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Our Lady in Scripture—III: The Child and his Mother (Matthew 1 and 2)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Benet Weatherhead O.P.
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As it stands now, the infancy narrative of the first gospel is the work of the Greek writer who perhaps translated and certainly expanded the original Aramaic gospel of the apostle Matthew. But equally certainly he did not invent the episodes which he has used to construct it; they come to him, perhaps already somewhat moulded or schematized, from the traditions of the earliest communities. His narrative falls into two parts, conicident with our two chapters; the first traces and proves the Davidic descent of Jesus, the true king of Israel; the second narrates his danger from the actual usurping king, Herod. Within the narrative in its final form, there are secondary themes; in the first part, the defence of the purity of Jesus’ mother, in the second, the homage paid to him by the Gentile world and its co-operation in preserving him.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 16 , Issue 185 , December 1961 , pp. 215 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers. 1961

References

1 See René Laurentin, Structure et Théologic de Luc I-II, Paris 1957. pp. 93-96.

2 W. L. Knox, The Sources of the Synoptic Gospels, II: St Luke and St Mathew, London 1957, pp. 121-128. London 1957, pp. 121-128.

3 The episode is twice as long as any other in ch. 2; the disappearance an and reappearance of the star are awkward, the text has been adjusted to allo the prophecy of Micah to be introduced and play its part. On the other hand, if the Magi were led by an astral phenomenon, it could hardly have indicate the exact dwelling-place and enquiries of some kind would have been necessary. The writer of Mt. I and 2 certainly presents the phenomenon as miraculous, but may perhaps have allowed Num. 24.17 to mould the details of his account.

4 References are given by P. P. Levertoff and H. L. Goudge in A New Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. by Charles Gore, London 1928, on this passage in Mathew.

5 F. W. Green, The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Oxford 1936, p. III.