Who has roused a victor from the east,
summoned him to his service? He delivers up nations to him, and tramples kings
under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with
his bow. (Isa 41:2 NRSV)
In an appendix entitled “Isaiah XLI.2 and the Pre-Existent Messiah,” W.D. Davies, in his study of
the Sermon on the Mount, wrote the following:
Interesting is the
ascription of Isa. xli. 2 to Abraham. It reads:
Who stirred (הֵעִיר) up one
from the east
whom victory meets at every step?
whom victory meets at every step?
By the substitution
of האיר for העיר it could
be translated ‘Who gave forth light from the east’. The association of ‘light’
with the advent of significant personages may have a bearing on the appearance
of the ‘star’ from the east in Matt. ii. The same play on העיר appears
in Gen. Rabbah xliii. 3 (Soncino translation, p. 354). ‘It is written: Who hath
raised up (הֵעִיר) one from the east, Zedek (Righteousness) calling him to his feet (Isa.
xli. 2) (this alludes to Zede—the Righteous One), the Life of all the worlds,
who illumined (מֵאִיר) his path wherever he went.’ On the association of ‘Light’ with the
birth of the righteous, see R. Mach, Der
Zaddik in Talmud und Midrasch (1957), pp. 68 ff, 78 ff. It is interesting,
in the light of all this, to speculate on the connotation of the term ανατολη in Matt. ii. 1, 2, 9. In
accordance with the emphasis of the Scandinavian School, Bentzen (King and Messiah (1955), p. 17) has
urged that for Judaism the advent of the Messiah, like the enthronement of the
King, would be the re-enactment of the enthronement of that primitive king who
gained mastery over the chaos in the Urzeit,
the beginning of all things. Thus it is that Micah v, ‘But you, O Bethlehem
Ephratah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come
forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin of from of old, from ancient days’ (MT: וּמוֹצָאֹתָיו מִקֶּדֶם
מִימֵי עוֹלָם [v. 1];
LXX: και οι εξοδοι αυτου απ’ αρχης εξ ημερων αιωος), which is partially quoted in Matt. ii. 6,
speaks of the מוצות the outgoings, of the Messiah,
who are connected with the Sun. The coming of the Messiah is the coming out
from an age-old kind of pre-existence. This concept of a pre-existent Messiah
who has to ‘come forth’ is also found by Windisch in Ps. cx. 1-3 (RSV cx. 3b—‘From the womb of the morning like dew
your youth will come to you’ (MT: מֵרֶחֶם
מִשְׁחָר לְךָ טַל יַלְדֻתֶיךָ; LXX cix: εκ γαστρος προ εωσφορου εξεγεννησα σε). (Die Weisheit und die Paulinische Christologie, in Texte und Untersuchungen
(Leipzig, 1904), pp. 227 .; see P.R.J.2
p. 159.) The term ανατολη does not occur in the LXX at either of these places to describe
the coming forth of the Messiah. But Bentzen compares the εξοδοι of Micah v. 1 (LXX) with the ανατολη of Luke i. 78 and suggests
thereby that the ανατολη of Luke i.
78 has the same cosmic undertone as the εξοδοι of Micah v. 1, that is, the coming of the
Messiah is linked with the creation itself. Burney long ago since saw in Luke
i. 78 the concept of a new creation. In the LXX ανατολη is a designation of the Messiah
in Zech. Iii. 8; vi. 12; compare also Jer. xxiii. 5. As Benoit points out, this
use of ανατολη
messianically was prepared for in the LXX use of ανατελλειν in connexion with the Messianic
Age. He refers to Isa. xliii. 19; xlv. 8; lxi. I1; Ezek. Xxiv. 21; Ps. lxxi. 7;
lxxiv. 12; xcvi. 11, and in particular to Num. xxiv. 17; Mal. iv. 2 (LXX iii.
20); Isa. lx.1—passages which deal with the rise of the Messianic Star or
Light. (‘L’enfance de Jean-Baptise selon Luc I’, N.T.S. III, 3 (May 1957), 186, n. 1, where a bibliography is given.)
In addition note Ps. xcvii. 11 (LXX xcvi. 11), ‘Light dawns (ανετειλεν) for the righteous’. In Midrash
Tehillim this is associated with the light that shone at creation. See also 2
Sam. Xxiii. 4; Isa. lxvvi. 10; lxi. 11. The term ανατολη clearly has Messianic nuances,
which connect the appearance of the Messianic deliverer with creation itself. Perhaps
the term εν τη ανατολη in
Matt. ii. 3, 9 should not be emptied of such significance. The suggestion is
made very hesitatingly. Schlier in T.W.Z.N.T.,
1, 354 f. does not connect Matt. ii. 9 with Messianic speculation. (W.D.
Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the
Mount [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964], 445-46)