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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 2:15 - 2:15
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Until the death of Herod (heōs tēs teleutēs Hērōidou). The Magi had been warned in a dream not to report to Herod and now Joseph was warned in a dream to take Mary and the child along (mellei zētein tou apolesai gives a vivid picture of the purpose of Herod in these three verbs). In Egypt Joseph was to keep Mary and Jesus till the death of Herod the monster. Matthew quotes Hos 11:1 to show that this was in fulfilment of God’s purpose to call his Son out of Egypt. He may have quoted again from a collection of testimonia rather than from the Septuagint. There is a Jewish tradition in the Talmud that Jesus “brought with him magic arts out of Egypt in an incision on his body” (Shabb. 104b). “This attempt to ascribe the Lord’s miracles to Satanic agency seems to be independent of Matthew, and may have been known to him, so that one object of his account may have been to combat it” (McNeile).