It may appear that the
correspondence between the Old Testament text and the events to which it is
related by the evangelist is simply verbal. Thus in 2:23, some unknown Old
Testament expression relates to the description of Jesus as a Ναζωραιος; while 2:15 simply applies an Old
Testament text with the appropriate ideas of “God’s son” and “Egypt” to the
experience of Jesus with no regard to the original context. . . . Whatever may
be said of the enigmatic 2:23, several factors suggest that Matthew’s use of the
Old Testament in 2:15 is more than merely atomistic. First, in the following
formula quotations (2:17, 18) another Old Testament text referring to an event
in the history of Israel is also used to refer to an event associated with the
life of Jesus. In citing Jer. 31:15 in which the prophet alludes to the exiles
of the northern kingdom, the evangelist sees a fulfilment in Herod’s massacre
of the children of Bethlehem. Second, the Old Testament context of the Hosea
text cited by Matthew (Hos. 11:1) supports a connection between Israel and the
infancy of Jesus, as the immediately preceding words in Hosea read, “When
Israel was a child, I loved him,” words which would “compellingly suggest the
infancy of Jesus.” And third, the Israel typology suggested by the use of Hos.
11:1 is supported by Jesus’ clear association with Israel later in the
temptation narrative. One can say, then, that in his citation of Hos. 11:1, an
association with Israel appears likely.
In addition, the narrative itself
is rich with allusions to important people and events in the life of the nation
of Israel. The idea of a new Moses theme is often suggested, especially because
of the allusion to Exod. 4:19 in Mt. 2:20. The case for the Moses typology is
made stronger when one considers the tradition about Moses’ birth found in
Josephus and rabbinic sources as a possible background for Matthew’s narrative.
A number of similarities occur, but there are also major differences,
differences which suggest only allusion to rather than dependence on this
tradition. But as the story of a national deliverer, such allusions are not
unexpected in Matthew’s narrative.
Apart from the tradition about
Moses, several other biblical stories have been suggested as background. The
Joseph cycle in Genesis 37-50 is a possibility, with the identical names of two
of the protagonists (the patriarch and the father of Jesus), the interest in
dreams, the mention of Egypt all providing contact. The episode centered on
Balaam in Numbers 22-24 is another important candidate: he comes from the east
(απ ανατολων; Num. 23:7 LXX), is called a μαγος by Philo, and is the tool of a
wicked king who tries to destroy Israel. Certainly, Num. 24:17, “a star will
rise from Jacob,” had a messianic significance in Matthew’s day. Finally, some
scholars have looked to the journey of Jacob/Israel to Egypt after his
persecution by Laban (Gen. 46:2-4), especially in its developed form in the
ancient Passover Haggadah. Laban (who is identified as Balaam in Tg. Ps.-J.
Num. 22:5) seeks to destroy Jacob and his family, and this tradition is linked
with Jacob’s journey into Egypt.
Though each is possible, one of
these suggested allusions to Old Testament characters is explicit, nor should
any be considered as the interpretive key to the narrative in its present form.
Rather, we agree with Nolan when he says, “What is really remarkable in Matthew
1-2 is the thematic richness, the density of evocation which defies confinement
to any single typology” (Royal Son, p 89) The Jewish background is “of a
broader nature,” (Stendahl, “Quis,” p. 99) highly suggestive of many events and
important figures in Israel’s past. IT is best, then, to see an allusion to the
history of Israel as a whole in these opening chapters of the gospel. One can
see this in the first three fulfilment citations mentioned in chap. 2 which,
by mentioning Bethlehem,
the city of David, Egypt, the land of the Exodus, and Ramah, the
mourning-place of the Exile, offers a theological history of Israel in
geographic miniature. Just as Jesus sums up the history of the people named in
his genealogy, so his early career sums up the history of these prophetically
significant places. (R. Brown, Birth, p. 217)
Matthew’s geography betrays a
theological interest, and the phrase “Out of Egypt I called my son” from the
formula quotation of 2:15 is a fitting encapsulating summary of that concern.
It recalls the Exodus suggesting, perhaps the attending notion that Jesus is a
new Moses, but more importantly it puts Jesus in the place of Israel as he
assumes the filial relationship with God once predicated of the nation (cf. Exod.
4:22; Hos. 11:1; Jer. 31:9, 20). In using a variety of figures and events from
the history of Israel, Matthew’s infancy narrative points to Jesus as the one
in whom the history of that nation is recapitulated and fulfilled.
(William L. Kynes, A Christology of Solidarity: Jesus as the Representative
of His People in Matthew Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991],
17-20, emphasis in bold added)