Luke 2:4

Luk_2:4

Which is called Bethlehem

Description of Bethlehem

The town is picturesque in the highest degree.

Its fortified walls have long vanished, but its position on a long, narrow ridge, has confined it to the limits of three thousand years ago, and its houses, very probably, are just the same in appearance as those of the time of David, or even earlier. In fact, we have before us an old Jewish city such as men inhabited in the Bible ages. But its picturesqueness is the best of it, for the streets are as far from being clean as those of other Eastern towns. Rivulets of abomination run across them or stand in puddles, for scavengers are unknown, and the masterless, homeless dogs cannot eat all the garbage. The main street is largely occupied by workshops, or rather arches, with no window, which is not much loss in such a climate. Looking in, one sees that the floor is covered with men sitting cross-legged, hard at work making carved rosaries from the stones of the Dora palm, or the common date, or olive wood; crosses from fig-wood, stained black; fancy trifles from the asphalt of the Dead Sea; endless souvenirs of the town in olive-wood; but, above all, cutting medallions from the mother-of-pearl oyster-shells of the Red Sea, or engraving them with the story of our Lord from His birth to His death. In this one art alone there are, perhaps, 500 workmen engaged. The staple industry of the town is in fact the manufacture of endlessly varied mementos of Bethlehem to be sold, after they have been blessed by the priests, to the pilgrims. This being a Christian town, the wives and daughters often sit with their husbands or brothers: a strange sight in the East, but one that goes far, by what it suggests, to account for the general prosperity. The buildings show that no masons could be better than the Bethlehemites, though there are not many good houses except in the front street and even this has its better and its worse end. Inside, some are, of course, very superior to others, and it is the same with the workshops. Here is one, where men and women are busy making beads for rosaries. All the men are on the ground, cross-legged; the women sit on low pieces of wood, their bare feet visible outside their dress. Mat baskets, or large wooden bowls, of beads cut from olive rods, are on the ground; one man saws a small piece of wood fixed upright in a vice, another turns the beads at a most primitive lathe, driven by a cord stretched on a bent fiddle-stick arrangement. The work-bench consists of some beams on the ground, but one man has a vice fixed in the earth, and is filing something vigorously; the women have fiddle-bows of their own, but the string is a fine saw to cut the beads apart. The long stick which they dissact with this tool rests on an upright, and is held straight by the left hand. The workshop of Joseph at Nazareth could not have been simpler, or, I might say, ruder, for this one seems originally to have been a small cavern in the hillside, the front being filled in, except the door, with masonry, to fit it for its present purpose. The roof is ceiled with a coating of reed-stalks, which sadly needs repair; the walls are in their natural roughness; the floor is the limestone; the door might have been made by one of Noahs carpenters, so roughly is it put together. A woman outside, with a nearly naked child astride her shoulder, he, r forehead and neck bright with coins, is looking in, with ourselves, at the busy scene. Turning up one of the short, steep side lanes, I found a second street parallel with the principal one, but dirtier. At some points, on the lower side of the main street, houses extend a short way down the hill, with stairs outside. One I noticed with the stone wall built on the edge of the limestone, so that the view was uninterrupted to the bottom of the valley. A very rickety hand-rail guarded the inner side; such a rail as the whole West could not match; made of natural wood, rough, bent, gaping, set on the steps, held in its place one knew not how. Stairs and house alike were built in arches; the wooden railing alone vindicating the rude backwardness of the East. Two women sat grinding corn on the landing above the first flight; a young woman and a young man were enjoying an interview lower down, and a miserable-looking old woman surveyed the world from above. (G. Geikie, D. D.)

The Church of the Nativity

The entrance to the Church of the Nativity faces an open space; the promenade of older Bethlehemites, and the playground of younger. Old marble pillars lie side by side in one part of it, and serve as a seat for the weary or idle, and a centre of activity for urchins, who must clamber over something, even in the city of David. The old arched gateway into the church has been long ago filled up with heavy square stones, to resist attack, and now the only entrance is by a small door, less than three feet broad, and hardly four feet high; but it is well that the proudest have to stoop in entering a building so venerable. Contemporary evidence proves that it was built by order of Constantine, so that it is the oldest church in Palestine, perhaps in the world. Within,you are in the presence of sixteen centuries, and tread ground hallowed by the footsteps of nearly fifty generations of believers in the Crucified One. You find yourself in a small, bare porch, once approached through a spacious quadrangle on the open space outside, with covered ways, lined with rows of pillars, in front and at the sides, and provision for baptism and oblation in the centre, From this, three spacious arched gates led into the ancient porch, which ran along great part of the west end of the church; but two of the gates have been entirely built up, and, as we have seen, only a very small doorway, is left in the third, for fear of the Mahommedans. The porch is dark, and is divided by walls into different chambers. Inside, the venerable simplicity is very impressive. You face the east end, which is 170 feet from the western wall, and, proceeding to the centre, find yourself under a nave which rises in a pointed roof about thirty feet over the capitals of the great pillars, nineteen feet high, which support an aisle on each side. A clerestory, with five arched windows at each side, admits abundant light. The aisles are flat-roofed, supported in the centre by a row of eleven massive pillars, while another row of the same number holds up the straight beams of the lofty nave, the windows over which correspond to the spaces between the columns below. Once elaborately painted, there is now little ornament left on them, except some faint indications of former pictures of saints, and armorial bearings and mottoes, left eight hundred years ago by the Crusaders, with whose greatest chiefs it was a great matter to have their names emblazoned in the church of the Nativity. The columns, each one mighty whole, are of reddish limestone with white veins, and rest on great square slabs, the capitals being Corinthian, and the architraves very simple. The pointed roof of the nave was once richly painted and gilded, but this glory has long ago departed; and the spaces between the high windows at its sides were formerly covered with marbles and mosaics, but though the marbles remain, the mosaics survive only in fragments. When perfect, these represented, on the south side, the seven immediate ancestors of Joseph, the husband of the Holy Virgin. Above them, concealed by curtains, are niches containing altars, on which books of the Gospels rest; and on a line with these is a strange mosaic of coloured glass, on a gilded ground, representing a huge plant, the creation of some ones brain long ago, not the imitation of any natural growth. A short way down the aisle stands the ancient baptismal font, eight-sided, with an inscription in Greek on a table below, over a small sculptured cross (Given) as a memorial, before God and for the peace and forgiveness of the sinners (who presented it), of whom the Lord knows the names. Humble enough I But all the more likely to be noted above. It brings one in mind of the dying request of the once imperious Alfonso de Ojeda, erewhile the haughtiest knight of Castile, yet in the end lowly before his Saviour--that they should bury him at the entrance to the Cathedral at Havana, that every one, as he went in, might tread on the dust of so unworthy a worm. A wall on the east side of this many-pillared square space, runs across aisles and nave alike; the former ending here, though the nave really extends beyond this line to the east end of the church, which is rounded into a projecting half-circle, or apse; the secret chamber of the Greek altar and choir, for in Greek worship both are hidden from the congregation by a screen. This apsidal end, with two similar semicircles at the two ends of the transept, gives the shape of a Latin cross to the whole building. Descending the steps from the raised floor of the eastern part of the nave, and turning sharply to the left, a half-sunk arched doorway leads you down by thirteen steps to the Chapel of the Nativity; once a rude cave; now paved and walled with marble, and lighted by thirty-two lamps. About forty feet from east to west, it is only sixteen wide and ten high, and, of course, would be totally dark but for the artificial illumination, for it lies immediately under the great choir, at the very east of the church. The roof is covered with what had once been striped cloth of gold; three huge candlesticks, with candles rising higher than your head, stand at the back; and in front, between two marble pillars, a large picture of the Nativity, and some small ones below it, rest on a projecting shelf of marble, forming the altar. Below this is a shrine unspeakably sacred to millions of our fellow Christians. It is semi-circular, arching outwards above, and at most only four feet high. Fifteen silver lamps burn in it, night and day, lighting up the painted marbles which encrust it; and in the centre of its small floor is a silver star--marking the spot, it is believed, over which the Star of the East once rested--with an inscription, at the sight of which, I frankly confess, I wept like a child: Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est. A Turkish soldier, gun in hand, and fez on head, stood a few steps behind, but I forgot his presence. Pilgrims kneeled down and kissed the silver which spoke a story so infinitely touching, and I did the same. There is no reason, so far as I can see, to doubt that in this cave, so hallowed by immemorial veneration, the great event associated with it actually took place. Nor is there any ground for hesitation because it is a cave that is regarded as the sacred spot. Nothing is more common in a Palestine village, built on a hill, than to use as adjuncts of the houses, the eaves with which all the limestone rocks of the country abound making them the store-room, perhaps, or the workshop, or the stable, and building the dwellings before them so as to join the two. (G. Geikie, D. D.)

Illustrious pedigree in obscurity

It need not surprise us that the representatives of such an illustrious ancestry should be found in a station so obscure. In the book of Judges, we find a grandson of Moses reduced to engage himself as family priest, in Mount Ephraim, for a yearly wage of ten shekels, a suit of apparel, and his victuals. At the present day, the green turban which marks descent from Mahomet is often worn in the East by the very poor, and even by beggars. In our own history, the glory of the once illustrious Plantagenets so completely waned, that the direct representative of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter and heiress of George Duke of Clarence, followed the trade of a cobbler in Newport, Shropshire, in 1637. Among the lineal descendants of Edmund of Woodstock, sixth son of Edward I., and entitled to quarter the royal arms, were a village butcher, and a keeper of a turnpike gate, and among the descendants of Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of Edward III., was included the late sexton of a London church. The vicissitudes of the Jewish nation for century after century; its deportation to Babylon, and long suspension of national life; its succession of high priestly rulers, after the return; its transition to the Asmonean line, and, finally, the reign of the Idumean house of Herod, with all the storm and turmoil which marked so many changes, had left, to use the figure of Isaiah, only a root in a dry ground, an humble citizen of Nazareth, as the heir of its ancient royalty. (G. Geikie, D. D. )

Subsidiary lives

Hence, sometimes one life will appear to have been almost solely devoted to the more selecting, developing, and energizing another. For example, remember Hannah. Her lot was an exceedingly humble one. It seemed linked with a purpose no more extraordinary than that of a hundred other Hebrew mothers. She came to Eli at least twice in the temple; yet so unobtrusive and so unremarkable was she, that she had each time to introduce herself to the busy man, and repeat her name and errand. To wean the infant Samuel, and bring him a little coat every year, was about all we know of the purpose for which Hannahs life was set in the infinite counsels of heaven. So of Andrew: he was one of the chosen twelve, and there is one pattern of cross that bears his name, because he was martyred upon it. But all we positively read about a man so true and good, is that he brought Simon Peter to Jesus. So of Joseph, the Nazarene carpenter; he shows himself in the early history of the Bethlehem babe; but Scripture, after it has exhibited how useful he was in guarding the reputation of the Virgin-Mother, dismisses him so suddenly that nobody knows where he was buried, or even where he died. (R. Robinson.)

Christ born in Bethlehem

1. The place where Christ was born is observable. Not Nazareth, but Bethlehem, in accordance with Micahs prediction. We may suppose that the Blessed Virgin little thought of changing her place, but to have been delivered of her Holy Burden at Nazareth, where it was conceived. Her house at Nazareth had been honoured by the presence of the angel; yea, by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost; that house there, we may suppose, was most satisfactory to the Virgins desire. But He who made choice of the womb where His Son should be conceived, it was fit He should also choose the place where His Son should be born. And this place, many hundred years before, was foretold should be Bethlehem.

2. How remarkable was the providence of God in bringing the Virgin up from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that Christ, as it was prophesied of Him, might be born there. How the wisdom of God overrules the actions of men, for higher or nobler ends than they aimed at. The emperors aim by this edict was to fill his coffers; Gods end was to fulfil his prophecies.

3. How readily Joseph and Mary yielded obedience to the edict and decree of this heathen emperor. It was no less than four days journey from

Nazareth to Bethlehem; how just an excuse might the Virgin have pleaded for her absence I What woman ever undertook so hazardous a journey, when so near her delivery? And Joseph, no doubt, was sufficiently unwilling to draw her forth into so manifest a hazard. But as the emperors command was peremptory, so their obedience was exemplary. We must not plead difficulty for withdrawing our obedience to supreme commands. How did our Saviour, even in the womb of His mother, yield homage to civil rulers and governors I The first lesson which Christs example taught the world, was loyalty and obedience to the supreme magistrate.

4. After many weary steps the holy Virgin comes to Bethlehem, where every house is taken up by reason of the great confluence of people that came to be taxed; and there is no room for Christ but in a stable; the stable His palace, the manger His cradle. Oh, how can we be abased low enough for Him who thus neglected Himself for us! ( W. Burkitt, M. A.)

Christs lowly birth

The lowly birth of the Saviour of the worm is--

1. Surprising, when we consider who He is that comes.

2. Intelligible, when we ask why He comes.

3. A cause of joy, when we see for whom He comes. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)

Christs threefold birth

The threefold birth of the Son of God.

1. Begotten of the Father before all worlds.

2. Born of flesh in the world.

3. Born of the Spirit in us. (F. W. Krummacher, D. D.)

Birth of the Son of God

It is necessary for a due celebration of Christmas, that we should recognize the Son of God in the new-born child; for, without this recognition, we should lack--

(1) the full reason for and due appreciation of, this celebration;

(2) we should observe it without the right spirit; and

(3) fail to obtain its true blessing. (Kuchler.)

Christs birth in Bethlehem

The Son of God born in the little town of Bethlehem, a proof--

(1) that the Lord certainly performs what He promises;

(2) that with God nothing is impossible;

(3) that nothing is too mean or too lowly for God. (Fuchs.)

Christmas a childrens festival

The festival of Christmas a childrens festival; feral.

1. It leads us to a Child.

2. It fills the world of children with joy.

3. Its duo celebration demands a childlike spirit. (Florey.)

Christs birth in an inn

Christ was born in an inn, to intimate--

(1) That He was homeless in this world;

(2) that He was a pilgrim on earth, as we ought to be;

(3) that He welcomes all comers, and entertains them, but without money and without price. (Matthew Henry.)

The birth of Jesus the new birth of the human race

1. Without the birth of Jesus, the new birth of mankind is impossible.

2. With it, the new birth is begun.

3. By it, the new birth is assured. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 2:4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee — Being thus obliged by the emperor’s decree; out of the city of Nazareth — Where he then dwelt; into Judea — Properly so called; unto the city of David, called Bethlehem — The town where his ancestors had formerly been settled; because he was of the house, &c., of David — Notwithstanding, he was now reduced so low as to follow the trade of a carpenter. To be enrolled with Mary — Who also was a descendant of David: his espoused wife — The propriety of this expression appears from Mat 1:25, where we are told that Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her firstborn son. Being great with child — It may seem strange that Mary, in this condition, should undertake so great a journey. Perhaps the order for the census required that the wives, as well as their husbands, should be present. Or, the persons to be registered being classed in the roll, according to their lineage, Mary might judge it proper on this occasion to claim her descent from David, in order to her being publicly acknowledged as one of his posterity, and the rather as she knew herself to be miraculously with child of the Messiah.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 2:4. Οἴκου, of the house) The house, which is the whole, and the family [πατρία], which is the part, are here conjoined; inasmuch as the house of David at that time was not much wider in extent than his family. [For there is no indication to be found that, at the time when the parents of Jesus betook themselves from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and Jesus Himself was born at Bethlehem, there were others of the family of David who dwelt in the same place: and, moreover, whoever of the posterity of David were living in the land of Israel, must have betaken themselves to Bethlehem at that time, on account of the census. Even for this reason alone Jesus ought to have been acknowledged as the true Messiah, nor was any one else capable of comparison with Him in this respect (as regards the claim to the Messiahship).—Harm., p. 49.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 2:4-5 . Joseph and Mary and Nazareth are here referred to, as if they had not been mentioned before (Luk 1:26-27 ), implying that Lk. is here using an independent document (Holtz., H. C.). ἀπὸ τ . Γ αλ ., ἐκ πόλ .: used with classical accuracy: ἀπὸ = direction from, ἐκ from within (C. G. T.). ἐξ οἴκου καὶ πατριᾶς , “of the house and family,” R. V [23] οἶκοι , πατριαί , φυλαί represent a series of widening circles. ἀπογράψασθαι , to be enrolled. If Bethlehem was Joseph’s home, he would have gone to Bethlehem sooner or later in any case. Because of the census he went just then (Hahn). σὺν Μαριὰμ , coming after ἀπογράψ ., naturally suggests that she had to be enrolled too. Was this necessary? Even if not, reasons might be suggested for her going with her husband: her condition, the intention to settle there as their real home, she an heiress, etc. ἰγκύῳ (here only in N. T.), preparing for what follows.

[23] Revised Version.

With reference to the foregoing statement, it is generally agreed that a census of some kind must have taken place. Meyer and Weiss, following Schleiermacher and Olshausen, think that the event was something internal to Judaea, and concerned the revision of family genealogical registers, and that Lk. was misled into transforming this petty transaction into an affair of world-historical significance. This is not satisfactory. It would be much more satisfactory if it could be shown that Lk.’s historic framing of the birth of Jesus is strictly accurate. But most satisfactory of all is it to know that such a demonstration, however desirable, is not vital to faith .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which David was born, and brought up in.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Not only does Joseph, who was of the royal line, go to Bethlehem (Sa1 16:1), but Mary too--not from choice surely in her condition, but, probably, for personal enrollment, as herself an heiress.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(4) Unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.—St. Luke’s way of speaking of the town agrees with that in Joh_7:42. It would appear to have been common. It had never ceased to glory in the fact that it had been David’s city.

Of the house and lineage of David.—Others also as, for example, Hillel, the great scribe—boasted of such a descent. What, on one hypothesis, was the special prerogative of Joseph was that the two lines of natural descent and inheritance—that through Nathan and that through Solomon—met in him. (See, however, Note on Luk_3:23.) It is possible that the two nearly synonymous words, “house” and “lineage,” may have been used as referring to this union.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. the city of David] 1Sa_17:12, “David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah whose name was Jesse.”

Bethlehem] Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Mic_5:2, “Thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah … out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.” Cf. Luk_4:8, “And thou, O tower of the flock” (Migdol Eder, Gen_35:21), “unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.”

Bethlehem (‘House of Bread,’ to which the mystical method of Scriptural interpretation refers such passages as Isa_33:16, LXX.; Joh_6:51; Joh_6:58) is the very ancient Ephrath (‘fruitful’) of Gen_35:16; Gen_48:7; Psa_132:6. It is a small town six miles from Jerusalem. It was the scene of the death of Rachel (Gen_35:19); of the story of Ruth, and of the early years of the life of David (1Sa_16:1; 2Sa_23:15). The name is now corrupted into Beitlahm, ‘house of flesh.’

of the house and lineage (rather, family) of David] The humble condition of Joseph as a provincial carpenter in no way militates against this. Hillel, the great contemporary Rabbi, who also claimed to be a descendant of David, began life as a half-starved porter; and numbers of beggars in the East wear the green turban which shews them to be undisputed descendants of Mohammed.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee,.... Where he now lived, and worked at the trade of a carpenter; having for some reasons, and by one providence or another, removed hither from his native place:

out of the city of Nazareth; which was in Galilee, where he and Mary lived; and where he had espoused her, and she had conceived of the Holy Ghost:

into Judea; which lay higher than Galilee, and therefore he is said to go up to it:

unto the city of David; not what was built by him, but where he was born and lived; see Sa1 17:12.

which is called Bethlehem: the place where, according to Mic 5:2 the Messiah was to be born, and was born; and which signifies "the house of bread": a very fit place for Christ, the bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world, to appear first in. This place was, as a Jewish chronologer says (g), a "parsa" and half, or six miles from Jerusalem; though another of their writers, an historian and traveller (h), says, it was two "parsas", or eight miles; but Justin Martyr (i) says, it was but thirty five furlongs distant from it, which is not five miles; hither Joseph came from Galilee,

because he was of the house and lineage of David; he was of his family, and lineally descended from him, though he was so poor and mean; and this is the reason of his coming to Bethlehem, David's city,

(g) Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 14. 2. (h) R. Benjamin Itin. p. 47. (i) Apolog. 2. p. 75.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Ver. 4. And Joseph also went up] By a special providence of God, as is above noted, Luk 2:1, and not only so, but that the holy virgin might still have with her the keeper and cover of her virginity; that the devil might not have occasion to raise up false reports about her great belly.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The city of David - Bethlehem, called the city of David because it was the place of his birth. See the notes at Mat 2:1.

Because he was of the house - Of the family.

And lineage - The “lineage” denotes that he was descended from David as his father or ancestor. In taking a Jewish census, families were kept distinct; hence, all went to the “place” where their family had resided. Joseph was of the “family” of David, and hence he went up to the city of David. It is not improbable that he might also have had a small paternal estate in Bethlehem that rendered his presence there more desirable.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The evangelist here mentions the city of David, to remind us how exactly that was fulfilled, which God had promised to David, that an everlasting king should be born of him: and the reason why the inspired writer was content to mention the relationship between Joseph and David, omitting that of the Blessed Virgin and the royal prophet, was, because in the law it was commanded that persons of the same family should intermarry; hence it is added in the subsequent verse, with Mary, his espoused wife. (St. Irenæus, hær. lib. iii. chap. 11.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This was the occasion of Joseph’s coming to Bethlehem, who either for fear of Herod, or for the convenience of his trade, (though he belonged to the tribe of Judah), was removed into Galilee; but he yieldeth obedience to the civil magistrates, and cometh to be enrolled in the court books belonging to the Roman empire, to which by this action he acknowledgeth himself a subject; he also by this act publicly declared both himself and Mary his wife to have been of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David. We are told it was the custom of the Romans to enrol both women and children; however, Mary’s personal attendance upon this homage might have been excused by her being great with child, had not the counsel of God so ordered it, that Christ should be born there; this doubtless carried Mary along with Joseph, he having now (according to the angel’s direction, Mat 1:20,24), took her unto him as his wife. While they were there, Mary’s time of childbearing was

accomplished: we have the like phrase Gen 25:24.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Went up—Bethlehem was indeed high ground; but anciently any going to a capital or superior place was a going up.

House and lineage—The house included the entire body of ancestors and descendants. The lineage was a direct line of descent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The city of David, which is called Bethlehem. After all the long ages which had passed, still the chief title to honor of the little upland village was that there the greatly loved king had been born. Bethlehem ("house of bread") was built on the site of the old Ephrath the Ephrath where Rachel died. Of the house and lineage of David. The position in life of Joseph the royally descended, simply a village carpenter, the equally humble state of Mary, also one of the great king"s posterity, need excite no surprise when the vicissitudes of that royal house, and of the people over whom they ruled, are remembered. The old kingdom of David had been dismembered, conquered, and devastated. The people had been led away into a captivity from which few, comparatively speaking, ever returned. All that the house of David had preserved were its bare family records. Hillel, the famous scribe, who was once a hired porter, claimed to belong to the old princely house.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Joseph also went from Galilee. How long he had been living in Galilee is unknown. To the city called Bethlehem. The city of David, and of David's family.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

The UDB rearranges these two verses into a verse bridge in order to make it easier to shorten the sentences. (See: Verse Bridges)

Joseph also

This introduces Joseph as a new participant in the story. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

to the city of David which is called Bethlehem

The phrase "the city of David" was a name for Bethlehem that tells why Bethlehem was important. Although it was a small town, King David was born there, and there was a prophecy that the Messiah would be born there. AT: "to Bethlehem, the city of King David" or "to Bethlehem, the town where King David was born" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

because he was of the house and family line of David

"because Joseph was a descendant of David"

to register

This means to report to the officials there so they could include him in the count. Use a term for an official government count if possible.

along with Mary

Mary traveled with Joseph from Nazareth. It is likely that women were also taxed, so Mary would have needed to travel and be registered as well. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

who was engaged to him

"his fiancee" or "who was promised to him." An engaged couple was considered legally married, but there would not have been physical intimacy between them.

translationWords

Joseph (NT)

Galilee

Nazareth

Judea

city of David

Bethlehem

descend

family

David

Mary

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

4. ἀπὸ … ἐκ. The prepositions are here used with classical accuracy. ἀπὸ means ‘direction from’ (ab); ἐκ means ‘from within’ (ex).

πόλιν Δαυείδ. 1Sa 17:12, “David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah whose name was Jesse.”

ἥτις. In Hellenistic Greek many relative pronouns (properly used in indirect sentences, repetitions, &c.) being mere luxuries of language tend to disappear, as in modern Greek, or are used without distinction. ἥτις is here used correctly (like “the which” in Shakespeare and in Gen 1:29). In the N. T. ὅστις is more common than ὅς.

Βηθλεὲμ. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Mic 5:2, “Thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah … out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.” Cf. Luk 4:8, “And thou, O tower of the flock” (Migdol Eder, Gen 35:21), “unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.”

Bethlehem (‘House of Bread,’ to which the mystical method of Scriptural interpretation refers such passages as Isa 33:16, LXX[57]; Joh 6:51; Joh 6:58) is the very ancient Ephrath (‘fruitful’) of Gen 35:16; Gen 48:7; Psa 132:6. It is a small town six miles from Jerusalem. It was the scene of the death of Rachel (Gen 35:19); of the story of Ruth; and of the early years of the life of David (1Sa 16:1; 2Sa 23:15). Our Lord does not seem to have ever visited it again. The name is now corrupted into Beitlahm, ‘house of flesh.’

[57] LXX. Septuagint.

ἐξ οἴκου καὶ πατριᾶς Δαυείδ, of the house and family (Eph 3:15) of David. The humble condition of Joseph as a provincial carpenter in no way militates against this. Hillel, the great contemporary Rabbi, who also claimed to be a descendant of David, began life as a half-starved porter; and numbers of beggars in the East wear the green turban which shews them to be undisputed descendants of Mohammed.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Ἀνέβη δὲ καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἐκ πόλεως Ναζαρέτ For ἀνέβη comp. ver. 42, 18:31, 28; Act 11:2; and for δὲ καί see on 3:9. Note the change of prep. from ἀπό to ἐκ. But ἀπό is used of towns (10:30; Act 8:26, Act 13:14, Act 20:17, etc.), and ἐκ of districts (23:55; Act 7:4, etc.); so that there is no special point in the change, although it should be preserved in translation. Comp. Joh 1:45 and 11:1; also the ἐκ of Luk 21:18 with the ἀπό of Act 27:34.

εἰς πόλιν Δαυείδ. That Bethlehem was David’s birthplace and original home is in accordance with 1Sa 17:12 ff. and 17:58; but both passages are wanting in LXX. In O.T. “the city of David” always means the fortress of Zion, formerly the stronghold of the Jebusites (2Sa 5:7, 2Sa 5:9; 1Ch 11:5, 1Ch 11:7), and in LXX πόλις in this phrase commonly has the article. Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem. Note that Lk. does not connect Christ’s birth at Bethlehem with prophecy.

ἥτις καλεῖται βηθλεέμ. In late Greek ὅστις is sometimes scarcely distinguishable from ὅς: comp. Act 17:10. But in 9:30 (as in Act 23:14, Act 27:18, and Eph 1:23, which are sometimes cited as instances of ὅστις= ὅς) there may be special point in ὅστις. Even here it may “denote an attribute which is the essential property of the antecedent,” and may possibly refer to the meaning of Bethlehem. Comp. πόλιν κτίσας ταύτην, ἥτις νῦν Μέμφις καλεῖται (Hdt. ii. 99. 7).

βηθλεέμ. “House of Bread”; one of the most ancient towns in Palestine. It is remarkable that David did nothing for Bethlehem, although he retained affection for it (2Sa 23:15); and that Jesus seems never to have visited it again. In Joh 7:42 it is called a κώμη, and no special interest seems to have attached to the place for many years after the birth of Christ. Hadrian planted a grove of Adonis there, which continued to exist from a.d. 135 to 315. About 330 Constantine built the present church. D. B.2 art. “Bethlehem.” The modern name is Beit Lahm; and, as at Nazareth, the population is almost entirely Christian.

οἴκου κ. πατριᾶς. Both words are rather indefinite, and either may include the other. Here οἶκος seems to be the more comprehensive; otherwise καὶ πατριᾶς would be superfluous. Usually πατριά is the wider term. That a village carpenter should be able to prove his descent from David is not improbable. The two grandsons of S. Jude, who were taken before Domitian as descendants of David, were labourers (Eus. H. E. iii. 20. 1-8).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

House and lineage. According to the Jewish mode of registration the people would be enrolled by tribes, families or clans, and households. Compare Jos 7:16 - 18. Rev., house and family.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.