Luke 2

Lu 2:1-7.

BIRTH OF

CHRIST.

1. Cæsar Augustus--the first of the Roman emperors.

all the world--so the vast Roman Empire was termed.

taxed--enrolled, or register themselves.

2. 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

Ac 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; 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.

3. went . . . to his own city--the city of his

extraction, according to the Jewish custom, not of his

abode, which was the usual Roman method.

4, 5. Not only does Joseph, who was of the royal line, go to

Bethlehem

(1Sa 16:1),

but Mary too--not from choice surely in her condition, but, probably,

for personal enrollment, as herself an heiress.

5. espoused wife--now, without doubt, taken home to him, as related

in

Mt 1:18; 25:6.

6. while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should

be delivered--Mary had up to this time been living at the wrong place

for Messiah's birth. A little longer stay at Nazareth, and the prophecy

would have failed. But lo! with no intention certainly on her part, much

less of Cæsar Augustus, to fulfil the prophecy, she is brought from

Nazareth to Bethlehem, and at that nick of time her period arrives, and

her Babe is born

(Ps 118:23).

"Every creature walks blindfold; only He that dwells in light knows

whether they go" [BISHOP HALL].

7. first-born--So

Mt 1:25;

yet the law, in speaking of the first-born, regardeth not whether any

were born after or no, but only that none were born

before [LIGHTFOOT].

wrapt him . . . laid him--The mother herself did so. Had she then none

to help her? It would seem so

(2Co 8:9).

a manger--the manger, the bench to which the horses' heads were tied,

on which their food could rest [WEBSTER and

WILKINSON].

no room in the inn--a square erection, open inside, where travellers

put up, and whose rear parts were used as stables. The ancient

tradition, that our Lord was born in a grotto or cave, is quite

consistent with this, the country being rocky. In Mary's condition the

journey would be a slow one, and ere they arrived, the inn would be

fully occupied--affecting anticipation of the reception He was

throughout to meet with

(Joh 1:11).

Wrapt in His swaddling--bands,

And in His manger laid,

The hope and glory of all lands

Is come to the world's aid.

No peaceful home upon His cradle smiled,

Guests rudely went and came where slept the royal Child.

KEBLE

But some "guests went and came" not "rudely," but reverently. God

sent visitors of His own to pay court to the new-born King.

Lu 2:8-20.

ANGELIC

ANNUNCIATION TO THE

SHEPHERDS--THEIR

VISIT TO THE

NEWBORN

BABE.

8. abiding in the fields--staying there, probably in huts or tents.

watch . . . by night--or, night watches, taking their turn of watching.

From about passover time in April until autumn, the flocks pastured

constantly in the open fields, the shepherds lodging there all that

time. (From this it seems plain that the period of the year usually

assigned to our Lord's birth is too late). Were these shepherds chosen

to have the first sight of the blessed Babe without any respect of their

own state of mind? That, at least, is not God's way. "No doubt, like

Simeon

(Lu 2:25),

they were among the waiters for the Consolation of Israel" [OLSHAUSEN]; and, if the simplicity of their rustic minds,

their quiet occupation, the stillness of the midnight hours, and the

amplitude of the deep blue vault above them for the heavenly music

which was to fill their ear, pointed them out as fit recipients for the

first tidings of an Infant Saviour, the congenial meditations and

conversations by which, we may suppose, they would beguile the tedious

hours would perfect their preparation for the unexpected visit. Thus

was Nathanael engaged, all alone but not unseen, under the fig tree, in

unconscious preparation for his first interview with Jesus. (See on

Joh 1:48).

So was the rapt seer on his lonely rock "in the spirit on the Lord's

Day," little thinking that this was his preparation for hearing behind

him the trumpet voice of the Son of man

(Re 1:10,

&c.). But if the shepherds in His immediate neighborhood had the

first, the sages from afar had the next sight of the

new-born King. Even so still, simplicity first, science next, finds its

way to Christ, whom

In quiet ever and in shade

Shepherds and Sage may find--

They, who have bowed untaught to Nature's sway,

And they, who follow Truth along her star-pav'd way.

KEBLE

9. glory of the Lord--"the brightness or glory which is represented

as encompassing all heavenly visions" [OLSHAUSEN].

sore afraid--So it ever was

(Da 10:7, 8;

Lu 1:12;

Re 1:17).

Men have never felt easy with the invisible world laid suddenly open to

their gaze. It was never meant to be permanent; a momentary purpose was

all it was intended to serve.

10. to all people--"to the whole people," that is, of Israel; to

be by them afterwards opened up to the whole world. (See on

Lu 2:14).

11. unto you is born--you shepherds, Israel, mankind

[BENGEL]. Compare

Isa 9:6,

"Unto us a Child is born." It is a birth--"The Word is made

flesh"

(Joh 1:14).

When? "This day." Where? "In the city of David"--in the

right line and at the right "spot"; where prophecy bade us look

for Him, and faith accordingly expected Him. How dear to us should be

these historic moorings of our faith! With the loss of them, all

substantial Christianity is lost. By means of them how many have been

kept from making shipwreck, and attained to a certain external

admiration of Him, ere yet they have fully "beheld His glory."

a Saviour--not One who shall be a Saviour, but

"born a Saviour."

Christ the Lord--"magnificent appellation!"

[BENGEL]. "This is the

only place where these words come together; and I see no way of

understanding this "Lord" but as corresponding to the Hebrew

JEHOVAH"

[ALFORD].

12. a sign--"the sign."

the babe--"a Babe."

a manger--"the manger." The sign was to consist, it seems, solely in

the overpowering contrast between the things just said of Him and

the lowly condition in which they would find Him--Him whose goings forth

have been from of old, from everlasting, "ye shall find a Babe"; whom

the heaven of heavens cannot contain, "wrapt in swaddling bands"; the

"Saviour, Christ the Lord," lying in a manger! Thus early were these

amazing contrasts, which are His chosen style, held forth.

(See

2Co 8:9.)

13. suddenly--as if only waiting till their fellow had done.

with the angel--who retires not, but is joined by others, come to

seal and to celebrate the tidings he has brought.

heavenly host--or "army," an army celebrating peace!

[BENGEL]

"transferring the occupation of their exalted station to this poor

earth, which so seldom resounds with the pure praise of God"

[OLSHAUSEN]; to let it be known how this event is regarded

in heaven and should be regarded on earth.

14. Glory, &c.--brief but transporting hymn--not only in articulate

human speech, for our benefit, but in tunable measure, in the form of a

Hebrew parallelism of two complete clauses, and a third one only

amplifying the second, and so without a connecting "and." The

"glory to God," which the new-born "Saviour" was to bring, is the

first note of this sublime hymn: to this answers, in the second clause,

the "peace on earth," of which He was to be "the Prince"

(Isa 9:6)

--probably sung responsively by the celestial choir; while quickly

follows the glad echo of this note, probably by a third detachment of

the angelic choristers--"good will to men." "They say not, glory

to God in heaven, where angels are, but, using a rare

expression, "in the highest [heavens]," whither angels aspire

not,"

(Heb 1:3, 4)

[BENGEL]. "Peace" with God is the grand necessity

of a fallen world. To bring in this, and all other peace in its train,

was the prime errand of the Saviour to this earth, and, along with it,

Heaven's whole "good will to men"--the divine complacency on a new

footing--descends to rest upon men, as upon the Son Himself, in whom

God is "well-pleased."

(Mt 3:17,

the same word as here.)

15. Let us go, &c.--lovely simplicity of devoutness and faith this!

They are not taken up with the angels, the glory that invested them, and

the lofty strains with which they filled the air. Nor do they say, Let

us go and see if this be true--they have no misgivings. But "Let us

go and see this thing which is come to pass, which

the Lord hath made known unto us." Does not this confirm the view

given on

Lu 2:8

of the spirit of these humble men?

16. with haste--Compare

Lu 1:39;

Mt 28:8

("did run");

Joh 4:28

("left her water-pot," as they do their flocks, in a transport).

found Mary, &c.--"mysteriously guided by the Spirit to the right

place through the obscurity of the night" [OLSHAUSEN].

a manger--"the manger," as before.

17. made known abroad--before their return

(Lu 2:20),

and thus were the first evangelists [BENGEL].

20. glorifying and praising God, &c.--The latter word, used of the

song of the angels

(Lu 2:13),

and in

Lu 19:37,

and Lu 24:53,

leads us to suppose that theirs was a song too, probably some canticle

from the Psalter--meet vehicle for the swelling emotions of their

simple hearts at what "they had heard and seen."

Lu 2:21.

CIRCUMCISION OF

CHRIST.

Here only recorded, and even here merely alluded to, for the sake of the

name then given to the holy Babe, "JESUS," or

SAVIOUR

(Mt 1:21;

Ac 13:23).

Yet in this naming of Him "Saviour," in the act of circumcising Him,

which was a symbolical and bloody removal of the body of sin, we have a

tacit intimation that they "had need"--as John said of His

Baptism--rather to be circumcised by Him "with the circumcision made

without hands, in the putting off of the body [of the sins] of the

flesh by the circumcision of Christ"

(Col 2:11),

and that He only "suffered it to be so, because thus it became Him to

fulfil all righteousness"

(Mt 3:15).

Still the circumcision of Christ had a profound bearing on His own

work--by few rightly apprehended. For since "he that is circumcised is

a debtor to do the whole law"

(Ga 5:3),

Jesus thus bore about with Him in His very flesh the seal of a

voluntary obligation to do the whole law--by Him only possible in the

flesh since the fall. And as He was "made under the law" for no ends of

His own, but only "to redeem them that were under the law, that

we might receive the adoption of sons"

(Ga 4:4, 5),

the obedience to which His circumcision pledged Him was a redeeming

obedience--that of a "Saviour." And, finally, as "Christ hath

redeemed us from the curse of the law" by "being made a curse

for us"

(Ga 3:13),

we must regard Him, in His circumcision, as brought under a palpable

pledge to be "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"

(Php 2:8).

Lu 2:22-40.

PURIFICATION OF THE

VIRGIN--PRESENTATION OF THE

BABE IN THE

TEMPLE-SCENE

THERE WITH

SIMEON AND

ANNA.

22, 24. her purification--Though the most and best copies read

"their," it was the mother only who needed purifying from the legal

uncleanness of childbearing. "The days" of this purification for a male

child were forty in all

(Le 12:2, 4),

on the expiry of which the mother was required to offer a lamb for a

burnt offering, and a turtle dove or a young pigeon for a sin offering.

If she could not afford a lamb, the mother had to bring another turtle

dove or young pigeon; and, if even this was beyond her means, then a

portion of fine flour, but without the usual fragrant accompaniments of

oil and frankincense, as it represented a sin offering

(Le 12:6-8; 5:7-11).

From the intermediate offering of "a pair of turtle doves or two young

pigeons," we gather that Joseph and the Virgin were in poor

circumstances

(2Co 8:9),

though not in abject poverty. Being a first-born male, they "bring him

to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord." All such had been claimed as

"holy to the Lord," or set apart to sacred uses, in memory of the

deliverance of the first-born of Israel from destruction in Egypt,

through the sprinkling of blood

(Ex 13:2).

In lieu of these, however, one whole tribe, that of Levi, was accepted,

and set apart to occupations exclusively sacred

(Nu 3:11-38);

and whereas there were two hundred seventy-three fewer Levites than

first-born of all Israel on the first reckoning, each of these

first-born was to be redeemed by the payment of five shekels, yet not

without being "presented (or brought) unto the Lord," in

token of His rightful claim to them and their service

(Nu 3:44-47; 18:15, 16).

It was in obedience to this "law of Moses," that the Virgin presented

her babe unto the Lord, "in the east gate of the court called Nicanor's

Gate, where she herself would be sprinkled by the priest with the blood

of her sacrifice" [LIGHTFOOT]. By that Babe, in

due time, we were to be redeemed, "not with corruptible things as

silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ"

(1Pe 1:18, 19),

and the consuming of the mother's burnt offering, and the sprinkling of

her with the blood of her sin offering, were to find their abiding

realization in the "living sacrifice" of the Christian mother herself,

in the fulness of a "heart sprinkled from an evil conscience," by "the

blood which cleanseth from all sin."

25. just--upright in his moral character.

devout--of a religious frame of spirit.

waiting for the consolation of Israel--a beautiful title of the

coming Messiah, here intended.

the Holy Ghost was--supernaturally.

upon him--Thus was the Spirit, after a dreary absence of nearly four

hundred years, returning to the Church, to quicken expectation, and

prepare for coming events.

26. revealed by the Holy Ghost--implying, beyond all doubt, the

personality of the Spirit.

should see not death till he had seen--"sweet antithesis!"

[BENGEL].

How would the one sight gild the gloom of the other! He was, probably,

27, 28. The Spirit guided him to the temple at the very moment when

the Virgin was about to present Him to the Lord.

28. took him up in his arms--immediately recognizing in the

child, with unhesitating certainty, the promised Messiah, without

needing Mary to inform him of what had happened to her. [OLSHAUSEN]. The remarkable act of taking the babe in his

arms must not be overlooked. It was as if he said, "This is all my

salvation and all my desire"

(2Sa 23:5).

29. Lord--"Master," a word rarely used in the New Testament, and

selected here with peculiar propriety, when the aged saint, feeling that

his last object in wishing to live had now been attained, only awaited

his Master's word of command to "depart."

now lettest, &c.--more clearly, "now Thou art releasing Thy servant";

a patient yet reverential mode of expressing a desire to depart.

30. seen thy salvation--Many saw this child, nay, the full-grown "man,

Christ Jesus," who never saw in Him "God's Salvation." This estimate of

an object of sight, an unconscious, helpless babe, was pure faith. He

"beheld His glory"

(Joh 1:14).

In another view it was prior faith rewarded by present

sight.

31, 32. all people--all the peoples, mankind at large.

a light to the Gentiles--then in thick darkness.

glory of thy people Israel--already Thine, and now, in the believing

portion of it, to be so more gloriously than ever. It will be observed

that this "swan-like song, bidding an eternal farewell to this

terrestrial life" [OLSHAUSEN], takes a more comprehensive view of the

kingdom of Christ than that of Zacharias, though the kingdom they sing

of is one.

34, 35. set--appointed.

fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken

against--Perhaps the former of these phrases expresses the two

stages of temporary "fall of many in Israel" through unbelief, during

our Lord's earthly career, and the subsequent "rising again" of

the same persons after the effusion of the Spirit at pentecost

threw a new light to them on the whole subject; while the latter clause

describes the determined enemies of the Lord Jesus. Such opposite views

of Christ are taken from age to age.

35. Yea, &c.--"Blessed as thou art among women, thou shalt have

thine own deep share of the struggles and sufferings which this Babe is

to occasion"--pointing not only to the continued obloquy and rejection

of this Child of hers, those agonies of His which she was to witness at

the cross, and her desolate condition thereafter, but to dreadful

alternations of faith and unbelief, of hope and fear regarding Him,

which she would have to pass through.

that the thoughts, &c.--Men's views and decisions regarding Christ

are a mirror in which the very "thoughts of their hearts" are seen.

36. Anna--or, Hannah.

a prophetess--another evidence that "the last times" in which God

was to "pour out His Spirit upon all flesh" were at hand.

of the tribe of Aser--one of the ten tribes, of whom many were not

carried captive, and not a few reunited themselves to Judah after the

return from Babylon. The distinction of tribes, though practically

destroyed by the captivity, was well enough known up to their final

dispersion

(Ro 11:1;

Heb 7:14);

nor is it now entirely lost.

lived, &c.--she had lived seven years with her husband

(Lu 2:36),

and been a widow eighty-four years; so that if she married at the

earliest marriageable age, twelve years, she could not at this time be

less than a hundred three years old.

37. departed not from the temple--was found there at all stated

hours of the day, and even during the night services of the temple

watchmen

(Ps 134:1, 2),

"serving God with fastings and prayer." (See

1Ti 5:5,

suggested by this.)

38. coming in--"presenting herself." She had been there already but

now is found "standing by," as Simeon's testimony to the blessed Babe

died away, ready to take it up "in turn" (as the word rendered

"likewise" here means).

to all them, &c.--the sense is, "to all them in Jerusalem that were

looking for redemption"--saying in effect, In that Babe are wrapt up all

your expectations. If this was at the hour of prayer, when numbers

flocked to the temple, it would account for her having such an audience

as the words imply [ALFORD].

39. Nothing is more difficult than to fix the precise order in which

the visit of the Magi, with the flight into and return from Egypt

(Mt 2:13-23),

are to be taken, in relation to the circumcision and presentation of

Christ in the temple, here recorded. It is perhaps best to leave this

in the obscurity in which we find it, as the result of two independent,

though if we knew all, easily reconcilable narratives.

40. His mental development kept pace with His bodily, and "the grace

of God," the divine favor, rested manifestly and increasingly upon Him.

See

Lu 2:52.

Lu 2:41-52.

FIRST

CONSCIOUS

VISIT TO

JERUSALEM.

"Solitary flowered out of the wonderful enclosed garden of the thirty

years, plucked precisely there where the swollen bud, at a

distinctive crisis (at twelve years of age), bursts into flower. To

mark that is assuredly the design and the meaning of this record"

[STIER].

42. went up--"were wont to go." Though males only were required to

go up to Jerusalem at the three annual festivals

(Ex 23:14-17),

devout women, when family duties permitted, went also, as did Hannah

(1Sa 1:7),

and, as we here see, the mother of Jesus.

when twelve years old--At this age every Jewish boy was styled "a

son of the law," being put under a course of instruction and trained to

fasting and attendance on public worship, besides being set to learn a

trade. At this age accordingly our Lord is taken up for the first time

to Jerusalem, at the passover season, the chief of the three annual

festivals. But oh, with what thoughts and feelings must this Youth have

gone up! Long ere He beheld it, He had doubtless "loved the habitation

of God's house and the place where His honor dwelt"

(Ps 26:8),

a love nourished, we may be sure, by that "word hid in His heart," with

which in afterlife He showed so perfect a familiarity. As the time for

His first visit approached, could one's ear have caught the breathings

of His young soul, he might have heard Him whispering, "As the hart

panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the

Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!"

(Ps 42:1; 87:2; 122:1, 2).

On catching the first view of "the city of their solemnities," and high

above all in it, "the place of God's rest," we hear Him saying to

Himself, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount

Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King: Out of

Zion, the perfection of beauty, God doth shine"

(Ps 48:2; 50:2).

Of His feelings or actions during all the eight days of the feast not a

word is said. As a devout child, in company with its parents, He would

go through the services, keeping His thoughts to Himself. But methinks

I hear Him, after the sublime services of that feast, saying to

Himself, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me

was love. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit

was sweet to my taste"

(So 2:3, 4).

43. as they returned--If the duties of life must give place to worship,

worship, in its turn, must give place to them. Jerusalem is good,

but Nazareth is good, too; let him who neglects the one, on pretext

of attending to the other, ponder this scene.

tarried behind . . . Joseph and his mother knew not--Accustomed to the

discretion and obedience of the lad [OLSHAUSEN], they might be thrown

off their guard.

44. sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances--On these sacred

journeys, whole villages and districts travelled in groups together,

partly for protection, partly for company; and as the well-disposed

would beguile the tediousness of the way by good discourse, to which the

child Jesus would be no silent listener, they expect to find Him in such

a group.

45, 46. After three sorrowing days, they find Him still in

Jerusalem, not gazing on its architecture, or surveying its forms of

busy life, but in the temple--not the "sanctuary" (as in

Lu 1:9),

to which only the priests had access, but in some one of the enclosures

around it, where the rabbins, or "doctors," taught their scholars.

46. hearing . . . asking--The method of question and

answer was the customary form of rabbinical teaching; teacher and

learner becoming by turns questioner and answerer, as may be seen from

their extant works. This would give full scope for all that

"astonished them in His understanding and answers." Not that He assumed

the office of teaching--"His hour" for that "was not yet come,"

and His equipment for that was not complete; for He had yet to

"increase in wisdom" as well as "stature"

(Lu 2:52).

In fact, the beauty of Christ's example lies very much in His never at

one stage of His life anticipating the duties of another. All would be

in the style and manner of a learner, "opening His mouth and panting."

"His soul breaking for the longing that it had unto God's judgments at

all times"

(Ps 119:20),

and now more than ever before, when finding Himself for the first time

in His Father's house. Still there would be in His questions far

more than in their answers; and if we may take the frivolous

interrogatories with which they afterwards plied Him, about the woman

that had seven husbands and such like, as a specimen of their present

drivelling questions, perhaps we shall not greatly err, if we suppose

that "the questions" which He now "asked them" in return were just the

germs of those pregnant questions with which He astonished and silenced

them in after years: "What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? If

David call Him Lord, how is He then his Son?" "Which is the

first and great commandment?" "Who is my neighbour?"

49. about my Father's business--literally, "in" or "at My Fathers,"

that is, either "about My Father's affairs," or "in My Father's

courts"--where He dwells and is to be found--about His hand, so

to speak. This latter shade of meaning, which includes the former, is

perhaps the true one, Here He felt Himself at home, breathing His

own proper air. His words convey a gentle rebuke of their obtuseness in

requiring Him to explain this. "Once here, thought ye I should so

readily hasten away? Let ordinary worshippers be content to keep the

feast and be gone; but is this all ye have learnt of Me?" Methinks we

are here let into the holy privacies of Nazareth; for what He says they

should have known, He must have given them ground to know. She

tells Him of the sorrow with which His father and she had sought

Him. He speaks of no Father but one, saying, in effect, My Father

has not been seeking Me; I have been with Him all this time; "the

King hath brought me into His chambers . . . His left hand is under my

head, and His right hand doth embrace me"

(So 1:4; 2:6).

How is it that ye do not understand?

(Mr 8:21).

50, 51. understood not--probably He had never expressly

said as much, and so confounded them, though it was but the true

interpretation of many things which they had seen and heard from Him at

home. (See on

Joh 14:4.)

But lest it should be thought that now He threw off the filial yoke,

and became His own Master henceforth, and theirs too, it is purposely

added, "And He went down with them, and was subject unto

them." The marvel of this condescension lies in its coming after

such a scene, and such an assertion of His higher Sonship; and the

words are evidently meant to convey this. "From this time we have no

more mention of Joseph. The next we hear is of his "mother and

brethren"

(Joh 2:12);

whence it is inferred, that between this time and the commencement of

our Lord's public life, Joseph died" [ALFORD], having now served the double end of being the

protector of our Lord's Virgin--mother, and affording Himself the

opportunity of presenting a matchless pattern of subjection to both

parents.

52. See on

Lu 2:40.

stature--or better, perhaps, as in the Margin, "age," which implies

the other. This is all the record we have of the next eighteen years of

that wondrous life. What seasons of tranquil meditation over the lively

oracles, and holy fellowship with His Father; what inlettings, on the

one hand, of light, and love, and power from on high, and outgoings of

filial supplication, freedom, love, and joy on the other, would these

eighteen years contain! And would they not seem "but a few days" if they

were so passed, however ardently He might long to be more directly

"about His Father's business?"