Reading Isaiah 60:1-9 yesterday, I was struck by how many allusions and parallels are embedded in this ancient piece of prophecy. There are at least 9 references (according to my count. I'm happy to find out from you that there are more) from Isaiah 60 that connect to the story of Jesus' birth. Most of them have to do with the visit of the Magi.
Let's read and catalog them (in the comments section) together.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the hip.
5 Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
6 Herds of camels will cover your land,
young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and incense
and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
7 All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you,
the rams of Nebaioth will serve you;
they will be accepted as offerings on my altar,
and I will adorn my glorious temple.8 “Who are these that fly along like clouds,
like doves to their nests?
9 Surely the islands look to me;
in the lead are the ships of Tarshish,[a]
bringing your children from afar,
with their silver and gold,
to the honor of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.
To get the ball rolling: the language of verse one -- "shine...light has come...rises upon you" -- requires only the smallest of steps to demonstrate the presence of the star that appears in the sky, directing the Magi.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, the Pastor made reference to Herod's regicide (sermon of 6 January). Sadly, this was not uncommon in that part of the world. Throughout what is today Iraq, Iran and Turkey it was a frequently used mechanism to ensure a monarch's grasp on the throne. For example, any good history of the Ottoman Empire will highlight the use of regicide.
DeleteI was wondering after the sermnon about how much of our understanding of the Magi is informed, intelligent speculation and how much is based on substantiated fact. Matthew is the only Gospel that makes reference to the Magi and his information is pretty scant. As Meg pointed out, we can make connections to others in Scripture, but are they the same "kinds" of people? There is an old Greek parchment (400-500 AD) referring to the Wise Men as kings. Just wondering! Steve
It's a good wondering, Steve.
ReplyDeleteA basic guide to reading Gospel accounts is to look for parallel texts but, as you rightly point out, we have none. When we are contending with an unknown word/idea, we check it against the rest of the Biblical witness. Finding "magios" as the root word for the sorcerer Bar-Jesus in Acts and the Temple Magicians in Daniel definitely stopped me up short. That has never been part of my picture of the Magi.
I must confess ignorance to the parchment you reference but I know that Matthew has a Greek word he could have used for "King" if that's the story he had been trying to tell. And I know it's in his lexicon because he uses the word twice in Matthew 2 for Herod. But never for the Magi. That textual evidence (along with Bruner's commentary especially & others in part) gave me enough room to make the interpretive choice I did.
I'll admit that I pushed pretty hard on an alternate depiction of the Magi because I am concerned that our speculations are not as informed/intelligent as they might be. (For more on this, see my Monday Morning Preacher-ing post).
Thank you for engaging the conversation. This is the stuff that keeps us active as disciples discerning the same text all week long.