Today we have two topics of discussion. As I mentioned last week, we will look at some "miraculous" or "virgin" birth narratives aside from that of Jesus. We will look at accounts of the birth of Buddha (the founder of Buddhism,) Dionysus (the Greek God of Wine,) and Romulus (the founder of the city of Rome.) After that, we will check out our Gospel reading for today (Matthew 2:1 through 2:3) and talk a little about a man they called "Herod the Great."
Before we start all that, I have one other thing to say. I fear this may be out of vanity, but please indulge me.
I want you to know that I will never attempt to profit financially from this writing.
It has occured to me that a lot of words have been written and are being written about Jesus so that those words could be sold. I am wary of any philosophizing done for money, and I want my readers to rest easy knowing that my writing in this vein will be motivated only by a lust for truth and for good human ideals, never by a lust for money. You will never pay to read this, and you will never see advertising in conjunction with this writing.
I will not protect this work. Consider my words "open source."
Thank you for this indulgence. I feel better now.
Onto today's exciting first topic: miracle births!
Recall that Matthew contends that Jesus was born to a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit. For context's sake, we will take a look at some other figures who have been said to have been born of a virgin, or otherwise miraculously. I offer these instances to dissuade the reader from getting too caught up on this "virgin birth" story, which has nothing to do with the moral philosophy of Jesus Christ.
First on our list is the Buddha, aka Siddhartha Gautama, who lived around the late fifth to early sixth centuries BC. Buddha, like Jesus, became a spiritual leader after a period of isolated asceticism. He lived around what we know as Nepal. Over half a billion people worldwide are adherents to his teachings in one form or another.
The Buddha is particularly known for his "Four Noble Truths," from which his well known "Eightfold Path" arises. We will find cause later to investigate the inner-workings of Buddhist thought in order to compare that thought with the emerging Moral Vision of Christ. Today, we look at the Buddha's birth narrative.
The Buddha's mother was named Maya. Maya's husband, Śuddhodana, was an elected chief of the local ruling clan. According to some traditions, the Buddha was conceived in Maya one night when she had a dream of a white elephant. The white elephant had six tusks, and it pierced her side with these tusks during the course of the dream. She became pregnant by this piercing action of the tusks. To be sure, other accounts simply state that Śuddhodana was the father of the Buddha, but, to my understanding, the miraculous conception story of the Buddha far pre-dated the birth of Christ.
As I said, we will learn more about Buddha later when we find time to compare Jesus with other religions of the world.
Second, we have Dionysus, a Greek God who is frequently compared to Jesus. Dionysus is known as the God of Wine, and is one of the oldest known Greek deities. Though the exact origins of Dionysus are not known, they predate the Greek Classical Era, and may have reached all the way back to the Minoans. Cult worship of Dionysus was ingrained in Greek culture by the seventh century BC.
Dionysus, in legend, was not exactly born to a virgin. As the story goes, a mortal woman by the name of Semele had an affair with the God Zeus, and got pregnant. Enraged, Zeus' wife Hera hid her form and visited Earth to talk to Semele. Hera convinced Semele to doubt Zeus', which led Semele to demand that Zeus prove his Godhood. When Zeus gave in and showed himself to Semele in an undisguised form, she perished from the shock of it. (It was understood that any human who laid eyes on an undisguised Greek God would die in a similar manner.)
Although Semele died, Zeus cut his leg open, took the unborn child out of Semele, and put the child inside his leg. A few months later, from his thigh, Zeus miraculously gave birth to Dionysus.
The legend of Dionysus' miracle birth was a staple of Greek mythology, and would likely have been known by any Greek speaking literates who lived during Jesus' time or during the time when the Gospels were written.
Finally, let's discuss Romulus. For those not in the know, Romulus is one half of the brother and brother duo of "Romulus and Remus." Romulus and Remus are the two brothers who founded the city of Rome. Their earliest years were weird ones, to say the least. They were conceived in the womb of Rhea Silvia, a "vestal virgin*." Her father was Numitor, the former King of Alba Longa, a city state adjacent to the site where Rome stands today.
* Vestal virgins were the celibate priestesses of the goddess Vesta. Their virginity was sacrosanct.
Rhea Silvia said that Mars, the God of War, had gotten her pregnant. However, the ancient historian of Rome, Titus Livius, described it thus:
The Vestal was ravished, and having given birth to twin sons, named Mars as the father of her doubtful offspring, whether actually so believing, or because it seemed less wrong if a god were the author of her fault.Let's dwell for a second there.
"...because it seemed less wrong if a god were the author of her fault."
Fascinating. Could we apply these words of Livy's to Mary, the mother of Jesus?
Silvia had the children, but the then king of Alba Longa, Amulius, saw those children as a threat to his sovereignty, as they were descended from a deposed king. He ordered the babies thrown into the river Tibre to drown. The legend then goes that they washed ashore where a female wolf found and adopted them. A common depiction of the brothers shows them as infants, nursing from the wolf.
Later, Romulus killed his brother, possibly in a spat regarding the height of a wall, which is why it's all really about him, and not Remus. "So perish any man who mocks the walls of Rome."
Livy, who lived and wrote when Christ lived and spoke, says he believes Silvia was raped, and that she'd lied when she said she'd been impregnated by Mars. This was seven hundred years after the fact, though, so we can imagine that, between Rome's founding and the invaluable writings of Titus Livius Patavinus, many in Rome believed the "Mars as father" version.
The writers of the Gospels might have known this story.
There are certainly other "virgin birth" narratives and "miraculous birth" narratives to be had from ancient history, but we will retire of that here by merely concluding, as many have before, that the ancient world was chock full of such stories. These stories constitute, in part, what we can call the literary context of the Gospels.
Now, on to the Gospel.
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Matthew 2:1 through Matthew 2:3
1 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
2 saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
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So who is King Herod?
King Herod was the King of the Jews as appointed by Rome during the time of Christ.
We can learn much about Herod from the great ancient Romano-Jewish historian Josephus. In his "War of the Jews," Josephus gives the following account of Mark Antony, who we mentioned last week, appealing to the Roman Senate to make Herod the King of the Jews.
So he (Antony) called the senate together, wherein Messalas, and after him Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full account of the merits of his father, and his own good-will to the Romans. At the same time they demonstrated, that Antigonus was their enemy, not only because he soon quarrelled with them, but because he now overlooked the Romans, and took the government by the means of the Parthians. These reasons greatly moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, and told them, that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they all gave their votes for it.Herod was a "client-King." He was a Jewish man raised in the aristocracy of his time and place. Herod leveraged social and political position in Judea into political favor with Rome.
He is known as Herod the Great to some because his relationship with the Romans gave him the power and resources that allowed him to build lavishly for his people. He was known for commissioning the construction of forts, cities, aqueducts, and, most importantly, a colossal addition to the Second Temple of Jerusalem. As we will come to understand, the Temple of Jerusalem was and is one of the most important things in the Jewish faith.
Herod was also known to be a vicious ruler who at times would have members of his own family put to death.
Josephus says the following about Herod in "Antiquities of the Jews:"
And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favour with Tiberius, built a city of the same name with him: and called it Tiberias.If you recall our discussion of this detestable character Tiberius from our last installment, then you'll take pause here to wonder just what kind of person Herod must have been, to find himself in said Emperor's favor.
We will discuss Herod a little further next week because, as I said, trouble is coming in the context of the Matthew narrative. For now, recall these important highlights: a) Herod was the Roman client-King of the Jews, and b) Herod was and is known as "Great" to some Jewish people, not least of all because of his grandiose work on the Temple of Jerusalem.
That's all we have time for today. Please share this writing and come back often.
Love.
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