“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. The massacre of the innocents is Herod's response to being outwitted: the paranoid king who could not control the Magi controls what he can — the lives of children in a village. The two years old or under corresponds to the star's appearance, suggesting the Magi's journey took up to two years. The historical Herod was capable of such violence — he killed his own sons when he suspected them of disloyalty. This atrocity echoes Pharaoh's killing of Hebrew male infants in Exodus 1:16–22, placing Herod in the role of the Pharaoh who threatened the deliverer.
Church Fathers on Matthew 2:16
When the infant Jesus had subdued the Magi, not by the might of His flesh, but the grace of His Spirit, Herod 'was exceeding wrath,' that they whom he, sitting on his throne, had no power to move, were obedient to an Infant lying in a manger. Then by their contempt of him the Magi gave further cause of wrath. For when kings' wrath is stirred by fear for their crowns, it is a great and inextinguishable wrath.
And while he thus persecutes Christ, he furnished an army (or martyrs) clothed in white robes of the same age as the Lord.
He is not satisfied with the massacre at Bethlehem, but extends it to the adjacent villages; sparing no age from the child of one night old, to that of two years.
Read all 9 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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