| Matthew 2:18 | |
|---|---|
← 2:17 2:19 → | |
 Michelangelo's statue of Rachel | |
| Book | Gospel of Matthew |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
Matthew 2:18 is the eighteenth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Herod has ordered the Massacre of the Innocents and this verse quotes from the Book of Jeremiah to show that this event was predicted by the prophets.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The World English Bible translates the passage as:
The Novum Testamentum Graece text is:
For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 2:18
The verse is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:15. This is the first of three times Matthew quotes Jeremiah, the others being Matthew 16:14 and Matthew 24:9. [1] The verse is similar to the Masoretic, but is not an exact copy implying that it could be a direct translation from the Hebrew. In Jeremiah this verse is a description of Rachel, the long dead mother of the northern tribes, mourning as her children are taken into captivity by the Assyrians. [2] This mourning thus addresses born the Massacre of the Innocents, but the reference to a forced exile can also refer to the Holy Family's Flight into Egypt. [3]
This has long been considered one of Matthew's more elusive Old Testament references. [4] Scholars have pointed out a number of problems with the context and original meaning. Rachel's tomb has long been associated with Bethlehem an important link between here and the massacre taking place there. However, Brown notes that this view is likely incorrect. Genesis reports that Rachel died and was buried while travelling to Bethlehem and implies that she was still some distance away from the town. In this verse the author of Jeremiah seems to be asserting that she was buried in Ramah, a town some five miles from Bethlehem. The Hebrew word Ramah could also be translated as "on high" and some versions of Jeremiah use this wording. "A voice was heard on high" would seem to fit more logically with Matthew's narrative, but it is fairly clear that the town is being referred to. [5]
Another difficulty is that Bethlehem is in Judah, and thus its people were regarded as the children of Leah not Rachel. The verse is also taken somewhat out of context. The passage in Jeremiah is actually one of joy ending with the information that God had saved the Israelites and the children would be unharmed. This is not true of the children of Bethlehem who find no last minute succor. However, in the Catholic and Orthodox churches the Holy Innocents were proclaimed to all be saints, thus meeting Jeremiah's message of deliverance.
The most likely explanation however, is that Rachel represents her descendants more importantly the women of whom lost their children. The voice heard in Rama was that of the lamentation and weeping and great mourning taking place in Bethlehem. The outcry was so great that it was heard from over 5 miles away.
The most pertinent problem however is the fact that Jeremiah continues his narration in the consecutive verses Jeremiah 31:16-17, [6] where the Lord says that the children will return from the enemy to their own land
Chrysostom: The Evangelist by this history of so bloody a massacre, having filled the reader with horror, now again soothes his feelings, showing that these things were not done because God could not hinder, or knew not of them; but as the Prophet had foretold. [7]
Jerome: (In Hierem. 31:15.) This passage of Jeremiah has been quoted by Matthew neither according to the Hebrew nor the LXX (Septuagint) version. This shows that the Evangelists and Apostles did not follow any one's translation, but according to the Hebrew manner expressed in their own words what they had read in Hebrew. [7]
Jerome: By Ramah we need not suppose that the town of that name near Gibeah is meant; but take it as signifying ‘high.’ A voice was heard ‘aloft,’ that is, spread far and wide.’ [7]
Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, it was heard on high, because uttered for the death of the innocent, according to that, The voice of the poor entereth into the heavens. (Ecclus. 35:21.) The ‘weeping’ means the cries of the children; ‘lamentation,’ refers to the mothers. In the infants themselves their death ends their cries, in the mothers it is continually renewed by the remembrance of their loss. [7]
Jerome: Rachel's son was Benjamin, in which tribe Bethlehem is not situated. How then does Rachel weep for the children of Judah as if they were her own? We answer briefly. She was buried near Bethlehem in Ephrata, and was regarded as the mother, because her body was there entertained. Or, as the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were contiguous, and Herod's command extended to the coasts of Bethlehem as well as to the town itself, we may suppose that many were slain in Benjamin. [7]
Pseudo-Augustine: Or, The sons of Benjamin, who were akin to Rachel, were formerly cut off by the other tribes, and so extinct both then and ever after. Then therefore Rachel began to mourn her sons, when she saw those of her sister cut off in such a cause, that they should be heirs of eternal life; for he who has experienced any misfortune, is made more sensible of his losses by the good fortune of a neighbour. [7]
Saint Remigius: The sacred Evangelist adds, to show the greatness of the mourning, that even the dead Rachel was roused to mourn her sons, and would not be comforted because they were not. [7]
Jerome: This may be understood in two ways; either she thought them dead for all eternity, so that no consolation could comfort her; or, she desired not to receive any comfort for those who she knew had gone into life eternal. [7]
Hilary of Poitiers: It could not be that they were not who seemed now dead, but by glorious martyrdom they were advanced to eternal life; and consolation is for those who have suffered loss, not for those who have reaped a gain. Rachel affords a type of the Church long barren now at length fruitful. She is heard weeping for her children, not because she mourned them dead, but because they were slaughtered by those whom she would have retained as her first-born sons. [7]
Rabanus Maurus: Or, The Church weeps the removal of the saints from this earth, but wishes not to be comforted as though they should return again to the struggles of life, for they are not to be recalled into life. [7]
Glossa Ordinaria: She will not be comforted in this present life, for that they are not, but transfers all her hope and comfort to the life to come. [7]
Rabanus Maurus: Rachel is well set for a type of the Church, as the word signifies ‘a sheep’ or ‘seeing;’ her whole thought being to fix her eye in contemplation of God; and she is the hundredth sheep that the shepherd layeth on his shoulder. [7]
The Massacreof the Innocents is an incident in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Christians venerate the Holy Innocents as the first Christian martyrs, but a majority of Herod biographers, and "probably a majority of current biblical scholars" consider the story fabricated or unhistorical.
Jeremiah, also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, the Books of Kings and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.
Matthew 2:6 is the sixth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The magi have informed King Herod that they had seen portents showing the birth of the King of the Jews. Herod has asked the leading Jewish religious figures about how to find out where Jesus was to be born. In this verse they tell him by quoting from the Book of Micah.
Matthew 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It describes the events after the birth of Jesus, the visit of the magi and the attempt by King Herod to kill the infant messiah, Joseph and his family's flight into Egypt, and their later return to live in Israel, settling in Nazareth.
Matthew 12:7 is the seventh verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
The books of the New Testament frequently cite Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Scholars have observed that few of these citations are actual predictions in context; the majority of these quotations and references are taken from the prophetic Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Micah, also known as Micheas, was a prophet in Judaism and is the author of the Book of Micah. He is considered one of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Hebrew Bible and was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Hosea. Micah was from Moresheth-Gath, in southwest Judah. He prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.
Ramah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a city in ancient Israel in the land allocated to the tribe of Benjamin. It was located near Gibeon and Mizpah to the West, Gibeah to the South, and Geba to the East.
The Ordo Rachelis, Interfectio Puerorum, or Ludus Innocentium is a medieval dramatic tradition consisting in four plays and based on the Massacre of the Innocents, an event recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, and on the prophecy recorded in the Book of Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not". The prophecy, which Matthew believed to be fulfilled when Herod the Great ordered the slaughter of all boys under two in Bethlehem, looks backwards to Rachel, the matriarch of the Hebrews, and towards her lamentation over the death of her children, the Hebrew children, in the massacre.
Rachel was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aunt Rebecca was Jacob's mother.
Vox in Rama is a decretal sent by Pope Gregory IX in June 1233 condemning the heresy of Luciferianism said to be rife in Germany, and authorizing the preaching of a crusade against it. Copies of the letter were sent to Emperor Frederick II, King Henry (VII) of Germany, Archbishop Siegfried III of Mainz, his suffragans, Bishop Conrad II of Hildesheim and the preacher Konrad von Marburg. The copies are dated to 11, 13 and 14 June.
Matthew 27:9-10 are the ninth and tenth verses of the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. These verses end the final story of Judas Iscariot, with a quotation from scripture showing how the events around his final days were predicted.
Lamentations 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, part of the Ketuvim ("Writings").
Ruth 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, part of the Ketuvim ("Writings"). This chapter contains the story of how Boaz goes up to the city gate, calls his kinsman; inquires whether he would redeem and marry Ruth, Ruth 4:1-5. He refuses, Ruth 4:6-8. Boaz, with the people witnessing and congratulating, buys the inheritance, and marries Ruth, Ruth 4:9-12. She gave birth to Obed the grandfather of King David, Ruth 4:13-17. The genealogy from Perez (Pharez) to David, Ruth 4:18-22.
Jeremiah 6 is the sixth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 2 to 6 contain the earliest preaching of Jeremiah on the apostasy of Israel. This chapter relates Jeremiah's warning of "impending destruction from the North".
Jeremiah 7 is the seventh chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 7 to 10 constitute an address delivered by Jeremiah at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter contains a kinah or lamentation for the rulers of Israel. Two princes are lamented, one captured and carried to Egypt, i.e. Jehoahaz, son and successor of Josiah, and another carried to Babylon, who must be Jehoiachin.
Jeremiah 31 is the thirty-first chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 38 in the Septuagint. The book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets (Nevi'im). This chapter is notable for the passage about the "New Covenant" (31:31-34) of God with His restored people and the quoting of 31:15 in the “Massacre of the Innocents" narrative. The Jerusalem Bible refers to chapters 30 and 31 as "the Book of Consolation", and Lutheran theologian Ernst Hengstenberg calls these two chapters "the triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation".
Jeremiah 40 is the fortieth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is part of a narrative section consisting of chapters 37 to 44. Chapter 40 recounts that Jeremiah chose to remain in Judah and that the occupying Babylonians appointed Gedaliah as governor.
Jeremiah 43 is the forty-third chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is part of a narrative section consisting of chapters 37 to 44. Chapters 42-44 describe the emigration to Egypt involving the remnant who remained in Judah after much of the population was exiled to Babylon. In this chapter, Jeremiah performs in Egypt one of the sign-acts distinctive of his prophetic style.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .| Preceded by Matthew 2:17 | Gospel of Matthew Chapter 2 | Succeeded by Matthew 2:19 |
| Bible (New Testament) |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events and phrases |
| ||||
| People | |||||
| Places | |||||
| Related | |||||
| Sources | |||||
| In popular culture |
| ||||
