H. The angels and the shepherds (2:8–20)
H. The angels and the shepherds (2:8–20)
8. It is not unlikely that the shepherds were pasturing flocks destined for the temple sacrifices. Flocks were supposed to be kept only in the wilderness (Mishnah, Baba Kamma 7:7; Talmud, Baba Kamma 79b– 80a), and a rabbinic rule provides that any animal found between Jerusalem and a spot near Bethlehem must be presumed to be a sacrificial victim (Mishnah, Shekalim 7:4). The same rule speaks of finding Passover offerings within thirty days of that feast, i.e. in February. Since flocks might thus be in the fields in winter the traditional date for the birth of Jesus is not ruled out. Luke says nothing about the actual date and it remains quite unknown. As a class shepherds had a bad reputation. The nature of their calling kept them from observing the ceremonial law which meant so much to religious people. More regrettable was their unfortunate habit of confusing ‘mine’ with ‘thine’ as they moved about the country. They were considered unreliable and were not allowed to give testimony in the law-courts (Talmud, Sanhedrin 25b). There is no reason for thinking that Luke’s shepherds were other than devout men, else why would God have given them such a privilege? But they did come from a despised class.
9. The angel (the word means ‘messenger’) is not identified. But his appearance struck terror into the shepherds as ‘the splendour of the Lord blazed around them’ (Phillips).
10–11. The angel first reassures his hearers (cf. 1:13, 30). He goes on to explain that he has come with good and joyful news (the verb translated bring … good news was later to be used characteristically of the good news of the gospel; it had been used in LXX of the deliverance of God’s people, e.g. Isa. 40:9; 52:7; cf. also Isa. 61:1). Thus early the note of great joy is struck. The people (laos) normally means ‘the people of Israel’, not people in general. The news of the Saviour would mean much to people in every land, but it came in the first instance to God’s ancient people. The Saviour (a title used of Jesus here only in the Synoptic Gospels; John has it once) is called Christ the Lord. This renders a Greek expression found nowhere else in the New Testament and meaning, literally, ‘Christ Lord’. Perhaps we should understand it as ‘Christ and Lord’ (cf. Acts 2:36; 2 Cor. 4:5; Phil. 2:11). The term Christ is Greek for ‘Anointed one’, and Messiah is our transliteration of a Hebrew term with a similar meaning. Anointing was for special service like that of a priest or a king. But the Jews expected that one day God would send a very special deliverer. He would be not simply ‘an’ anointed, but ‘the’ anointed, the Messiah. It is this one whom the angel announces. Lord is used in the Septuagint of God (it is used in other ways as well, but it is the translation of the name Yahweh). Christ the Lord thus describes the child in the highest possible terms.
12. The angel completed his message by giving the shepherds a sign. This would help them recognize the baby, but it would also attest the truth of the angel’s words. In Bethlehem that night there might be one or two babies wrapped in swaddling clothes, but surely only one lying in a manger.
13–14. The message ended, there suddenly appeared a multitude of other angels praising God. They are called a host, i.e. ‘army’, paradoxically an army that announces peace, as Bengel sagely remarks. First they speak of Glory to God, a necessary preliminary to real peace on earth. There are problems of both text and translation in the expression rendered among men with whom he is pleased (more literally ‘among men of (his) good pleasure’). But RSV is right over against ‘peace, good will toward men’ (AV), a reading supported by many late MSS. The angels are saying that God will bring peace ‘for men on whom his favour rests’ (NEB). There is an emphasis on God, not man. It is those whom God chooses, rather than those who choose God, of whom the angels speak. Peace, of course, means peace between God and people, the healing of the estrangement caused by human evil.
15–18. The shepherds hurried to see for themselves. It is not easy to convey in English the sense of urgency imparted by the particle dē, but Leaney tries with, ‘Come on, let us go …’ They found all as the angel had said, with the baby lying in a manger (the third mention of this humble article). Luke records the wonder with which everybody received the news of the reason for their coming.
19. But contrasts Mary with the shepherds (a deeper understanding?). Where they spoke out she kept all these things, pondering them in her heart (cf. Gen. 37:11). She treasured all this, and retained it in the inmost recesses of her being.
20. Luke rounds off the story with the return of the shepherds, full of praise to God ‘for the news they had heard and the sight that had confirmed it’ (Rieu).