The Urantia Book
PAPER 122
BIRTH AND INFANCY OF JESUS
122:0.1 IT WILL hardly be possible fully to
explain the many reasons which led to the selection of Palestine
as the land for Michael's bestowal, and especially as to just why
the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the
immediate setting for the appearance of this Son of God on
Urantia.
122:0.2 After a study of the special report on
the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in
counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as the planet
whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision
Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his
study of human groups and his survey of the spiritual,
intellectual, racial, and geographic features of the world and its
peoples, he decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative
advantages which warranted their selection as the bestowal race.
Upon Michael's approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and
dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve -- selected
from among the higher orders of universe personalities -- which
was intrusted with the task of making an investigation of Jewish
family life. When this commission ended its labors, Gabriel was
present on Urantia and received the report nominating three
prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission,
equally favorable as bestowal families for Michael's projected
incarnation.
122:0.3 From the three couples nominated,
Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph and Mary, subsequently
making his personal appearance to Mary, at which time he imparted
to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the
earth mother of the bestowal child.
1. JOSEPH AND MARY
122:1.1 Joseph, the human father of Jesus
(Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, albeit he
carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added to his
ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his
progenitors. The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the
days of Abraham and through this venerable patriarch to the
earlier lines of inheritance leading to the Sumerians and Nodites
and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue man, to Andon
and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of
Joseph's ancestry, neither did Joseph's lineage go directly back
to Adam. Joseph's immediate ancestors were mechanics -- builders,
carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and
later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and illustrious
line of the nobility of the common people, accentuated ever and
anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had
distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of
religion on Urantia.
122:1.2 Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a
descendant of a long line of unique ancestors embracing many of
the most remarkable women in the racial history of Urantia.
Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation,
possessing a fairly normal temperament, she reckoned among her
ancestors such well-known women as Annon, Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba,
Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and Ratta. No Jewish woman of that day had
a more illustrious lineage of common progenitors or one extending
back to more auspicious beginnings. Mary's ancestry, like
Joseph's, was characterized by the predominance of strong but
average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous outstanding
personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive
evolution of religion. Racially considered, it is hardly proper to
regard Mary as a Jewess. In culture and belief she was a Jew, but
in hereditary endowment she was more a composite of Syrian,
Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks, her racial
inheritance being more general than that of Joseph.
122:1.3 Of all couples living in Palestine at
about the time of Michael's projected bestowal, Joseph and Mary
possessed the most ideal combination of widespread racial
connections and superior average of personality endowments. It was
the plan of Michael to appear on earth as an average man,
that the common people might understand him and receive him;
wherefore Gabriel selected just such persons as Joseph and Mary to
become the bestowal parents.
2. GABRIEL APPEARS TO ELIZABETH
122:2.1 Jesus' lifework on Urantia was really
begun by John the Baptist. Zacharias, John's father, belonged to
the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth, was a member
of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to
which Mary the mother of Jesus also belonged. Zacharias and
Elizabeth, though they had been married many years, were
childless.
122:2.2 It was late in the month of June, 8
B.C., about three months after the marriage of Joseph and Mary,
that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at noontide one day, just as he
later made his presence known to Mary. Said Gabriel:
122:2.3 "While your husband, Zacharias, stands
before the altar in Jerusalem, and while the assembled people pray
for the coming of a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have come to announce
that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of
this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will
grow up dedicated to the Lord your God, and when he has come to
full years, he will gladden your heart because he will turn many
souls to God, and he will also proclaim the coming of the
soul-healer of your people and the spirit-liberator of all
mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this child of
promise, and I will also appear to her."
122:2.4 This vision greatly frightened
Elizabeth. After Gabriel's departure she turned this experience
over in her mind, long pondering the sayings of the majestic
visitor, but did not speak of the revelation to anyone save her
husband until her subsequent visit with Mary in early February of
the following year.
122:2.5 For five months, however, Elizabeth
withheld her secret even from her husband. Upon her disclosure of
the story of Gabriel's visit, Zacharias was very skeptical and for
weeks doubted the entire experience, only consenting halfheartedly
to believe in Gabriel's visit to his wife when he could no longer
question that she was expectant with child. Zacharias was very
much perplexed regarding the prospective motherhood of Elizabeth,
but he did not doubt the integrity of his wife, notwithstanding
his own advanced age. It was not until about six weeks before
John's birth that Zacharias, as the result of an impressive dream,
became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the mother of
a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of
the Messiah.
122:2.6 Gabriel appeared to Mary about the
middle of November, 8 B.C., while she was at work in her Nazareth
home. Later on, after Mary knew without doubt that she was to
become a mother, she persuaded Joseph to let her journey to the
City of Judah, four miles west of Jerusalem, in the hills, to
visit Elizabeth. Gabriel had informed each of these mothers-to-be
of his appearance to the other. Naturally they were anxious to get
together, compare experiences, and talk over the probable futures
of their sons. Mary remained with her distant cousin for three
weeks. Elizabeth did much to strengthen Mary's faith in the vision
of Gabriel, so that she returned home more fully dedicated to the
call to mother the child of destiny whom she was so soon to
present to the world as a helpless babe, an average and normal
infant of the realm.
122:2.7 John was born in the City of Judah,
March 25, 7 B.C. Zacharias and Elizabeth rejoiced greatly in the
realization that a son had come to them as Gabriel had promised,
and when on the eighth day they presented the child for
circumcision, they formally christened him John, as they had been
directed aforetime. Already had a nephew of Zacharias departed for
Nazareth, carrying the message of Elizabeth to Mary proclaiming
that a son had been born to her and that his name was to be John.
122:2.8 From his earliest infancy John was
judiciously impressed by his parents with the idea that he was to
grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious teacher. And
the soil of John's heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such
suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was found frequently at the
temple during the seasons of his father's service, and he was
tremendously impressed with the significance of all that he saw.
3. GABRIEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY
122:3.1 One evening about sundown, before Joseph
had returned home, Gabriel appeared to Mary by the side of a low
stone table and, after she had recovered her composure, said: "I
come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you shall
love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I
announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and
that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall
call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on
earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to Joseph and
to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and
who shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and
who will prepare the way for the message of deliverance which your
son shall proclaim to men with great power and deep conviction.
And doubt not my word, Mary, for this home has been chosen as the
mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My benediction rests upon
you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, and the Lord
of all the earth shall overshadow you."
122:3.2 Mary pondered this visitation secretly
in her heart for many weeks until of a certainty she knew she was
with child, before she dared to disclose these unusual events to
her husband. When Joseph heard all about this, although he had
great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep
for many nights. At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel
visitation. Then when he became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had
really heard the voice and beheld the form of the divine
messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such things
could be. How could the offspring of human beings be a child of
divine destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile these conflicting
ideas until, after several weeks of thought, both he and Mary
reached the conclusion that they had been chosen to become the
parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the Jewish
concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature.
Upon arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to
depart for a visit with Elizabeth.
122:3.3 Upon her return, Mary went to visit her
parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two brothers and two sisters, as
well as her parents, were always very skeptical about the divine
mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew
nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her
sister Salome that she thought her son was destined to become a
great teacher.
122:3.4 Gabriel's announcement to Mary was made
the day following the conception of Jesus and was the only event
of supernatural occurrence connected with her entire experience of
carrying and bearing the child of promise.
4. JOSEPH'S DREAM
122:4.1 Joseph did not become reconciled to the
idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child
until after he had experienced a very impressive dream. In this
dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among
other things, said: "Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now
reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the
son whom Mary shall bear, and who shall become a great light in
the world. In him will be life, and his life shall become the
light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but they
will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to
them will he reveal that they are the children of God." After this
experience Joseph never again wholly doubted Mary's story of
Gabriel's visit and of the promise that the unborn child was to
become a divine messenger to the world.
122:4.2 In all these visitations nothing was
said about the house of David. Nothing was ever intimated about
Jesus' becoming a "deliverer of the Jews," not even that he was to
be the long-expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the
Jews had anticipated, but he was the world's deliverer. His
mission was to all races and peoples, not to any one group.
122:4.3 Joseph was not of the line of King
David. Mary had more of the Davidic ancestry than Joseph. True,
Joseph did go to the City of David, Bethlehem, to be registered
for the Roman census, but that was because, six generations
previously, Joseph's paternal ancestor of that generation, being
an orphan, was adopted by one Zadoc, who was a direct descendant
of David; hence was Joseph also accounted as of the "house of
David."
122:4.4 Most of the so-called Messianic
prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long
after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries the Hebrew
prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these
promises had been construed by successive generations as referring
to a new Jewish ruler who would sit upon the throne of David and,
by the reputed miraculous methods of Moses, proceed to establish
the Jews in Palestine as a powerful nation, free from all foreign
domination. Again, many figurative passages found throughout the
Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission
of Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to
appear to fit some episode of the Master's earth life. Jesus
himself onetime publicly denied any connection with the royal
house of David. Even the passage, "a maiden shall bear a son," was
made to read, "a virgin shall bear a son." This was also true of
the many genealogies of both Joseph and Mary which were
constructed subsequent to Michael's career on earth. Many of these
lineages contain much of the Master's ancestry, but on the whole
they are not genuine and may not be depended upon as factual. The
early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed to the temptation
to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find
fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master.
5. JESUS' EARTH PARENTS
122:5.1 Joseph was a mild-mannered man,
extremely conscientious, and in every way faithful to the
religious conventions and practices of his people. He talked
little but thought much. The sorry plight of the Jewish people
caused Joseph much sadness. As a youth, among his eight brothers
and sisters, he had been more cheerful, but in the earlier years
of married life (during Jesus' childhood) he was subject to
periods of mild spiritual discouragement. These temperamental
manifestations were greatly improved just before his untimely
death and after the economic condition of his family had been
enhanced by his advancement from the rank of carpenter to the role
of a prosperous contractor.
122:5.2 Mary's temperament was quite opposite to
that of her husband. She was usually cheerful, was very rarely
downcast, and possessed an ever-sunny disposition. Mary indulged
in free and frequent expression of her emotional feelings and was
never observed to be sorrowful until after the sudden death of
Joseph. And she had hardly recovered from this shock when she had
thrust upon her the anxieties and questionings aroused by the
extraordinary career of her eldest son, which was so rapidly
unfolding before her astonished gaze. But throughout all this
unusual experience Mary was composed, courageous, and fairly wise
in her relationship with her strange and little-understood
first-born son and his surviving brothers and sisters.
122:5.3 Jesus derived much of his unusual
gentleness and marvelous sympathetic understanding of human nature
from his father; he inherited his gift as a great teacher and his
tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother. In
emotional reactions to his adult-life environment, Jesus was at
one time like his father, meditative and worshipful, sometimes
characterized by apparent sadness; but more often he drove forward
in the manner of his mother's optimistic and determined
disposition. All in all, Mary's temperament tended to dominate the
career of the divine Son as he grew up and swung into the
momentous strides of his adult life. In some particulars Jesus was
a blending of his parents' traits; in other respects he exhibited
the traits of one in contrast with those of the other.
122:5.4 From Joseph Jesus secured his strict
training in the usages of the Jewish ceremonials and his unusual
acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary he derived a
broader viewpoint of religious life and a more liberal concept of
personal spiritual freedom.
122:5.5 The families of both Joseph and Mary
were well educated for their time. Joseph and Mary were educated
far above the average for their day and station in life. He was a
thinker; she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in
immediate execution. Joseph was a black-eyed brunet; Mary, a
brown-eyed well-nigh blond type.
122:5.6 Had Joseph lived, he undoubtedly would
have become a firm believer in the divine mission of his eldest
son. Mary alternated between believing and doubting, being greatly
influenced by the position taken by her other children and by her
friends and relatives, but always was she steadied in her final
attitude by the memory of Gabriel's appearance to her immediately
after the child was conceived.
122:5.7 Mary was an expert weaver and more than
averagely skilled in most of the household arts of that day; she
was a good housekeeper and a superior homemaker. Both Joseph and
Mary were good teachers, and they saw to it that their children
were well versed in the learning of that day.
122:5.8 When Joseph was a young man, he was
employed by Mary's father in the work of building an addition to
his house, and it was when Mary brought Joseph a cup of water,
during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the pair who were
destined to become the parents of Jesus really began.
122:5.9
Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at
Mary's home in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one
years old. This marriage concluded a normal courtship of almost
two years' duration. Shortly thereafter they moved into their new
home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with the
assistance of two of his brothers. The house was located near the
foot of the near-by elevated land which so charmingly overlooked
the surrounding countryside. In this home, especially prepared,
these young and expectant parents had thought to welcome the child
of promise, little realizing that this momentous event of a
universe was to transpire while they would be absent from home in
Bethlehem of Judea.
122:5.10 The larger part of Joseph's family
became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of Mary's
people ever believed in him until after he departed from this
world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the
expected Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father,
held to the idea of the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and
political ruler. Mary's ancestors had been prominently identified
with the Maccabean activities of the then but recent times.
122:5.11 Joseph held vigorously to the Eastern,
or Babylonian, views of the Jewish religion; Mary leaned strongly
toward the more liberal and broader Western, or Hellenistic,
interpretation of the law and the prophets.
6. THE HOME AT NAZARETH
122:6.1 The home of Jesus was not far from the
high hill in the northerly part of Nazareth, some distance from
the village spring, which was in the eastern section of the town.
Jesus' family dwelt in the outskirts of the city, and this made it
all the easier for him subsequently to enjoy frequent strolls in
the country and to make trips up to the top of this near-by
highland, the highest of all the hills of southern Galilee save
the Mount Tabor range to the east and the hill of Nain, which was
about the same height. Their home was located a little to the
south and east of the southern promontory of this hill and about
midway between the base of this elevation and the road leading out
of Nazareth toward Cana. Aside from climbing the hill, Jesus'
favorite stroll was to follow a narrow trail winding about the
base of the hill in a northeasterly direction to a point where it
joined the road to Sepphoris.
122:6.2 The home of Joseph and Mary was a
one-room stone structure with a flat roof and an adjoining
building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low
stone table, earthenware and stone dishes and pots, a loom, a
lampstand, several small stools, and mats for sleeping on the
stone floor. In the back yard, near the animal annex, was the
shelter which covered the oven and the mill for grinding grain. It
required two persons to operate this type of mill, one to grind
and another to feed the grain. As a small boy Jesus often fed
grain to this mill while his mother turned the grinder.
122:6.3 In later years, as the family grew in
size, they would all squat about the enlarged stone table to enjoy
their meals, helping themselves from a common dish, or pot, of
food. During the winter, at the evening meal the table would be
lighted by a small, flat clay lamp, which was filled with olive
oil. After the birth of Martha, Joseph built an addition to this
house, a large room, which was used as a carpenter shop during the
day and as a sleeping room at night.
7. THE TRIP TO BETHLEHEM
122:7.1 In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month
Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar Augustus decreed that all
inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census
should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation.
The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to
"number the people," and this, in connection with the serious
domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to
cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish
kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this census
was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian
kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.
122:7.2 It was not necessary that Mary should go
to Bethlehem for enrollment -- Joseph was authorized to register
for his family -- but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive
person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone
lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem
being not far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible
pleasurable visit with her kinswoman Elizabeth.
122:7.3 Joseph virtually forbade Mary to
accompany him, but it was of no avail; when the food was packed
for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double rations
and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set
forth, Joseph was reconciled to Mary's going along, and they
cheerfully departed from Nazareth at the break of day.
122:7.4 Joseph and Mary were poor, and since
they had only one beast of burden, Mary, being large with child,
rode on the animal with the provisions while Joseph walked,
leading the beast. The building and furnishing of a home had been
a great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the
support of his parents, as his father had been recently disabled.
And so this Jewish couple went forth from their humble home early
on the morning of August 18, 7 B.C., on their journey to
Bethlehem.
122:7.5 Their first day of travel carried them
around the foothills of Mount Gilboa, where they camped for the
night by the river Jordan and engaged in many speculations as to
what sort of a son would be born to them, Joseph adhering to the
concept of a spiritual teacher and Mary holding to the idea of a
Jewish Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrew nation.
122:7.6 Bright and early the morning of August
19, Joseph and Mary were again on their way. They partook of their
noontide meal at the foot of Mount Sartaba, overlooking the Jordan
valley, and journeyed on, making Jericho for the night, where they
stopped at an inn on the highway in the outskirts of the city.
Following the evening meal and after much discussion concerning
the oppressiveness of Roman rule, Herod, the census enrollment,
and the comparative influence of Jerusalem and Alexandria as
centers of Jewish learning and culture, the Nazareth travelers
retired for the night's rest. Early in the morning of August 20
they resumed their journey, reaching Jerusalem before noon,
visiting the temple, and going on to their destination, arriving
at Bethlehem in midafternoon.
122:7.7 The inn was overcrowded, and Joseph
accordingly sought lodgings with distant relatives, but every room
in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing. On returning to the
courtyard of the inn, he was informed that the caravan stables,
hewn out of the side of the rock and situated just below the inn,
had been cleared of animals and cleaned up for the reception of
lodgers. Leaving the donkey in the courtyard, Joseph shouldered
their bags of clothing and provisions and with Mary descended the
stone steps to their lodgings below. They found themselves located
in what had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls
and mangers. Tent curtains had been hung, and they counted
themselves fortunate to have such comfortable quarters.
122:7.8 Joseph had thought to go out at once and
enroll, but Mary was weary; she was considerably distressed and
besought him to remain by her side, which he did.
8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS
122:8.1 All that night Mary was restless so that
neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of
childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21, 7 B.C.,
with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers,
Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born
into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought
along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near-by
manger.
122:8.2 In just the same manner as all babies
before that day and since have come into the world, the promised
child was born; and on the eighth day, according to the Jewish
practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus).
122:8.3 The next day after the birth of Jesus,
Joseph made his enrollment. Meeting a man they had talked with two
nights previously at Jericho, Joseph was taken by him to a
well-to-do friend who had a room at the inn, and who said he would
gladly exchange quarters with the Nazareth couple. That afternoon
they moved up to the inn, where they lived for almost three weeks
until they found lodgings in the home of a distant relative of
Joseph.
122:8.4 The second day after the birth of Jesus,
Mary sent word to Elizabeth that her child had come and received
word in return inviting Joseph up to Jerusalem to talk over all
their affairs with Zacharias. The following week Joseph went to
Jerusalem to confer with Zacharias. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth
had become possessed with the sincere conviction that Jesus was
indeed to become the Jewish deliverer, the Messiah, and that their
son John was to be his chief of aides, his right-hand man of
destiny. And since Mary held these same ideas, it was not
difficult to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City
of David, so that Jesus might grow up to become the successor of
David on the throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in
Bethlehem more than a year, Joseph meantime working some at his
carpenter's trade.
122:8.5 At the noontide birth of Jesus the
seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their directors, did sing
anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these utterances
of praise were not heard by human ears. No shepherds nor any other
mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until
the day of the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who were sent
down from Jerusalem by Zacharias.
122:8.6 These priests from Mesopotamia had been
told sometime before by a strange religious teacher of their
country that he had had a dream in which he was informed that "the
light of life" was about to appear on earth as a babe and among
the Jews. And thither went these three teachers looking for this
"light of life." After many weeks of futile search in Jerusalem,
they were about to return to Ur when Zacharias met them and
disclosed his belief that Jesus was the object of their quest and
sent them on to Bethlehem, where they found the babe and left
their gifts with Mary, his earth mother. The babe was almost three
weeks old at the time of their visit.
122:8.7 These wise men saw no star to guide them
to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of the star of Bethlehem
originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon, 7 B.C.
On May 29, 7 B.C., there occurred an extraordinary conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a
remarkable astronomic fact that similar conjunctions occurred on
September 29 and December 5 of the same year. Upon the basis of
these extraordinary but wholly natural events the well-meaning
zealots of the succeeding generation constructed the appealing
legend of the star of Bethlehem and the adoring Magi led thereby
to the manger, where they beheld and worshiped the newborn babe.
Oriental and near-Oriental minds delight in fairy stories, and
they are continually spinning such beautiful myths about the lives
of their religious leaders and political heroes. In the absence of
printing, when most human knowledge was passed by word of mouth
from one generation to another, it was very easy for myths to
become traditions and for traditions eventually to become accepted
as facts.
9. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
122:9.1 Moses had taught the Jews that every
first-born son belonged to the Lord, and that, in lieu of his
sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations, such a son
might live provided his parents would redeem him by the payment of
five shekels to any authorized priest. There was also a Mosaic
ordinance which directed that a mother, after the passing of a
certain period of time, should present herself (or have someone
make the proper sacrifice for her) at the temple for purification.
It was customary to perform both of these ceremonies at the same
time. Accordingly, Joseph and Mary went up to the temple at
Jerusalem in person to present Jesus to the priests and effect his
redemption and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary's
ceremonial purification from the alleged uncleanness of
childbirth.
122:9.2 There lingered constantly about the
courts of the temple two remarkable characters, Simeon a singer
and Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna was a Galilean.
This couple were frequently in each other's company, and both were
intimates of the priest Zacharias, who had confided the secret of
John and Jesus to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the coming
of the Messiah, and their confidence in Zacharias led them to
believe that Jesus was the expected deliverer of the Jewish
people.
122:9.3 Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary
were expected to appear at the temple with Jesus, and he had
prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the salute of his
upraised hand, which one in the procession of first-born children
was Jesus.
122:9.4 For this occasion Anna had written a
poem which Simeon proceeded to sing, much to the astonishment of
Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple courts. And
this was their hymn of the redemption of the first-born son:
122:9.5 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
For he has visited us and wrought
redemption for his people;
He has raised up a horn of salvation
for all of us
In the house of his servant David.
Even as he spoke by the mouth of his
holy prophets --
Salvation from our enemies and from
the hand of all who hate us;
To show mercy to our fathers, and
remember his holy covenant --
The oath which he swore to Abraham our
father,
To grant us that we, being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies,
Should serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before
him all our days.
Yes, and you, child of promise, shall
be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you shall go before the face of
the Lord to establish his kingdom;
To give knowledge of salvation to his
people
In the remission of their sins.
Rejoice in the tender mercy of our God
because the dayspring from on high has now visited us
To shine upon those who sit in
darkness and the shadow of death;
To guide our feet into ways of peace.
And now let your servant depart in
peace, O Lord, according to your word,
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
Which you have prepared before the
face of all peoples;
A light for even the unveiling of the
gentiles
And the glory of your people Israel.
122:9.6 On the way back to Bethlehem, Joseph and
Mary were silent -- confused and overawed. Mary was much disturbed
by the farewell salutation of Anna, the aged poetess, and Joseph
was not in harmony with this premature effort to make Jesus out to
be the expected Messiah of the Jewish people.
10. HEROD ACTS
122:10.1 But the watchers for Herod were not
inactive. When they reported to him the visit of the priests of Ur
to Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to appear before him.
He inquired diligently of these wise men about the new "king of
the Jews," but they gave him little satisfaction, explaining that
the babe had been born of a woman who had come down to Bethlehem
with her husband for the census enrollment. Herod, not being
satisfied with this answer, sent them forth with a purse and
directed that they should find the child so that he too might come
and worship him, since they had declared that his kingdom was to
be spiritual, not temporal. But when the wise men did not return,
Herod grew suspicious. As he turned these things over in his mind,
his informers returned and made full report of the recent
occurrences in the temple, bringing him a copy of parts of the
Simeon song which had been sung at the redemption ceremonies of
Jesus. But they had failed to follow Joseph and Mary, and Herod
was very angry with them when they could not tell him whither the
pair had taken the babe. He then dispatched searchers to locate
Joseph and Mary. Knowing Herod pursued the Nazareth family,
Zacharias and Elizabeth remained away from Bethlehem. The boy baby
was secreted with Joseph's relatives.
122:10.2 Joseph was afraid to seek work, and
their small savings were rapidly disappearing. Even at the time of
the purification ceremonies at the temple, Joseph deemed himself
sufficiently poor to warrant his offering for Mary two young
pigeons as Moses had directed for the purification of mothers
among the poor.
122:10.3 When, after more than a year of
searching, Herod's spies had not located Jesus, and because of the
suspicion that the babe was still concealed in Bethlehem, he
prepared an order directing that a systematic search be made of
every house in Bethlehem, and that all boy babies under two years
of age should be killed. In this manner Herod hoped to make sure
that this child who was to become "king of the Jews" would be
destroyed. And thus perished in one day sixteen boy babies in
Bethlehem of Judea. But intrigue and murder, even in his own
immediate family, were common occurrences at the court of Herod.
122:10.4 The massacre of these infants took
place about the middle of October, 6 B.C., when Jesus was a little
over one year of age. But there were believers in the coming
Messiah even among Herod's court attachés, and one of these,
learning of the order to slaughter the Bethlehem boy babies,
communicated with Zacharias, who in turn dispatched a messenger to
Joseph; and the night before the massacre Joseph and Mary departed
from Bethlehem with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt. In order to
avoid attracting attention, they journeyed alone to Egypt with
Jesus. They went to Alexandria on funds provided by Zacharias, and
there Joseph worked at his trade while Mary and Jesus lodged with
well-to-do relatives of Joseph's family. They sojourned in
Alexandria two full years, not returning to Bethlehem until after
the death of Herod.
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