By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
This article will look at how many of the events which took place at the first Christmas two thousand years ago, in Bethlehem, were foreshadowed in the Bible, and so have a deeper significance than is generally realized. The fact is that there are many biblical prophecies that were fulfilled by Christ, to the extent that the Old Testament without the New Testament becomes a rather puzzling collection of “books.”
Indeed, the word “Testament” could be better translated as “Covenant,” and this relates to the way Jesus spoke about a “New Covenant” at the Last Supper, a covenant between God and His people that would supersede the Old Jewish Covenant.
In any event, we can certainly say that there are many prophecies pointing to the birth of Christ, and these are second only in number and importance to those prophecies foretelling His Passion.
In this respect, one of the most important Old Testament prophecies was that given by the Prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Christ. He confronted King Ahaz, the eighth-century king of Judah, over his lack of trust in God for deliverance from invaders.
Ahaz refused a sign from God, but was then given the sign of Emmanuel, as follows: “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The text goes on to speak of the immediate future, but this section also has a clear prophetic significance because the word Emmanuel (or Immanuel) means “God is with us.”
This was the clear understanding of St. Matthew, who wrote in his Gospel, with respect to the angel who appeared in a dream to St. Joseph, and told him to have no fear about taking Mary for his wife:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
This then was a prophecy of the Incarnation, that the Word would become flesh, that God really would be with us as the God-man, the Christ. The fact, too, that Matthew understood the Hebrew word for “young woman,” almah, as indicating a virgin, gives added significance to this prophecy when we relate it to our Lady, and her virginal conception of Christ.
We also find the following text in Isaiah, which has been traditionally understood as pointing to Christ’s birth at Bethlehem: “The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand” (Isaiah 1:3). Here Isaiah is reporting God’s dismay at Israel’s rebellion against His rule, but this text can also be prophetically applied to the animals present at the first Christmas.
After the birth of Christ, the Wise Men, or Magi, came to Jerusalem and sought out King Herod to discover where the newborn infant King of the Jews could be found, having followed the mysterious star from the East. This visit caused consternation for Herod and the Jewish religious leaders, and when they met, the latter told him that the birthplace of the Messiah, the Christ (“the Anointed One”), would be, according to the Prophet Micah, Bethlehem:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2).
This prophecy, too, hints at the divinity of Christ, in describing the Messiah, the “ruler in Israel,” as having an ancient origin, as someone who would be more than just a human being.
This unwelcome news was very disturbing for Herod because of the threat it represented to his rule, and also because Bethlehem, the birthplace of King David, was not far from Jerusalem. St. Matthew also dealt with this prophecy (Matt. 2:6), and clearly regarded it as fulfilled in the birth of Christ at Bethlehem, which had taken place there because Joseph had been forced to travel to Bethlehem for the census ordered by Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1-7). And so Micah’s prophecy was finally fulfilled centuries after it was written.
What is also significant is that the word “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread,” while “Ephrathah” means “fruitful.” So Jesus, the living bread, was born at the House of Bread, and actually laid in a manger, an object used to feed animals.
Although not specifically identified in the New Testament, there are other Old Testament prophecies which have been traditionally identified with the Magi. One of these is from Isaiah, where in chapter 60 he speaks of kings coming to the “brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:3), a reference to the glory of God, while a little further on we have a reference to those who shall bring “gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6), a text which points to two of the three gifts brought to the infant Christ by the Magi.
It is interesting to note that by the time the Magi visited the Christ Child, the Holy Family had probably moved from their primitive dwelling in Bethlehem, since the text in St. Matthew refers to them entering a “house” to offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matt. 2:11).
A passage, though, that was referred to by St. Matthew, concerns the killing of all the young boys in the vicinity of Bethlehem ordered by Herod, once he realized he had been outwitted by the Magi who did not return to tell him about the newborn child. The Prophet Jeremiah, writing over five centuries before the birth of Christ, had said: “Thus says the Lord: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not’.”
St. Matthew saw this text fulfilled in the murderous action of Herod, because although the original text referred to the deportation of young men to Babylon, which their mothers, personified as Rachel (whose tomb was associated with Ramah), were lamenting, this event could be seen as prophetically foreshadowing the grieving of the mothers of the Holy Innocents.
St. Matthew also saw a related text from the Prophet Hosea fulfilled when he wrote, concerning the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, that Joseph, “rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son’” (Matt. 2:14-15). The text from Hosea actually says: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). So when Jesus, Mary, and Joseph finally returned from Egypt, this prophecy was fulfilled.
What makes some of these prophetic announcements recorded by St. Matthew all the more convincing is that they were due not to Joseph and Mary deliberately fulfilling them, but rather in their responding to external events and pressures, such as the order from the emperor, or Herod’s rage.
These prophecies show the wonderful power of God, who is the master of time and eternity, and who, centuries before they happened, foretold through his prophets many of the events that would take place at the Incarnation of His Son.
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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related web site at www.theotokos.org.uk.)
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