Our Lady in Scripture—III: The Child and his Mother (Matthew 1 and 2)

Extract

As it stands now, the infancy narrative of the first gospel is the work of the Greek writer who perhaps translated and certainly expanded the original Aramaic gospel of the apostle Matthew. But equally certainly he did not invent the episodes which he has used to construct it; they come to him, perhaps already somewhat moulded or schematized, from the traditions of the earliest communities. His narrative falls into two parts, conicident with our two chapters; the first traces and proves the Davidic descent of Jesus, the true king of Israel; the second narrates his danger from the actual usurping king, Herod. Within the narrative in its final form, there are secondary themes; in the first part, the defence of the purity of Jesus’ mother, in the second, the homage paid to him by the Gentile world and its co-operation in preserving him.