The Book of Matthew (2020 Edition) E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passion Translation
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 268

Beschreibung

The book of Matthew is the gospel of our eternal King that narrates the story of Jesus. It establishes him as a direct descendant of King David, preserving and fulfilling his royal line as the rightful heir as well as a descendant of Abraham, the father of Israel.   As the first book of the New Testament, Matthew connects the past with the present and the future. It reveals the person of Jesus and his heavenly kingdom realm and teaches us how to live as citizens of that realm.   The Gospel of Matthew brings before our eyes the power and majesty of our loving King, who offers every person access to an eternal, heavenly realm free from the consequences of sin and an oasis to refresh our lives.   "Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you'll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you." Matthew 7:7  

Leseprobe

The Passion Translation®

Matthew: Our Loving King

Published by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

BroadStreetPublishing.com

ThePassionTranslation.com

The Passion Translation is a registered trademark of Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc.

Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except as noted below, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The text from Matthew: Our Loving King may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic, or audio), up to and inclusive of 40 verses or less, without written permission from the publisher, provided that the verses quoted do not amount to a complete chapter of the Bible, nor do verses quoted account for 20 percent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted, and the verses are not being quoted in a commentary or other biblical reference work. When quoted, one of the following credit lines must appear on the copyright page of the work:

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®, Matthew: Our Loving King. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

All Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, Matthew: Our Loving King. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

When quotations from The Passion Translation (TPT) are used in non-saleable media, such as church bulletins, sermons, newsletters, or projected in worship settings, a complete copyright notice is not required, but the initials TPT must appear at the end of each quotation.

Quotations in excess of these guidelines or other permission requests must be approved in writing by BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC. Please send requests through the contact form at ThePassionTranslation.com/permissions.

For information about bulk sales or customized editions of The Passion Translation, please contact [email protected].

The publisher and TPT team have worked diligently and prayerfully to present this version of The Passion Translation Bible with excellence and accuracy. If you find a mistake in the Bible text or footnotes, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

978-1-4245-6320-3 (paperback)

978-1-4245-6321-0 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America

21 22 23 24 25 5 4 3 2 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Information

A Note to Readers

Matthew

Your Personal Invitation to Follow Jesus

About the Translator

A NOTE TO READERS

It would be impossible to calculate how many lives have been changed forever by the power of the Bible, the living Word of God! My own life was transformed because I believed the message contained in Scripture about Jesus, the Savior.

To hold the Bible dear to your heart is the sacred obsession of every true follower of Jesus. Yet to go even further and truly understand the Bible is how we gain light and truth to live by. Did you catch the word understand? People everywhere say the same thing: “I want to understand God’s Word, not just read it.”

Thankfully, as English speakers, we have a plethora of Bible translations, commentaries, study guides, devotionals, churches, and Bible teachers to assist us. Our hearts crave to know God—to not just know about him, but to know him as intimately as we possibly can in this life. This is what makes Bible translations so valuable, because each one will hopefully lead us into new discoveries of God’s character. I believe God is committed to giving us truth in a package we can understand and apply, so I thank God for every translation of God’s Word that we have.

God’s Word does not change, but over time languages definitely do, thus the need for updated and revised translations of the Bible. Translations give us the words God spoke through his servants, but words can be poor containers for revelation because they leak! Meaning is influenced by culture, background, and many other details. Just imagine how differently the Hebrew authors of the Old Testament saw the world three thousand years ago from the way we see it today!

Even within one language and culture, meanings of words change from one generation to the next. For example, many contemporary Bible readers would be quite surprised to find unicorns are mentioned nine times in the King James Version (KJV). Here’s one instance in Isaiah 34:7: “And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” This isn’t a result of poor translation, but rather an example of how our culture, language, and understanding of the world has shifted over the past few centuries. So, it is important that we have a modern English text of the Bible that releases revelation and truth into our hearts. The Passion Translation (TPT) is committed to bringing forth the potency of God’s Word in relevant, contemporary vocabulary that doesn’t distract from its meaning or distort it in any way. So many people have told us that they are falling in love with the Bible again as they read TPT.

We often hear the statement, “I just want a word-for-word translation that doesn’t mess it up or insert a bias.” That’s a noble desire. But a word-for-word translation would be nearly unreadable. It is simply impossible to translate one Hebrew word for one English word. Hebrew is built from triliteral consonant roots. Biblical Hebrew had no vowels or punctuation. And Koine Greek, although wonderfully articulate, cannot always be conveyed in English by a word-for-word translation. For example, a literal word-for-word translation of the Greek in Matthew 1:18 would be something like this: “Of the but Jesus Christ the birth thus was. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before or to come together them she was found in belly having from Spirit Holy.”

Even the KJV, which many believe to be a very literal translation, renders this verse: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”

This comparison makes the KJV look like a paraphrase next to a strictly literal translation! To some degree, every Bible translator is forced to move words around in a sentence to convey with meaning the thought of the verse. There is no such thing as a truly literal translation of the Bible, for there is not an equivalent language that perfectly conveys the meaning of the biblical text. Is it really possible to have a highly accurate and highly readable English Bible? We certainly hope so! It is so important that God’s Word is living in our hearts, ringing in our ears, and burning in our souls. Transferring God’s revelation from Hebrew and Greek into English is an art, not merely a linguistic science. Thus, we need all the accurate translations we can find. If a verse or passage in one translation seems confusing, it is good to do a side-by-side comparison with another version.

It is difficult to say which translation is the “best.” “Best” is often in the eyes of the reader and is determined by how important differing factors are to different people. However, the “best” translation, in my thinking, is the one that makes the Word of God clear and accurate, no matter how many words it takes to express it.

That’s the aim of The Passion Translation: to bring God’s eternal truth into a highly readable heart-level expression that causes truth and love to jump out of the text and lodge inside our hearts. A desire to remain accurate to the text and a desire to communicate God’s heart of passion for his people are the two driving forces behind TPT. So for those new to Bible reading, we hope TPT will excite and illuminate. For scholars and Bible students, we hope TPT will bring the joys of new discoveries from the text and prompt deeper consideration of what God has spoken to his people. We all have so much more to learn and discover about God in his holy Word!

You will notice at times we’ve italicized certain words or phrases. These portions are not in the original Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic manuscripts but are implied from the context. We’ve made these implications explicit for the sake of narrative clarity and to better convey the meaning of God’s Word. This is a common practice by mainstream translations.

We’ve also chosen to translate certain names in their original Hebrew or Greek forms to better convey their cultural meaning and significance. For instance, some translations of the Bible have substituted James for Jacob and Jude for Judah. Both Greek and Aramaic manuscripts leave these Hebrew names in their original forms. Therefore, this translation uses those cultural names.

The purpose of The Passion Translation is to reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.

We pray this version of God’s Word will kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.

Please visit ThePassionTranslation.com for more information.

Brian Simmons and the translation team

MATTHEW

(return to table of contents)

Introduction • One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight • Nine • Ten • Eleven • Twelve • Thirteen • Fourteen • Fifteen • Sixteen • Seventeen • Eighteen • Nineteen • Twenty • Twenty-One • Twenty-Two • Twenty-Three • Twenty-Four • Twenty-Five • Twenty-Six • Twenty-Seven • Twenty-Eight

MATTHEW

Introduction

AT A GLANCE

Author: Matthew, the former Jewish tax collector and disciple of Jesus

Audience: Originally, the Jewish Christian church and the Jewish people

Date: AD 55–80

Type of Literature: Ancient historical biography

Major Themes: Gospel-telling, Old Testament fulfillment, heaven’s kingdom realm, kingdom-realm living

Outline:

Jesus’ Birth and Ministry Preparation — 1:1–4:11

Jesus Teaches His Kingdom Realm — 4:12–7:29

Jesus Demonstrates His Kingdom Realm — 8:1–11:1

Jesus Is Opposed — 11:2–13:53

Jesus Disciples His Disciples — 13:54–18:35

Jesus Marches to the Cross — 19:1–25:46

Jesus Dies, Rises, and Sends — 26:1–28:20

ABOUT MATTHEW

Four centuries of silence. Where was the promised Messiah? The Jewish people were waiting for the word of the prophets to come true, for they had prophesied that he would come. Then suddenly, the angel Gabriel made an appearance to a teenage girl to announce his birth. Shepherds saw a brilliant angelic light show on the hillside.

Wise men went out in search of him.

The light of the star shone over his manger.

Insecure Herod wanted to kill him.

Satan cruelly tested him.

The prophet John presented him to Israel.

God anointed him with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then one day the King came into the synagogue and announced: “I’m here! I’ve come to set you free and to wash away sins, and liberate those who love and follow me.”

We can thank God for Matthew, for in his Gospel he presents our eternal King. Matthew means “gift of Yahweh,” and he lives up to his name. Thank you, Matthew, for the gift of your life and for what you have left for us in your Gospel!

PURPOSE

Matthew is a natural bridge between the Old Testament and the New because it has the most Jewish character. From the first verse to the last, Matthew establishes Jesus as a direct descendant of King David, preserving and fulfilling his royal line as the rightful heir as well as a descendant of Abraham, the father of Israel.

Furthermore, Matthew portrays Jesus as the new and greater Moses, who not only upholds the Jewish Torah but intensifies it—not in a legalistic way, but in a spiritual way, because following his teachings is the way into his heavenly kingdom realm.

It would be a mistake, however, to say there is only one purpose for this book. While one primary purpose is to communicate the Jesus story to the Jewish people, Matthew also means to communicate Jesus’ story to us. One particular aspect of the Jesus story that Matthew wants to share is that Jesus is King of a heavenly kingdom realm. Mark and Luke also speak of God’s kingdom realm, but Matthew focuses on how people behave as citizens of that realm, with Jesus as their loving King.

AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE

It is believed that Matthew may have been the first apostle to write a gospel, and he possibly wrote it in Hebrew (Aramaic). Though some maintain that Matthew wrote his Gospel after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, it’s possible he wrote it anywhere from AD 55 to the mid-60s. He was a wealthy tax collector who profited greatly from his duty of representing Rome. And then one day, the man from Galilee stood in front of him and said, “Come, follow me.”

There continues to be debate over the original language of Matthew’s account. Eusebius, the Greek church historian, quoted Irenaeus as saying, “Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews in their own language, while Peter and Paul in Rome were preaching and founding the church” (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica III. 24.5–6 and V. 8, 2.) This, along with numerous other quotations from church fathers (Origen, Jerome, Augustine) would mean that the original manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel was written in Hebrew. Regardless, it is without dispute that Matthew was a Jewish man who presents a Jewish King who now sits on the throne of glory for all people.

Perhaps an unbiased look at the Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts would yield further nuances of our Jewish heritage as believers in Yeshua (Jesus) and would strengthen our understanding of the inspired Scriptures. You will find ample footnotes throughout this translation to assist you in your study.

MAJOR THEMES

Gospel-Telling. The word gospel doesn’t simply mean “good news.” It is derived from the Greek verb euangelizomai, which means “to preach the good news.” In other words, Matthew is writing to tell us heaven’s truths embedded in the earthly events of the man Jesus. Matthew isn’t giving us dry theology, but sharing stories and teachings designed in such a way as to unfold the majestic, magisterial person of Jesus, who embodies all of our theologies!

Old Testament. As the first book of the New Testament, Matthew connects the past with the present and with the future. He quotes sixty times from the Old Testament, showing us that the New was enfolded in the Old, while the New Testament is the Old Testament unfolded and explained. The Old Testament is more central in Matthew than in any other Gospel, both in frequency and in emphasis. If the Jewish story is always pointing forward, Matthew’s Gospel is its final act. It brings resolution to the Old Testament by presenting King Jesus and his kingdom realm and community as fulfilling their prophetic expectations.

Parables. There are unique components to Matthew’s Gospel. For example, he records extensively the allegorical teachings of Jesus known as parables. Twelve are detailed by Matthew, and nine of them are unique to this account. He gives us two miracles of Jesus that are found nowhere else: the healing of two blind men and the miracle coin found in the fish’s mouth. It is through these simple stories that the nature of both our King and his kingdom really come to life!

Heavenly Kingdom Realm. Matthew brings us the realm of the heavenly kingdom and sets its virtue and reality before us. The phrase “kingdom realm” is used nearly forty times as Jesus offers it to you and me. And Jesus is described as the King fourteen times. This is the Gospel of the King and his kingdom, but a different kingdom than even his followers expected. For the kingdom realm that Jesus ushered in would not liberate the Jewish people from oppression from the Roman government as they expected—we can define neither the King nor his kingdom ourselves. Instead, he offers not only Jews but every person access to an eternal, heavenly realm free from the consequences of sin and an oasis to refresh our lives!

Kingdom-Realm Living. Matthew’s Gospel isn’t only about our loving King and his kingdom, it’s also about his subjects who act and live within that kingdom. The church is the community of Christ’s heavenly kingdom realm, and Jesus’ sermon on the hillside is the final Torah of the kingdom realm. For Matthew, a godly lover (the “righteous”) is someone who has chosen to submit to Jesus as King and whose life is lived in accordance with his ethics. The Gospel of Matthew will bring before your eyes the power and majesty of our loving King. Encounter the wonder of Jesus as you read this book!

MATTHEW

Our Loving King

From Abraham to Christ

1This is the scroll of the genealogya of Jesus,b the Anointed One, the son of David and descendant of Abraham.

2Abraham had a son named Isaac, who had a son named Jacob, who had a son named Judah (he and his brothers became the tribes of Israel).

3Judah and Tamarc had twin sons, Perez and Zerah. Perez had a son named Hezron, who had a son named Ram, 4who had a son named Amminadab, who had a son named Nashon, 5who had a son named Salmon, who, along with Rahab, had a son named Boaz. Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse had a son named David, who became the king.

7Then David and Bathshebad had a son named Solomon, who had a son named Rehoboam, who had a son named Abijah, who had a son named Asa, 8who had a son named Jehoshaphat, who had a son named Joram, who had a son named Uzziah, 9who had a son named Jotham, who had a son named Ahaz, who had a son named Hezekiah, 10who had a son named Manasseh, who had a son named Amos,e who had a son named Josiah, 11who was the father of Jeconiah.f

It was during the days of Jeconiah and his brothers that Israel was taken captive and deported to Babylon. 12About the time of their captivity in Babylon, Jeconiah had a son named Shealtiel, who had a son named Zerubbabel, 13who had a son named Abiud, who had a son named Eliakim, 14who had a son named Azor, who had a son named Zadok, who had a son named Achim, who had a son named Eliud, 15who had a son named Eleazar, who had a son named Matthan, who had a son named Jacob, 16who was the father of Joseph, the husbandg of Mary the mother of Jesus, who is called “the Anointed One.”

17So from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the Babylonian captivity, fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian captivity to Christ, fourteen generations.h

An Angel Comes to Joseph

18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place.

His mother, Mary, had promised Joseph to be his wife,ibut while she was still a virginj she became pregnant through the powerk of the Holy Spirit.l19Her fiancé,m Joseph, was a righteous man full of integrity and he didn’t want to disgrace her, but when he learned of her pregnancy he secretly planned to break the engagement.n20While he was still debating with himself about what to do,o he fell asleep and had a supernatural dream. An angel from the Lord appeared to him and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t hesitate to take Mary into your home as your wife,p because the power of the Holy Spirit has conceived a child in her womb. 21She will give birth to a son and you are to name him ‘Savior,’q for he is destined to give his lifer to save his people from their sins.”

22This happened to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through his prophet:

23Listen! A virgins will be pregnant,

she will give birth to a Son,

and he will be known as “Emmanuel,”

which means in Hebrew,

“God became one of us.”t

24When Joseph woke from his dream, he did all that the angel of the Lord instructed him to do. He took Mary to be his wife, 25but they refrained from having sex until she gave birth to her first-born son, whom they named “Jesus.”

a1:1 Or “The book of the origin (genesis) of Jesus Christ.” The Greek text has no definite article (“This is the”) and is most likely to be considered as a caption or title. The Son of God is eternal and had no beginning (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1). The entire book of Matthew presents the beginning of the glorious story of Jesus, God’s Anointed One. The genealogy given by Matthew presents the legal claim of Jesus to be King through the lineage of David from Joseph all the way back to the promises given to Abraham. Some believe Luke’s account gives the genealogy of Jesus from Mary’s lineage through David all the way back to Adam.

b1:1 The Hebrew name for Jesus is Yeshua and means “Yahweh is salvation.”

c1:3 Matthew includes four women in this genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

d1:7 Or “the wife of Uriah.”

e1:10 Or “Amon.”

f1:11 In Jer. 22:24–30 God pronounced a curse on Jeconiah’s family line, declaring that they were ineligible to sit on the throne as kings. However, Luke’s genealogy goes through David to Mary via Nathan, not Solomon, thus bypassing the curse of Jeconiah’s lineage. Matthew’s genealogy is meant to establish the legal right of Jesus Christ to be king. So Joseph, as Jesus’ adoptive father, passes the right of David’s throne legally to Jesus and avoids the curse of Jeconiah through Mary’s ancestry. Jesus is the Son of God paternally, and the Son of David maternally through Heli, Mary’s father. See footnote at Luke 3:23–38. From the beginning God said that the coming Savior would be the “seed of the woman.” See Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4.

g1:16 Notice that Joseph is named the husband of Mary, not the father of Jesus.

h1:17 This would make a total of forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ. However, when the names are counted, there are only forty-one. There is a missing generation. What could this mean? Jesus gave birth to the forty-second generation when he died on the cross, for out of his side blood and water flowed. Blood and water come forth at birth. The first Adam “birthed” his wife out of his side, and so Jesus gave birth to his bride from his wounded side. Jesus wants to reproduce himself in us. His last name is not Christ. Christ is the title that explains who he is. He is the Anointed One. “Christ” is also now a corporate body, the body of Christ. We, as the body of Christ, are also anointed ones (Christians). See 1 Cor. 12:12.

i1:18 In the Jewish culture the engagement was a prenuptial contract (ketubah), which was entered into before witnesses, that gave legal rights over the girl to the bridegroom. This agreement could only be nullified by going through the formal divorce process. Since the girl still lived with her family, sexual relations were prohibited until after the second event of the public marriage ceremony. This engagement period was usually entered into when the girl turned thirteen. Mary was just a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus.

j1:18 Or “without them being united (sexually).”

k1:18 Implied in the text. Although it is the genitive of source, not agency, “the power of the Holy Spirit” is supplied for clarity. See Deut. 20:7.

l1:18 The “Holy Spirit” can also be translated “the Sacred Breath (Spirit-Wind)” or “the Spirit of Holiness.”

m1:19 Or “Her husband.” The Hebrew culture makes no distinction between a fiancé and a husband. The engagement period was a vital part of the marriage custom. See Deut. 22:23–28.

n1:19 Or “divorce her.” The Jewish custom of breaking off an engagement was tantamount to a divorce.

o1:20 Or “during his inward passion about these things.”

p1:20 Or “take Miriam your wife.” Once again, the Jewish culture considered the betrothal period as part of the marriage custom.

q1:21 Or “Jesus.” The Hebrew name for Jesus is Yeshua (or Y’hoshua) and means “Yahweh is salvation, restoration, and deliverance.” Implied in the text is that Hebrew (Aramaic) speakers would obviously understand how the name Yeshua and salvation were linked, reinforcing the theory that Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. This is lost in the Greek word Iesous (Jesus).

r1:21 As translated from the Aramaic.

s1:23 See also v. 25, which clarifies that Mary was indeed a virgin.

t1:23 Or “God with us” or “God among us”; that is, God incarnated. See Isa. 7:14; 8:8, 10 (LXX).

The Wise Men Visit

2Jesus was born in Bethlehema near Jerusalemb during the reign of King Herod.c After Jesus’ birth a group of spiritual priestsd from the East came to Jerusalem 2and inquired of the people, “Where is the child who is born king of the Jewish people? We observed his star rising in the skye and we’ve come to bow before him in worship.”f

3King Herod was shaken to the core when he heard this, and not only he, but all of Jerusalem was disturbed when they heard this news.g4So he called a meeting of the Jewish ruling priests and religious scholars, demanding that they tell him where the promised Messiah was prophesied to be born.

5“He will be born in Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,” they told him. “Because the prophecy states:

6And you, little Bethlehem,

are not insignificant among the clans of Judah,

for out of you will emerge

the Shepherd-Kingh of my people Israel!”i

7Then Herod secretly summoned the spiritual priests from the East to ascertain the exact time the star first appeared. 8And he told them, “Now go to Bethlehem and carefully look there for the child, and when you’ve found him, report to me so that I can go and bow down and worship him too.”

9And on their way to Bethlehem, the same star they had seen in the East suddenly reappeared! Amazed, they watched as it went ahead of them and stopped directly over the place where the child was. 10And when they saw the star, they were so ecstatic that they shouted and celebrated with unrestrained joy.j11When they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, they fell to the ground at his feet and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chestsk full of gifts and presented him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12Afterward they returned to their own country by another route because God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.

They Escape to Egypt

13After they had gone, Joseph had another dream. An angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Get up now and flee to Egypt. Take Mary and the little child and stay there until I tell you to leave, for Herod intends to search for the child to kill him.”

14So that very night he got up and took Jesus and his mother and made their escape to Egypt 15and remained there until Herod died. All of this fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through his prophet:

I summon my Son out of Egypt.l

16When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated. So he sent soldiers with orders to slaughter every baby boy two years old and younger in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding countryside, based on the time frame he was given from interrogating the wise men. 17This fulfilled the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

18I hear the screams of anguish,

weeping, and wailing in Ramah.

Rachel is weeping uncontrollably for her children.m

And she refuses to be comforted,

because they are dead and gone.n

They Return to Nazareth

19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared again to Joseph in a dream while he was still in Egypt, 20saying, “Go back to the land of Israel and take the child and his mother with you, for those who sought to kill the child are dead.”

21So he awoke and took Jesus and Mary and returned to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, had succeeded him as ruler over all of the territory of Judah, he was afraid to go back. Then he had another dream from God, warning him to avoid that region and instructing him instead to go to the province of Galilee. 23So he settled his family in the village of Nazareth, fulfilling the prophecy that he would be known as the “Branch.”o

a2:1 Bethlehem, or Byt-lehem, means “house of bread,” the prophesied birthplace of Messiah. However, the Hebrew word lehem can also mean “fighters.” Jesus was born in “the House of Fighters!” This is the city of David, one of the greatest fighters in the entire Bible. Perhaps this is why the people of Jesus’ day expected him to fight the Romans and free their land from foreign occupation. Jesus fulfilled both aspects of the meaning of Bethlehem in Gethsemane and on the cross, where he fought the “Goliath” of our souls and won, becoming Bread for the world. God controls all events, proven by the prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem even though his parents were living in Nazareth. See Mic. 5:2; Luke 2:1–19.

b2:1 Or “in the land of Judea.”

c2:1 Herod died in 4 BC, which helps in dating the birth of Christ.

d2:1 Or “astrologers,” known as dream interpreters. These wealthy priests would have traveled with an entourage for protection as officials from the East. The Greek word magos is taken from the Mede language and means “spiritual advisors” or simply “priests.” They were appointed by Darius over the state religion as priests of Persia, which is modern-day Iran, and served as official advisors to the king. By the time of Jesus’ birth, Persia had been conquered and was being governed by successors to Alexander the Great. It is possible these Magos came from the Mesopotamian region of Seleucia. See also Dan. 2 and 5:11, where the prophet Daniel is given the title of “Chief of the Magio.” It is probable that these Magos were descendants of those who had been taught by Daniel, and because of his prophecy of the Messiah being “cut off,” they may have been able to decipher the date of his birth along with the interpretation of his star rising.

e2:2 Or “his star in the east” or “shooting star” or possibly “comet.” Note that it is also called “his star,” not the star of Bethlehem.

f2:2 With the visit of the wise men coming to bow in worship before Jesus, we see a preview of the nations one day worshiping our King. See Ps. 72:8–11.

g2:3 Although we are not told how many “wise men” came to visit Bethlehem, it was likely quite a large entourage. It is doubtful that three men from Persia would cause such an uproar and commotion in the city. There were possibly over one hundred who traveled in the caravan from the East arriving in Jerusalem.

h2:6 As translated from the Aramaic. The Greek is “the Leader who will shepherd my people Israel.”

i2:6 See Mic. 5:2. Both the Septuagint and the Hebrew Matthew have “out of you will come to me a Ruler who will be King of Israel.” The Septuagint adds, “He will shepherd my people in the strength of the Lord.”

j2:10 The Greek is hard to translate since it contains so many redundant words for joy in this one verse. It is literally “They rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly.” They were ecstatic!

k