The Kyiv Ukraine Temple, in happier times.(LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many of you have probably re-read the Nativity stories from Luke and, possibly, from Matthew within the past twenty-four hours or so.\u00a0 A few may still be planning to read them.\u00a0 With that in mind, I offer this column, which I wrote for the Deseret News<\/em> some time ago:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This next week, many will re-read the gospel stories of Jesus\u2019 birth.\u00a0 In that light, a few brief notes on those accounts might be helpful and of interest.<\/span><\/p>\nFirst, let\u2019s look at the word \u201cespoused,\u201d which is used in the King James translations of Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:27 to describe Mary\u2019s relationship with Joseph at the time of the annunciation of Christ.\u00a0 The ancient Jewish marriage ceremony was only fully complete when the groom took the bride into his house, and, in their case, this hadn\u2019t yet happened.\u00a0 \u201cEspousal\u201d or \u201cbetrothal\u201d refers to a written contract of marriage that had been drawn up between the groom (or his parents) and the bride\u2019s parents, specifying such matters as property sharing and provisions for Mary in the event of Joseph\u2019s death.\u00a0 (A woman was considered a widow even if her \u201cfianc\u00e9\u201d died between betrothal and full marriage.) During this interim period, commonly lasting a year, unchastity between bride and groom, though frowned upon, wasn\u2019t quite considered adultery.\u00a0 But an espoused woman\u2019s unchastity with another man would have been a deeply serious offense\u2014perhaps, in an earlier period, even a capital crime\u2014and this seemed to be exactly Mary\u2019s situation.\u00a0 Repudiation of a marriage contract, which Joseph briefly considered, wasn\u2019t precisely equivalent to divorce, but it was a very grave matter.<\/span><\/p>\nOnly Matthew mentions the \u201cMagi\u201d or wise men from \u201cthe East\u201d\u2014that is, from Persia, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) or the Arabian desert.\u00a0 The word \u201cmagus\u201d comes from a Persian term for the learned religious leadership of Zoroastrianism, the pre-Islamic faith of Iran.\u00a0 As they are in Matthew, they were often linked with the lore of stars.\u00a0 The Magi suggested a threat to Herod\u2019s rule because they arrived in his kingdom like ancient ambassadors trying to establish contact with a foreign monarch\u2014one who clearly wasn\u2019t Herod.\u00a0 The King James Bible says that they \u201cworshipped\u201d Jesus (Mt 2:10); the Greek word can refer to religious worship, but also describes the traditional Persian act of bowing before a king or important person.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the gospel of Luke, \u201call the world\u201d (2:1) refers to the \u201cworld\u201d of the Roman empire.\u00a0 The process described was a preliminary registration or census for eventual tax purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSwaddling clothes\u201d (2:7) were bands of cloth wrapped rather tightly around the baby in order, as was thought, to ensure its proper straight growth.\u00a0 The \u201cmanger\u201d (from the Old French \u201cmangier,\u201d \u201cto eat\u201d) was a feeding trough, probably of stone (which is abundant throughout Palestine) rather than of wood (which isn\u2019t). \u00a0Middle Eastern inns (known in the Islamic period as \u201ckhans\u201d or \u201ccaravanserais\u201d) often included places for guests\u2019 riding or pack animals\u2014not unlike a modern motel\u2019s parking lot.\u00a0 (Tradition identifies it, in Jesus\u2019 case, as a cave.\u00a0 Bethlehem sits atop many of them.) This, says Luke, is where God\u2019s Son was born.<\/span><\/p>\nOnly Luke mentions shepherds in connection with the Nativity (2:8).\u00a0 As is typical in his gospel the poor are those who first receive the message of salvation through Jesus.\u00a0 One of the signs given to John the Baptist of Messiah\u2019s coming is that \u201cto the poor the gospel is preached\u201d (7:22; compare Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:17).\u00a0 But the shepherds\u2019 veneration of the newborn Jesus also suggests his role as the culmination of the Old Testament.\u00a0 After all, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the prophet Moses were also shepherds, as was King David.\u00a0 And the Lord himself is called the shepherd of Israel (Psalms 23:1, 80:2).<\/span><\/p>\nThe very popular King James phrase \u201cgood will to(ward) men\u201d (2:14) probably misrepresents what the angels said.\u00a0 (The Greek is somewhat difficult and ambiguous, perhaps reflecting a non-Greek origin.)\u00a0 A better rendering is \u201cto people of good will,\u201d most likely referring not to nice people but to those on whom God\u2019s good will or favor rests.<\/span><\/p>\nFinally, the description of Jesus as \u201cthe son of the Highest\u201d or of \u201cthe Most High\u201d in Luke 1:32 importantly indicates both his elevated status and the distinction between him and his Father.\u00a0 In this regard, John 1:1-14 can also be read as a kind of Christmas or Nativity story.\u00a0 Around the time of Jesus and John, Jewish thinkers (notably Philo of Alexandria) were using the term \u201clogos\u201d (\u201cword\u201d) to describe an intermediary between humans and the Most High God. For more than two thousand years, the Christmas message has been that, in Jesus, this intermediary came to earth and dwelt among us.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas!\u00a0 God bless us, every one!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cOpinion: The true power of Christmas in a world filled with violence and hate:\u00a0For people in Ukraine and other war-torn nations, Christmas may offer little joy this year, and yet the true power of Christmas remains the world\u2019s great hope\u201d \u201cZelensky rallies Ukrainians with defiant Christmas message after deadly Russian barrage in Kherson\u201d:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1453,7203,32940,2517,32979,1098,7134,3211,32973,28266,28263,32949,32976,2974,3166,2983,3037,2977,32946,2971,2625,7308,32943,32958,32952,28254,4315,32967,32964,32961,20455,28251,29612,8990,28260,32955,3169,32970],"class_list":["post-98040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bible","tag-birth","tag-carol-of-the-bells","tag-christmas","tag-espoused","tag-gospel","tag-gospels","tag-joseph","tag-kherson","tag-kiev","tag-kyiv","tag-leontovych","tag-little-swallow","tag-luke","tag-magi","tag-manger","tag-mary","tag-matthew","tag-mykola-leontovych","tag-nativity","tag-new-testament","tag-new-year","tag-new-years-eve","tag-peter-j-wilhousky","tag-peter-wilhousky","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-shchedrivka","tag-shchedry-vechir","tag-shchedryk","tag-three-wise-men","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-virgin-mary","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-wilhousky","tag-wise-men","tag--i"],"yoast_head":"\n
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