Boff on the Infancy & Midrash

What precisely happened at the birth of Jesus? What is the message that Luke and Mathew sought to transmit in the history and infancy of Jesus. The accounts of his birth are not without problems but a sophisticated theology, one that was thought out in every minute detail, lies hidden behind the candid simplicity and lyricism of the Gospel scenes. Faith does not exclude nor does it dispense with reason. True faith seeks to comprehend, not abolish the mystery, and discern the real dimensions in wonder, to praise the gracious logic of God.

Mark affirms: In the baptism by John, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and proclaimed Messiah and Liberator. Mark has no account of the Infancy and begins with the teaching of the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. Matthew’s Gospel shows Jesus from the very moment of his birth as the Messiah and, through a genology shows that history from Abraham was moving towards him. Luke goes one step further and shows that all of humanity since the birth of Adam has been moving towards the moment of Jesus’ birth. John builds upon the story even further in proclaiming that Jesus was the son of God even before his birth.

As we can see from these examples, the more people ponder Jesus the more his Mystery is discovered. Given this and given their understanding of the resurrection the apostles began to reread the whole life of Christ, reinterpret his words, and retell his miracles. The theological meaning of the accounts of the infancy does not consist in narrating facts concerning the birth of Jesus. Rather through theological narrations they are an announcement of who and what Jesus is. In his life there lay hidden the secret meaning of all history and in him all the prophecies of human hopes for liberation and the fullness of God were realized.

The book of Esdras said that the Messiah was expected at the end of the eleventh week of the world, seventy-seven days. Luke constructed his genealogy to show that each of the seventy-seven antecedents of Jesus represented day. Matthew did something similar. Using a numerological formulation stemming from the name David construed three times 14 generations. He broke his genealogy into three separate groups; Abraham to David, David to the exile and the exile to Christ. A high point followed by a low, followed by the definitive High point in Christ. Matthew also insets 4 women all of ill repute to teach that Christ assumed the highest and lowest points in history and that he also took human ignomies upon himself.

Boff then inserts a footnote; Matthew wants to prove that Christ is really a descendant of David. But since Joseph was not the father of Jesus in the traditional since and Mary as a woman did not count in Jewish genealogical legalism Matthew had to solve it through other means, he has Joseph name the child. By naming him Joseph who was a descendant of David and the spouse of Mary became the father of Jesus in a legal since and thus Jesus is inserted into the Davidic line.

Luke compares and contrasts the lives of Jesus and John and shows them to be in parallel. But, Luke takes great pains to show that Christ is greater than John. There is correspondence between the two annunciations. However at the annunciation of the birth of John, Gabriel does not give a salutation, he only says that Zechariah’s prayer was answered. In contrast Mary receives an angelic salutation, and he reverently observes that she has one God’s favor. Luke also uses another numerological formulation to show his readers that Jesus is in accordance with Daniel’s prophecy that the Messiah would come after seventy weeks of years. All of the words spoken by the angel and the virgin at the annunciation are connected to similar or equivalent words spoken in other OT situations.

Boff notes that traditional teaching has accentuated Mary’s virginity, physical and perpetual, “before, during, and after giving birth”. He then shows that the Gospel perspective is different. Christ is at the center and Mary’s virginity is a function of Christ. He notes that the NT calls Mary the Mother of Jesus in all but two situations. The very conception of Jesus is described in a form that expresses how the glory of God is manifested in the tabernacle of the alliance. Just as the tabernacle is full of the Spirit of God, so the same way and more is the Son of Mary, who truly merits being called the Son of God. By the power of the Spirit there appears one who is so impregnated by the Spirit that he gets his existence by the spirit alone. Christ is a new creation of the same Spirit that created the world. This is the profound theological statement that Luke wishes to transmit, not so much to describe a miraculous biological phenomenon.

Boff then moves into the question of the location of the birth. If he is revealed to be the Messiah and is the Son of David as prophecy tells then he also should be born in Bethlehem not Nazareth. Luke is not so much emphasizing geography but making a theological reflection about Bethlehem and its messianic significance to make it clear that Jesus is Messiah. To have Jesus born in Bethlehem, Luke creates a situation where the Joseph and Mary are forced to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem. To this ends he uses a census that was conducted in A.D. 6. Luke uses a historical fact and projects it into his story.

Boff addresses who the Shepherds in the fields were or what the represented. Boff says theologically speaking, the shepherds are the representatives of the poor, to whom the good news was announced and to whom Jesus was sent. Here is no vestige of pastoral romanticism. The shepherds constitute a despised class and their profession made them impure before the law. Christ was shown to be sent precisely to the religiously marginalized and the classless. More than likely this message was not actually transmitted to shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem but was meant for Luke’s readers in order to show them that he, in whom they believe, is the true liberator.

Matthew has four episodes that relate to the Infancy; the arrival of the Magi, the flight of the holy family, the killing of the innocents, and the return from Egypt. Boff then asks us to consider whether they are actual historical events or might they be Midrash. (Midrash: a historicization of a passage of scripture or an amplification that embellishes a fact to emphasize its message)

As we have seen, for Matthew, Christ is the Messiah. One of the Prophecies concernining the Messiah refer to the fact that at the end of times kings and nations would come to Jerusalem to adore God and the Messiah bringing gifts, hence the Magi go to Jerusalem before going to Bethlehem. They follow a star called the star of the king of Judah. A star was seen before the births of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Astronomical study has shown us that about 7 B.C. a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred in Pisces. To Hellenist astrologers Jupiter represented the King of the Universe, Saturn was the star of the Jews and Pisces referred to the end of time. This was interpreted by the Magi to mean that in the country of the Jews a sovereign King was born who pertains to the end of time.

Just as the Lukan narrative traced the parallels between Jesus and the Baptist, Matthew traces the similarities between Jesus and Moses. The Jews of NT times believed that a Messiah-Liberator would come in the last days performing miracles like Moses. We know that Matthew presents Jesus as a new Moses, and that like the first liberator Jesus gave a new law from a mountain; the Sermon on the Mount.

We can see many Midrashic parallels between Jesus and Moses. Pharaoh is notified by Magi of the birth of a liberator; Herod is informed in a similar manner. Pharaoh and all of Egypt are terrified; Herod and all of Jerusalem are perturbed. Both Pharaoh and Herod decide to kill innocent children. Both Moses and Jesus escape the slaughter. Both Moses’ father and Joseph learn in dream there sons are to be saviors. The destiny of the new Moses repets the destiny of the first. The parallels need not be historically accurate. They are to show that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah-Liberator.

Boff points out that we have erred by approaching the Gospels incorrectly. They are not nor were they intended to be historical. They are announcement and preaching. At the time the NT was compose Midrash was a widely used form. It took a scriptural fact or saying then fashioned and embellished it with the intention of underling some truth of faith. There are real facts contained therein but they are clothed in a theological form, in a language that is almost incomprehensible. But, it is within this literary form that the message is hidden, the message we must unravel, retain and proclaim. If we try by every means to safeguard the historicity of every scene we end up losing the message intended by the inspired authors.

All this constitutes an order of symbolism and not of a reality of brute fact. The symbol is, humanly speaking, more real and significant than historically factual clod data. Myths and stories when understood and accepted as such make us plunge into the depths of a reality where we begin to perceive the meaning of innocence and reconciliation.