Sermon Tone Analysis

The Return

Again Jospeh has a dream from the Lord, This happened back on 1:20 where the Lord appeared to him and said dont fear to take Mary home as your wife for what is conbcevied in he is from the Holy Spirit.

And then inb 2:12-13 and angel of the Lord tells them to go to Egypt.

This paragraph concludes the prologue, relating the final story about the child Jesus and the return of the holy family to Israel to settle in Nazareth after the death of Herod.

Mangum, D., ed.

(2020).

Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (Mt 2:19–23).

Lexham Press.

The plural form of the verbs in this verse indicate that Herod has set numerous people to the task of trying to kill the Christ.

Mangum, D., ed.

(2020).

Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (Mt 2:19–23).

Lexham Press.

The nondescript nature of the dream likely implies that the dream was not a command to settle specifically in Galilee, but simply to avoid Judea.

This leads to the fifth and final formula quotation in the prologue, a comment by the narrator.

While following the typical fulfillment formula, this formula is different in ascribing the quotation to “the prophets.”

This small change is important, as the words cited from the Scriptures “he will be called a Nazarene” have no antecedent in the OT.

It seems, rather, that the evangelist is highlighting a theme in the Prophets related to the messianic “branch” (Isa 11:1; Isa 53:2; Jer 23:5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12).

5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.

No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome.

I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.

So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’

”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Jdg 13:5–7).

(2016).

Crossway Bibles.

At the end of his life, Herod suffered from a severe illness.

Josephus described Herod’s symptoms: “For a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating … His entrails were also exulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly” (Josephus, Antiquities, 17.6.5).

He was buried in the Herodium.

Herod issued two commands to be performed upon his death:

1.

To execute the recently imprisoned Jewish elders so that the people would be mourning during his death.

2. To execute his son Antipater.

Upon Herod’s request, his lands were divided among three of his sons:

1. Archelaus was left the throne.

2. Antipas was to be tetrarch of Galilee.

3. Philip was to be tetrarch of Gaulanitis.