Come Follow Me LDS- Christmas Part 3- The Newborn King

'A Newborn King'

-  The proper names 'Mary' and 'Jesus'

-  Gabriel visits Joseph

-  The Virgin Birth as chasm between the Christians and the Jews

-  The loss of the Doctrine of Christ and 'Son of God' in the Old Testament

-  The dual meaning of 'Emmanuel'

-  The setting of the Nativity as the Holy of Holies

- The Ox and the Donkey as a denunciation to the corrupted High Priests

 

*Some of the points in this episode are derived from the writings of Margaret Barker.

 

 

 

all right in this episode we are going

to cover the crux of the Christmas story

the nativity I want to back up to

Matthew 1 and start off with the end of

the listing of generations that Matthew

gives to Joseph showing that Christ is a

Davidic King through his stepfather

Joseph in 16 it says and Jacob begat

joseph the husband of Mary of whom was

born Jesus who is called Christ now

bring this theme in a couple times here

in this episode and we've done this

often but Joseph Smith here has not just

Mary of whom was born Jesus but Mary of

whom was born Jesus as the prophets have

written who is called Christ I think we

should consider here that not only are

we talking about the prophets who have

all prophesied all prophesied of Jesus

Christ coming into the world the Son of

God but they may have also all

prophesied of Mary and so when we see

here the joseph the husband of Mary of

whom was born Jesus as the prophets have

written i think we should consider that

this is not just the prophets that I've

written about Jesus but the prophets

have Mary written about Mary of whom was

born Jesus who is called Christ so Mary

is a central figure obviously here in

the Nativity and in the birth and

condescension of Jesus Christ the first

stage of his condescension here and by

the way even in the Book of Mormon the

name of Mary the mother of Jesus is

given twice

so Mary may very well have been medium

which means woman may very well have

been given as the name of the mother of

the Savior being born into mortality

that would not be strange given that it

means woman and given that we know that

the name Jesus was prophesied as well as

the name of the Savior so if we go to 18

it says the following now the birth of

Jesus Christ was on this wise when as

his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph

so this was the betrothal be we can call

it an engagement legally they were

actually married at this point but it's

more of a a betrothal and then there's a

waiting period of time before they have

a a feast where they actually would

consummate the marriage so they're

legally bound but the marriage is not

consummated at this point when as his

mother Mary was espoused to Joseph

before they came together this would be

at the feast and the consummation

sheaf she was found with child of the

Holy Ghost now this is important for

Matthew to write about this point one of

the proof texts or many of the proof

texts would be of something written

about a virgin giving birth to the son

of God with the prophets and so in

Judaism if that exists then there has to

be a belief in the Messiah being the Son

of God who would come down to earth

that had been bleached so to speak

throughout the scriptures now we can

find themes of this everywhere in the

Old Testament from the prophets because

that's what they prophesied about but

nothing specific it's not easy to see

because it had been bleached we know

this now there are some many biblical

scholars actually and even some LDS

scholars

they're gonna say that we're just kind

of reading into the Old Testament and

trying to pull a Christian

interpretation that's not true

we're not likening these scriptures unto

us as Christians on some type of a

previous storyline or narrative that was

given in the Old Testament and trying to

change it to make it look like these

prophecies are being fulfilled through a

Christian nativity and birth of Christ

and then atonement of Christ all of the

prophets prophesied of Christ they all

prophesied of his birth or likely all

prophesied of his birth and certainly

all prophesied of him coming into

mortality and taking on the sins of the

world

this was Jehovah that they were talking

about but in the time that Matthew was

written and this may not be written by

Matthew but in the time that this was

written as the Gospel of Matthew there

would have already been a big division

between the converted Christians who

were Jews mostly and the Jews who were

fighting against this new Jewish sect

following the Nazarene or as the Jews

called the Christians the nose-ring

which is an interesting play on words

there perhaps which actually means the

keepers which I would say are the

keepers of the New Covenant the

guardians of the New Covenant not the

Nazarenes but they would have been

saying that Mary was not a virgin right

because if she's a virgin and there's a

miracle birth then that gives credence

to Jesus being the Messiah and the Son

of God so the stories against that would

be that Mary was a harlot that she was

promiscuous there was even one story

going on as a couple centuries later

that she was that she birthed Jesus with

a Roman soldier and so Matthew is going

to be fighting against this

and making sure that there is testimony

that Mary is a virgin and that this is a

miraculous birth so there are strong

political Fiat vehicle elements here in

this newfound competition so to speak

between the Christians and the Jews and

in nineteen it says then Joseph her

husband being a just man and not willing

to make her a public example was minded

to put her away privily now what that

means is under the law of Moses he could

have had her stoned to death as an

adulteress because again even though

it's just a patrol though it is legal

they are legally bound together once

they are as we would look at it as they

are engaged they are legally together

even though they haven't consummated the

marriage but the other option is that

he can divorce her and he can do it

quietly so that he's taking care of her

so to speak remember Mary is probably I

mean early teens

more than likely here so he wants to

protect her and then one night as he's

contemplating this he has a dream or a

vision and Gabriel visits him just like

he had visited Mary and just as he had

visited Zacharias and it says the angel

of the Lord appeared unto Him in a dream

saying Joseph thou son of David fear not

in other words remember who you are your

direct line of David this is showing

it's somewhat like you're going to step

in as a father to the king the Davidic

King who is being born here fear not to

take unto thee Mary thy wife for that

which is conceived in her is of the Holy

Ghost so he has a an assurance a

confirmation that there's no foul play

here and then he says and she shall

bring forth a son and thou shalt call

his name Jesus so we can find in the Old

Testament several places where the

Messiah or a messianic type of a passage

is being

where we're talking about being saved or

the Savior

remember again Jesus basically means

Savior and it says here for he shall

save his people from their sins

so his name will be Jesus for he shall

save his people for from his sin so

Gabriel is giving to Joseph the meaning

behind Jesus which he already knows but

he's saying that's why he's going to be

called Jesus because he is the Savior

and then he makes the clarification here

that is he's not saving him he's not

saving his people from the Romans he's

not saving them even from a corrupted

system of the temple with the Sadducees

and the high priests or from the

oppression of the Pharisees but he's

saving them from their sins and this is

therefore something that has been

corrupted about this messianic figure

that is going to come down it's not a

political figure even though it is

political it is in fact Jehovah it is in

fact God and this whole energy that see

this negative dark energy just seems to

continually push against this idea that

God would lower himself and have that

mercy and love for us to do this and

this is where the Jews had arrived at

this point right and they'd been there

for centuries and it's why Lehi left

Jerusalem it's why he was cast out

because he was preaching about the son

of God so Gabriel makes the

clarification here that this is not a

political Messiah that this is Jesus who

is the savior who will take on the sins

of the world and then Matthew says here

in 22 now all this was done that it

might be fulfilled it's interesting

Matthew loves to go through and talk

about fulfillment of prophecy from the

old testament prophets in fact there i

think there's about 14 different

specific citations to old

Testament prophets in the book of

Matthew and eight of those are actually

from Isaiah of course right the

Messianic prophet but it's important to

understand that here because it says

that it might be fulfilled which was

spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying

and then he goes on to quote Isaiah well

Isaiah is sometimes called the Prophet

we can see that even in the Book of

Mormon Nephi refers to the Prophet I

think it's through the words of Lehi but

he's talking about Isaiah so we

oftentimes use the term the Prophet and

who do we think of when we say the

Prophet well we have someone in mind -

it's Joseph Smith but interestingly

enough here Joseph Smith actually adds

an S to the end of Prophet and he says

the prophets in other words again

another emphasis that even though these

people are in the minority that believe

that the Messiah is the son of God is

Jehovah all of the prophets have

prophesied of this and that's why we

know that there has been a wiping clean

so to speak of the writings of the of

the prophets and not just once and not

just twice it's over and over again I'm

gonna go into that a little bit more

specifically here in just a bit so he

quotes Isaiah here and he says in 23

behold a virgin shall be with child and

shall bring forth a son and they shall

call his name Emmanuel which being

interpreted is God with us a couple

things that are important on this to

understand again I'm trying to put it a

little bit more context into this whole

Christmas story virgin it is oftentimes

said now from biblical scholars they'll

actually translate virgin here even in

Isaiah as a young woman and why do they

do that it's because in the Masoretic

taxes which is what we have for the Old

Testament which is a text that we don't

even Sui have or from the eighth

ninth century I think after Christ in

other words post Christianity post birth

of Christianity and the term that is

you there is Yama Yama Yama and that can

mean a young woman or a virgin but

here's the thing the Septuagint which

was finalized over a long period of time

but well before the time of Christ was

the translation that was taken from

texts in Hebrew from the prophets and

from the law of Moses from the Torah

the five books of Moses and translated

into Greek in Egypt they were in Egypt

when they did this it's called the

Septuagint because they were probably

looks there were about 70 different

elders or scribes or whatever they were

that went down to Egypt and created this

translation and they hailed it as the

greatest miracle that there was that the

translation was so accurate and they

celebrated it every year they went out

to this island where supposedly the

translators went to create the

Septuagint they went out every year and

had a big feast and called it the

equal of the Hebrew texts well in that

text they used in the place of virgin

what would have been virgin in the older

texts again we don't have those older

texts necessarily but in the place of

that they used the Greek term Parthenos

which does not mean a young woman it is

very specific to a virgin but as

Christianity grew in popularity the

entirety because of this passage and

many others that refer to things that

look more like the Son of God and a

virgin birth the Septuagint eventually

became satanic practically to the Jews

and it was put away with completely in

fact quote on this and I can't remember

where this comes from it might have been

from like I don't remember where it came

from but it's here's the court on the

day of its translation being the

Septuagint was as Grievous for Israel as

the day the golden calf was made for the

Torah could not be adequately translate

right so after Christianity this was

gone it was done with a complete 100

degree reversal on the Septuagint being

held up as near-perfect to being as bad

as the Golden Calf at Sinai and this was

the Bible so to speak this was the Old

Testament that Christianity used it's

what was widespread at that time and it

was in Greek of course so Paul and

others who are out Apollo's who are out

preaching the gospel to Gentiles in the

Greek world this was obviously what they

would be using and Greek was spoken all

over the place including in Palestine

and so a lot of the quotations from the

Old Testament that we have in the New

Testament are quotations that come from

the Septuagint so this was a real a

real dividing line this whole idea of

the virgin at the time of Christ and

after Christ and through the centuries

and it really still is and back to the

name of Jesus real quick remember what

Jesus is and where we get the how we

know it is Savior more or less I mean

but it's Jesus is really Joshua right so

just like Joshua that fit the Battle of

Jericho the successor to Moses it's the

same name so in Hebrew Anglicize

transliterated it is it is Joshua which

in Hebrew is actually Yeshua so that's

what Mary would have called her baby she

would have called him Yeshua so this is

prophecy that even though it's not

exactly the way it should be in the

Septuagint by now because back in the

time of Lehi there were massive changes

in the theology what Christ was largely

removed not completely still find

different things like the virgin birth

but a lot of it was removed but there

was a tradition right there was peep

there were people holding on to the

older way

to the time of Lehi and before that nu

of God coming down being born to Mary

and taking on the sins of the world it

was not the majority it was not the

popular theology at the time but looking

at different sects outside of the

Pharisees and the Sadducees you can look

at the Essenes and the therapeutic and

perhaps others that we don't know of

that had different traditions and they

had different beliefs and they were

expecting different things everyone knew

that especially with the prophecy of

Daniel that this was about the time that

the Messiah was going to be born but the

idea of what the Messiah was is vastly

different throughout most of Judaism

especially those in power they want a

political Messiah they want to be the

shackles removed from the rule of Herod

and from Caesar while others probably

Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and

Elizabeth and those around them and a

network of these people throughout all

the towns probably are looking for the

savior of the world and so Isaiah's

words here and shall bring forth a son

and they shall call his name Emmanuel

well it's in mono means with us and El

is God so it's God with us or God in the

midst of us there's two ways of looking

at this that I think offers some rich

context as to why Matthew here is

quoting what Isaiah said about this here

and I think it both is centered in that

both these things are centered in the

temple and the drama and story that the

temple portrays and has portrayed at

least in the time of the temple of

Solomon about the Son of God coming down

to earth God with us there's two ways of

looking at that well one is it's God

with us in other words he's going to

become one of us he's going to be born

of a woman and enter into mortality like

us

he's going to lower himself from on high

to our state the other way to look at

this is that this is the Davidic King

right in the temple drama the Davidic

King would act as Jehovah and so in

other words not as Jehovah necessarily

but as the Davidic King he was a manual

because he was acting as God who is with

us every day right his role was to act

as Jehovah that was one of his drama

roles in that temple drama and so the

Davidic King is a symbol therefore of

Jehovah and of a man well as God

being here with us as the king so again

this is referring back to very rich and

ancient traditions and then we're told

that Joseph wakes from this dream he

takes Mary to himself probably marries

her early they don't wait around much

longer and then doesn't know her or does

not have relationships with her until

after Christ is born and by the way in

the last verse here in Matthew 1 it says

and knew her not till she had brought

forth her firstborn son

that's another reference to the Davidic

King that was one of the titles that the

Davidic King would have is the firstborn

and he called his name Jesus just as was

prophesied and now we go over to Luke 2

we're a little bit more familiar with

Luke 2 than we are with Matthew 1 and

here we go over the actual Nativity and

it opens up interestingly it says and it

came to pass in those days that there

went out a decree from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be taxed and

this taxing was first made when

Quirinius was governor of Syria that's

impossible that's these are inspired

writers but they're not historians and

there wasn't a tax that was called out

at this time but there was a

census that was called out by Sentia

saturninus more or less something like

that and that was between the years of 9

and 6 BC and this would have been again

while Mary was pregnant but Jesus is not

born yet and so Joseph takes Mary with

him and they travel from Beth from

Nazareth which is where Mary at least is

could be that Joseph was actually from

the land of Bethlehem somewhere around

there that is his home so to speak from

his lineage and there are other stories

where Joseph actually meets Mary in the

temple but he takes Mary from Nazareth

down to Bethlehem and this census could

be significant as far as fulfilling

prophecy and that's maybe why Luke here

is mentioning this one of the early

Christian fathers who savea's in quoting

Origen a later father the Christian

father said that there was another Greek

translation what which said the

following of this is of psalm eighty

seven or eighty eighty seven eighty

seven five I think in the census of the

peoples this one will be born there and

so this is something that is a reference

back to a previous prophecy and this is

something we always ought to look at in

authorship in the scriptures is that

what are they trying to do especially in

the Gospels they are trying to show that

Jesus is who he says he is that he is

the Savior

that he is the Messiah but not only are

they doing that not only are they trying

to convince and bear testimony of that

they're trying to bring in a lost

theology right think about the

incredibly difficult job that they have

because they're trying to convince

everybody else that they're converting

all the Jews anyway that they are lost

it's not just hey this is the Messiah

Jesus it's everything that you have

learned about their not being a son of

God and only how

in Jehovah as the a pure

monotheism pure monotheists he's wrong

and these things that we read in Isaiah

and Zechariah and in Malachi and

throughout the prophets especially and

Moses in the Torah there was a

different tradition that has been

removed that's what they would have been

telling them and that's what we learned

directly from Joseph Smith and from the

Book of Mormon what a vast difference

there is 600 years before Christ is born

in the preaching of Jesus Christ in

starting right in the book of Nephi in

1st and 2nd Nephi and throughout the

entire Book of Mormon

using the name Jesus and Christ and the

titles of son of God they knew that the

Messiah would be the son of God there

was no doubt to them and that's what

they it's a whole reason they broke off

from Jerusalem and the whole reason that

they kept the record of the Book of

Mormon is because what was lost to

everybody else to the majority of the

people in Jerusalem at Lehigh's time was

the doctrine of Christ and so when the

Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and

razed Jerusalem completely took that

took down the temple everything in about

587 BC so about 10 years 10 11 years

after Lehi leaves Jerusalem and the Jews

are carried away not all of them just a

portion of them are taken away but it's

the elites it's the people in power that

are taken from the Kings court and the

wealthy are taken with a lot of people

that are left behind that are peasants

and the temple is destroyed there's

no more Davidic Kings what happens to

the temple drum at that time how long

does that last that had probably already

been changed if not removed and then

they come back build the second temple

hair it takes that over and makes it

even larger and it's not built on the

doctrine of Christ and so here the

Gospels are trying to say

hey this isn't just the Messiah but look

this doctrine the most crucial

doctrine of our gospel of Abraham of

Adam of Moses of everybody has been

about Jesus Christ has been about the

Son of God and then in verse 7 we get

some specifics about very few but we get

a few specifics that we can glean a lot

of information from remember how Matthew

is going to be writing this he's writing

this to restore tradition he's writing

this to restore doctrine it says here in

verse 6 first and so it was that while

they were there the days were

accomplished that she should be

delivered so Christ was going to be born

there in Bethlehem and she brought forth

her firstborn son again a Davidic title

here and wrapped him in swaddling

clothes now why mention that Matthew is

setting up a scene here now the

swaddling clothes were bands of linen

what did the high priest wear when he

after he was with the day of atonement

when he would sacrifice the ball and the

goat he would then change and he would

go into All Whites and into linen and

then he would go into the holy of

holies what we're gonna see here in not

the stable but in the nativity scene

here is a recreation of the holy of

holies so this is an important thing to

say if you're setting up this stage here

he's basically wrapped in these

swaddling clothes this white linen that

is going to be looked at as high

priestly garb

it's the robes of the high priest who

would go in on the day of atonement into

the Holy of Holies in an early Christian

wisdom text that's called the Epistle of

the Apostles this is in doctrine this

isn't part of the Canon but it gives you

an idea of what the early Christians

were thinking here it says that the Lord

was robed in wisdom this would be also a

reference to

the Melchizedek Priesthood and to marry

even as wisdom and here wisdom the

mother gives to her son a high priestly

garment that is woven from every wisdom

right so this is kind of these

traditions that are being brought

together here and Matthew is laying out

this scene and setting the stage for us

it's a temple scene or we can certainly

look at it that way but it sure seems

that way to me and I think that's what

Matthew is doing here and then she laid

him in a manger

now we think about this and one thing we

always think about with this scene is

that it's very humble and that's very

true and that's an important point right

now it's not a stable that there in

unlikely there's no word stable anywhere

in the scriptures what they're likely in

around the land of Bethlehem there

are numerous caves and this is something

that would be used for shelter for the

animals oftentimes and for people

there's not a lot of wood around at all

in fact when we talk about Joseph being

a carpenter it's probably not a

carpenter of wood as we would think it's

probably the term used for carpenter is

more someone who's skilled with a

certain material and that material is

probably stone there's an abundance of

stone in the areas of Jerusalem and

Bethlehem and Galilee but there's not an

abundance of wood so it's unlikely that

Joseph was a carpenter of wood and it's

unlikely that there would be much if any

wood at all in the nativity scene this

is inside of a cave more than likely and

the manger would not be anything built

with wood and it wouldn't have straw

likely in it they didn't need that this

was a warm climate they didn't need to

store it unless they had it in from the

rain but the manger would be more of

something made for drinking actually in

most cases and it would be made of stone

not of wood so we can imagine why is he

saying laying in a manger well

he's got to be slaying or sitting he

can't set yet but he's got to be on

something why because he's the king

because he needs a throne so here we

have his clothing his high priestly

clothing his royal clothing and here we

have his throne that's what he's trying

to set up here and the reason that they

are in this place is because there was

no room for them in the inn now we think

of one in Joseph Smith actually inserts

an S at the end of this so there was no

room in the ends anywhere now something

that is not here in the scripture but

that is part of Christian tradition are

the two animals that we oftentimes see

in early Christian paintings and that is

the ox and the donkey now why are those

two animals there for the most part we

have a tradition that says that the ox

is a clean animal for the most part the

interpretation of that is that the Ox is

a clean animal that would represent the

Jews and Israel and the donkey is an

unclean animal and it represents the

Gentiles and there's probably a lot of

truth to that

but in the earliest paintings typically

that you see those two animals in the

nativity scene you see them on either

side of the manger and so even though

Matthew doesn't have it mentioned here

or the transcripts that we have don't

have that listed in their Christian

tradition knew that Jesus in linen on

the manger was laying there between two

beasts now think of the Ark of the

Covenant and the mercy seat the two

cherubim we all often think of just

angels that are cherubim with the

cherubim are beasts and they're

described oftentimes in the Old

Testament with different parts of

different animals it's all symbolism of

course

but again that is part of the Holy of

Holies this is a scene of the new

Melchizedek right the new milk is Vic

the new Davidic King the new High Priest

coming into the world and sitting on the

throne or laying on the throne in the

Holy of Holies and there's even more to

the story of the beast that's very

interesting here I mean quote something

has to do with wordplay

it was oftentimes throughout the writing

of the Jews they would use wordplay and

they would do that oftentimes showing

the good side of something and then

almost like this mirror or slightly

different word that meant something

negative so there would be a positive

and there be a negative that would be

used and both would be implied with the

single word or with the phrase and if

again we go back to fulfilling prophecy

here with these two beasts and

especially in Isaiah we can go right to

the beginning of Isaiah in chapter 1

verse 3 and we get the Ox knows its

owner and the donkey it's masters

masters feeding trough but Israel does

not know my people do not understand

well what could be done here is that

this might be being used as a text as a

fulfillment of prophecy that Israel that

Judah that the priests especially the

high priests those that run the temple

in the time of Christ know Anna's and

Caiaphas and the Sadducees that they do

not know Christ they don't even believe

in the Son of God because word play

comes into play here with Isaiah 1:3 the

Ox in Hebrew is Shore

and it knows its owner connais this is

very similar to Prince the Tsar that

would be the son of the king so you have

oxes Shore and Prince is char and owner

can also be beget

so the Prince knows his begetter that

would be the ox and the ass

the amore is a lot like a word for

priests we usually use the term

Cohen for priests but another word for

priests is calm air so how more calm air

the K and the H they're very

similar in Hebrew and this was used all

the time as something that would be

mocking someone right as a bad priest

they would be a an ass right there would

be a more and they we see that term in

the Old Testament actually quite a bit

think about Balaam or Balaam when he is

going down the path and the dog he's on

the donkeys with the donkey and the

donkey starts to talk this is a

representation I believe of a priest a

ham or a coal mare which is Balaam but

bay liam is the bad priest and that

donkey is an exact representation of the

fact that you usually use the head of

the donkey specifically which is what

the donkey is using right he's talking

to Balaam and so this looks like a this

tradition looks like a fulfillment or

they're using Isaiah 1:3 as a

fulfillment of Scripture not just for

setting up the holy of holy scene but to

basically say hey high priests you are

the asses so to speak you are the hum or

not the Comair and you don't know Christ

you don't know God so that's really a

very interesting take and it looks very

likely there's several historic

archaeological finds that have that

verbiage in that wordplay in Hebrew now

we get to the shepherds and I'm gonna

hold that off until the next episode

because I want to match that up with the

the Magi and talk about those visits so

my point in this episode and really all

of these episodes

is trying to get an understanding of the

environment that Christ is being born

into that Jesus is being born into and

where Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and

Sarah and those that are with them

theologically those that are looking for

the Son of God what they must be

thinking at this time and how they as a

minority a small group within this

strong theocratic organization and in

society are going to try and turn

everything on its head and bring back

the older ways the true ways the ways

and the doctrine that Lehi taught while

he was in Jerusalem I'll talk to you

next time