Chapter XI.—An Examination of the Question as to How It Was Possible for Them to Go Up, According to Luke’s Statement, with Him to Jerusalem to the Temple, When the Days of the Purification of the Mother of Christ Were Accomplished, in Order to Perform the Usual Rites, If It is Correctly Recorded by Matthew, that Herod Had Already Learned from the Wise Men that the Child Was Born in Whose Stead, When He Sought for Him, He Slew So Many Children.

24. Hereby also we see how another question is solved, if any one indeed finds a difficulty in it. I allude to the question as to how it was possible, on the supposition that the elder Herod was already anxious (to obtain information regarding Him), and agitated by the intelligence received from the wise men concerning the birth of the King of the Jews, for them, when the days of the purification of His mother were accomplished, to go up in any safety with Him to the temple, in order to see to the performance of those things which were according to the law of the Lord, and which are specified by Luke.284    [Compare note on the relative position of the visit of the Magi and the presentation in the temple, § 17.—R.] For who can fail to perceive that this solitary day might very easily have escaped the notice of a king, whose attention was engaged with a multitude of affairs? Or if it does not appear probable that Herod, who was waiting in the extremest anxiety to see what report the wise men would bring back to him concerning the child, should have been so long in finding out how he had been mocked, that, only after the mother’s purification was already past, and the solemnities proper to the first-born were performed with respect to the child in the temple, nay more, only after their departure into Egypt, did it come into his mind to seek the life of the child, and to slay so many little ones;—if, I say, any one finds a difficulty in this, I shall not pause to state the numerous and important occupations by which the king’s attention may have been engaged, and for the space of many days either wholly diverted from such thoughts, or prevented from following them out. For it is not possible to enumerate all the cases which might have made that perfectly possible. No one, however, is so ignorant of human affairs as either to deny or to question that there may very easily have been many such matters of importance (to preoccupy the king). For to whom will not the thought occur, that reports, whether true or false, of many other more terrible things may possibly have been brought to the king, so that the person who had been apprehensive of a certain royal child, who after a number of years might prove an adversary to himself or to his sons, might be so agitated with the terrors of certain more immediate dangers, as to have his attention forcibly removed from that earlier anxiety, and engaged rather with the devising of measures to ward off other more instantly threatening perils? Wherefore, leaving all such considerations unspecified, I simply venture on the assertion that, when the wise men failed to bring back any report to him, Herod may have believed that they had been misled by a deceptive vision of a star, and that, after their want of success in discovering Him whom they had supposed to have been born, they had been ashamed to return to him; and that in this way the king, having his fears allayed, had given up the idea of asking after and persecuting the child. Consequently, when they had gone with Him to Jerusalem after the purification of His mother, and when those things had been performed in the temple which are recounted by Luke,285    Luke ii. 22–39. inasmuch as the words which were spoken by Simeon and Anna in their prophesyings regarding Him, when publicity began to be given to them by the persons who had heard them, were like to call back the king’s mind then to its original design, Joseph obeyed the warning conveyed to him in the dream, and fled with the child and His mother into Egypt. Afterwards, when the things which had been done and said in the temple were made quite public, Herod perceived that he had been mocked; and then, in his desire to get at the death of Christ, he slew the multitude of children, as Matthew records.286    Matt. ii. 3–16.

CAPUT XI. Quomodo potuerint, completis diebus purgationis matris Christi, sicut Lucas dicit, ascendere cum illo in templum ad peragenda solemnia, si secundum Matthaeum jam Herodi, per Magos notum erat eum natum, pro quo, cum eum quaereret, tot occidit infantes.

24. Hinc etiam illa solvitur quaestio, si aliquem movet, cum jam sollicitus esset ille major Herodes perculsus Magorum nuntio, quod rex Judaeorum natus fuisset, quomodo potuerint completis diebus purgationis matris ejus tuto cum illo ascendere in templum, ut fierent circa eum secundum Legem Domini 1088 quae Lucas commemorat. Quis enim non videat, etiam illum unum diem regem multis occupatum latere potuisse? Si autem illud verisimile non videtur, quod Herodes qui valde sollicitus exspectabat, quid sibi Magi de puero renuntiarent, post tam multos dies se sensit illusum, ut transacto tempore purgationis matris ejus, et peracta circa infantem solemnitate primogenitorum in templo Jerusalem, post etiam profectionem eorum in Aegyptum, in mentem illi venerit quaerere animam pueri, et necare tot parvulos: si hoc ergo movet, omitto dicere quot et quantis occupationibus regia cura distendi potuerit, et per plurimos dies ab illa intentione vel averti omnino, vel impediri. Neque enim enumerari possunt causae quibus hoc potuerit accidere; quas tamen multas et magnas esse potuisse nemo ita rerum humanarum inexpertus est, ut aut neget, aut dubitet. Cujus enim cogitationi non occurrat, quam multa alia terribiliora regi nuntiari potuerint seu vera seu falsa, ut qui regem infantem post aliquot annos sibi vel filiis suis adversaturum timuerat, aliquorum magis propinquantium periculorum terroribus agitatus, ab illa cura mentem abreptam in aliis proxime cavendis potius occuparet? Ut ergo haec omittam, illud dico, posteaquam nihil Herodi Magi renuntiaverunt, eum credere potuisse, illos fallaci stellae visione deceptos, posteaquam non invenerunt quem natum putaverant, erubuisse ad se redire, atque ita eum timore depulso ab inquirendo ac persequendo puero quievisse. Cum ergo post purgationem matris ejus in Jerusalem cum illo venissent, et ea gesta essent in templo, quae a Luca narrantur (Luc. II, 22-39), quia verba Simeonis et Annae de illo prophetantium, cum coepissent ab eis qui audierant praedicari, ad pristinam intentionem revocatura erant animum regis, admonitus per somnium Joseph cum infante et matre ejus fugit in Aegyptum. Deinde vulgatis rebus, quae in templo factae dictaeque fuerant, Herodes se a Magis sensit illusum; ac deinde ad Christi mortem cupiens pervenire, multos infantes, sicut Matthaeus narrat, occidit (Matth. II, 3-16).