[54] Joseph. B. J. vi. vi. 4: Tacit. Histor. v. 13; Sueton. Vespas. 4. All the extant allusions to the existence of such a hope at the era of Christ’s birth, relate only in an indeterminate manner to a ruler of the world. Virg. Eclog. 4; Sueton. Octav. 94. [↑]
[55] In saying that it is inadmissible to suppose a divine intervention directly tending to countenance superstition, I refer to what is called immediate intervention. In the doctrine of mediate intervention, which includes the co-operation of man, there is doubtless a mixture of truth and error. Neander confuses the two. L. J. Ch., s. 29. [↑]
[56] Paulus and De Wette, exeg. Handb. in loc. [↑]
[57] According to Hoffmann (p. 256), that he might control the assertion of the magi by inquiring of his own astrologers, whether they had seen the star at the same time. This is not merely unsupported by the text—it is in direct contradiction to it, for we are there told that Herod at once gave terrified credence to the magi. [↑]
[58] Fritzsche, in loc. aptly says—comperto, quasi magos non ad se redituros statim scivisset, orti sideris tempore, etc. [↑]
[59] K. Ch. L. Schmidt, exeg. Beiträge, 1, s. 150 f. Comp. Fritzsche and De Wette in loc. [↑]
[60] Hoffman thinks that Herod shunned this measure as a breach of hospitality; yet this very Herod he represents as a monster of cruelty, and that justly, for the conduct attributed to the monarch in chap. ii. of Matthew is not unworthy of his heart, against which Neander superfluously argues (p. 30 f.), but of his head. [↑]
[61] Schmidt, ut sup. p. 155 f. [↑]
[62] Stark, Synops. bibl. exeg. in N. T., p. 62. [↑]
[63] This was the opinion of some of the Fathers, e.g. Euseb. Demonstr. evang. 9, ap. Suicer, 1, s. 559; Joann. Damasc. de fide orthod. ii. 7. [↑]