Texts in Conversation
Matthew reports Herod’s order to kill children two and under. The Protoevangelium of James expands the story by adding Elizabeth’s desperate flight with the infant John, with a mountain splitting open to hide them from Herod’s soldiers.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 2:16
New Testament
14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt. 15 He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” 16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men to kill all the children in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were gone.”
Protoevangelium of James 22
Gospel of James
Pseudepigrapha
22 When Herod realized that the Magi had deceived him, he flew into a rage and sent soldiers, ordering them, “Kill all the children two years old and younger.” When Mary heard that children were being killed, she became frightened. She took the baby, wrapped Him up, and placed Him in a manger. Elizabeth, hearing that they were also searching for John, took him and fled to the hills, desperately looking for a place to hide. But there was nowhere to go. In anguish, Elizabeth cried out, “O mountain of God, shelter this mother and her child!” Immediately, the mountain split open and took them in. A radiant light surrounded them, for an angel of the Lord was there, protecting them.
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Notes and References
“... Protoevangelium of James 22:2-3 describes Herod’s wrath and Mary’s decision to hide Jesus in an ox-manger. The details include Herod sending out his henchmen with the command “to kill all the children who were two years old and under” and Mary being frightened after hearing that “children were being killed.” Matthew takes up the story of Herod’s wrath and makes specific references at 2:16 to the children being killed. Protoevangelium of James 22:2-4’s unique use of the information found in Matthew and Luke to create this new story strongly suggests that what we have here is a harmony. The difference between this passage and the two passages previously discussed is that the result is not simply a harmony of two parallel episodes, but rather a harmony of unrelated episodes fused together to create a new event. In order to remedy Mary’s situation, the author describes her hiding her child by wrapping him in swaddling cloth and placing him into a feeding trough or ox-manger ...”
Vuong, Lily
Accessing the Virgin: Gender and Purity in the Protoevangelium of James
(pp. 339-340) McMaster University, 2010
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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