Peter Leithart, following James Jordan, claims (conventional!) stars can't really be followed to a particular house or stable. The "star" is really like the glory cloud / fire which led Israel in the wilderness. Israel has become like Egypt. The Magi have become true Israelites.
Jesus as Israel: Matthew Through New Eyes (Athanasius Press, 2017) p70
Don't you think the wonderful literary artistry of the Bible proves it must have been written by God, by the way? People literally could not have made it up.
Saturday, January 05, 2019
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2 comments:
It seems possible that verse 9 merely means to say that the star remained in front of them during the short trip to Bethlehem and that “until it stopped” is better translated literally “until it came to stand” and that this just means that, when they drew near at the house, the magi observed that this star appeared to be above the house in the sky—as numerous other stars would have as well. In this case they would presumably have found the right house by asking around (cf. Carson).
I note this because there is nothing in verse 2 to indicate that there was anything unusual about the movement of the star and the joy in verse 10 could suggest that it came as a surprise to them that they saw the star again. And the relative clause qualifying the star in verse 9 would be odd if the star had literally guided them from their home to Jerusalem.
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