Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/909943
DECEMBER 10 5 Angels at the Manger? "And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'" —Hebrews 1:6 M anger scenes often put a whole array of figures together who were never with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the same time. Most notably, the Magi show up the night of Christ's birth and mingle with the shepherds, even though they couldn't have arrived until much later, when they found the family in a house (Matt. 2:11). And sometimes the collection of animals looks like something out of a modern barnyard. But one gaffe I've never seen (probably just due to my inexperience!) is angels worshiping the Christ-child in the manger. Luke makes it very clear they were out in the fields (2:8), and he says nothing about them following the shepherds to Bethlehem. Instead they return to heaven (v. 15). It might not be historically correct to have angels on bended knee at the manger, but it would be theologically correct. Hebrews 1:6, as part of the author's contrast between Jesus and the angels, quotes Deuteronomy 32:43 to the effect that angels should worship God's Son when He becomes incarnate. Of course, this raises new questions. For example, what does "firstborn" mean? Was Christ God's first created being? No, as John 1:1 and plenty of other passages clarify. The Greek word for firstborn (pròtotokos) often meant "first in rank or prominence," and that is almost certainly what it means here. Somewhat stranger is the fact that standard Hebrew Bibles—the Masoretic Text (MT) from which English Old Testaments are translated—do not have anything corresponding to the words that Hebrews quotes here. But the Septuagint—the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament—along with the Dead Sea Scrolls' Hebrew version of Deuteronomy (both about 1,000 years older than the MT) do contain these words, so they may well have been what appeared in the original manuscript. We know from Revelation 4–5 that angels worship Jesus in heaven. Perhaps the very ones who appeared to the shepherds worshiped Him from heaven that same night. So if you take the Magi out of your manger scene, as we like to do, and put them across the room from your tree, still en route, feel free to add in some angels. And then remember that if angels worship Him, we can do no less. Craig Blomberg, PhD Distinguished Professor of New Testament