{"id":2613,"date":"2020-01-03T01:57:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T05:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2020-01-03T01:57:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T05:57:17","slug":"celestial-honor-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/2020\/01\/celestial-honor-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Celestial VIP\u2014Christmas Stars and How to Write Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Celestial: — Photo by Clarisse Meyer on Unsplash<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Celestial\u00a0Occurrence is but one trope featured in manuals instructing ancients how to write about great men and their births, and \u201cMatthew\u201d follows these rules strictly.<\/h2>\n
Celestial. Astral. Sky Vault.<\/em> Unfamiliar terms for modern Christians spuriously familiar with the Gospels and Christmas origins. But understood rightly, these are the right terms to unlock much of the New Testament.<\/p>\n
Even the earliest of Christmas stories, Matthew 1\u20142<\/a>, describes the birth of Jesus and surrounding events filled with celestial or astral or sky vault phenomena. \u201cMatthew\u201d gives a typical ancient Mediterranean account detailing the birth of an ancient Mediterranean VIP. All the proper tropes and modes of description for such an account are employed. So from start to finish, the story of Jesus \u201cMatthew\u201d gives talks about sky vault persons impacting the land of Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Angel of the Lord,\u201d perhaps the greatest of the celestial servants of God\u2019s fancy entourage in sky vault, comes down from to the land of Israel. At the bidding of Yahweh, he speaks to the *saddiq<\/em> Joseph in dreams. Both \u201cMatthew\u201d and \u201cLuke\u201d tell of celestial activities and phenomena involved at Jesus\u2019 birth (Matthew 1:20<\/a>, 24<\/a>; 2:13<\/a>, 19<\/a>; Luke 1:11<\/a>, 13<\/a>, 18<\/a>, 19<\/a>, 30<\/a>, 34<\/a>, 35<\/a>, 38<\/a>; 2:9<\/a>, 10<\/a>) and resurrection (Matthew 28:2<\/a>, 5<\/a>).<\/p>\n*
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Celestial Signs<\/h2>\n<p>Biblically speaking, stars and angelic persons are interchangeable. In the Gospel called \u201cLuke,\u201d we read about stars talking to shepherds<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Luke 2:13-14<\/strong><\/span><br>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> And suddenly there was a multitude of the sky vault host with the angel, praising God and saying:<\/span><br>\n<em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> \u201cGlory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In \u201cMatthew,\u201d when Jesus dies, earthquakes result, caused by sky vault.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Matthew 27:54<br>\n<\/strong>The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, and they said, \u201cTruly, this was a Son of God!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>At the resurrection, again an earthquake happens, caused by the sky vault.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Matthew 28:2<br>\n<\/strong>And look, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from sky vault, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Christmas Star: a Comet<\/h2>\n<p>So much nonsense is written about the \u201cstar\u201d the Matthean astrologers, popularly imagined as \u201ckings,\u201d followed (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:2\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matthew 2:2-10<\/a>). Forget all of it except this: what \u201cMatthew\u201d describes is a comet, an invented detail that likely didn\u2019t happen in history. In antiquity, comets were always deemed terrible omens, portents of political upheaval. This moving star, an other-than-human sky person, leads the Babylonian magi toward Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<h2>Celestial Honor Recognition of Jesus<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Matthew 2:1-12\u2014<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod\u2014look!\u2014magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, \u201cWhere is the newborn king of the Judeans? We saw his star\u00a0at its rising and have come to do him homage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">They said to him, \u201cIn Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>\u2018And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,<br>\n<\/em><em>are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;<br>\n<\/em><em>since from you shall come a ruler,<br>\n<\/em><em>who is to shepherd my people Israel.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star\u2019s appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">He sent them to Bethlehem and said, \u201cGo and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">After their audience with the king they set out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">And look, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">They prostrated themselves and did him homage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How to Write the Origins of a Great One<\/h2>\n<p>What is going on here? It is standard procedure for writing about an ancient Mediterranean great one. We know about the <em>progymnasmata, <\/em>Greco-Roman writing manuals. These proliferated in the ancient world. Without them, \u201cMatthew\u201d and \u201cLuke\u201d would not exist. Through their exercises in rhetoric, the <em>progymnasmata<\/em> instructed students organizational techniques, a \u201chow-to\u201d about praising a famous person around various topics. Context Scholars Bruce Malina and Richard Rohbaugh find it amazing how closely the Matthean Infancy Narrative follows these schoolboy rhetoric manuals.<\/p>\n<p>The Context Scholars cite an example in Hermogenes of Tarsus (ca. 180 CE). He taught his disciples: start with the origin and birth of the subject. Talk of his <em>\u201cpeople, as the Greek, a city, as Athens, a family as the Alcmaeonidae.\u201d<\/em> That is exactly what \u201cMatthew\u201d does with his manufactured genealogy, says John Pilch, Rohrbaugh, and Malina.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMatthew\u201d is a good follower of the wisdom of Hermogenes who says that the next step is to list and describe \u201cwhat marvelous things befell at birth, as dreams or signs or the like.\u201d Indeed, \u201cMatthew\u201d lists dreams (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/1:20\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matthew 1:20<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:12\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2:12<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:13\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">13<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/1:19\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">19<\/a>), celestial phenomena (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:2\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2:2<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:10\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">10<\/a>), apparitions of angels (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/1:20\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">1:20<\/a>), and the honor given by astrologers bearing special gifts (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2:1<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:11\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">11<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Pilch notes that Quintilian (d. 100 CE) instructs his rhetorical students to make note of events that transpired before the birth of the VIP, including prophecies speaking about the subject\u2019s \u201ccoming greatness\u201d (<em>Inst. Orat.<\/em> 3.7.10-18). \u201cMatthew\u201d agrees and gives these also (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/1:23\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">1:23<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:6\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2:6<\/a>)!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Christmas Stories 34: Matthew 1-2, Case Study in Mediterranean Accounts of Origin\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/31NNzX3EXrA?list=PLpvbtNpcitxyqCniDoMDZUtYpAPn83Dy6\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Celestial Honor<\/h2>\n<p>Celestial events speak about the great one born on earth. Again the \u201cstar\u201d moving westward from the East (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:9\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">v. 9<\/a>) is a comet, says the Context Scholars. All comets were thought to be terrifying omens speaking of political turmoil and change. But what exactly do they mean? That depends on their direction, says Pliny the Elder.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u201cSometimes there is a comet in the western sky, usually a terrifying star and not easily explained,\u201d<\/em> Pliny says. Pliny next explains different political calamities that each type of \u201cstar\u201d ( = comet) signifies (<em>Natural History<\/em> 2, 23). Any comet would expectedly trouble Herod and all Jerusalem. That the magi come to \u201cthe king of the Judeans\u201d illustrates that Jesus\u2019 birth has a political impact.<\/p>\n<h2>Judean, not Jew<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/2019\/12\/jews-judeans\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Two posts ago I indicated that everywhere \u201cJews\u201d is found in our English Bible translations, it is wrong<\/a>. It should always, always read \u201cJudeans,\u201d never \u201cJews.\u201d So too in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:12\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matthew 2:12<\/a> where again English readers find \u201cJews\u201d\u2014even in our very best English translations\u2014is likewise incorrect. It should read \u201cJudeans.\u201d The Greek used here (and always throughout \u201cMatthew\u201d) is <strong><em>Ioudaios,<\/em><\/strong> and there is no other meaning it has but <strong><em>\u201cJudean.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The way \u201cMatthew\u201d uses it, <strong><em>Ioudaios<\/em><\/strong> refers only to someone (or something) from Judea. It correlates to \u201cGalilean\u201d and \u201cPerean,\u201d and all three terms refer to Israelites living in Syro-Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>Here we discover the name for the ethnic group involved in this Gospel called \u201cMatthew\u201d\u2014\u201cIsrael.\u201d Note that Joseph gets directed to back to the land of Israel (not \u201cJudea\u201d and not \u201cland of the Jews,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/2:20\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">2:20-21<\/a>). Note that the Matthean Jesus only refers to his people as \u201cIsrael\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/8:10\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matthew 8:10<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/9:32\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">9:32-33<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/19:28\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">19:28<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h2>Matthean Twist<\/h2>\n<p>The <em>progymnasmata<\/em> of Menander Rhetor (late 3<sup>rd<\/sup> century) teaches writers that they must praise the <em>polis<\/em> from which their honored subject originates. Pilch explains that this is because honor is ascribed to those born in an honorable <em>polis<\/em> (<em>Treatise<\/em> 2.369.17 \u2014 370.10).<\/p>\n<p>But in order to do this, \u201cMatthew\u201d has to spin and twist some Scriptural citations into pretzels. So he quotes the prophet Micah when he mentions Bethlehem, but twists the prophet\u2019s meaning 180 degrees.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Micah 5:1<br>\n<\/strong><em>But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah<\/em><\/span><br>\n<em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"> <strong>least among the clans of Judah,<br>\n<\/strong>From you shall come forth for me<\/span><\/em><br>\n<em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"> one who is to be ruler in Israel;<\/span><\/em><br>\n<em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"> Whose origin is from of old,<\/span><\/em><br>\n<em><span style=\"color: #008000;\"> from ancient times.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>See how Micah called Bethlehem \u201cone of the little clans of Judah\u201d (5:1)? \u00a0Look how \u201cMatthew\u201d reshapes that\u2014<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Matthew 2:6<br>\n<\/strong><em>And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,<br>\n<strong>are by no means least<\/strong> <strong>among the rulers of Judah;<br>\n<\/strong>for from you shall come a ruler<br>\nwho will govern my people Israel.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Christmas Stories 35: All about Israel\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ir-p94tlS8c?list=PLpvbtNpcitxyqCniDoMDZUtYpAPn83Dy6\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Synoptic Embarrassment<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cMatthew\u201d and \u201cLuke\u201d both depend on the earlier Gospel called \u201cMark\u201d to write of Jesus. \u201cMark\u201d has no Infancy Narrative, no Bethlehem is needed. Nazareth is all you get for Jesus\u2019 meager place of origin. \u201cMatthew\u201d and \u201cLuke\u201d were both embarrassed of the Galilean Jesus\u2019 roots in the hamlet Nazareth. Even Bethlehem isn\u2019t much, except for its Davidic ties. So \u201cMatthew\u201d writes about the origins of Jesus who hails from the royal polis, with royal heritage and ancestry, who is meant to be king over Israel. Pilch and friends explain that the Matthean Jesus traverses the entire social spectrum from the village artisan belonging to \u201cMark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More on those <em>magi,<\/em> as promised, later.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celestial\u00a0Occurrence is but one trope featured in manuals instructing ancients how to write about great men and their births, and \u201cMatthew\u201d follows these rules strictly. Celestial. Astral. Sky Vault. Unfamiliar terms for modern Christians spuriously familiar with the Gospels and Christmas origins. But understood rightly, these are the right terms to unlock much of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4218,"featured_media":2622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[481,543,456,549,546],"class_list":["post-2613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birth-of-jesus","tag-christmas-star","tag-magi","tag-matthew-2","tag-three-kings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celestial Signs in Matthew's Infancy Narrative: How to Honor a Great One<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Celestial signs such as stars and angelic visitors, these are but some of the ways ancient writers described the stereotyped birth accounts of famous persons. The birth accounts of Jesus are no different! 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Matthew 1--2 shows that its author was well schooled in how to honor his famous subject, Jesus.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/2020\/01\/celestial-honor-star\/","og_site_name":"Messy Inspirations","article_published_time":"2020-01-03T05:57:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1251\/2020\/01\/Celestial.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fellow Dying Inmate","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fellow Dying Inmate","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/2020\/01\/celestial-honor-star\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/2020\/01\/celestial-honor-star\/","name":"Celestial Signs in Matthew's Infancy Narrative: How to Honor a Great One","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-03T05:57:17+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-03T05:57:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/messyinspirations\/#\/schema\/person\/a52dbe13234c070b663c2cf1ed620915"},"description":"Celestial signs such as stars and angelic visitors, these are but some of the ways ancient writers described the stereotyped birth accounts of famous persons. The birth accounts of Jesus are no different! 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