What can one think about the slaughter Herod carried out in Bethlehem? A crime? Without question. Terrible, unheard-of? In general, no, as awful as that sounds. Even in antiquity it was not something extraordinary...
What can one think about the slaughter Herod carried out in Bethlehem? A crime? Without question. Terrible, unheard-of? In general, no, as awful as that sounds. Even in antiquity it was not something extraordinary, and even less so against the background of events in recent centuries.
The most terrible thing here is not cruelty as such, but the logic that gives rise to this cruelty. This is not about justifying it: rulers like Herod did not consider it necessary to justify cruelty when it seemed expedient to them. And Herod, the murderer of children, by the way, entered history with the epithets "the Great" and "the Builder." He was remembered as a clever and skillful ruler who maneuvered artfully through the intricacies of the great Near Eastern politics of his time, and as, in modern language, an "effective manager" who carried out a whole series of large-scale projects. In particular, it was he who carried out the reconstruction, and in essence the complete rebuilding, of the Jerusalem Temple, turning it into a grand and majestic structure.
But people, as we see, interested Herod only in the context of these same large-scale projects. Anyone who posed even the slightest threat to them had to disappear, not to mention those who, even hypothetically, might in some way threaten his own power. Such, apparently, is the reverse side of "effective management": people here become nothing more than expendable material. And the cheapest material of all.
For the Kingdom, every person matters. For the rulers of this world, no one does.
2
2:15 That it might be fulfilled - That is, whereby was fulfilled.The original word frequently signifies, not the design of an action, but barely the consequence or event of it. Which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet - on another occasion: Out of Egypt have I called my Son - which was now fulfilled as it were anew; Christ being in a far higher sense the Son of God than Israel, of whom the words were originally spoken. Hos 11:1.
2:16 Then Herod, seeing that he was deluded by the wise men - So did his pride teach him to regard this action, as if it were intended to expose him to the derision of his subjects.Sending forth - a party of soldiers: In all the confines thereof - In all the neighbouring places, of which Rama was one.
2:17 Then was fulfilled - A passage of Scripture, whether prophetic, historical, or poetical, is in the language of the New Testament fulfilled, when an event happens to which it may with great propriety be accommodated.
2:18 Rachel weeping for her children - The Benjamites, who inhabited Rama, sprung from her. She was buried near this place; and is here beautifully represented risen, as it were out of her grave, and bewailing her lost children. Because they are not - that is, are dead. The preservation of Jesus from this destruction, may be considered as a figure of God's care over his children in their greatest danger. God does not often, as he easily could, cut off their persecutors at a stroke. But he provides a hiding place for his people, and by methods not less effectual, though less pompous, preserves them from being swept away, even when the enemy comes in like a flood. Jer 31:15.
2:22 He was afraid to go thither - into Judea; and so turned aside into the region of Galilee - a part of the land of Israel not under the jurisdiction of Archelaus.
2:23 He came and dwelt in Nazareth - (where he had dwelt before he went to Bethlehem) a place contemptible to a proverb. So that hereby was fulfilled what has been spoken in effect by several of the prophets, (though by none of them in express words,) He shall be called a Nazarene - that is, he shall be despised and rejected, shall be a mark of public contempt and reproach.