangelist's meaning, but that, after the Roman manner, she accompanied her husband. No stress must be laid on espoused, as if she were only the betrothed wife of Joseph at this time; she had been taken to his house before this: the history in our text happening during the time indicated by Matt. i. 25. 7.] Now that "firstborn" has disappeared from the text of St. Matthew (i. 25), it must be here remarked, that although the term may undoubtedly be used of an only child, such use is necessarily always connected with the expectation of others to follow, and can

S

f ch. i. 12.
g Gen. xii. 3.
Matt. xxviii.

19

Mark i.

15. ver. 31, 32. ch. xxiv.

col. 1. 23.

h Isa. ix. 6.

and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And [ss lo]t the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 f And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 8 which shall be to a all people. 11 h For unto you is born Matt. 1. 21. this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christi 16. the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, vv lying in manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 141 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, S or, keeping the watches of the night over their flock. t render, an. a render, all the people. ▾▾ read, and lying.

k Matt. i. 16:

k

i. 43.

Acti

x. 36. Phil. ii. 11.

a

m

ss omit.
▾ render, a babe.

no longer have place when the whole
course of events is before the writer and
no others have followed. The combina-
tion of this consideration with the fact,
that brethren of our Lord are brought
forward in this Gospel in close connexion
with His mother, makes it as certain as
any implied fact can be, that those brethren
were the children of Mary herself.
Ancient tradition states the birthplace of
our Lord to have been a cave: and this
tradition is nowise inconsistent with our
text-for caves are used in most rocky
countries as stables.
the inn] i. e. a
public place of reception for travellers;
not a room in a private house.' Of what
sort this inn was, does not appear. It
probably differs from that mentioned in
ch. x. 34, in not being kept by an host:
see note there.
8.] Mr. Greswell
has made it highly probable that our Lord
was born on the evening of (i. e. which
began) the 5th of April, the 10th of the
Jewish Nisan : on which same day of
April, and the 14th of Nisan, He suffered
thirty-three years after. Before this time
there would be abundance of grass in the
pastures-the spring rains being over:
but much after it, and till after the
autumnal equinox again, the pastures
would be comparatively bare: see note on
John vi. 10. 9.] the glory of the Lord
-the brightness of God's presence - the
Shechinah (see reff.) which also accom-
panied His angels when they appeared to
men. It is agreeable at least to the ana-

1ch. xix. 38.

Eph. i. 6: iii. 10, 21. Rev. v. 13. m Isa. lvii. 19. ch. i. 79. Rom. v. 1. Eph. ii.

Col. i.

10.

•

logy of the divine dealings, to suppose
that these shepherds, like Symeon, were
waiting for the consolation of Israel.
10, 11] to all THE people, - i. e.
the Jewish people. To them was the first
message of joy, before the bursting in of
the Gentiles-just as here the one angel
gives the prefatory announcement, before
the multitude of the heavenly host burst
in with their proclamation of peace on
earth.' Christ the Lord] This is the
only place where these words come to-
gether. In ch. xxiii. 2 we have "Christ a
King," and in Acts ii. 36 "Lord and
King." (In Col. iii. 24 we have, in a
somewhat different meaning [said to ser-
vants], "ye serve the Lord Christ.")
And I see no way of understanding this
Lord, but as corresponding to the Hebrew
JEHOVAH.
12.] Olshausen hazards
a conjecture, that the stable or cave may
possibly have belonged to these shepherds.
But I think the words even unto, or as
far as to Bethlehem, ver. 15, do not look
as if Bethlehem were their home. It
seems clear that the spot was somehow
known to them by the angel's description.
Not "the babe," as A. V.;-the
angel, in giving the sign, generalizes the
term: they were to know the truth of his
words, by finding a child wrapped in
swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
14.] It has been disputed whether
Glory to God means There is, or Let there
be, glory to God. But there can be no
doubt that the sense of both these is

n Gen. xxxvii. W n good will toward men.

11. ch. i. 66.

ver. 51.

o Gen. xvii. 12.
Lev. xii. 3
ch. i. 59

p Matt. i. 21,

25. ch. i. 31.

15 And it came to pass, I as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, 7 the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they a made known [aa abroad] b the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

q Lev. xii. 2, 3, 4, 6.

22 And when the days of g her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to I i.e. when.

W read, among men of good pleasure: see note.

I many ancient authorities read, the men the shepherds.
Z render, this word.

a render, the. brender, concerning the saying.

d render, pondering.

e read, him.

render, called by.

g read, their, with most of the ancient authorities: one has his; but not one has, "her."

included.
among men of good
pleasure] This reading is found in the
greater part of the ancient authorities and
Fathers, including the Alexandrine, Vati-
can, and Sinaitic MSS. It does not mean,
as the Roman Catholic interpreters gene-
rally explain it, "men of good will,"-
"those that like it," which would be un-
tenable in Greek as well as in theology. The
only admissible rendering is, 'Among men
of God's good pleasure,' i. e. among the
elect people of God. 19.] kept, in
her memory.
words, viz. those
spoken by the shepherds.

21.] HIS CIRCUMCISION. The Lord was made like unto His brethren (Heb. ii. 17; iv. 15) in all weakness and bodily infirmity, from which legal uncleannesses arose. The body which He took on Him, though not a body of sin, was mortal, subject to the consequence of sin, -in the likeness of sinful flesh: but incorruptible by the indwelling of the

aa omit.

C render, words.

f

Godhead (1 Pet. iii. 18). In the fulfilment therefore of His great work of redemption, He became subject to legal rites and purifications-not that they were absolutely necessary for Him, but were included in those things which were becoming for Him, in His humiliation and 'making perfect:' and in His lifting up of that human nature, for which all these things were absolutely necessary (Gen. xvii. 14), into the Godhead.

22-38.] THE PURIFICATION IN THE TEMPLE. SYMEON AND ANNA RECOGNIZE AND PROPHESY OF HIM. 22.] See Lev. xii. 1-8, where however the child is not, as here, expressly included in the purification. The reading his is remarkable, and hardly likely to have been a correction: "her," adopted by the A.V., is almost without authority, and is a manifest correction. Bengel denies that either the Lord or His mother wanted purification; and mentions that

r

xxii. 29: XXXIV. 19. Num. iii. 13: viii. 17: xviii.

15

s Lev. xii. 2, 6,

8.

t

Mark xv. 43. ver. 38.

48. Heb. xi.

Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; 23 as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the Exod. xii. 2: womb shall be called holy to the Lord; 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Symeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting t Isa. xl. 1. for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him; 26 and it h was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not "see death, before he had seen u Ps. lxxxix. the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28 then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30 for mine eyes * have seen thy salvation, 31 which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 32 a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. 33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken 1 of him. i literally, in.

v Matt, iv. 1.

W

h

render, had been.

k read, his father and mother, as most of the ancient authorities, and the express testimony of Origen.

render for perspicuity, concerning.

•

some render their of the Jews,' but does
not approve of it (John ii. 6 is certainly no
case in point). See the last note, on the
necessity of purification for both.

23.] God had taken the tribe of Levi
instead of the firstborn that openeth the
womb, Num. iii. 12, and required only the
excess in number of the firstborn over the
Levites to be redeemed (ib. vv. 44—51).
This arrangement appears afterwards to
have been superseded by a general com-
mand to redeem all the firstborn at five
shekels of the sanctuary (Num. xviii. 15,
16).
24.] The offering (ref. Lev.)
was, a lamb for a burnt-offering, and a
pigeon for a sin-offering: but if the
parties were too poor to bring a lamb,
then two pigeons. But we are not hereby
justified in assuming extreme poverty to
have been the condition of our Lord's
family. This no where appears from the
Gospel history.
25.] It appears
that this Symeon might have been Symeon
the son of Hillel,-and father of Gamaliel,
mentioned in Acts v. 34 ff. But we have
no means of ascertaining this.
the
consolation of Israel] See Acts xxviii. 20.
VOL. I.

w Gen. xlvi. 30.

Phil. 1. 23.

Isa. lii. 10.

ch. iii. 6.

Ix. 2:

6: xlix. 6: lx. 1,

23 Matt. 47

iv. 16. Acts

xxviii. 28.

It was a common form of adjuration
among the Jews, " So may I see consola-
tion, if &c." referring to Isa. xl. 1.

On the general expectation of deliverance
at this time see on Matt. ii. 1 ff.
26.] Of the nature of this intimation,
nothing is said. Symeon was the subject
of an especial indwelling and leading of
the Holy Ghost, analogous to that higher
form of the spiritual life expressed in the
earliest days by walking with God-and
according to which God's saints have often
been directed and informed in an extra-
ordinary manner by His Holy Spirit. In
the power of this intimation, and in the
spirit of prophecy consequent on it, he
came into the Temple on this occasion.
29.] lettest thou depart, not from
life, or out of the earth,-but as being thy
servant, he thinks of his death as the ter-
mination of, and so dismissal from, his ser-
vitude. 32.] See Isa. xlix. 6. The
general term of the last verse,- all the
peoples (so literally), is here divided into
two, the Gentiles, and Israel.
his father] In ver. 48 we have Joseph
again called by this name. Our Lord

33.

X

34 And Symeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be 23. 24. 2 Cor. spoken against; yea, ba sword shall pierce through thy

a

33. 1 Cor. i.

35

ii. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8.

a Acts xxviii.

22.

own soul also; that m the thoughts of many hearts may be b Ps. xlii. 10. revealed. revealed. 36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was " of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; 37 and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served [ God] with fastings and prayers

e Acts xxvi. 7. night and day. 38 And she P coming in that instant gave

с

1 Tim. v. 5.

thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all

z Isa. vili. 14

Hos. xiv. 9.
Matt xxi. 44.

Rom.

& Mark xv. 43. them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

ver. 25. ch.

xxiv. 21.

39 And when they had performed all things according

m render, reasonings out of many hearts.
n literally, far advanced in many days.

• omit: not in the original.

P render, coming in at the same hour.

6

Himself would not speak of him thus, see ver. 49; but in the simplicity of the narrative we may read his parents, and such expressions, without any danger of forgetting the momentous history of the Conception and Nativity. 34.] fall, as a stone of stumbling and rock of offence (see references), at which they should fall through unbelief. rising again, -or, rising up-in the sense of ch. i. 52-by faith and holiness; or, the fall and rising up may refer to the same persons; as it is said by our Lord, He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' I prefer this last interpretation, as cohering best with the next verse: see note on it. 35.] This prophecy I do not believe to have its chief reference to the deep sorrows of the mother of our Lord on beholding His sufferings, much less to her future death by martyrdom; least of all to the Crucifixion, which by shedding the blood of her Son, would also pierce her heart and drain it of its life-blood and make it childless. None of these interpretations satisfy us for the words stand in a totally different connexion, and one far worthier of the honour of that holy woman, and of the spiritual character of Symeon's prophecy: that prophecy is, of the struggle of many in Israel through repentance to faith in this Saviour; among which number even His mother herself was to be included. The sharp pangs of

I read, God.

sorrow for sin must pierce her heart also (cf. esp. Acts ii. 37); and the general end follows; that reasonings out of many hearts may be revealed; that they who receive the Lord Jesus may be manifest, and they who reject Him: see John ix. 39. We may find moreover, in the traces of her connexion with our Lord in the Evangelic history, the piercing and dividing of her soul, and in the last notice of her in Acts i., the triumph of her faith after the Ascension. 37. fastings and prayers] Not merely in the ordinary hours of prayer, at nine, and three, or the ordinary fasts on Monday and Thursday, but in an asceticdevotional method of life. night is said to be put first, because fasts were reckoned from one evening to another. Is it not rather because the greater solemnity and emphasis rests on the religious exercise by night? 38.] It was possibly at the hour of prayer; as she spoke of Him to numbers, who would at such a time be flocking to the temple.

39, 40.] RETURN TO NAZARETH. 39.] Certainly the obvious inference from this verse is, that Joseph and Mary returned from Jerusalem to Nazareth direct. But it is only an inference, and not the assertion of the text. This part of the Gospel History is one where the Harmonists, by their arbitrary reconcilements of the two Evangelistic accounts, have given great advantage to the enemies of the