Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 2:5
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
5. by the prophet ] Lit. by means of, through the prophet is regarded as the instrument. In Mat 2:17 and Mat 3:3, some MSS. have the preposition signifying personal agency ( ), instead of the instrumental preposition ( ); but the usual formula is as in Mat 2:15, “by the Lord through the prophet.”
Bethlehem of Judea ] To distinguish this Bethlehem from the Bethlehem in the tribe of Zebulun (Jos 19:15).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
By the prophet – The Sanhedrin answered without hesitation. The question where he would be born had been settled by prophecy. This prophecy is found in Mic 5:2. In that prophecy both the place of his birth and the character of the Messiah are so clearly set forth that there was no room to doubt. It will be observed that there is a considerable difference between the passage as quoted by the Sanhedrin and as it stands in Micah. The main point, however, is retained – the place of his birth. We are not concerned, therefore, in showing how these passages can be reconciled. Matthew, moreover, is not responsible for the correctness of the quotation. He affirms only that the chief priests and scribes gave this answer to Herod, and that Herod was satisfied. Admitting that they did not quote the passage correctly, it does not prove that Matthew has not reported their answer as they gave it, and this is all that he pretends to give.
Art not the least – In Micah, though thou be little. Though a small place so far as population is concerned, yet it shall not be small, or be the least in honor; for the Messiah shall be born there. His birth gave the place an honor which could not be conferred on the larger cities by all their numbers, their splendor, and their wealth. The birth of a distinguished personage was always supposed to give honor and importance to a city or country. Thus, seven cities contended for the honor of giving birth to Homer; Stratford-upon-Avon is distinguished as the birthplace of Shakespeare; and Corsica as the birthplace of Napoleon.
A Governor – A ruler. This is one of the characters of the Messiah, who is the king of his people, Joh 18:37. The word rule here means to rule as a shepherd does his flock, in faithfulness and tenderness. Compare Joh 10:11; Isa 40:10-11; Isa 9:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet] As there have been several confused notions among the Jews, relative not only to the Messiah, and his character, but also to the time of his birth, it may be necessary to add, to what has already been said on this subject, the following extracts from the Talmudists and Gemarists, quoted by LIGHTFOOT. At the close of a long dissertation on the year of our Lord’s birth, (which he places in the 35th of the reign of Herod, not the last or 37th as above,) he says: “It will not be improper here to produce the Gemarists themselves openly confessing that the Messias had been born, a good while ago before their times. For so they write: After this the children of Israel shall be converted, and shall inquire after the Lord their God, and David their king: Ho 3:5. Our rabbins say, That is King Messias, If he be among the living, his name is David, or if dead, David is his name. R. Tanchum said, Thus I prove it: He showeth mercy to David his Messiah. (Ps 18:50.) R. Joshua ben Levi saith, His name is tsemach, a Branch. (Zec 3:8.) R. Juban bar Arbu saith, His name is Menahem. (That is, , the Comforter.) ‘And that which happened to a certain Jew, as he was ploughing, agreeth with this business. A certain Arabian travelling, and hearing the ox bellow, said to the Jew at plough, O Jew, loose thy oxen, and loose thy ploughs, for behold! The temple is laid waste. The ox belloweth the second time; the Arabian saith to him, O Jew, Jew, yoke thy oxen, and fit thy ploughs: For behold! King Messiah is born. But, saith the Jew, What is his name? Menahem, saith he (i.e. the Comforter.) And what is the name of his Father? Hezekiah, saith the Arabian. To whom the Jew, But whence is He? The other answered, From the palace of the king of Bethlehem Judah. Away he went, and sold his oxen and his ploughs, and became a seller of infants’ swaddling clothes, going about from town to town. When he came to that city, (Bethlehem,) all the women bought of him, but the mother of Menahem bought nothing. He heard the voice of the women saying, O thou mother of Menahem, thou mother of Menahem, carry thy son the things that are here sold. But she replied, May the enemies of Israel be strangled, because on the day that he was born, the temple was laid waste. To whom he said, But we hoped, that as it was laid waste at his feet, so at his feet it would be built again. She saith, I have no money. To whom he replied, But why should this be prejudicial to him? Carry him what you buy here, and if you have no money today, after some days I will come back and receive it. After some days, he returned to that city, and saith to her, How does the little infant? And she said, From the time you saw me last, spirits and tempests came, and snatched him away out of my hands. R. Bon saith, What need have we to learn from an Arabian? Is it not plainly written, And Lebanon shall fall before the powerful one? (Isa 10:34.) And what follows after? A branch shall come out of the root of Jesse. (Isa 11:1.)
“The Babylonian doctors yield us a confession not very unlike the former. R. Charinah saith: After four hundred years are passed from the destruction of the temple, if any one shall say to you, Take to thyself for one penny a field worth a thousand pence, do not take it. And again, After four thousand two hundred thirty and one years from the creation of the world, if any shall say to you, Take for a penny a field worth a thousand pence, take it not. The gloss is, For that is the time of redemption, and you shall be brought back to the holy mountain, to the inheritance of your fathers; why, therefore, should you misspend your penny?
“You may fetch the reason of this calculation, if you have leisure, out of the tract Sanhedrin. The tradition of the school of Elias, the world is to last six thousand years, c. And a little after, Elias said to Rabh Judah, The world shall last not less than eighty-five jubilees: and in the last jubilee shall the Son of David come. He saith to him, Whether in the beginning of it, or in the end? He answered him, I know not. Whether is this whole time to be finished first, or not? He answered him, I know not. But Rabh Asher asserted, that he answered thus, Until then, expect him not, but from thence expect him. Hear your own countrymen, O Jew! How many centuries of years are passed by and gone from the eighty-fifth jubilee of the world, that is, the year MMMMCCL, and yet the Messias of your expectation is not yet come!
“Daniel’s weeks had so clearly defined the time of the true Messias, his coming, that the minds of the whole nation were raised into the expectation of him. Hence, it was doubted of the Baptist, whether he were not the Messias, Lu 3:15. Hence it was, that the Jews are gathered together from all countries unto Jerusalem, Acts 2:, expecting and coming to see, because at that time the term of revealing the Messias, that had been prefixed by Daniel, was come. Hence it was that there was so great a number of false Christs, Mt 24:5, c., taking the occasion of their impostures hence, that now the time of that great expectation was at hand, and fulfilled: and in one word, They thought the kingdom of God should presently appear, Lu 19:11.
“But when those times of expectation were past, nor did such a Messias appear as they expected, (for when they saw the true Messias, they would not see him,) they first broke out into various, and those wild, conjectures of the time and at length, all those conjectures coming to nothing, all ended in this curse (the just cause of their eternal blindness) , May their soul be confounded who compute the times!” They were fully aware that the time foretold by the prophets must be long since fulfilled and that their obstinacy must be confounded by their own history, and the chronology of their own Scriptures; and therefore they have pronounced an anathema on those who shall attempt to examine, by chronological computations, the prophecies that predict his coming. Who can conceive a state of wilful blindness or determined obstinacy superior to this!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It was (as it seems) so received a tradition, and interpretation of Mic 5:2, that they gave him an answer without any hesitation, telling him he was to be born
in Bethlehem of Judea; this they confirm by the prophecy of the prophet Micah, Mic 5:2; so confirming the Son of the virgin Mary (at unawares) to be the Messiah from the testimony of the prophet Micah. The words in Micah something vary from those here mentioned; they are thus: But thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. We must know,
1. That the writers of the New Testament, in their quotations out of the Old Testament, ordinarily quote only so much of them as makes to their purpose, and not always in the very terms in which they are found in the Old Testament: but keeping to the sense.
2. That it is more than probable that the evangelist keeps to the words in which the priests and scribes delivered in their answer to the king, for in this relation he is but reciting their answer.
The sole question propounded to them was: What the place was, where the Messiah, according to their records, was to be born? They answer: In Bethlehem Judah: they prove their answer from the testimony of the prophet. If any object that the prophet calls it Bethlehem Ephratah, not Bethlehem Judah, the answer is, that it is in sense the same, for Bethlehem Ephratah was within the tribe of Judah. It should seem by Gen 35:19; 48:7 that it was formerly in Jacobs time called Ephrath. Some think that it was a town within Calebs portion, and called Ephratah from his second wife, whose name was Ephrath, or Ephratah, 1Ch 2:19,50, if it were not the same place, only fortified anew. We read of another Bethlehem in Judah builded by Rehoboam, 2Ch 11:6; whether it had this addition from its old name in Jacobs time, or from Calebs wife, or to distinguish it from Bethlehem belonging to the tribe of Zebulun, is hard to say: it is plain that that Bethlehem is meant, both by Micah and Matthew, which was in Judah; possibly in tract of time the addition Ephratah was lost.
But, say some, there is a contradiction between Micah and Matthew; Micah saith it was the least, Matthew saith it was not the least.
Answer: Here is no contradiction; consider Bethlehem itself, it was but a small city, (if it were in Calebs lot it is not named), but in other respects it was not the least. It was of old famous for Ibzan, one of the judges, for Elimelech, Boaz, Jesse, David; and now last of all for the birth of Christ, where respect to which the evangelist calls it not the least; or if he reciteth the scribes and priests words, they might call it not the least upon the account of Boaz, Jesse, and David, all which were born or dwelt there; and particularly with respect to Christ, who was born there. The prophet calls it the least with respect to its state in his time, the evangelist not the least with respect to its state then, its state being magnified by the birth of Christ. Micah saith among the thousands. Matthew,
among the princes. It is the same thing, for, Num 1:16, their princes were heads of thousands in Israel. The Jews would by no means have this text interpreted of Christ, but either of Zerubbabel or David: but as to Zerubbabel, he was born in Babylon, not in Bethlehem, and David was dead long before this prophecy; neither could the following words, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, agree to Zerubbabel or David: Zerubbabels name tells us where he was born, and we never read that Bethlehem was thus celebrated with reference to David, though he was born there, 1Sa 16:1; 17:58, upon which account it is called the city of David, Luk 2:4. The prophecy certainly related to Christ, and him only, and so is interpreted by the Chaldee paraphrast, who some think was one of this council called by Herod in this cause.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. And they said unto him, InBethlehem of Judeaa prompt and involuntary testimony from thehighest tribunal; which yet at length condemned Him to die.
for thus it is written by theprophet (Mic 5:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they said unto him,…. They answer without any hesitation, it being a generally received notion, and a thing well known among them,
in Bethlehem of Judea; and give their reason for it; for
thus it is written by the prophet, that is, the prophet Micah, in whose prophecy, Mic 5:2 it stands, and is as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And they said unto him ( ). Whether the ecclesiastics had to search their scriptures or not, they give the answer that is in accord with the common Jewish opinion that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem and of the seed of David (Joh 7:42). So they quote Mic 5:2, “a free paraphrase” Alford calls it, for it is not precisely like the Hebrew text or like the Septuagint. It may have come from a collection of testimonia with which J. Rendel Harris has made the world familiar. He had consulted the experts and now he has their answer. Bethlehem of Judah is the place. The use of the perfect passive indicative () is the common form in quoting scripture. It stands written.
Shall be shepherd (). The Authorized Version had “shall rule,” but “shepherd” is correct. “Homer calls kings ‘the shepherds of the people'” (Vincent). In Heb 13:20 Jesus is called “the great shepherd of the sheep.” Jesus calls himself “the good shepherd” (Joh 10:11). Peter calls Christ “the chief shepherd” (1Pe 2:25). “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd” (Re 7:17). Jesus told Peter to “shepherd” the lambs (Joh 21:16). Our word pastor means shepherd.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea” (hoi de eipan auto en Bethleem tes loudaias) “Then they told him, in Bethlehem of Judea” as certified Luk 2:1-10.
2) “For thus it is written by the prophets,” (houtos gar gegraptai dia tou prophetou) “For this is what has been written (foretold) through the prophet.” The particular prophetic reference is Mic 5:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(5) In Bethlehem of Juda.The words of the people in Joh. 7:42 show the same belief thirty years later. The Targum, or Jewish paraphrase, of Mic. 5:2, inserts the very words, Out of thee the Messiah shall come.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judaea, for thus it is written through the prophet,”
Whether they were able to answer almost immediately, or whether they had to go into in depth consultation we are not told, but if the latter we can be sure that they took a great deal of trouble about it. For Herod in this mood was not a man to be crossed. Eventually (or possibly even immediately, although if so they probably made the most of it) they were able to give him his answer. According to the prophet it would be in Bethlehem of Judaea. For that was what was written ‘through the prophet’ (in Mic 5:2 with a sprinkling of 2Sa 5:2). The citation is an amplified translation of combined texts, which may well be why he does not name ‘the prophet’. For such combined texts compare Mar 1:2-3. The version from which they were taken is not known to us, and it may have been Matthew’s (or the Scribes’) own paraphrase.
The verse in Micah comes in a context which is dealing with the days when God will finally establish His king in triumph over Jerusalem and the world, after the tribulations that they have been through. The idea is that then will arise the promised Davidic king. Bethlehem was the home of the house of David, and thus the king was seen as necessarily coming from Bethlehem, David’s home town. The thought is that small though Bethlehem might be, it had produced a great house (1Sa 16:4-13), the house that God had chosen, and the house through which He would establish His name. Thus as David had come forth from Bethlehem, so would the greater David.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 2:5. In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus, &c. For a full explanation of this passage we refer to the notes on Mic 5:2; Mic 5:15.; just observing, with Dr. Doddridge, that when this and several other quotations from the Old Testament, which we find in the New, come to be compared with the original, and even with the Septuagint, it will plainly appear that the apostles did nor think it necessary always to transcribe exactlythe passages they quoted, but sometimes contented themselves with giving the general sense, in some little diversity of language.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
It is very blessed to behold, how the Lord is causing both Jews and Gentiles to minister unto his dear Son. Let the Reader turn to Isa 60 , and observe how the Lord declared the Church’s glory in CHRIST; and compare what is there said with those Eastern sages worshipping Christ; and the Jewish chief priests and scribes bringing forward the prophecies of their scriptures concerning Him, whom afterwards they despised; and what testimonies by the way they become to the truth as it is in Jesus! If the Reader compares the passage from Micah with what is here said by the chief priests and scribes, he will perceive, that the quotation is not correct. But the difference is not great. And let it be remembered that it is not Matthew which quotes the passage from the Prophet, but the chief priests and scribes.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
Ver. 5. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem ] Lo, how readily and roundly, out of the Scriptures, they could answer to this capital question; giving such signs of the Messias as did evidently agree to Jesus Christ. Yet were they for their obstinace so infatuated, that when God showed them the man to whom their own signs agree, they cannot allow him. Unless the Lord give a mind as well as means, sight as well as light, and irradiate the organ as well as the object, we grope as blind men in the dark,Isa 59:10Isa 59:10 ; we err in heart, as not knowing God’s ways, yet cannot wander so wide as to miss hell: to original blindness we add actual stubbornness, Psa 95:8 , the devil holding his black hand (as it were) afore our eyes, that we may not see and be saved, Act 26:19 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 2:5-6 . The answer of the experts . , etc. This is not a Christian opinion put into the mouth of the scribes. It was the answer to be expected from them as reflecting the current opinion of the time. The Targum put upon the oracle in Micah a Messianic interpretation (Wetstein, and Wnsche, Beitrge ). Yet with the Talmudists the Messiah was the one who should come forth from a strange, unknown place (Weber, Die Lehren des Talmud , p. 342). Vide on this point Schanz, who quotes Schegg as denying the statement of Wetstein, and refers to Celsus as objecting that this view about Messiah’s birthplace was not current among the Jews. (Origen, c. Celsum , i. 51. Cf. Joh 7:27 ; Joh 7:42 .) , etc.: The Scripture proof that Messiah’s birth-place was Bethlehem is taken from Mic 5:2 . The oracle put into the mouth of the experts consulted by Herod receives its shape from the hand of the evangelist. It varies very considerably both from the original Hebrew and from the Sept [5] The “least” becomes “by no means the least,” “among the thousands” becomes “among the princes,” and the closing clause, “who shall rule my people Israel,’ departs from the prophetic oracle altogether, and borrows from 2Sa 5:2 , God’s promise to David; the connecting link apparently being the poetic word descriptive of the kingly function common to the two places in Mic 5:3 , in 2Sa 5:2 . The second variation arises from a different pointing of the same Hebrew word , = among the thousands, = among the heads of thousands. Such facts are to be taken as they stand. They do not correspond to modern ideas of Scripture proof.
[5] Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
written = standeth written. Not spoken, as in Mat 2:23. Quoted from Mic 6:2. See App-107.
by = by means of. Greek. dia. App-104. Mat 2:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 2:5. , Bethlehem) The knowledge which the scribes, who do not go themselves, have derived from their ancestors, is of service to the Magi, who are seeking for Christ.- , for thus it is written by the prophet) This reason was alleged by the council; but St Matthew has stamped it with his approval.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gen 35:19, Jos 19:15, Rth 1:1, Rth 1:19, Rth 2:4, Rth 4:11, 1Sa 16:1
Reciprocal: Jdg 17:7 – General 2Ch 11:6 – Bethlehem 2Ch 15:3 – a teaching Mat 2:1 – Bethlehem Mat 21:13 – It is Mat 27:9 – Jeremy Mar 1:2 – written Joh 7:27 – no man Joh 7:42 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2:5
Verse 5. Concordances and other works of reference were not in use at the time of this history,. but the scribes were familiar with the scriptures from having to copy them so often. It is not much wonder then that they could give Herod the information.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 2:5. For. They speak of the prophetic declaration as decisive.
It is written. It has been written and still remains on record.
By (literally, through) the prophet (Mic 5:1-2). As the prophecy was well known the name is not given.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 5
The prophet. (Micah 5:2.) Quotations from the Old Testament, in the New, give the sense, but not exactly the words, of the original.