Matthew 2:20–21

Matthew 2:20 and 2:21 are the twentieth and twenty first verses of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The young Jesus and the Holy Family are in Egypt. An angel has just informed Joseph that King Herod, his persecutor, is dead. In this verse the angel gives him further instructions. The wording of this verse is extremely close to that of .

Text

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

:20: Saying, Arise, and take the young

:child and his mother, and go into

:the land of Israel: for they are dead

:21: which sought the young child's life.

:And he arose, and took the young child and

:his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

:20: "Arise and take the young child

:and his mother, and go into the

:land of Israel, for those who sought

:the young child's life are dead."

:21: He arose and took the young child and

:his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

The Novum Testamentum Graece text is:

:20:λέγων Ἐγερθεὶς παράλαβε τὸ παιδίον

:καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ πορεύου εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ

:τεθνήκασιν γὰρ οἱ ζητοῦντες τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ παιδίου.

:21:ὁ δὲ ἐγερθεὶς παρέλαβεν τὸ παιδίον

:καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ.

For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 2:20, 2:21.

Interpretation

Like the rest of the infancy narrative, these verses are careful to not refer to Jesus as Joseph's child. The angel refers to him as "the young child" not "your young child", but freely refers to Mary as his mother.

The main point of contention with this passage is why it refers to multiple people being dead when only Herod has died. The plural is unambiguous in the original Greek and in all surviving versions. This may link with the earlier part of the chapter where Herod colludes with the Jewish leaders to kill Jesus, but is unlikely the leaders would all have died in this brief period, and historical records demonstrates that many remained in office throughout this era. A number of explanations have been advanced to explain this problem. One proposal is that there was a secondary figure who died at the time. The most mentioned candidate being Herod's son Antipater, who died five days before the king. The problem with this theory is that there is no evidence in Matthew, or any other contemporary work, that Antipater had any involvement in the persecutions. The standard explanation is that most scholars believe the plural is due to Matthew's basing this section on Exodus. Raymond E. Brown sees this as an unlikely explanation. He argues that the author of Matthew was competent enough to change to the singular if he had so desired. Brown argues that the passage should more accurately be read as "the plot by those who wanted to kill is dead."

Jerome, referring to this passage stated, "From this we see that not Herod only, but also the Priests and Scribes had sought the Lord’s death at that time." While Saint Remigius stated, "But if they were many who sought his destruction, how came they all to have died in so short a time? As we have related before, all the great men among the Jews were slain at Herod’s death."

Robert H. Gundry notes that the phrase translated as "child's life" literally means "child's soul." At the time seeking someone's soul was an expression for trying to kill someone.

The reference to "Land of Israel" in this verse and the next one is important. This is the only place in the New Testament where this phrase is used, i.e. the only place where "Israel" is used to refer to a geographic location, a usage which was common in the Book of Exodus on which this passage is based.

Matthew 2:20–21

Text

Interpretation

References

Further reading