Chapter IX.—An Explanation of the Circumstance that Matthew States that Joseph’s Reason for Going into Galilee with the Child Christ Was His Fear of Archelaus, Who Was Reigning at that Time in Jerusalem in Place of His Father, While Luke Tells Us that the Reason for Going into Galilee Was the Fact that Their City Nazareth Was There.

22. Or may a question perchance be raised as to how Matthew tells us that His parents went with the boy Jesus into Galilee, because they were unwilling to go into Judæa in consequence of their fear of Archelaus; whereas it would rather appear that the reason for their going into Galilee was, as Luke has not failed to indicate, the consideration that their city was Nazareth of Galilee? Well, but we must observe, that when the angel said to Joseph in his dreams in Egypt, “Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel,”282    Matt. ii. 19, 20. the words were understood at first by Joseph in a way that made him consider himself commanded to journey into Judæa. For that was the first interpretation that could have been put upon the phrase, “the land of Israel.” But again, after ascertaining that Archelaus, the son of Herod, was reigning there, he declined to expose himself to such danger, inasmuch as this phrase, “the land of Israel,” was capable also of being so understood as to cover Galilee too, because the people of Israel were occupants of that territory as well as the other. At the same time, this question also admits of being solved in another manner. For it might have appeared to the parents of Christ that they were called to take up their residence along with the boy, concerning whom such information had been conveyed to them through the responses of angels, just in Jerusalem itself, where was the temple of the Lord: and it may thus be, that when they came back out of Egypt, they would have gone directly thither in that belief, and have taken up their abode there, had it not been that they were terrified at the presence of Archelaus. And certainly they did not receive any such instructions from heaven to take up their residence there as would have made it their imperative duty to set at nought the fears they entertained of Archelaus.

CAPUT IX. Quomodo dicat Matthaeus ideo isse in Galilaeam Joseph cum infante Christo quia timuit Archelaum pro suo patre regnantem in Jerusalem; cum Lucas dicat ideo isse in Galilaeam, quia ibi erat Nazareth civitas eorum.

22. An forte et hoc movet, quomodo dicat Matthaeus, propterea cum puero Jesu parentes ejus isse in Galilaeam, quia metu Archelai in Judaeam ire noluerunt; cum propterea magis isse in Galilaeam videantur, 1087 quia civitas eorum erat Nazareth Galilaeae, sicut Lucas non tacuit? Sed intelligendum est, ubi angelus in somnis in Aegypto dixit ad Joseph, Surge, et accipe puerum et matrem ejus, et vade in terram Israel, sic intellectum esse primo a Joseph, ut putaret jussum se esse pergere in Judaeam; ipsa enim primitus intelligi potuit terra Israel: porro autem posteaquam comperit illic regnare filium Herodis Archelaum, noluit objicere se illi periculo, cum posset terra Israel etiam sic intelligi, ut et Galilaea illic deputaretur, quia et ipsam populus Israel incolebat. Quanquam et alio modo solvi possit haec quaestio, quia potuit videri parentibus Christi cum puero, de quo talia per angelica responsa cognoverant, non esse habitandum nisi in Jerusalem, ubi erat templum Domini; et propterea redeuntes ex Aegypto, illuc eos ituros fuisse, et illic habitaturos, nisi Archelai praesentia terrerentur. Neque enim divinitus jubebantur ibi habitare, ut de Archelao quod timebant deberent contemnere.