13. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.
14. When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt
15. And was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my Son.
RABANUS. Here Matthew omits the clay of purification when the first-born must be presented in the Temple with a lamb or a pair of turtle doves or pigeons. Their fear of Herod did not make them bold to transgress the Law, that they should not present the Child in the temple. As soon then as the rumor concerning the Child begins to be spread abroad, the Angel is sent to bid Joseph carry Him into Egypt.
REMIG. By this that the Angel appears always to Joseph in sleep, is mystically signified that they who rest from mundane cares and secular pursuits, deserve angelic visitations.
HILARY; The first time when he would teach Joseph that she was lawfully espoused, the Angel called the Virgin his espoused
wife; but after the birth she is only spoken of as the Mother of Jesus. As wedlock was rightfully imputed to her in her virginity, so virginity is esteemed venerable in her as the mother of Jesus.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. He says not, 'the Mother and her young Child'; but, the young Child and His mother; for the Child was not born for the mother, but the mother prepared for the Child. How is this that the Son of God flies from the face of man? or who shall deliver from the enemy's hand, if He Himself fears His enemies? First, He ought to observe, even in this, the law of that human nature which He took on Him; and human nature and infancy must flee before threatening power. Next, that Christians when persecution makes it necessary should not be ashamed to fly. But why into Egypt? The Lord, who keeps not His anger forever, remembered time woes He had brought upon Egypt, and therefore sent His Son there, and gives it this sign of great reconciliation, that with this one remedy He might heal the ten plagues of Egypt, and the nation that had been the persecutor of this first-born people, might be the guardian of His first-born Son. As formerly they had cruelly tyrannized, now they might devoutly serve; nor go to the Red Sea to be drowned, but be called to the waters of baptism to receive life.
AUG. Hear the sacrament of a great mystery. Moses before had shut up the light of day from the traitors the Egyptians; Christ by going down thither brought back light to them that sat in darkness. He fled that He might enlighten them, not that he might escape his foes.
ID. The miserable tyrant supposed that by the Savior's coming he should be thrust from his royal throne. But it was not so; Christ came not to hurt others dignity, but to bestow His own on others.
HILARY; Egypt full of idols; for after this inquiry for Him among the Jews, Christ leaving Judea goes to be cherished among nations given to the vainest superstitions.
JEROME; When he takes the Child and His mother to go into Egypt, it is in the night and darkness, when to return into Judea, the Gospel speaks of no light, no darkness.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. The straightness of every persecution may be called night - relief from it in like manner, day.
RABANUS; For when the true light withdraws, they who hate the light are in darkness; when it returns they are again enlightened.
CHRYS. See how immediately on His birth the tyrant is furious against Him, and the mother with her Child is driven into foreign lands. So should you in the beginning of your spiritual career seem to have tribulation, you need not to be discouraged, but bear all things manfully, having this example.
BEDE. The flight into Egypt signifies that the elect are often by the wickedness of the bad driven from their homes, or sentenced to banishment. Thus He, who, we shall see below, gave the command to His own, When they shall persecute you in one city, flee to another, first practiced what He enjoined, as a man flying before the face of man on earth. He whom but a little before a star had proclaimed to the Magi to be worshipped as from heaven.
REMIG. Isaiah had foretold this flight into Egypt Lo! the Lord shall ascend on a light cloud, and shall come into Egypt, and shall scatter the idols of Egypt (Is 19:1). It is the practice of this Evangelist to confirm all he says; and that because he is writing to the Jews, therefore he adds, that it might be fulfilled, &c.
JEROME. This is not in the LXX, but in Osee according to the genuine Hebrew text we read: Israel is my child, and I have loved him, and from Egypt have I called my Son; where the LXX render, Israel is my child, and I have loved him and called my sons out of Egypt. ID. The Evangelist cites this text, because it refers to Christ typically. For it is to be observed that in this Prophet and in others, the coming of Christ and the call of the Gentiles are foreshown in such a manner, that the thread of history is never broken.
CHRYS. It is a law of prophecy, that in a thousand places many things are said of some and fulfilled of others. As it is said of Simeon and Levi, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Gen 49:7); which was fulfilled not in themselves, but in their descendants. So here Christ is by nature the Son of God, and so the prophecy is fulfilled in Him.
JEROME; Let those who deny the authenticity of the Hebrew copies, show us this passage in the LXX, and when they have failed to find it, we will show it them in the Hebrew. We may also explain it in another way, by considering it as quoted from Numbers, God brought him out of Egypt; his glory is as it were that of a unicorn (Num 23:22).
REMIG. In Joseph is figured the order of preachers, in Mary Holy Scripture; by the Child the knowledge of the Savior; by the cruelty of Herod the persecution which the Church suffered in Jerusalem; by Joseph's flight into Egypt the passing of the preachers to the unbelieving Gentiles (for Egypt signifies darkness); by the time that he abode in Egypt the space of time between the ascension of the Lord and the coming of Anti-Christ; by Herod's death the extinction of jealousy in the hearts of the Jews.
19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20. Saying, Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young Child's life.
EUSEB. For the sacrilege which Herod had committed against the Savior, and his wicked slaughter of the infants of the same age, the Divine vengeance hastened his end; and his body, as Josephus relates, was attacked by a strange disease; so that the prophets declared that they were not human ailments, but visitations of Divine vengeance. Filled with mad fury, he gives command to seize and imprison the heads and nobles out of all parts of Judea, ordering that as soon as ever he should breathe his last, they should be all put to death, that so Judea though unwillingly might mourn at his decease. Just before he died he murdered his son Antipater (besides two boys put to death before, Alexander and Aristobulus). Such was the end of Herod, noticed in those words of the Evangelist, when Herod was dead, and such the punishment inflicted.
JEROME; Many here err from ignorance of history, supposing the Herod who mocked our Lord on the day of His passion, and the Herod whose death is here related, were the same. But the Herod who was then made friends with Pilate was son of this Herod and brother to Archelaus; for Archelaus was banished to Lyons in Gaul, and his father Herod made king in his room, as we read in Josephus.
PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS; See how Jesus Himself, though far above all celestial beings, and coming unchanged to our nature, shunned not that ordinance of humanity which He had taken on Him, but was obedient to the dispositions of His Father made known by Angels. For even by Angels is declared to Joseph the retreat of the Son into Egypt, so ordained of the Father, and His return again to Judea.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. See how Joseph was set for ministering to Mary; when she went into Egypt and returned, who would have fulfilled to her this so needful ministry, had she not been betrothed? For to outward view Mary nourished and Joseph defended the Child; but in truth the Child supported His mother and protected Joseph. Return into the land of Israel; for He went down into Egypt as a physician, not to abide there, but to succour it sick with error. But the reason of the return is given in the words, They are dead, &c.
JEROME; From this we see that not Herod only, but also the Priests and Scribes had sought the Lord's death at that time.
REMIG. But if they were many who sought his destruction, how came they all to have died in so short a time? As we have related above, all the great men among the Jews were slain at Herod's death.
PSEUDO-CHRYS.And that is said to have been done by the counsel of God for their conspiring with Herod against the Lord; as it is said, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
REMIG. Or the Evangelist uses a figure of speech, by which the plural is used for the singular. These words, the Child's life, overthrow those heretics who taught that Christ did not take a soul, but had His Divinity in place of a Soul.
BEDE; This slaughter of the infants for the Lord's sake, the death of Herod soon after, and Joseph's return with the Lord and his mother to the land of Israel, is a figure showing that all the persecutions moved against the Church will be avenged by the death of the persecutor, peace restored to the Church, and the saints who had concealed themselves return to their own places. Or the return of Jesus to the land of Israel on the death of Herod shows that, at the preaching of Enoch and Elijah, the Jews, when the fire of modern jealousy shall be extinguished, shall receive the true faith.
21. And he arose, and took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee;
23. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might he fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
GLOSS. Joseph was not disobedient to the angelic warning, but he arose, and took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. The Angel had not fixed the particular place, so that while Joseph hesitates, the Angel returns, and by the often visiting him confirms his obedience.
JOSEPHUS; Herod had nine wives, by seven of whom he had a numerous issue. By Josida, his first born Antipater - by Mariamine, Alexander and Aristobulus - by Mathuca, a Samaritan woman, Archelaus - by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, Herod, who was afterwards tetrarch, and Philip. The three first were put to death by Herod, and after his death Archelaus seized the throne by occasion of his father's will, and the question of the succession was carried before Augustus Caesar. After some delay, he made a distribution of the whole of Herod's dominions in accordance with the Senate's advice. To Archelaus he assigned one half, consisting of Idumea and Judea, with the title of tetrarch, and a promise of that of king if he showed himself deserving of it. The rest he divided into two tetrarchates, giving Galilee to Herod the tetrarch, Ituraea and Trachonitis to Philip. Thus Archelaus was after his father's death a duarch, which kind of sovereignty is here called a kingdom.
AUG. Here it may be asked, How then could his parents go up every year of Christ's childhood to Jerusalem, as Luke relates, if fear of Archelaus now prevented them from approaching it? This difficulty is easily solved. At the festival they might escape notice in the crowd, and by returning soon, where in ordinary times they might be afraid to live. So they neither became irreligious by neglecting the festival, nor notorious by dwelling continually in Jerusalem. Or it is open to us to understand Luke when he says, they went up every year, as speaking of a time when they had nothing to fear from Archelaus, who, as Josephus relates , reigned only nine years. There is yet a difficulty in what follows: Being warned in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. If Joseph was afraid to go into Judea because one of Herod's sons, Archelaus, reigned there, how could he go into Galilee, where another of his sons, Herod, was tetrarch, as Luke tells us? As if the times of which Luke is speaking were times in which there was no longer need to fear for the Child, when even in Judea things were so changed, that Archelaus no longer ruled there, but Pilate was governor.
GLOSS.But then we might ask, why was he not afraid to go into Galilee, seeing Archelaus ruled there also? He could be better concealed in Nazareth than in Jerusalem, which was the capital of the kingdom, and where Archelaus was constantly resident.
CHRYS. And when he had once left the country of His birth, all the occurrences passed out of mind; the rage of persecution had been spent in Bethlehem and its neighborhood. By choosing Nazareth therefore, Joseph both avoided danger, and returned to his country.
AUG. This may perhaps occur to some, that Matthew says His parents went with the Child Jesus to Galilee because they feared Archelaus, when it should seem most probable that they chose Galilee because Nazareth was their own city, as Luke has not forgotten to mention. We must understand, that when the Angel in the vision in Egypt said to Joseph, Go into the land of Israel, Joseph understood the command to be that he should go straight into Judea, that being properly the land of Israel. But finding Archelaus ruling there, he would not court the danger, as the land of Israel might be interpreted to extend to Galilee, which was inhabited by children of Israel. Or we may suppose His parents supposed that Christ should dwell nowhere but in Jerusalem, where was the temple of the Lord, and would have gone there had not the fear of Archelaus hindered them. And they had not been commanded from God to dwell positively in Judea, or Jerusalem, so as that they should have despised the fear of Archelaus, but only in the land of Israel generally, which they might understand of Galilee.
HILARY. But the figurative interpretation holds good any way. Joseph represents the Apostles, to whom Christ is entrusted to be borne about. These, as though Herod were dead, that is, his people being destroyed in the Lord's passion, are commanded to preach the Gospel to the Jews; they are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But finding the seed of their hereditary unbelief still abiding, they fear and withdraw; admonished by a vision, to wit, seeing the Holy Ghost poured upon the Gentiles, they carry Christ to them.
RABANUS. Or, we may apply it to the last times of the Jewish Church, when many Jews having turned to the preaching of Enoch and Elijah, the rest filled with the spirit of Antichrist shall fight against the faith. So that part of Judea where Archelaus rules, signifies the followers of Antichrist; Nazareth of Galilee, where Christ is conveyed, that part of the nation that shall embrace the faith. Galilee means 'removal'; Nazareth, 'the flower of virtues'; for the Church the more zealously she removes from the earthly to the heavenly, the more she abounds in the flower and fruit of virtues.
GLOSS. To this he adds the Prophet's testimony, saying, That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets, &c.
JEROME. Had he meant to quote a particular text, he would not have written 'Prophets,' but 'the Prophet.' By thus using the plural he evidently does not take the words of any one passage in Scripture, but the sense of the whole. Nazarene is interpreted 'Holy,' and that the Lord would be Holy, all Scripture testifies. Otherwise we may explain that it is found in Isaiah rendered to the strict letter of the Hebrew. There shall come a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Nazarene shall grow out of His roots.
PSEUDO-CHRYS. They might have read this in some Prophets who are not in our canon, as Nathan or Esdras. That there was some prophecy to this purport is clear from what Philip says to Nathanael. Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:15). Hence the Christians were at first called Nazarenes; at Antioch their name was changed to that of 'Christians.'
AUG. The whole of this history, from the account of the Magi inclusively, Luke omits. Let it be here noticed once for all, that each of the Evangelists writes as if he were giving a full and complete history, which omits nothing; where he really passes over anything, he continues his thread of history as if he had told all. Yet by a diligent comparison of their several narratives, we can be at no loss to know where to insert any particular that is mentioned by one and not by the other.
Catena Aurea Matthew 2