Matthew2:20

1: “go to the land of Israel”

You don’t belong in THIS PLACE BESEIGED BY SIN; this is not your permanent residence; your citizenship is among those WHO REFUSE TO LET GO OF GOD. All of us have lived for a time in THAT PLACE BESEIGED BY SIN, but if we are repentant, loyal followers of Jesus, that is no longer where we belong, we’re just a pass’n through.

2: “have died”

It is thought by most Bible scholars that this sojourn in Egypt only lasted a few months for Herod’s death came relatively soon after the incident involving the killing of the babies of Bethlehem. The traditional timing puts Herod’s death in the year 4 B.C. This would mean that Jesus was actually born earlier in the year 4 B.C.  or in the year 5 B.C. The 4 B.C. date is based on the fact that Josephus said in his historical record called Antiquities (17.6.4) that Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse during a time that was bracketed by a fast and by the Passover. To come up with 4 B.C. historians have looked at several factors: how long Herod’s reign is said to have been, the date of when Herod was made a king by Caesar, when he took control of Judea, when his son became king in his place, when there were lunar eclipses, and how the eclipse coincided with the Passover and a special fast. There are those who argue that Herod died in the year 1 B.C. in which there was a full lunar eclipse (while the eclipse of 4 B.C. was partial.) The years of the reigns of these kings can be reconsidered by using different counting methods, because we are not absolutely sure how they counted partial years. Most early church fathers thought the birth of Jesus was in 3 B.C., which would have been impossible if Herod died in 4 B.C. Was the fast in question that of Purim or Yom Kippur? We will likely never know. Only four lunar eclipses occurred in the likely time frame: September 15, 5 B.C., March 12–13, 4 B.C., January 10, 1 B.C. and December 29, 1 B.C. Each of the theories has strengths and weaknesses. (The following websites have good articles on this topic:

Biblicalarcheologyreview.org; the-hope-of-Israel.org; and strangenotions.com)

In what year did the Saturn, Jupiter and Mars come together to make a bright light in the sky? It appears that Saturn and Jupiter came together in 7 B.C, and Mars Joined them in 6 B.C. Therefore, the year 6 B.C. for the bright light, and 4 B.C. for the birth of Jesus seem to be the most trustworthy in my opinion.

It is of little consequence that the birth of Jesus does not perfectly coincide with the transition from B.C. to A.D. and it should not become a stumbling block for anyone. However, out of simple curiosity you may be wondering why the birth of Jesus does not coincide with the transition point. This was decided in the year 525 by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus, who was asked by Pope John I to extend the tables of Easter dates another 95 years. This Dionysius did, and in the process he also sought to establish a unified system of dating, for before this there had been no unified system that everyone agreed on. It took a long time for his system to be adopted by everyone, but in the end it was and now we all follow it. He called the two major eras B.C. and A.D. (Before Christ and Anno Domini, or in the Year of our Lord). He took as anchoring points for his calculations the year of the founding of Rome, the first year of the reign of Emperor Diocletian, and the year of the birth of Jesus. He had several purposes, one of which was to place the transition between BC and AD in the year of the arrival of Jesus to this earth. However, it appears that he miscalculated by a little bit. There can be several reasons for his miscalculation and we won’t go into those details. His intent was good but his methodology was flawed so it did not turn out quite as he had hoped. There is much discussion about this topic on the internet; the most helpful site I have found has been

http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-europeanbiographies/dionysius-exiguus

Despite his miscalculation by as little as one year, or as much as 4 or 5 years, he accomplished his goal because everyone knows that the universally accepted dating system for the history of the world hinges on the coming of this one called Jesus the Christ. Changing the acronym from B.C./A.D. to B.C.E/C.E (Before Common Era and Common Era) does not change the fact that history still hinges on the arrival of Jesus, for nothing else of note happened at approximately that time to which one can point and say, “That is why we mark history the way we do.”

The text uses a plural “those seeking the life of the child have died.” Even though everyone knows it was Herod who was behind it, to those in Bethlehem when the soldiers came in like a swarm it was definitely many people looking for and killing their babies. In this case either a singular or a plural would be correct.