20. We gather this from the expression, 'When he heard that Archelaus did reign.'
Evidently Joseph had not heard who was Herod's successor, when he left Egypt.
Archdeacon Farrar suggests, that the expression 'reigned' ('as a king,' βασιλευει-St.
Matt. ii. 22) refers to the period before Augustus had changed his title from 'King' to
Ethnarch. But this can scarcely be pressed, the word being used of other rule than that of
a king , not only in the New Testament and in the Apocrypha, but by Josephus, and even
by classical writers.
21. The language of St. Matthew (ii. 22, 23) seems to imply express Divine direction not
to enter the territory of Judæa. In that case he would travel along the coast -line till he
passed into Galilee. The impre ssion left is, that the settlement at Nazareth was not of his
own choice.
Of the many years spent in Nazareth, during which Jesus passed from infancy to
childhood, from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood, the Evangelic narrative
has left us but briefest notice. Of His childhood : that 'He grew and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him;'22 of His youth: besides the
account of His questioning the Rabbis in the Temple, the year before he attained Jewish
majority - that 'He was subject to His parents,' and that 'He increased in wisdom and in
stature, and in favour with God and man.' Considering what loving care watched over
Jewish child-life, tenderly marking by not fewer than eight designations the various
stages of its development,23 and the deep interest naturally attaching to the early life of
the Messiah, that silence, in contrast to the almost blasphemous absurdities of the
Apocryphal Gospels, teaches us once more, and most impressively, that the Gospels
furnish a history of the Saviour, not a biography of Jesus of Nazareth.
22. St. Luke ii. 40.
23. Yeled, the newborn babe, as in Is. ix. 6; Yoneq, the suckling, Is. xi. 8; Olel, the
suckling beginning to ask for food, Lam. iv. 4; Gamul, the weaned child, Is . xxviii. 9;
Taph, the child clinging to its mother, Jer. xl. 7; Elem, a child becoming firm; Naar, the
lad, literally, 'one who shakes himself free;' and Bachur, the ripened one. (See 'Sketches
of Jewish Social Life,' pp. 103. 104.)
St. Matthew, indeed, summarises the whole outward history of the life in Nazareth in one
sentence. Henceforth Jesus would stand out before the Jews of His time - and, as we
know, of all times,24 by the distinctive designation: 'of Nazareth,' ψρχν (Notsri),
Ναζωραιος, the Nazarene.' In the mind of a Palestinian a peculiar significance would
attach to the by-Name of the Messiah, especially in its connection with the general
teaching of prophetic Scripture. And here we mus t remember, that St. Matthew primarily
addressed his Gospel to Palestinian readers, and that it is the Jewish presentation of the
Messiah as meeting Jewish expectancy. In this there is nothing derogatory to the
character of the Gospel, no accommodation in the sense of adaptation, since Jesus was
not only the Saviour of the world, but especially also the King of the Jews, and we are
now considering how He would stand out before the Jewish mind. On one point all were
agreed: His Name was Notsri (of Nazareth). St. Matthew proceeds to point out, how
entirely this accorded with prophetic Scripture - not, indeed, with any single prediction,
but with the whole language of the prophets. From this 25 the Jews derived not fewer than
eight designations or Names by which the Messiah was to be called. The most prominent