The Epoch and the Localities in which Jesus exercised His Ministry

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ: Book Second: The Beginnings of the Ministry of Jesus

Chapter I: The Epoch and the Localities in which Jesus exercised His Ministry

Luke iii. 1, 2.

"In the year 15 of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being Governor of Judea, and Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, Philip, his brother, ruling over Iturea and the land of Trachonitis, and Lysanias over the country about Abila, under the pontificate of Annas and Caïphas, the word of God was spoken to John, son of Zachary, in the desert." Saint Luke, in using these terms to announce the mission of John the Baptist, has not thought so much of giving us, in this summary of the times, and accurate chronology, as he desires to recall the various circumstances surrounding the appearance of the Precursor war of Jesus; nevertheless, he is not wanting in precision but that we can infer from his words the very year in which the Saviour commenced His Ministry.  Indeed, the public life of Jesus was begun by His And baptism; and as this baptism followed close upon the first preaching of John the Baptist, it must have been in about the 15th year of Tiberius that the Saviour, leaving Nazareth, descended to the banks of the river Jordan.

But what are we to understand by the 15th year of Tiberius?  As Augustus died the 19th of August in the year 767 of Rome (14 AD of our calendar), would it not seen, at first sight, that this year must be from 781 (28 to 29 of the Christian era), and that consequently the birth of Jesus took place, at the latest in 751, since he was "about 30 years old" at the time of his baptism?  However, this date cannot be adopted; for we know from incontrovertible testimony, on the one hand, that Herod died in the month of April, 750, and on the other, that the Nativity of Jesus preceded that he event.  The 15th year of Tiberius must then be computed by reckoning, not from the death of Augustus, but from the year in which Tiberius took active part in the government of the Empire.  This way of calculating the reign of the Emperors was the common custom in the provinces of the East. Wieseler has demonstrated this fact by the aid of inscriptions and medals.

Adopting this hypothesis, Jesus was born toward the end of the year 749, some months before the death of Herod, and He began His Ministry about 780 (27 of the common era).

One other date, which is preserved by Saint John, supports these conclusions.  Some months after His Baptism we find Jesus in Jerusalem for the Passover.  Moved to wrath at the sight of hucksters in the Temple, He whipped them from their stalls with blows from a thong.

The Jews demanded at once, "What warrant have you to show us for such actions as these?"

"Overturn this Temple," a Jesus, "and in three days I will rebuild it once more!"

"What?" they replied, "this Temple was 46 years in building, and will you raise it up again in three days?"

The restoration of the Temple which is referred to here was commenced by Herod in the 18th year of his reign (734).  The Passover during which these words were spoken is therefore that of 780.  Now, the date of this Pasch being also that in which Jesus began His ministry, His birth, which took place 30 years earlier, must be put about 750 (four years before Christ), or, to be more exact, in the month of December, 749 (year 5 BC).

These two dates (749 and 780) settled upon, the one as fixing the nativity of Jesus, the other that of the commencement of His ministry, there remains only to be determined the period of His death, in order to arrange the chronicle of His whole life.  It took place, as we shall see later, on the 40th of Nissan Friday, the seventh of April 783 AUC (the 30th year of our era).  And hence there must have been four Passovers during the public life of Jesus.  That of 780 marks the beginning of His preaching1 and teaching; a second (781) would seem to be the one referred to by Saint John in his fifth chapter2 as that in which Jesus cure the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda.  The Saviour did not attend the third (782); it was just about the time when He multiplied the loaves in Galilee, and to His disciples promised a New Pasch; the fourth Passover was that of His death (783).

As for the ministry of John the Baptist, he had preceded the first Pasch of 780 by some months.  But the period that elapsed between the autumn of 779 and that of 780 had been observed by all Judea as the Sabbatical Year.  We know what that term meant in the Mosaic legislation.  Every seven years the fields were left fallow; what they brought forth of themselves was divided between the poor, the foreigners and the cattle, while overall Judea there was a full remission of all debts.  Is it not most probable that John the Baptist appeared at the beginning of this year, when such a protracted period of leisure allowed of the people's listening to his Message, — a Message in which they heard him speak of expiation, mercy, and forgiveness?  The Sabbatic Year commenced, like the civil year, in the month of Tishri (September); therefore the ministry of John the Baptist preceded the Baptism of Jesus by about three months.  A tradition of the primitive Church locates the latter event about the 6th of January, during that same winter.

We may conclude from these facts that the various events in the life of Jesus Christ may reasonably be connected with the following dates:

Whichever view one May choose to follow in this matter of dates, there is no reason for laying any very great stress upon it, after all; four Saint Luke only alludes cursorily to such dates as he gives, and without ever being diverted from his subject.  But, on the other hand, he goes into a detailed account of the names of sovereigns and countries in order to give a survey of the world at the point of time when John the Baptist began to preach.  He mentions the lands through which the Saviour moved; he tells what princes held sway in each.  It is therefore the field of the Ministry of Jesus which is here spread before our eyes.

First of all, let us glance over the regions included in that field.  Two of these provinces, Judaea and Galilee, are already known to us.  However, it may be remarked that this latter comprised also (as belonging to the realm of Antipas) the mountains of Galaad, which the Gospel calls by the name of Perea, the " the country on the other side of Jordan."

Political situation at the birth of Christ (After Grollenberg, Atlas of the Bible (1956)

Below this province begins the domain of Philip, containing the pasture lands of Basan.  On the east, "the land of the Trachonites;" and on the north, "Iturea." This last named region, with its rich meadow country in the south, gradually grows more and more forbidding of aspect the nearer we approach to Damascus.  The ground is rugged, strewn with jagged rocks and black boulders, and the flocks feed within the craters of extinct volcanoes.

Still wilder and more gloomy is the Trachonite country.  It lies between Iturea, Basan, and the desert, only elevated some 30 feet above the undulating plains of Hauran, like a shoal of rocks in a sea of verdure.  Any one might imagine, viewing the chaotic condition of these dreary wilds, that sometime, long ago, huge waves of basalt had been petrified all at once in the midst of a tremendous tempest.  Some violent upheaval must have been the cause of these ugly chasms, dark caves, and deep defiles, which make the wastelands of Lejah object of wonderment.  Such it was in the days of Jesus, and such we find it still today; for neither time nor man has changed the character of this strange country.  The sixty cities of Argob  — "the Heap of Rocks," as the Hebrews called them, — have still preserved intact their rugged walls and their houses with doors made of stone, all so dark and gloomy that, in the time of Solomon, they were believed to be made of bronze.  Abilene, the province ruled by that Lysanias whom Saint Luke puts last in his list, is a country of a more charming complexion.  It lies about the base of the Antiliban Mountains.

The traveller who leaves Damascus for Baalbek, after six hours' journey in a gorge made fertile by the waters of Barada, encounters the ruins of ancient Abila (called today Souk Ouadi Barada) the many inscriptions found in this locality leaving no doubt as to this point.  This city was the capital of the principality which extended from Hermon to Libanus, and of which the origin is very doubtful.  Josephus and Strabo speak of a Ptolemy, son of Meneus, who held sway over the plains of the Marsyas, in the mountainous country of Iturea, and counted among its towns Chalcis, at the foot of Libanus, and Heliopolis (Baalbek).  This Ptolemy had a son, Libanus, who was put to death by Anthony, at the instigation of Cleopatra, who thus wrested from him his realm.  What became of this principality thereafter?  Did it pass into the hands of Herod, who, as we know, purchased from Cleopatra the parcel of her domains in Syria, and obtained the remainder from Augustus after the battle of Actium?  There is room here for any number of conjectures, since after the death of Lysanias no mention of his kingdom is found anywhere until the time, about 60 years later it was, when Saint Luke mentions the same region in connection with a Lysanias, — no longer as king but tetrarch, of Abila.

The division of Palestine and the neighbouring country into Tetrarchies did not take place until the death of Herod.  Probably during that epoch a prince of the lines of Ptolemy and Lysanias, and bearing the name of the latter king, received from Rome, along with the title of tetrarch,a portion of the kingdom of his fathers, and so made Abila the centre of a new state.The historian Josephus had some knowledge of this Tetrarchy, since he takes care to distinguish between the Abila of the second Lysanias and Chalcis, the capital of the first ruler of that name; and, furthermore, we possess inscriptions later than the time of Herod which in like manner make mention of a Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene.

The other princes who lived in the time of Jesus were sons of Herod the Great, and had inherited his estates.  It is true that their father’s will only designated two among them for the succession, Archelaus and Antipas; but in those days everything happened in Judaea according to the good pleasure of Rome, and Augustus had little respect for any dispositions made by the old King.  Half of his territory, — Idumea, Samaria, and Judea, was handed over to Archelaus; the rest, divided in equal parts, formed two tetrarchies, which, following the proper acceptation of this term, comprised each a quarter of the kingdom of Herod.  One such portion fell to the lot of Antipas; it was composed of Galilee and Perea.  The other was reserved for Philip, — the son whom Herod had by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and who while he was being educated at Rome had won the imperial favour.  His tetrarchy extended from the Lake of Genesareth to the sources of the Jordan.  It comprised Iturea and Trachonitis, as we have already seen, and beyond this country's much more fertile, Gaulanitis, Auranitis and Batania; these altogether went to make up his province.  During the entire lifetime of Jesus these countries enjoyed peace and the government of a prince who was just, humane, and a patron of the arts.  More than once did the Saviour pass along its pleasant parts, whether it was to seek a retreat near Mount Hermon, or to rest within its fresh blooming valleys watered by the springs of the Jordan.

Of all the regions which we have been naming over, no one listened for a longer time to the teachings of the Saviour than Galilee.  Antipas, Tetrarch of this province, was an indolent and dissipated prince, entirely engrossed in the pursuit of vicious pleasures and in courting the favour of Tiberius; he was of a nature which would be apt to pay little heed to a matter which appeared so trivial, to his way of thinking, that it need not cause him any uneasiness.  His only desire in the matter was to witness some of the wonders concerning which rumour had aroused his curiosity.

As for Archelaus, he could never have been seen by Jesus; for in the tenth year of the Divine Childhood this prince was deposed and exiled among the Gauls.  From the outset Augustus had distrusted his weakened passionate nature, and he only vouchsafed to allow him for a time the title of ethnarch, promising him that of king if he proved himself worthy thereof.  But the Emperor saw his forebodings amply and immediately justified; for the Jews were shortly stirred to revolt by the tyranny of the new ruler.  Hence it became necessary to withdraw what little power had been conferred upon him.

Thus vanished even that poor shadow of independence which had still remained to Judaea Augustus made the country merely an appendage to Syria, the government of which was then in the hands of Publius Sulpicius Quirinus.  Nevertheless, the importance of Judaea, as well as the necessity of restraining so uneasy a people, makes the presence of a procurator invested with almost absolute authority requisite.

A Roman night, Coponius, was the first to fill this difficult position.  He was obliged to use force to bend this stubborn country beneath his yolk, and impose upon it the tax-levy which had been decreed for the whole empire.  It required all the influence that the High-Priest Joazar could exert to prevent a general uprising; but he could not, by any efforts, discourage a certain few fanatics, who revolted at a signal from Judas the Gaulonite and the Pharisee Sadoc.  Their attempts were at once suppressed; but the frequent executions only exalted their courage; and, ever after, similar Zealots did not cease to trouble the peace of Jerusalem, still repeating their war cry: "We have no other Master but God." These seditions, which were continually springing up, exhausted the patience of the first governors promptly enough.  In less than ten years we see three Romans, each in turn endeavouring to direct the affairs of Judaea, — Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, and Annius Rufus.

With Tiberius Judaea entered upon a calmer era, and during the 23 years of his reign it received but two procurators, Valerius Gratus and Pontius Pilate.  Of the former, the only factor on record which is remembered of him is the facility with which he deposed the High-Priests; for finding Annas invested with these lofty functions on his entering into office, he substituted Ismael, son of Fabi; then, after him, Eleazar, son of Annas; a little later, Simon, son of Camith; and finally, Joseph Caïphas, son in law of Annas.

Pontius Pilate, who succeeded him, has attained a sad but renown.  In the twelfthth year of Tiberius, being charged with the government of Judaea, he showed himself, at the outset, such as he was to the last moment, a man with a predisposition to justice, but rendered unreliable by a combination of ambition and cowardice.  One of his first acts was to send a Roman garrison, with their standards, to Jerusalem.  His predecessor, more politic than he, had been careful not to intrude within their Temple walls with those Roman ensigns, emblazoned with the idolatrous legends and insignia; they even forbore to interfere with the troops of Zealots.  But at the command of Pilate legionaries broke down the gates in the night time, and at dawn the populists saw with horror those impure images contaminating the Citadel of God.  A suppliant throng was dispatched to Cesarea, and during five days kept beseeching Pilate with their clamorous petitions.  The Governor, wearying of their persistency, ordered the soldiers to surround the crowd and disperse them by force of arms.  At their approach the Jews cast themselves flat upon the ground, preferring to die rather than to endure any violation of the Law.  Pilate was compelled to yield to their stubborn resolution, and withdrew his standards.

At another time, a little later than this, he was even less successful in a similar enterprise.  He suspended, along the walls of his palace in Jerusalem, golden shields with the names of pagan divinities graven upon their glittering services.  Again the people rose up in revolt, and Tiberius himself ordained the removal of those emblems, which were so abhorred by his new subjects.

It was not merely this vacillation between rashness and timidity which militated against Pilate’s authority; even his favours were treated with disdain.  Jerusalem lacked a sufficiency of water; he decided to bring the needed supply from a distance of about three leagues, introducing it into the city through one of those majestic aqueducts, such as remain to this day a grand memorial of ancient Rome.  But the people, upon learning that the revenues of the Temple were to be devoted to this project, laid hold upon the work men and put a stop to all labour upon it.  Much blood was spilt before the rebels were suppressed.

This persistent hostility put Pilate’s capricious nature out of all patience, and he decided to follow the example of his predecessors.  He retired to Cesarea upon the borders of the sea, administered the government while keeping aloof from the people, and contented himself with levying taxes and putting a check upon unruly spirits.  It was only during the feasts of the Pasch that he would condescend to occupy the fortress Antonia with a detachment of his troops; for from the seat he could dominate the Temple with its throngs, while he held his forces in readiness to crash out any insurrection.

Of all the members of the Sanhedrin, those who conceived the bitterest animosity against Jesus were the princes of the Priesthood.  And so, because they had such a preponderating influence in that Council, Saint Luke mentions this fact at the outset of his Gospel, that Annas and Caïaphas were the two leaders of the great Sacerdotal Body during the public life of the Saviour.  Annas, it would seem held the first place there.  Although deposed from his office by Valerius Gratus, the predecessor of Pilate, he not only retained enough influence to procure the elevation of his five sons, together with this same as son in law Caïaphas, to the pontificate, but even managed to maintain a rigorous authority in all the councils of the high-priests who succeeded him.  Undoubtedly the Jews, who held the more tenaciously by their theocratic institutions in proportion as the Romans infringed upon them more insolently, in this instance would regard the continual changes imposed upon their royal priesthood as illegal and without force.  Exasperated by such sacrileges, they would, to all outward appearance indeed, submit to the pontiff put over them by the will of Rome; but all the same they would look upon one man alone as their legitimate head.  This man was Annas, whom, as we shall see, they loaded with attention and honours.

Such was the government of Judaea in the time of Jesus Christ, such the circumstances amid which He appeared, and to which Saint Luke has been careful to call our attention.  As he was addressing readers who were familiar with the period and places of which he speaks, a few words sufficed for his purpose; today we need to know much more of detail in order to give the words of the Evangelist their original clearness and importance.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Hidden Life of Jesus at Nazareth

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

III. The Hidden Life of Jesus at Nazareth

Luke ii. 51-52

" Jesus went down to Nazareth with His parents; there He was subject to them, and He increased in wisdom, in age, and in grace before God and before man." Saint Luke here reiterates of the Youth of the Saviour what he had formally said of His Childhood.  He grew in accordance with the laws of that Humanity wherewith He had clothed Himself, and this external life had nothing to the outward view that what was natural and ordinary: only it was an irreproachable life and an unpretentious one.  Those who saw Jesus in the days of His hidden life, beheld before their eyes only a poor labourer toiling in his workshop.

The youth of Jesus. J-J Tissot.

Joseph was a carpenter; Jesus was one like him.  His countrymen recognized Him as such when He preached in the synagogue of Nazareth.

"Is not this fellow, here, the carpenter, Mary's son?"1 they cried out.

It was a custom among the Jews for every child, whatever his rank or fortune might be, to learn some mechanical art.  It was a then doubly necessary for Jesus to work with His hands, for the Holy Family was poor, and their only means of livelihood were drawn from this handicraft of Joseph.

Everything leads us to suppose that the latter died during the hidden life of the Saviour; indeed his name appears no more in the Gospel, neither at the bridle banquet in Cana, nor at the departure for Capharnaum, nor amid any of those other circumstances in which the relations of the Christ are mentioned.  Besides this, would Jesus have left Mary to Saint John if her husband had been still alive?  Joseph died in Nazareth, therefore, in the arms of Mary, and with the kiss of peace upon his lips from the Lord Himself.  Jesus was left alone to be the support of His Mother; and so He busied Himself in the carpenter's workshop at Nazareth, handling the saw and the plane.  In its infancy, the Church was wont to recall, for the reverent remembrance of the faithful, those ploughs and yokes which His divine hands once fashioned from the rough wood.

It may be that Jesus did not always dwell alone in that quiet home.  According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, a sister of the Holy Virgin, like her called Mary, had married a brother of Joseph, named Alpheus or Cleophas.  He too must have died during Jesus's sojourn in Nazareth, for the gospel observes the same silence concerning him that it does as to Joseph.  But for the two sisters, it would seem that they kept together; and the numerous children of Mary, wife of Cleophas, are those brothers and sisters of Jesus of whom the townspeople spoke in these terms: "Are not His brethren named James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude?  And are not His sisters all here amongst us?"5 It is the usage in Sacred Scripture, and is, in fact, a general custom in that Greek language, to call even distant kinsfolk brethren.  That term, therefore, only refers to these four cousins of Jesus.  As for the daughters of Mary and Alpheus, who lived in the household of the Saviour, we know neither their names nor their number.  However these words: "Are they not all here among us?" leave it to be supposed that there were at least three.

Two of their brothers are better known; we shall encounter them shortly among the Apostles.  James, son of Alpheus, is that "brother of the Lord" whom St. Paul wanted to see, together with Peter, and whom he hailed as one of the pillars of the Church.  His steady virtue got for him the surname of The Just.  "Consecrated to God from the womb of his mother, he drank nor wine, nor strong liquor, and abstained from animal food.  Never had the razor been passed over his locks, never did he use fine oil to anoint his limbs." Jude, the brother of James, had not, like him, this austerity of the Nazarite; but it was as a tribute to his generosity that he was given the name of Lebbeus (Thaddeus), "the Man of Heart," by which he is distinguished in the Gospel.

These characteristics were not, however, unfolded until later on, beneath the breath of the Holy Spirit.  At Nazareth the kindred of the Saviour had no higher thoughts than such as were common to their contemporaries; all their desires limited to the enjoyment of the good things of this earth.  At the outset of the Ministry of Jesus, they understood so little what was His divine Mission that they set out upon a day to bring Him back by force to their home, and to constrain Him to take some nourishment: "He is becoming mad,"9 they said.  Used as they were to see in Jesus one of their own household, the cousins of the Saviour were apparently the last to believe in Him; and if, seeing the marvels worked by their "Brother," they did finally follow Him, it was in the hope of finding the wealth and on as they coveted.

The following fact related by Saint John hardly leaves any doubt about this point.

It was just as the Feast of the Tabernacles was drawing near, in the last year of Jesus; He had not more than six months to live.  His brethren came to Him:

"Come out from Galilee," they cried, "and go into Judea, so that your disciples may see the works which you do; for no man does such things in secret when he wishes to show himself publicly.  Since you are doing these things, manifest yourself to the world."

"Even His brethren," adds saint John, sadly, "did not believe in Him." And still it was in their society that Jesus of Nazareth lived.  These labourers, more engrossed in earthly cravings than careful for the things of Heaven, shared in His tasks, gathered around the same family table, sat by the same fireside, were witnesses of His days and nights.  And thus Jesus, by partaking of them, has hallowed those daily trials of our daily life, which Heaven mingles with the joys of home and family, and which make for the probation and salvation of so many souls.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

Jesus among the Doctors

Continuing with Fouard's life of Christ

II. Jesus among the Doctors

Luke ii. 41-50.

Along about His twelfth year, the young Jew found Himself, in a certain measure, exempt from the family government.  Having entered the synagogue, He had begun already to bind about His brows the phylacteries, — long bands of parchment, covered with sacred texts, — and was becoming "a Son of the Law," and so subject to its prescriptions.  One of paramount importance was to visit Jerusalem at the Feast of the Pasch.  The parents of Jesus acquitted themselves of their duty faithfully; and although custom did not insist upon the presence of women, Mary accompanied her spouse.  The Saviour was twelve years old when, for the first time doubtless, He made the journey to Jerusalem with His Family.

The Pilgrims from Galilee, because they feared the violence of the Samaritans, usually were loath to cross over their country.  It may be believed that the hatred of the sectaries was not so active at this moment; for the traditions declare that, both going and coming, the Holy Family followed the direct road, which passes close by Sichem.  By this route Nazareth is distant from Jerusalem some thirty-two leagues, and the trip would take a slow-travelling caravan not less than three or four days.  To the south of the valley of Esdralon, the springs and groves of En-Gannim afford a first camping-spot for the pilgrims.  From thence, after crossing the hill country of Manasseh, on the second evening, the tents are pitched near Jacob’s Well, at the foot of Mounts Ebal and Garizim.  Beëroth with its fountains was the customary stopping place for the third day.  After this there remained only some three hours travel, and hence the next morning would find them within the walls of Jerusalem.

Mary and Joseph seeking Jesus. J-J Tissot.

In that city the Holy Family passed the seven days of the Passover.  And on the day following the caravans were gathered together for their departure; that of Galilee, which was composed of many thousands of persons,1 was never ready for the start until near midday; for tradition points out Beëroth as the spot where, at nightfall, Joseph and Mary were first made aware of the absence of Jesus.

One is at a loss to understand, upon first thoughts, how they were so slow to take alarm; but it must be remembered that Jerusalem, during the Passover Season, was thronged with two or three million pilgrims, and in consequence caravans were formed amidst the greatest confusion.  It was only when the long files of travellers with camels and mules had left the city gates far behind them, that it became possible to collect together ones own party, and to keep some order.  Kindred and friends were then united, the women and the old people mounted upon beasts of burden, the men on foot, leading the way, while, as they journeyed along, they chanted their sacred hymns.  The parents of Jesus not seeing Him, would think that He had joined some other band, and thus they would pursue their way, expecting Him to rejoin them when the Caravan came to a halt as he eventide.

But their search for Him then among the crowd was a vain one: Jesus was not to be found; and their anxiety was very great, for Judea was then in an uproar of sedition.  The exile of Archelaus, recently deposed by Augustus, had resulted in the reduction of his kingdom into a Roman Province and the imposition of additional taxes.  At this new a badge of servitude the people revolted, and the excitement raised by the insurrection of Sadoc and Judas the Gaulonite was still agitating them.  In such troublous times, amid the wild crews which were scouring over the country, what perils might not menace a lost child!

All were astonished at His answers. J-J Tissot

Joseph and Mary returned immediately to Jerusalem.  For the space of two nights and two days, all along the wayside and through the Holy City, they continued the fruitless search.  Only upon the third day did they discover the Child, "seated in the Temple, in the midst of the Doctors, the while all those who heard Him were astonished at His discretion and that His answers."

How came it that Jesus should be found in this place and in such a noble company?  The Jewish Doctors were accustomed to meet upon Sabbath days in one of the lofty halls of the Temple, and would there solve any difficulties occurring in the interpretation of the Law.  In the time of the Pasch particularly, when Jews from all over the world flocked to Jerusalem, there were great throngs about these far-famed masters, eager to be instructed by them.  The Divine Child mingled among their auditors; those questions of His, so profound in their simplicity, attracted the attention of the Doctors, who were soon surrounding Him, eager to question and to hear Him.  And such was the charm of His discourse it held these sages of Israel fast captives to His voice.

This congregation was not unworthy to hearken to Him, for it was made illustrious by men of most venerable authority; Hillel, revered as the peer of Moses, habited still in all the majesty of a noble old age; the unyielding Shammaï, who had bound all that Hillel loosed; Jonathas, son of Uziel, whose speech was so fiery that the birds, (says the Talmud), as they passed above his head, were either burned, or were transformed into Seraphim.  Grouped about these, the parents of Jesus might have seen Rabban Simeon as well, he who had foretold to Mary her future griefs; probably there, too, word Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, whom Grace was shortly to allure.  But even more than any aspect of this company did the part played by their Son overwhelm them with amazement.  He in Whom, thus far, they had seen only a thoughtful, recollected Child, sedulous to conceal the Divinity inherent in Him, — He now discloses Himself suddenly as a superior Being, overawing by His questions and replies these old men of constant learning.

Still the marvellous character of this scene could not make Mary quite forget all that she had been made to suffer, and her tremulous heart overflowed in this tender reproach:

I must be about My Father's business. J-J Tissot.

" My Son, why treat us thus?  Your father and I have sought You sorrowing."

Jesus was content to recall to Mary’s mind that His only Father was in the heavens.

"Why did you seek Me?" He said; "did you not know that indeed I must be about My Father's business?"

But even this reply, — the first sentence from the Saviour’s lips which is come down to us, — this His word neither Joseph nor Mary comprehended.  The humble Virgin herself makes the avowal by that line in Saint Luke's narrative: And His parents did not understand what He had said to them."

All she could do, then, was to engrave upon her memory everything she saw and heard that day.  As for Jesus, He invested Himself again in the same serene silence as of old, and now the veil which had covered His Childhood once more screens from our view the eighteen years which are to follow.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Childhood of Jesus

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

Chapter VI : Jesus at Nazareth

I. The Childhood of Jesus

Luke ii. 40

The Youth of Jesus. J-J Tissot

All that we know of the Childhood of Jesus is comprised these words of Saint Luke: "The Child grew, and waxed stronger in the fullness of wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him." There was therefore a transitional period in the life of Jesus, — a period of growth in body, which grew like that of other children, — a period of progress, even "of the soul, which fortified itself," according to another reading of the sacred text.

How are we to understand this interior development of Jesus?  The common feeling is that His wisdom and His power declared itself by degrees, although He possessed them in their plenitude even from His Conception; and hence this increase in strength was only an apparent progress.  However, we should not forget that the Saviour willed not only to appear, but to be in reality, a Child; now, it is the law of childhood that, just as the organs, at first imperfect, develop little by little, so the intelligence awakes in perfect concord with it.  Since Jesus was once a Child, did He have to submit Himself to the gentle influences of age and its changeful growth?  Yet, if we admit this point, how are we to reconcile that absolute Omniscience possessed by the Man-God in virtue of the Hypostatic Union, with any intellectual increase, however small we may consider it to have been, even worry no more than an experimental knowledge, as many theologians define it?  Here there is, we must confess, an inexplicable problem; and it will wiser by far to humble our minds before it, than to insist stubbornly upon a satisfactory solution.  We believe, with firm faith, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is God even as is the Father, and by this He is always infinitely wise, infinitely mighty; and the other hand, we read in the Gospel that Jesus was really a Child, and that He grew, in age, in grace, in wisdom.  No one of these truths involves a contradiction; certainly we do not know how they were reconciled in Him; and yet, if it were otherwise, the Incarnation would cease to be, — what God has willed that it should for ever be, — a Mystery, which escapes the grasp of our reason without shocking or contradicting it.

However it may have been with the interior life of Jesus, outwardly at least there was nothing to distinguish Him from the children among whom He lived, and in Mary's arms He appears to us as Bossuet has painted Him: "Thou lovely Babe!  Happy were they who gazed upon Thee, stretching for Thy arms from out the swaddling bands, lifting up little fingers to caress Thy holy Mother; now, upheld by her firm hands, adventuring Thy first short steps; now practising by Thy baby-tongue with stammerings of the praise of God, Th Father!  I worship Thee, dear Child, at every stage of Thy divine growth, the while Thou art nursed at her pure breasts, or while, with feeble wails of infancy, Thou dost call for her, or while Thou dost repose upon her bosom, clasped in her warm arms."

The mysterious tide of this divine Childhood passed away in the obscure village in which Joseph and Mary dwelt.  We know already the name of their retreat; it will suffice to describe its site, to make it understood why Jesus loved Nazareth, and preferred it to any other abode.

Judea is scarcely more than a succession of hill-ranges, running from the north to the south, at some distance from the Mediterranean.  In the west they slope down to the sea-shore; in the east they are broken suddenly, to leave a passage through which the Jordan flows, hemmed in by their steep walls and that of the mountains of Hauran.  Thus four parallel lines of hills make up the whole of Palestine; plains along the seaboard, the highlands of Juda, the bed of the Jordan, and, beyond that, the hills of Perea.  Only one valley, that of Esdralon, breaking through it transversely, cuts the first chain into two parts: one of these stretches north to the Libanus, — this is Galilee; the other extends south as far as the desert, — that is the land of Juda.

Nazareth belongs to Galilee, and nestles down along the mountainside, shielded from the plane of Esdralon by the many hilltops which are crossed by those winding footpaths and steep, hilly roads.  On the confines of the village these crests stand apart from space (as it were), so to encircle with their wooded heights a grassy vale.  Some scholars have presumed that this verdant amphitheatre was once the crater of an extinct volcano, and indeed the fertility of the spot supports their conjecture.  In fact, Palestine has no more smiling glade than this little valley of Nazareth.  Antoninus the Martyr compares it to a paradise.  "Its women are of an incomparable grace," he says, "and their beauty, which surpasses that of all the maidens of Juda, is a gift from Mary.  As for its wines, its honey, its oil and its fruits, it yields not the palm even to fruitful Egypt." Today Nazareth has lost these glories; but it still has its meadows, its shady hollows, watered by cool springs, its gardens have nopal and fig trees, where the olive mingles with orange and pomegranate trees, in fruit and in flower.  To the southwest, the village spreads down the slope of the mountain, and the campanile of the Latin Convent marks the location of the abode of Jesus.

Nazareth has no other horizon besides this circle of wooded eminences, which shut it in on every side, but from the brow of the hillside on which the village is built Jesus could in one glance embrace all that territory which He had come to conquer: to the north, the mountain peaks of Libanus and Hermon, covered with eternal snows; to the east Mount Tabor, like a dome of verdure, then the deep river bed of the Jordan, and the high table lands of Galahad; from its southern side, the plane of Esdralon reached from His feet as far as the mountains of Manassah; on the east was the Sea, and Carmel, with its many are reminders of Elias.

Galilee of the Gentiles, as its name indicates, did not form a little world by itself, like the land of Juda.  Its inhabitants were of various races.  Phoenicians people the frontier of Tyre and of Sidon; mingling with the Jews were Arabs and Assyrians, who together cultivated fields of the province; a few Greek Colonies occupied the towns of the Decapolis; and, over all, the garrisons of Rome held the whole country in their grasp.

Amidst these surroundings the early years of Jesus were passed.  Outwardly the same as other children, He received from Mary and Saint Joseph the simple lessons which the Law prescribed; at His Mother's knee he learned to read the Scriptures, which only spoke of Him; but Mary new What He was, and though charged with the duty of instructing Him she never forgot that He must be the Object of her veneration.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Flight into Egypt and the Holy Innocents

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ: II. The Flight into Egypt and the Holy Innocents

Matt. ii. 12-23

This their pious duty being discharged, the Magi were relieved from the fulfilment of their promise to Herod; for God, Who had been leading them thus far, would still take care for their return.  Being warned in dreams not to appear again before the king, they returned to their own country by another road.

As soon as the Magi had departed, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph while sleeping.

The flight into Egypt. J-J Tissot

"Arise," he said to him; "take the Child and His Mother, and flee into Egypt.  There you will dwell until such time as I shall declare to you, for Herod is searching for the Child to destroy Him."

It was still night; Joseph, rising up, took the Child and His Mother, and set forth.1

Egypt has ever been the refuge for those unfortunates whom persecution and famine have driven forth from the land of Israel.  From the mountains of Juda it only takes a journey of three days to reach Rhinocolura.  Beyond that valley, with its narrow water courses, Herod had no further power; it was Egypt.  To all fugitives it offered safety and an assured asylum; and for this reason the Jews of the Dispersion had once spread their colonies throughout all the land of Mizraïm, the ancient abode of their fathers.

The Gospel tells us nothing concerning this flight of Jesus; doubtless this is because nothing occurred worthy of remark.  The long stretches of the Desert alone witnessed the passage of the Holy Family; some unknown dwelling sheltered them; while there was nothing of any note about them to betray their own unparalleled distinction.  The design of God in sinking these early days in the shadow was thereby to throw out in high relief the future splendour of the Divine Life, and not to dazzle the gaze by such wonders as are found only in the apocryphal gospels.

All in vain have the great painters of Italy immortalised these legends: the dragons of the desert couchant before their Lord; the lions and tigers bounding forward to adore Him; beneath His feet the sand grows green and flowering as the Field of the Roses of Jericho; while the palm trees bowed down their fronded crests, disclosing their fruits to the Fugitives.  All these lovely pictures are but reveries born of a fanciful devotion.

Certain local traditions merit perhaps more consideration.  To the east of Cairo a sycamore his venerated as having once overshadowed the Holy Family; and nearby there bubbles up a stream whose waters (or so say the Copts), were sweetened beneath the touch of Jesus.  This legend points out Heliopolis, the ancient On, as the abode of the Saviour in Egypt; but they cannot tell us what possible reason Joseph could have had for conducting the Mother and the Child so far away, when he might have found a secure a shelter on the frontier.  Indeed the time of their exile was so short that it was probably here, on the border, that the fugitives remained.

The Massacre of the Holy Innocents. J-J Tissot

The precipitate departure of the Magi upset all Herod’s plans.  The morbid jealousy of the tyrant, little used to finding himself thwarted, vented itself in savage fury.  Lacking any precise information, but only recalling what the Magi had said about the time of the Star's appearance, he concluded from this that the young King must be yet unweaned; and as it is the custom with Jewish mothers to nurse their babies for two years, he ordered the slaughter of all the children of that age and under in Bethlehem and the outlying territory.

This cruel order was executed at once, with a brutality which wrought most horrid anguish in those mothers’ breasts; for Saint Matthew tells us of the shrill screams re-echoing round about the mountains.  Rachel herself awakes from the tomb, where she sleeps at the foot of Bethlehem, to mingle her mournful cries with those of the afflicted women.  Then was accomplished that which had been foretold by the prophet Jeremy, "A voice has been heard upon the heights, great weeping and an unceasing wail of lamentation: Rachel mourning her children, and she will not be comforted, because they are not."

Certainly, if we take these words in their sense, it was over the Jews made captives under Nabuzardan and collected at Rama to go together into exile, — it was over these wretched ones the Judea laments with the voice of Rachel, the beloved spouse of Jacob; but, most reasonably, Saint Matthew sees in this passage a portent of the tears which should be shared over the Holy Innocents.  Indeed, nothing had ever occurred to the Israelites which had not some secret reference to the Messiah; sufferings and joys, humiliations and triumphs, each after their own manner, were for a figure of that which should be perfectly fulfilled in Jesus.  The bereavement celebrated by Jeremy was thus in reality a prophecy of the moanings and wails which would rise over the first fruits of our martyrs.

This massacre made little stir in Judea; and Rama alone hearkened to the piercing shrieks of the mothers.  In those days what mattered the sacrifice of a few little children to a monarch's caprice?  Antiquity has small respect for babyhood; furthermore, the reign, now just at its close, had been nothing but a tissue of murders, tortures, and atrocious cruelties; so that, according to the address of the Jewish ambassadors to Augustus, "the living coveted the lot of the victims." Under such circumstances one can conceive how easily profane historians might pass over a deed so unimportant in their eyes.

Nevertheless, Augustus seems to have had some knowledge of the fact, for Macrobius has preserved this characteristic speech of his: "Upon the news that Herod had sacrificed his own son, among the children of two years of age butchered by him in Syria, ‘It were far pleasanter,’ quoth the Emperor, to be Herod’s sow than his son." This imperial pun supposes a confusion as to the facts, — quite natural on the part of Augustus, who must have learned of this massacre as coincident with the news of the murder of Antipater, who had been a fomenter of revolt against his father.  It could not have been invented later on, in the Christian centuries; for then the immolation of these first martyrs had attained an unparalleled importance in all minds.  At all events, this sally of Augustus is not simply a valuable witness of the fact as recounted by Saint Matthew, but it even enables us to fix the date also, since it was but five days before his death that Herod delivered his son into the hands of the executioner.

Not that God had delayed His visitation of the tyrant until this moment.  A horrid disease which Heaven seems to reserve for persecutors, had been corroding and consuming his body, little by little.  Our pen would refuse to copy the picture drawn by Josephus; it is enough to say that the corruption of the tomb devoured him during life itself.  A prey to insupportable agonies, he sought some relief in the warm baths of Callirhoë; but he was forced to return to his superb palace, overshadowed by the palm trees of Jericho, and there stretch himself upon a bed of torture.  Vexatious tidings found their way there to irritate his frenzied spirit.  A rumour of his death had reached Jerusalem, and a golden eagle placed by him over the gate of the Temple, had been torn down.  The culprits were two famous scribes, Judas and Mathias.  After being dragged to Jericho, with forty of their disciples, they were burned alive; but their death only added to Herod’s hideous terrors.  Succumbing at last to the extremity of his sufferings, he attempted to shorten their duration, and thereafter recovered consciousness only long enough to order that horrible execution of his son.  His last thought was worthy of such a life; he was determined that tears should be shed at his funeral, and knowing it was impossible to expect those of affection, he collected into the Hippodrome of Jericho the Chiefs of the great Jewish Families, that he might have them butchered at the hour of his death.  The order was not executed; but it is well to recall it just here, as it enables us to comprehend how the massacre of the Holy Innocents would be passed over almost unnoticed in the midst of the torrents of blood which the tyrants spilled in the delirium of his last days.

Herod’s end was so impatiently awaited that the news must have been carried, far and wide, in a short space; but the Angel of the Lord anticipated its arrival in Egypt.
He appeared to Joseph during his sleep, and said to him: "Arise, take the Child and the Mother, and return to the land of Israel, for they are dead who sought the life of the Child."

The Return from Egypt. J-J Tissot

Joseph rose up immediately, and set out toward Judea.  Saint Matthew, always intent upon setting forth the accomplishment of the prophecies in Jesus, upon this event refers to that line from Osee: "I have called My Son out of Egypt," whose terms applied both to the Exodus of Israel and to the return of the Child-Jesus.  It was a habit with the Jewish people to consider their very existence and their history as the outlines of the coming Messiah; and this made the connection very striking for the first readers of this Gospel.

Joseph's intention was to settle in Bethlehem; his thoughts often recurred thither; and, more than all else, was it not expedient that the Child, Who was destined to rule over the world, should dwell near to Jerusalem and His Temple?  But on the road the Holy Family learned that Archelaus reined in the place of his father.  Judea had only changed the person of her tyrant; for, as his first essay in infamy, the son of Herod had already put to the sword, within the Temple walls, 3000 of his subjects.  Joseph dared not expose the Treasure confided to him to such perils.  He lifted his eyes heavenwards, and Heaven made answer, in a dream, that he should retire into Galilee.  At his death Herod had bequeathed this province to another of his sons, Herod Antipas.  Under this ruler, of a corrupt but careless character, the Divine Child would incur fewer dangers; for this reason Joseph returned to dwell in Nazareth; and thus was fulfilled what had been said by the Prophets, — "that Jesus should be called a Nazarene."

This was not so much any particular prediction (as Saint Matthew refers to it), as it was a thought often uttered by the Prophets; the Messiah was to be "The Netzer," that is to say, the Flower, that shall crown the rod of Jesse.  On its side, Nazareth took its name from the same stem, in allusion to the beauty of its site — for "it was the flower of Galilee." We do not know how this word, which from its origin could evoke none but the sweetest reminiscences, in the end lost all loveliness in their eyes; indeed, for the Jews, "the Nazarene" was unmistakably a term of contempt, and apparently it was in order to upraise it to a new dignity that Saint Matthew recalls how Jesus once dwelt in Nazareth, was hailed by its name, and was thus the Flower of Israel.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Epiphany

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

Chapter V: The Epiphany

I. The Magi

Matt. ii. 1-11

While Joseph and Mary were leaving Jerusalem, a which caravan was entering it.  "These were certain Magi (perhaps from Mogh, meaning Priest in the persian vulgar tongue; alternatively, “a sage”; or a “grandee” (from Sanscrit Mahat > Magnate > Magnus > Μέγας ) of the Orient," says Saint Matthew.  This word, borrowed from the religious terminology of the Persians, is used here to designate the Sacerdotal Class; and it would seem to indicate, therefore, that the Magi were priests of that nation.  This feeling is confirmed by the paintings in the catacombs, where we see the Magi always robed in the costume of the Persians, —the high head dress, the tunic girded at the loins, over which floats a mantle thrown back over the shoulders, the legs are either bare or covered with boots, closely bound with thongs after the fashion of this people. (From Persia, according to the traditions of the Syrian Church and the Greek Fathers; others suggest Arabia, the traditional source of gold, frankincense and myrrh.)

Ministers of a religion far superior to any of the numerous forms of Paganism, the Magi appear to have worshipped at all times One Supreme Divinity, towards whom they observed an austere cult.  There were neither altars nor statues in their temples; there choirs never marched with other than reverent gravity, sending up to God their solemn chants and prayers.

These noble beliefs had survived intact among the Persians up to the time when, under the guidance of Cyrus, they ascended into the plains of Mesopotamia.  There mingling with the Chaldean Magi, if they did not preserve the purity of their faith, they however came under the influence which the Israelite captives exercised upon their conquerors at that period, and in particular under the teachings of Daniel.  It is a fact, which we know from Scripture, that this Prophet, after his introduction into the palace of Nabuchodonosor,(605 BC – c. 562 BC. Destroyer of Solomon's Temple and the initiator of the Babylonian captivity. ) showed himself ten times as wise as the priests and soothsayers of Chaldea, and hence he was placed at their head through the favour of the prince.  His ascendancy only increased under the four succeeding princes and the three dynasties, and was afterwards confirmed by the triumph of the Persian; for these new victors sympathised with the hatred which Israel had ever felt for idolatry.

Being made subject in this manner to the authority of Daniel, the Magi, — Chaldean as well as Pershing, —  could not possibly have been ignorant of his predictions concerning a Messiah, in which he had gone so far as to mark the year, the month, and the hour of His Birth.  They had learned from him that the Saint of Saints, who should receive the divine Anointment, was that very One whom Balaam had beheld arising from Jacob like a Star.(Num. Xxiv. 17.)  From the Magi these prophecies were disseminated among the people; and in the time of Jesus there was a settled conviction, cherished likewise throughout all the East, that a King was to arise from Judea, who should conquer the world.(This report had even come to the ears of Tacitus (Historiae, lib., v. cap. xiii)  and Suetonius.)



In the midst of this expectancy a strange Star shone out suddenly in the eastern sky. (Matt. ii. 2.) The Magi always followed the course of the stars attentively; in the clear nights of the Orient, when the heavens hang out all their glittering lamps, they had remarked this Star and recognised it as a signal for some great marvel.  And at the same time their hearts as well as their eyes were opened to admit the light which heralded the Christ; they recalled to each other the Star of Jacob and Judea and three from among them resolved to travel afar in search of Him of whose approach the heavens were telling.

The Magi en route for Bethlehem. J-J Tissot.

Whether they set out from Babylon, from Persepolis, or from some other city of the Parthian Empire, at that time master of the East, the Magi must have been many long months journeying;(Four months if they came from Persia, or seventy days if they started from Chaldea) and they had proceeded apparently without any further guidance from the Star, since we see them entering Judea quite uncertain as to the spot where their Messiah was to be found, and coming to Jerusalem to clear up all their doubts.  The Holy City was accustomed to seeing within her walls caravans from the far distant Orient, with their striking costumes, and long files of camels laden with luggage.  But great was the surprise when the strangers were heard to enquire, "And where is the King of the Jews who has been born?  We have seen His Star in the East, and are come to adore Him."

This question, flying from lip to lip, came to the ears of Herod.  No one could be more disturbed by it than he, conscious that his un-hoped for good fortune and his thirty years reign had not been able to sanctify his pretensions to royalty in his subject's eyes.  In vain had he espoused the daughter of the last kings of Judea, in order to make them forget his origin; none the less did the blood of Ishmael and Esau flow in his veins; and the Scribes loved to recall that he had been "the servant of the Asmoneans." Powerless to appease this bitter hatred, the usurper could know no repose; and in his dread of any rivalry, he shed the blood of his family in torrents.  No remnant of the race of the Machabees being left alive, he had hoped, at last, to reign without further strife, when the rumour bruited abroad reached his ears, — that certain strangers were seeking in Jerusalem for a new born King of the Jews.  At once the tyrant's jealousy was aroused to a savager intensity than ever.  So, it was no longer the extinguished race of the Machabees, but that of David, which now threatened him; for this unknown Babe, destined to the throne, by none other than the Messiah; and it was easy to see from the excitement which pervaded the city that all Jerusalem was reading the occurrence in that light.

Dissembling his fears, in order to strike a better directed blow,(Matt. ii. 4-6.) Herod convened the council composed of High-Priests and Scribes, and ordered them to declare where the Messiah should be born.  The answer could not be misunderstood.

"In Bethlehem and of Judea," they said; "for it is written, ‘And thou Bethlehem, land of Juda, thou art not the least among the principalities of Juda, for from thee shall spring the Chief Who shall feed the flock of Israel, My people.’"

These members of the Sanhedrin did not so much quote the words of the prophet Micheas as they interpreted his thoughts; but Herod saw only too clearly what he had wished to know, and his plans were at once settled.

Herod interviews the Magi. J-J Tissot

He resolved to separate the Magi, not only from the Jews, who must naturally be all afire with emotion at this tale, but even from his own associates, who might well have warned them against this hypocrisy. He summoned them to him therefore in secret, and feigning great interest in their quest, he made exact inquiry as to the Star, particularly as to the time when it had made its appearance.

So soon as there was nothing more to learn, "Go to Bethlehem," he said to them, "seek zealously for the child, and as soon as you have found him make it known to me, in order that I may go also to adore him."

And he dispatched them on the instant, without guides, without escort, thus giving no time for any warning, in order that no one, either at Jerusalem or at Bethlehem or among the retinue of the Magi, might suspect his intentions and rob him of his victim. Night had fallen upon the city; Herod saw in all this the very moment adapted to his designs.  It was but to result in their confusion.

Scarcely had the Magi passed beneath the gates of Jerusalem, when the Star shone out anew upon their gaze.9  "This site fill them with great joy;" for the Star, leading them on their way, preceded them to Bethlehem, and rested about the place where they were to find the Babe.(Fouard argues the Magi did not visit the stable but rather a dwelling, citing the word οἰκία in Matt. ii.11 and the tradition of Christian art.)

The Adoration of the magi. J-J Tissot

There they found only Mary and Jesus. (The sacred text is silent about Joseph who must have been absent.) Whereupon that holy night witnessed a wondrous spectacle: at the feet of the Virgin, clasping within her arms a young Child, these three sages fell prostrate in the dust, and adored the Godhead enshrined within this poor abode.  Round about them, their attendants were equally bestirring themselves on all sides; the camels too had bent their knees, while the retainers lightened them of their precious burdens.  Then the Magi, opening these treasures, made offering of them to Jesus.  There were gold, incense, and myrrh.

Such is the scene in the Gospel.  Pius legends there are, which add more details than one.  They robe these wise men in the royal purple, set crowns upon their brows, depict their features and their expressions; their names even are made known to us.

"The first was called Melchior," says the Venerable Bede.  "He was an old man with white hair and long beard; he offered gold to the Lord, as to his King.  The second, Caspar by name, young, beardless, ruddy of hue, offered to Jesus, in his gift of incense, the homage due to His Divinity.  The third, of black complexion, with heavy beard, was called Baltasar.  The Myrrh he held within his hand prefigured the Death of the Son of man."

Unhappily, these details have no authority at all; for it is only in the sixth century that Saint Caesar of Arles confers upon the Magi the title of Kings, now so generally attributed to them, ( Fouard argues they were not kings: 1) S. Matthew sets the Royalty of Jesus in higher relief and would certainly have mentioned these sovereigns bowing before the Lord; 2) Herod would have received them with more ceremony;  and 3) the primitive monuments do not portray them as kings. Cf: Ps. lxxi: [10] The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts: Reges Tharsis et insulae munera offerent; reges Arabum et Saba dona adducent;) and it is in the ninth that we find their names are cited for the first time.  Two points only appear to be certain; these are, that the Magi were three in number and that Persia was a native country.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam 

The Circumcision and the Presentation in the Temple

Continuing with Book I of Fouard's Life of Christ.

Luke vi. 21-38

What happened after the departure of the shepherds?  Were the emotions which the tail had excited lasting?  Did the citizens of Bethlehem make all haste to offer Mary that dwelling where the Magi were soon to find her?

The Circumcision. Rembrandt (1661) National gallery of Art, Washington.

The Gospel, while it notes this change of abode, does not tell either at what time or in what manner it was effected; certainly, to worldly eyes, there was nothing of distinction about his poor family of the Saviour; and therefore it is most probable that the attention, so suddenly attracted to them by the shepherds, was as promptly drawn away by the more exciting incidents of the Census-taking.  For, eight days later, when the Babe was to be circumcised, the same Evangelist, who tells us how great was the gathering on the same event happening in the life of John the Baptist, now simply remarks of Jesus: "On the eighth day He was circumcised."

Apparently it was Joseph who performed the sacred rite,1 and so shared the first drops of the Blood Divine.  The Christ, in order to fulfil all justice, was required to endure this humiliation, and bear in His body the stigma of the saints which He had taken upon Himself.  Yet He only underwent circumcision that He might set us free from its bondage, by substituting for it a purification more elevated, one wholly spiritual, that of the heart and of the heart’s evil desires.

It was the time for giving the Child His Name.  The Angel had apprised them by a heavenly mandate that he should be called Jesus, — a name that spoke of Salvation to the Jews, and recalled thoughts of their entrance into the promised land and of the return from Captivity.2  The sublimest of the titles of the Christ, — the Messiah,3 — only compasses in its meaning the Majesty of the Son of God, that Anointment by which he was consecrated King and Pontiff; the name Jesus signifies One who has loved us even to the dying for us; it bears in upon the heart with a profounder impress of love, a celestial sweetness, a secret relish of salvation, and a foretaste of our deliverance.

The Law commanded that this first-born should be presented in the Temple; as it is written: "Every male child that cometh from the mother's womb shall be consecrated to the Lord;" and it was necessary for Mary to be purified, since the Levitical canons declared every woman unclean after the birth of her offspring.  During forty days, if it were a son, eighty if a daughter, she was forbidden to approach the Sanctuary.  The custom among the mothers of Israel was to pass this time secluded in their homes until the day on which the expiatory sacrifice was to purify them.  They offered, then, a year-old lamb for a holocaust, and a turtle dove or a young pigeon for a Sin offering.  In kind consideration for the poor, the Law permitted them in place of the lamb which would have been too costly, to make presentations simply of two turtle doves or two young pigeons.  Such was the obligation to which the Virgin submitted herself, although she knew nothing of the common misfortunes of women in her stainless generation.

On the fortieth day following the Nativity "the time of their purification was accomplished." The sacred text extends the expiation entailed upon the mother so as to include Jesus also; for since the Law considered everything impure that had been touched by the woman during this period, the child she bore in her arms was excommunicated as much as the mother.  So Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem to consecrate Jesus to the Lord; the five shekels of the Sanctuary relieved Him of the obligation to remain as a Server for the altars, and the " Sacrifice of the Poor" was offered for the purification of them both.

"Now there was at this time in Jerusalem a just man, and one who feared God, named Simeon, who lived in expectation of the consolation of Israel.  The Holy Ghost was with him, and it had been revealed to him by this Spirit of God that he should not surely die, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord."

The terms of which Saint Luke makes use in speaking of this aged man indicate that he had in mind a distinguished personage, perhaps even the famous Scribe Rabban Simeon, son of Hillel.  Indeed there is a perfect resemblance in this sketch of his to the historical Simeon, — a similarity in age and residence, and equally high-sold his eel, with the same saintliness of life.  The Talmud, which expatiates complacently upon the grandparents and sons of Hillel, preserves an expressive silence as to Simeon; and this doubtless because it would gladly bury in oblivion a President of the Sanhedrin who celebrated the birth of Jesus, and who had thoughts anent the Messiah which differed very widely from those of his contemporaries, so widely in fact that the latter finally deposed him from the presidency of the Supreme Council.

Nunc dimittis... J-J Tissot.

At the moment when Mary and Joseph were approaching the Sanctuary that indwelling Spirit, moving within the old man's heart, was conducting him to the Temple.  There was nothing in their exterior to draw his gaze upon them, — a poor family making their Sin-offering, while in the arms of the mother there lay a little Child; and yet it was enough for him.  To the eyes of the Seer this Infant appeared, what indeed He was, the long expected Salvation, the Consolation which he had waited for so long, the one and only Object of his vow.  Simeon took Him into his arms, and in an ecstasy of the Divine Spirit he intoned this Can tickle: —

“Now has it come to pass, O Lord
that Thou dost deliver Thy servant:
according to thy word,
he will go in peace.
For mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation:
that Salvation which Thou hast prepared
in the face of all the nations:
even has a Light, which shall reveal Itself
unto the Gentiles
and the Glory of Israel, Thy people.”

Meanwhile " the father and the mother of the Child were filled with wonder at the things which he had spoken of Him and Simeon blessed Him;" but as his eyes fell upon Mary, he perceived in prophetic vision all that this Mother was to suffer.  Then, holding up the Babe before her,

"He Whom you now look upon," he said, "is for the ruin and the resurrection of many in Israel.  He shall be a Man rejected and denied.  As for you, a sword of sorrow shall pierce your soul."
Then, reverting to the Son of Mary and to the trials that awaited Him, he revealed what would ensue: "And thus," he added, " the thoughts which many hide in their hearts shall be revealed;" that is to say, in the Presence of the Christ, — He who was to be for the scandal and the scorn of this world, — before Him all secret thoughts should be unveiled.  He would distinguish in this way between those who dreamed of riches, glory, and temporal happiness as part of the coming of the Messiah, and those who, seeking Him for Himself, are prepared to welcome Him under whatever form he may appear.

Mary listened in silence to this menacing prediction.  Such as she appears to us now in the Temple, such she ever remains for the whole Gospel, — enveloped in her modesty, her heart at times flooded with joys which no language can express, but oftener resigned under the sword which even now tour this Mother's heart in expectation of the end.

"There was present also a Prophetess named Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, of a very advanced age.  She had lived seven years with her husband since her virginity, and she had remained a widow up to her eighty-fourth year, never leaving the Temple, and serving God night and day in fasting and prayer." It was this zeal for the House of God which merited for her that she should find therein, and therein adore, her Saviour.  As she was coming into the Temple at that same moment, she recognized the Child, Whom Simeon had blest, rendered thanks to Heaven for unveiling to her eyes this Mystery, and praising the Lord her God, she spoke of Him to all those who awaited of redemption of Israel.

The Lord, the God praised by the Prophetess, is manifestly Jesus; to Anna, daughter of Phanuel, belongs, then, the signal honour of having first announced to Jerusalem the divinity of the Christ, which other most illustrious witnesses was soon to publish to the world.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam