Archelaus (son of Herod)

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 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.