Joseph of Nazareth

The Greek opens with a topic-marker construction ("Of Jesus Christ, the birth was thus") which places the name first for emphasis. Rendering it as "Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about" keeps the forward-pointing sense and gives the sentence a natural spoken cadence to introduce the story that follows. The noun rendered "birth" is the same word used in verse 1 ("record of the genealogy/origin"), so it could equally be translated "origin" or "coming into being"; "birth" is chosen because what follows narrates how Jesus came to be born. "Was betrothed" (rather than "was engaged" or "was pledged in marriage") reflects that this was a legally binding status, not merely a promise. The Greek idiom "was found having in the womb" is rendered "was found to be pregnant"; the passive "was found" is retained because it leaves unstated who discovered the pregnancy and how, just as the Greek does. "Through the Holy Spirit" translates a phrase that could also be rendered "from" or "by the Holy Spirit", indicating source and agency rather than partnership.

The word for "birth" here, genesis, is the same term that titles the first book of the Bible and that opened this chapter, quietly framing the account as a new beginning. The participle translated "was betrothed" is aorist passive, reflecting that a girl was given in betrothal by her family rather than entering it as an independent agent. "Before they came together" uses a verb that can mean simply "to come together, live together" and is a standard delicate expression for beginning married life, including sexual union. Notably, "Holy Spirit" appears here without the definite article, a construction that stresses the character and quality of the divine agency rather than pointing back to a previously mentioned person.

In first-century Jewish practice betrothal was far more binding than a modern engagement. It was contracted before witnesses, involved a bride-price, and made the couple legally husband and wife — which is why the next verse can call Joseph "her husband" and speak of divorce. Only after an interval, often around a year, was the bride taken into the husband's household, when the marriage was consummated. Unfaithfulness during betrothal counted as adultery. Girls were commonly betrothed in their early teens. Understanding this makes Mary's situation clear: a pregnancy in this interval would appear to everyone as a plain case of infidelity, with serious social and legal consequences.

This verse is the New Testament's first direct statement of the virginal conception: the child's origin is traced not to Joseph but to the Holy Spirit. The wording carefully avoids any suggestion of a physical union between God and Mary of the kind found in pagan myth; the Spirit is presented as creative divine power, echoing the Spirit hovering over the waters at creation. Read alongside the genealogy, the verse holds two truths together — Jesus is genuinely rooted in Israel's history through Joseph's Davidic line, and yet his existence begins by a direct act of God. Interpreters differ on how much the passage means to say about Mary herself; Matthew's focus is on the identity and origin of the child rather than on Mary's status. Some read the pregnancy "before they came together" chiefly as the setting for Joseph's dilemma and God's intervention, while others emphasize it as the pivot on which the whole doctrine of the incarnation turns.

Manuscripts vary on the name at the start of the verse: some read "Jesus Christ", others "Christ Jesus", and a few important witnesses have simply "the Christ", which would link tightly back to the last words of verse 17. The fuller form is widely attested and is followed here. Some copies also read a word meaning specifically "begetting/nativity" in place of the broader term for "origin, birth", most likely an attempt by later scribes to make the sense unmistakable. A number of witnesses read "having been betrothed" while others have a perfect form, and some add a connective "for"; the sense is unaffected in each case.

This verse begins the Gospel reading traditionally appointed for the Sunday before Christmas in many traditions, and it is also read at celebrations of the Nativity and on commemorations of Joseph. Its opening words serve as the hinge between the genealogy chanted from the ancestry lists and the narrative of the birth itself.

The Greek strings together two participles — literally "Joseph her husband, being righteous and not wanting to expose her, resolved to release her secretly." For smooth oral reading this is broken into a full clause ("was a righteous man") plus a reason clause ("because he did not want..."). The little word καί joining the participles can be read three ways: simply linking ("righteous and unwilling"), contrasting ("righteous, yet unwilling"), or explaining ("righteous, and therefore unwilling"). The rendering here takes the third path: Joseph's righteousness is what moves him to spare Mary shame. δειγματίσαι means to hold someone up to public view, so "disgrace her publicly" carries both the exposure and the shame. ἀπολῦσαι literally means "to release, send away"; since betrothal was legally binding, "divorce" is the accurate sense, and λάθρᾳ ("secretly, privately") is rendered "quietly" as the more natural English for a discreet legal act rather than a hidden one.

ἀνήρ means both "man" and "husband"; here the legal relationship is in view, which is why Joseph can be called Mary's husband before they have come together (v. 18). δίκαιος ("righteous, just") is the standard Greek rendering of Hebrew ṣaddîq, describing a person whose life is aligned with God's law. δειγματίσαι comes from δεῖγμα, "a specimen, something shown" — to make someone a public exhibit. ἐβουλήθη (from βούλομαι) denotes a settled decision reached after weighing options, which fits the "considering" of the next verse.

The manuscripts vary between the simple δειγματίσαι and the intensified compound παραδειγματίσαι ("make a public example of, hold up to open shame"), the latter being the form used in the Greek Old Testament for shaming and exposure. The meaning differs only in force, and either way the sense is public humiliation. A few witnesses also spell the verb of decision ἠβουλήθη rather than ἐβουλήθη, a purely orthographic difference.

In first-century Jewish practice betrothal was far more than an engagement: it was a legally binding covenant, and the couple were already husband and wife in law though they did not yet live together, usually for about a year. Unfaithfulness during that period counted as adultery, and the law prescribed severe penalties, including public trial and stoning. By this time, however, the ordinary remedy was a writ of divorce; the choice open to Joseph was between a public proceeding, which would expose Mary to lasting shame in a small village, and handing her the document privately in the presence of only the two required witnesses.

This verse raises the question of what makes Joseph "righteous." One reading is that his righteousness lies in refusing to keep a wife he believed unfaithful, while his mercy shows in how gently he does it. Another reading is that the righteousness itself consists in mercy — a law-keeping shaped by compassion rather than by strict retribution. Either way, Joseph is the first person in this Gospel to be called righteous, and his restraint prepares the reader for a Gospel in which righteousness will be redefined as something deeper than legal correctness. His willingness to be led away from his own settled plan in the next verse makes him a model of quiet obedience.

Together with the surrounding verses this passage belongs to the readings of the last days of Advent and to commemorations of Joseph, where it grounds his traditional titles as the just man and guardian of the holy family.

The Greek verb παραλαβεῖν means simply "to take alongside, receive, take with you." In the context of Jewish marriage customs it refers to the second stage of the process, when the betrothed bride was brought from her father's house into her husband's. The rendering "take Mary home as your wife" makes this concrete for the hearer; a more literal option would be "to take Mary your wife" or "to receive Mary as your wife." Note that the angel already calls her "your wife," since betrothal was legally binding.

The clause τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθέν is literally "that which has been begotten in her" — a neuter participle, not yet the word "son" or "child." "The child conceived in her" supplies a natural English noun and keeps the sense of an accomplished act. The final phrase places "Holy" after the verb (ἐκ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἁγίου), giving it a certain weight; English cannot easily reproduce that word order, so the emphasis is carried by the rhythm of the sentence's close.

The opening "But while he was considering this" translates a genitive absolute (ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐνθυμηθέντος). The verb ἐνθυμέομαι is built on θυμός, the seat of feeling and passion, so it suggests more than cool deliberation: turning something over inwardly, brooding, being stirred up about it. The interjection ἰδού ("behold, look") is a narrative pointer rather than a command to see; here its force is carried by the flow of the sentence into the angel's speech.

The phrase κατ' ὄναρ, "in a dream," is characteristic of this Gospel, occurring six times and nowhere else in the New Testament — five of them in the accounts surrounding Jesus' birth and infancy. Greek has no definite article before "angel of the Lord" here, so either "an angel" or the older idiom "the angel of the Lord" is defensible; the indefinite reading is followed.

Betrothal in first-century Jewish practice created a legal bond that could be dissolved only by divorce or death, though the couple did not yet live together. This is why Joseph is already called Mary's husband and she his wife, and why the angel's instruction concerns bringing her into his household rather than arranging a marriage. Dreams were widely regarded as a genuine channel of divine communication, and the pattern here recalls the dreams of the earlier Joseph in Genesis.

"Son of David" is used of Joseph only here in the whole New Testament. By obeying and naming the child, Joseph makes Jesus legally his son and thus an heir of David's line — the point the genealogy earlier in the chapter has been building toward. The statement that the child is "from the Holy Spirit" affirms the conception without a human father; the Spirit is named as the divine origin and power of the conception, not as a partner in a marriage, and the church has read this verse as a cornerstone of the confession that Jesus was "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary."

Manuscripts vary between the Greek forms Μαρίαν and Μαριάμ for Mary's name — the first a Hellenized declension, the second closer to the Semitic Miriam. The difference does not affect the sense, and English has only one form available.

This verse belongs to the readings traditionally appointed for the final days of Advent and for the days surrounding Christmas, and it is central to observances honoring Joseph. The angel's "do not be afraid" links it to the wider annunciation pattern heard in this season.

The Greek reads literally "you shall call his name Jesus," a Semitic idiom carried into Greek. Rendered here as "you are to name him Jesus" for natural English rhythm; the future indicative (καλέσεις) functions as a command, so "you shall call" or "you must name him" are equally defensible. "His people" translates τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ; λαός is the word regularly used for Israel as God's covenant people, and the possessive is deliberately open-ended — the text does not say "the people of Israel" or "the people of God," but simply "his own people." The emphatic pronoun αὐτός ("he himself") stands at the head of the clause; English marks it lightly with the placement of "he will save," while a fuller rendering would be "he is the one who will save."

Ἰησοῦς is the Greek form of Hebrew Yēšûaʿ, a shortened form of Yəhôšuaʿ (Joshua), traditionally understood as "the LORD saves" or "the LORD is salvation." The angel's explanation turns on this etymology: he is to be named "the LORD saves" precisely because "he will save" (σώσει) his people. The wordplay is audible in Hebrew or Aramaic between the name and the verb yāšaʿ (to save); in Greek and English only the logic of the sentence preserves it, since Ἰησοῦς and σώσει share no sound. The verb σῴζω covers rescue, deliverance, and healing as well as spiritual salvation.

Naming a child was the father's prerogative and constituted legal acknowledgment. By instructing Joseph rather than Mary to name the boy, the angel makes him the legal father, grafting Jesus into the Davidic line traced in the preceding genealogy — even though the conception is not from him. The name Yeshua was extremely common in first-century Jewish Palestine; the wonder lies not in the name's rarity but in the reason given for it. Many contemporaries expected deliverance from foreign rule; here the promised salvation is defined as deliverance from sins.

Saving "his people from their sins" is a striking claim: in the Scriptures of Israel it is God who forgives and redeems from iniquity (see Psalm 130:8). Matthew thus links the child's identity to God's own saving work, a theme completed in the next verses with the name Emmanuel, "God with us." Interpreters differ on the scope of "his people": some read it of Israel specifically, in continuity with the covenant promises, others of the wider people Jesus gathers, anticipating the closing commission to all nations. The verse also frames Jesus' mission as fundamentally about sin rather than political liberation, a point echoed later in the cup that is poured out "for the forgiveness of sins."

This verse belongs to the Advent and Christmas cycle, read where Joseph's dream is recounted, and is central to observances of the Naming of Jesus on the eighth day after Christmas. Its words have shaped hymnody and devotion to the name of Jesus for centuries.

The Greek reads literally "and Joseph, having been awakened from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord ordered him and took his wife." Two choices shape the English. First, the participle is turned into a temporal clause ("When Joseph woke...") so the sentence moves forward naturally when read aloud rather than stacking clauses. Second, "took her home as his wife" renders a single verb (paralambanō, "to take alongside, take to oneself"). A bare "took his wife" would be ambiguous in English and could suggest a wedding that had not yet happened; in fact Mary was already legally his wife by betrothal, and what remained was bringing her into his household. The added "home" makes that concrete without adding anything foreign to the sense. The pronoun "her" is used because Mary has just been named in the surrounding narrative, keeping the line light and rhythmic.

The verb behind "woke" is egeirō in the passive (egertheis), literally "having been raised." It is the ordinary word for getting up from bed, but it is also the standard New Testament verb for being raised from the dead — the same root that will describe Jesus in this Gospel. The phrase "did as the angel of the Lord commanded him" uses prostassō, a verb of authoritative instruction, often used of divine or royal orders. Note also the deliberate verbal echo: in verse 20 the angel says "do not be afraid to take (paralabein) Mary as your wife"; here Joseph "took (parelaben) his wife." The command and the obedience are reported in exactly the same words.

Some manuscripts read the simple egertheis ("having awakened"), while a large body of later witnesses has the compound diegertheis, an intensified form meaning "having been thoroughly roused." The difference in meaning is negligible, and the shorter, less emphatic form is generally judged original, with the compound arising as a stylistic strengthening. No English rendering is affected.

Jewish marriage in this period had two stages. The first, betrothal, was legally binding: the couple were husband and wife in law, and the bond could only be broken by a formal divorce, which is why verse 19 speaks of Joseph considering divorce. The second stage, usually about a year later, was the home-taking, when the husband brought his bride into his house and the marriage was publicly celebrated and consummated. This verse describes Joseph moving directly to that second stage. By taking Mary into his home he publicly claimed the child as his own; under Jewish law, naming a child (verse 25) established legal paternity, which is how Jesus enters the line of David through Joseph.

Joseph never speaks a word in this Gospel; he is characterized entirely by obedience. Told in a dream what to do, he acts at once and without argument, a pattern repeated three more times in chapter 2. The verse thus presents him as the model of the "righteous" man of verse 19 — righteousness redefined not as strict adherence to what the law appears to require, but as obedient trust in what God reveals. Interpreters have also seen here the quiet foundation of the doctrine of Jesus' legal Davidic sonship: Joseph's act of receiving Mary is what grafts the child into the royal line traced in verses 1-17.

This passage is a traditional reading for the final Sunday of Advent and for the Christmas vigil, and it belongs to the observances honoring Joseph. In preaching it is commonly paired with verse 25 as the account of the obedient reception of the child into the household of David.

The Greek particle ἰδού (literally "behold" or "look") is a marker of vivid surprise rather than an invitation to see something. Since "behold" now sounds archaic when read aloud, it is rendered "suddenly," which keeps the jolt of the original without stalling the sentence. The verb φαίνεται is a present tense used for a past event (a "historical present," common in narrative Greek); English narrative prefers the past, so "appeared." The participle ἐγερθείς ("having been raised up, having risen") introduces the string of commands and is best carried into English as a plain imperative, "Get up"; "Arise" is a possible but heavier alternative. The final clause ζητεῖν τὸ παιδίον τοῦ ἀπολέσαι αὐτό uses an articular infinitive of purpose, hence "in order to kill him"; ἀπολέσαι could also be rendered "destroy" or "do away with."

The chapter turns on a play of related verbs: the magi "withdrew" (ἀνεχώρησαν, v. 12), "after they had withdrawn" (Ἀναχωρησάντων, this verse), and Joseph likewise "withdrew" to Egypt (ἀνεχώρησεν, v. 14) — the same word for prudent retreat from danger binds the scenes together. μέλλει with the infinitive expresses imminent intent, "is about to," almost "is going to set about." The child is consistently called τὸ παιδίον, a diminutive for a young child, not βρέφος ("newborn"), suggesting some months have passed since the birth.

Manuscripts differ over the word order of "appears in a dream" (φαίνεται κατʼ ὄναρ versus κατʼ ὄναρ φαίνεται); the sense is identical either way, and translation cannot reflect the difference. A few witnesses also smooth the participle construction at the start of the verse. None of these variants affects the meaning.

Egypt lay outside Herod's jurisdiction as a Roman province and was the natural asylum for refugees from Judea; the journey down the coastal road would have taken roughly a week or two on foot. Egypt already held large, long-established Jewish communities, especially in Alexandria, so the family would not have been strangers among strangers. Political refugees fleeing Judean rulers for Egypt were a recognized pattern in Jewish history, and Herod's ruthlessness toward perceived rivals — including members of his own family — is well attested by ancient historians.

The flight to Egypt frames Jesus' life in the pattern of Israel's story: a tyrant who kills infants, a rescue, a sojourn in Egypt, and a coming out again (quoted from Hosea in v. 15). Many read this as presenting Jesus both as a new Moses and as embodying Israel itself. Note too that the angel says "the child and his mother," never "your son" or "your wife's son" — a careful phrasing consistent with the account of Jesus' conception, while Joseph is nonetheless entrusted with the protection of both. God's guidance comes through dreams, as with the patriarch Joseph; divine sovereignty does not remove the need for human obedience and ordinary flight.

This passage belongs to the Christmas cycle in many traditions, read near the commemoration of the infants killed by Herod and, in some calendars, on a feast of the Holy Family's flight. Coptic Christian tradition preserves a rich set of sites and observances marking the family's supposed route through Egypt.

The Greek opens with a participle, "and he, having been raised up / having risen," which deliberately echoes the angel's command in the previous verse ("Get up"). The translation renders it "So he got up," using "so" to make the obedience explicit for the ear: the wording of the command comes back as the wording of the action. Likewise "took the child and his mother" repeats the command's verb exactly, and the reader is meant to hear the repetition. The time phrase "during the night" stands in the Greek where it stands here, after "his mother," so the sentence keeps its original rhythm; it can attach either to the taking or to the departing, and the placement preserves that natural ambiguity. The final verb is more literally "withdrew" or "departed," but "left for Egypt" reads more smoothly aloud and lets the sentence run on into the next verse, which completes the thought with "where he stayed."

"During the night" translates a bare genitive (νυκτός), a common Greek way of expressing time within which something happens — "by night," "in the course of the night." The verb ἀναχωρέω ("withdraw, retire, take refuge") is a favourite of this Gospel and threads through the whole chapter: the Magi "withdrew" by another road, Joseph now "withdraws" to Egypt, and later he "withdraws" to Galilee. It carries the sense of a strategic retreat out of danger rather than mere travel. The participle ἐγερθείς is passive in form ("having been roused") but functions reflexively, as often with verbs of rising.

Travel by night was unusual and suggests urgency and secrecy; caravans normally moved by day. From Bethlehem the road ran south-west to the coastal highway and on across the Sinai — a journey of roughly two weeks. Egypt lay outside Herod's jurisdiction, under direct Roman administration, and had for centuries been the classic place of refuge for those fleeing rulers in the land of Israel. It also held large, long-established Jewish communities, especially in Alexandria, where a fugitive family could disappear among their own people.

The verse is presented as immediate, unquestioning obedience: no delay, no objection, not even a reported word from Joseph, who never speaks anywhere in this Gospel. The flight into Egypt also begins a pattern of correspondences the Gospel is building — a child whose life is threatened by a king, a descent into Egypt, and later a calling out of it — so that the story of the Messiah retraces the story of Israel and of Moses. God's protection here works not by spectacular rescue but through a warning dream and a father willing to act on it in the dark.

The Greek text of this verse is transmitted with remarkable stability; the manuscripts show no variation that affects the sense, only minor differences in word order and spelling in a few witnesses.

The Greek begins simply "and he was there until the death of Herod." Rather than starting a new sentence, the translation joins it to the previous verse with "where he stayed," preserving the single flowing movement of flight-and-refuge that the Greek achieves with a string of connected clauses. "Until Herod's death" renders a noun phrase (literally "until the end of Herod") more naturally than the wooden "until the death of Herod." The purpose clause "in order that what was spoken might be fulfilled" is rendered "This was to fulfill what the Lord had said," which keeps the sense of divine purpose while avoiding a heavy subordinate construction that reads awkwardly aloud. Note also that the Greek carefully distinguishes two agents: the message comes *by* the Lord (the true speaker) *through* the prophet (the spokesman); the translation preserves this with "what the Lord had said through the prophet."

The word rendered "death" (teleutē) literally means "end" or "completion" and functions as a gentle euphemism, much like English "passing." The phrase "in order that it might be fulfilled" (hina plērōthē) is one of Matthew's signature formulas, appearing roughly a dozen times in his Gospel; the verb "fill full" suggests not merely prediction-and-verification but a bringing to fullness of what Scripture already contained. The quotation itself is a compact four-word line in Greek, with "out of Egypt" placed first for emphasis.

A small number of witnesses read "from the Lord" instead of "by the Lord," a difference of one preposition with no real change in meaning; the reading followed here is strongly supported. The wording of the quotation is stable across the manuscript tradition.

The quotation is from Hosea 11:1, where the words look back to the exodus and describe the nation of Israel as God's son called out of Egypt. Matthew reads the verse typologically: Jesus retraces and sums up Israel's story, going down into Egypt and being called out again, so that what was said of the people is fulfilled in the one who represents them. Notably, Matthew's wording follows the Hebrew text ("my son") rather than the common Greek version of Hosea, which reads "his children" — the singular is essential to his point. Readers have debated whether this is prediction, pattern, or both; most see here a deliberate theology of recapitulation, with Jesus as the true Israel and, in Matthew's larger framing, a new Moses who comes out of Egypt to give a new law from a mountain.

Herod the Great died in 4 BC (by the most common reckoning), at Jericho after a long and painful illness, having ordered further executions almost to the end. Egypt was a natural refuge: it lay outside Herod's jurisdiction as a Roman province, it was reachable in roughly a week or two of travel, and it hosted large, long-established Jewish communities, above all in Alexandria. Fleeing to Egypt from a hostile ruler in Judea had precedent in Israel's own history. Later Christian tradition, especially in Egypt, developed detailed itineraries of the Holy Family's journey and marked numerous sites associated with their stay.

This passage belongs to the Christmas cycle and is read in many churches on the Sunday after Christmas or in connection with the commemoration of the Holy Innocents. In the Egyptian Christian tradition the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt is kept as its own annual feast.

The Greek opens with a genitive absolute, Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Ἡρῴδου, literally "but when Herod had died" or "Herod having died." The compact phrase "After Herod's death" preserves the sense while keeping the sentence light for reading aloud. The verb φαίνεται is a historical present, "appears" — a vivid narrative device common in Greek storytelling. English narrative convention favors the past tense here, so it is rendered "appeared"; a more literal "appears" would sound abrupt when read aloud. The word order of the Greek places "in a dream" immediately after the verb; the translation places "in a dream" before "to Joseph" to match the rhythm of the parallel dream scenes earlier in the chapter. ἰδού is kept as "behold," a marker of sudden arrival; alternatives include "look," "suddenly," or leaving it untranslated, but the word signals a turning point in the story and is worth keeping. Note also that the verse is a single unfinished clause: the angel's words follow in the next verse, so the sentence deliberately ends without closing punctuation.

τελευτάω comes from τέλος, "end, completion," so it means literally "to reach the end" — a softened, almost formal way of saying "to die," much like English "to pass away." ἄγγελος simply means "messenger," and only context marks the messenger as heavenly. The phrase κατ' ὄναρ, "in a dream," is a set idiom that appears in the New Testament only in this Gospel, where it occurs six times; ὄναρ is an indeclinable neuter noun used only in this fixed expression. "An angel of the Lord" lacks the definite article in Greek, though the phrase functions almost as a title.

Manuscripts differ in the order of the words "appears" and "in a dream," and some witnesses substitute the aorist ἐφάνη, "appeared," for the present φαίνεται — likely a scribal smoothing of the historical present. Neither variant changes the meaning of the verse.

Herod the Great died at Jericho, most probably in the spring of 4 BC, after a long and painful illness; ancient accounts describe his final years as marked by suspicion and executions within his own household. At his death his kingdom was divided among three sons — Archelaus in Judea, Herod Antipas in Galilee, and Philip in the northern territories — which explains the caution in the verses that follow. Egypt lay outside Herod's jurisdiction and hosted large, long-established Jewish communities, especially in Alexandria, making it the natural place of refuge for a Judean family in flight.

This is the fourth of the dream revelations that guide the events of this chapter, presenting God as quietly directing the family's movements while political powers rage. The pattern of a Joseph who receives divine guidance through dreams and goes down to Egypt and back deliberately recalls the patriarch Joseph. The following verse echoes the words spoken to Moses in Midian, "those who sought your life are dead," drawing the child into a figure-and-fulfillment relationship with Israel's deliverer: what happened in the nation's founding story happens again, now in one person.

The Greek says literally "those seeking the child's soul (psychē)" — a Hebrew idiom in which "soul" means the whole living person, and "to seek someone's life" means to plot their death. Rendering it word for word ("seeking the child's soul") would mislead an English ear, so the translation gives the sense, "those who wanted to take the child's life," which also reads smoothly aloud. The opening participle egertheis ("having been raised up") is not a separate action to be narrated but an idiomatic prelude to a command, exactly like English "Get up and go" — hence "Get up, take... and go" rather than "Rising, take..." The verb "are dead" translates a Greek perfect: not simply that they died, but that the danger is now over. Note also that the angel says "the child and his mother," never "your son and your wife" — the translation preserves this careful wording rather than smoothing it.

Paidion is a diminutive, "little child," the same word used throughout this chapter for Jesus; it is repeated twice in this verse, giving the sentence its rhythm and its focus. The verb tethnēkasin is plural, "they are dead," even though it was Herod alone who died. This may be a generalizing plural ("the people who were after him are gone"), or it may be drawn from the wording of the passage being echoed. The clause is joined by gar ("for"), giving the reason the return is now safe.

The angel's words are almost a quotation of what the Lord says to Moses in Midian: "Go back to Egypt, for all those who were seeking your life are dead." The wording is nearly identical in the Greek Old Testament, including the striking plural "are dead." The direction is reversed — Moses is sent into Egypt, Jesus is called out of it — but the effect is to place Jesus in the line of Moses, and indeed above him: the deliverer whom a murderous king could not destroy. Together with the earlier "Out of Egypt I called my son," this presents Jesus as reliving and fulfilling the story of Israel itself.

Herod the Great died in 4 BC at Jericho, after a long and painful illness, having executed several of his own sons in his final years. His kingdom was then divided among Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip — which is why the next verses show Joseph still needing to choose his destination carefully. The phrase "land of Israel" is unusual: it is the only occurrence in the New Testament, and it evokes the ancestral covenant territory rather than any contemporary political unit such as Judea or Galilee, reinforcing the echo of the exodus and the return to the promised land.

The wording of this verse is stable across the manuscript tradition. A few witnesses smooth or expand the final clause under the influence of the Exodus passage it echoes, but the earliest and best manuscripts support the text as translated.

This verse belongs to the readings of the Christmas season, following the Flight into Egypt and the Feast of the Holy Innocents; it is the turning point of that cycle, where exile gives way to homecoming. In art and hymnody the moment is known as the Return from Egypt, often paired with the flight as a matching image.

The Greek repeats the angel's command almost word for word, changing only the mood of the verbs: "Get up, take... and go" becomes "he got up, took... and went." The translation deliberately keeps the same English wording as verse 20 so that a listener hears the obedience echoing the command. The connective δέ is rendered "So" rather than "But" or "And," since here it marks the expected response rather than a contrast; "So he got up" also gives the sentence a forward-moving rhythm when read aloud. The verb behind "went to" more literally means "entered" or "came into," but "entered the land of Israel" would sound stiff and legal in English, and "went" preserves the plain narrative pace.

The phrase translated "got up" is an aorist participle (ἐγερθείς), literally "having been raised/roused." In Greek narrative such a participle often functions as little more than a signal that action follows — Semitic storytelling style, familiar from the Hebrew idiom "he arose and...". Note the fine distinction between παράλαβε (imperative, verse 20) and παρέλαβε (indicative, verse 21): a single vowel marks the shift from command to compliance, a pattern Matthew uses repeatedly in this chapter.

Manuscripts differ on the verb of motion: some read εἰσῆλθεν ("entered, went into"), while a large body of witnesses has ἦλθεν ("came, went"). The difference in meaning is slight, and the variant may have arisen because the simple verb sounded more natural, or conversely because the compound matched the following preposition εἰς. The rendering "went to" is compatible with either reading.

"The land of Israel" (γῆ Ἰσραήλ) occurs only here in the New Testament. It is not the ordinary political label of the first century — under Roman administration one spoke of Judea, Galilee, Samaria — but an older, covenantal name for the whole promised territory. Using it here frames the family's return as a homecoming to the land of the promise rather than a move to a Roman province.

The wording closely follows the account of Moses returning to Egypt after those who sought his life had died, taking his wife and children with him. Matthew thereby presents Jesus as the greater Moses: the child who comes out of Egypt to lead his people. The unhesitating obedience of Joseph — command and compliance in matching words — also models the righteous responsiveness to God's word that Matthew commends throughout his gospel.

The Greek uses the present tense ("Archelaus is reigning"), a vivid "historic present" that reports the news as Joseph heard it; English idiom calls for the past, "was reigning." The verb βασιλεύω properly means "to be king," and it is rendered "reigning" here because Archelaus was never actually granted the title of king — Rome made him ethnarch — so the wording reflects common speech rather than official rank. "After being warned in a dream" translates χρηματισθεὶς κατ' ὄναρ; the verb χρηματίζω means to be given an authoritative divine communication, so alternatives include "being divinely instructed," "being told by God," or "receiving an oracle." "Warned" was chosen because the context is danger and flight, and because it reads smoothly aloud. "Withdrew" keeps the guarded, tactical sense of ἀνεχώρησεν; "went away" or "retired" are possible but flatter. Literally the last phrase is "to the parts of Galilee" (τὰ μέρη), an idiom for a territory or district, here simply "the region of Galilee."

βασιλεύω here takes the genitive τῆς Ἰουδαίας, an older construction meaning "to be king over" a territory; elsewhere the New Testament prefers βασιλεύω with ἐπί plus a case. The passive χρηματισθείς belongs to a family of words built on χρῆμα ("matter, business"): the active verb can mean "to transact business" or "to bear a name," but in religious usage it means to deliver or receive an oracle — hence the passive, "having been given divine direction." Note also that ἀνεχώρησεν is one of Matthew's signature verbs (used of the magi in 2:12, of Joseph in 2:14, and later of Jesus repeatedly), tying this escape into a pattern of withdrawal from threat.

Archelaus, a son of Herod the Great by his Samaritan wife Malthace, received Judea, Samaria, and Idumea when his father's kingdom was divided in 4 BC. Augustus withheld the title "king" and made him ethnarch. Early in his rule he had thousands of pilgrims killed in the temple courts at Passover, and his misgovernment led to his deposition and exile to Gaul around AD 6, after which Judea came under Roman prefects. Galilee, by contrast, fell to his brother Herod Antipas — a separate jurisdiction and, at that moment, the safer choice. This detail places the family's resettlement in the north within a precise and verifiable political situation.

There are minor variants in the manuscripts: some copies add the article before "Archelaus," some give the infinitive form of the verb ("that Archelaus was to reign"), and the phrase naming Herod appears in differing word orders ("his father Herod" / "Herod his father"). A few witnesses also insert "the king" alongside Herod's name. None of these readings changes the sense of the verse, and the text followed here is well supported by the earliest witnesses.

This is the fourth dream in Matthew's opening chapters, but unlike the earlier ones no angel is named — the divine initiative alone is stressed. The passage holds together two things Christians have often separated: Joseph's genuine fear of a violent ruler and his obedience to God's guidance. Providence does not remove the danger; it directs a path through it. Matthew also quietly prepares the reader for a Messiah shaped by Galilee rather than Jerusalem, an obscurity that will later be used against Jesus but which the evangelist presents as the fulfillment of prophecy in the next verse.

The Greek reads literally "settled into a town," using a verb of dwelling with a preposition of motion; English idiom requires "came and settled in." The clause "so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled" renders a purpose construction that Matthew uses repeatedly in these opening chapters. Note that he writes "spoken through the prophets" (plural) rather than his usual "written by the prophet" (singular), so the introduction is deliberately general and no single quoted passage is named; the wording has therefore been kept broad rather than smoothed into a citation formula. The final word, Nazōraios, is rendered "Nazarene" — an inhabitant of Nazareth — though it could also be transliterated "Nazorean" to preserve the unusual spelling, since the term later functioned almost as a title (compare its use in the inscription on the cross and as a name for Jesus' followers).

Nazōraios is a slightly odd formation; the more expected adjective from "Nazareth" would be Nazarēnos, which other Gospel writers use. The unusual vowel has long suggested to interpreters that Matthew is exploiting a play on sound. Two Hebrew words are most often proposed: netser, "shoot" or "branch" (Isaiah 11:1, "a shoot from the stump of Jesse"), and nazir, "one consecrated," the word used of Samson, who is announced before birth and called holy to God. Hebrew wordplay of this kind, linking a name to a prophetic word by consonantal echo rather than by exact quotation, is well attested in Jewish interpretation of the period.

Nazareth was a small agricultural village in lower Galilee, home perhaps to a few hundred people, set on a ridge a short walk from the larger Hellenized city of Sepphoris. It is never mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, nor in early Jewish histories, and its obscurity lies behind the later question whether anything good could come from there. Archaeology shows terraced farming, wine and olive presses, cisterns and rock-cut tombs — the setting of an ordinary working village. Galilee was under the rule of Herod Antipas rather than Archelaus, which is why it offered the family relative safety.

The verse completes the chain of "fulfilments" that has carried the family from Bethlehem to Egypt and now to Galilee, and it grounds the name by which Jesus would be known throughout his ministry. Interpreters differ on what prophecy is meant: some hear Isaiah's promise of the messianic "branch" from David's line, so that the village name secretly announces royal descent; others hear the theme of one set apart and consecrated to God from the womb; still others take the plural "prophets" to point to the general prophetic expectation that the Messiah would be despised and from a place of no reputation. On any reading the point is that God's purpose is served precisely through obscurity: the Messiah is identified not by a famous city but by a village nobody expected.

The place name is spelled variously in the manuscripts — Nazaret, Nazareth, and Nazara — with no difference in meaning; the form ending in -t has good early support. Some witnesses read the plural "prophets" while a few give the singular "prophet," evidently an attempt to make the citation formula match Matthew's usual pattern; the plural is the better attested and harder reading.