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The Urantia Book
Paper 122
BIRTH
AND INFANCY OF JESUS
IT WILL HARDLY be possible fully to
explain the many reasons which led to the selection of Palestine as the land for Michael's bestowal, and especially as
to just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate setting for the appearance
of this Son of God on Urantia.
122:0.2 After a study of the
special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose
Urantia as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision
Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of human groups
and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and geographic features of the
world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative advantages which
warranted their selection as the bestowal race. Upon Michael's approval of this decision,
Gabriel appointed and dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve—selected from
among the higher orders of universe personalities—which was intrusted with the task of
making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its labors,
Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three prospective unions
as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally favorable as bestowal families for
Michael's projected incarnation.
122:0.3 From the three couples
nominated, Gabriel made the
personal choice of Joseph and Mary, subsequently making his personal appearance to Mary,
at which time he imparted to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the
earth mother of the bestowal child.
1. JOSEPH AND MARY
122:1.1 Joseph, the human father of
Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial
strains which had been added to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines
of his progenitors. The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham
and through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the
ancient blue man, to Andon and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of
Joseph's ancestry, neither did Joseph's lineage go directly back to Adam. Joseph's
immediate ancestors were mechanics—builders, carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph
himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and
illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, accentuated ever and anon by the
appearance of unusual individuals who had distinguished themselves in connection with the
evolution of religion on Urantia.
122:1.2 Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of
unique ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of
Urantia. Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation, possessing a fairly
normal temperament, she reckoned among her ancestors such well-known women as Annon,
Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and Ratta. No Jewish woman of that day had a more illustrious lineage of common
progenitors or one extending back to more auspicious beginnings. Mary's ancestry, like Joseph's, was characterized by
the predominance of strong but average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous
outstanding personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of religion. Racially considered, it
is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess. In culture and belief she was a Jew, but
in hereditary endowment she was more a composite of Syrian,
Hittite, Phoenician, Greek,
and Egyptian stocks, her racial inheritance being more general than that of Joseph.
122:1.3 Of all couples living in Palestine at about the time of Michael's
projected bestowal, Joseph
and Mary possessed the most ideal combination of widespread racial connections and
superior average of personality endowments. It was the plan of Michael to appear on earth
as an average man, that the common people might understand him and receive him;
wherefore Gabriel selected
just such persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents.
2. GABRIEL APPEARS TO ELIZABETH
 122:2.1 Jesus' lifework on Urantia was really begun by John the Baptist.
Zacharias, John's father, belonged to the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth,
was a member of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to which Mary the mother of Jesus also
belonged. Zacharias and Elizabeth, though they had been married many years, were
childless.
122:2.2 It was late in the month of
June, 8 B.C., about three months after the marriage of Joseph and Mary, that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at
noontide one day, just as he later made his presence known to Mary. Said Gabriel:
122:2.3 "While your husband, Zacharias, stands before the altar in Jerusalem, and while the assembled people pray for the coming of
a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have
come to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of this
divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will grow up dedicated to the Lord
your God, and when he has come to full years, he will gladden your heart because he will
turn many souls to God, and he will also proclaim the coming of the soul-healer of your people and
the spirit-liberator of all mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this
child of promise, and I will also appear to her."
122:2.4 This
vision greatly frightened Elizabeth. After Gabriel's departure she turned this experience over in her mind, long
pondering the sayings of the majestic visitor, but did not speak of the revelation to anyone save her
husband until her subsequent visit with Mary in early February of the following year.
122:2.5 For five
months, however, Elizabeth withheld her secret even from her husband. Upon her disclosure
of the story of Gabriel's
visit, Zacharias was very skeptical and for weeks doubted the entire experience, only
consenting halfheartedly to believe in Gabriel's visit to his wife when he could no longer
question that she was expectant with child. Zacharias was very much perplexed regarding
the prospective motherhood of
Elizabeth, but he did not doubt the integrity of his wife, notwithstanding his own
advanced age. It was not until about six weeks before John's birth that Zacharias, as the
result of an impressive dream, became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the
mother of a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
122:2.6 Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of
November, 8 B.C., while she was at work in her Nazareth home. Later on, after Mary knew without doubt that she
was to become a mother, she persuaded Joseph to let her journey to the City of Judah, four miles west of Jerusalem, in the hills, to visit Elizabeth. Gabriel had informed
each of these mothers-to-be of his appearance to the other. Naturally they were anxious to
get together, compare experiences, and talk over the probable futures of their sons. Mary
remained with her distant cousin for three weeks. Elizabeth did much to strengthen Mary's
faith in the vision of Gabriel, so that she returned home more fully dedicated to the call
to mother the child of destiny whom she was so soon to present to the world as a helpless
babe, an average and normal infant of the realm.
122:2.7 John was
born in the City of Judah, March 25, 7 B.C. Zacharias and Elizabeth rejoiced
greatly in the realization that a son had come to them as Gabriel had promised, and when
on the eighth day they presented the child for circumcision, they formally christened him
John, as they had been directed aforetime. Already had a nephew of Zacharias departed for
Nazareth, carrying the message of Elizabeth to Mary proclaiming that a son had
been born to her and that his name was to be John.
122:2.8 From his
earliest infancy John was judiciously impressed by his parents with the idea that he was
to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious teacher. And the soil of John's
heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was
found frequently at the temple during the seasons of his father's service, and he was
tremendously impressed with the significance of all that he saw.
3. GABRIEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY
 122:3.1 One evening about sundown,
before Joseph had returned
home, Gabriel appeared to Mary by the side of a low stone
table and, after she had recovered her composure, said: "I come at the bidding of one who
is my Master and whom you shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when
I announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you
will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and
among men. Speak not of this matter save to Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to
whom I have also appeared, and who shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be
John, and who will prepare the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall
proclaim to men with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for
this home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My benediction
rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, and the Lord of all the
earth shall overshadow you."
122:3.2 Mary pondered this visitation
secretly in her heart for many weeks until of a certainty she knew she was with child,
before she dared to disclose these unusual events to her husband. When Joseph heard all about this,
although he had great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep for
many nights. At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. Then when he
became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had really heard the voice and beheld the form of the
divine messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such things could be. How could
the offspring of human beings be a child of divine destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile
these conflicting ideas until, after several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached
the conclusion that they had been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine
nature. Upon arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to depart for a visit
with Elizabeth.
122:3.3 Upon her return, Mary went
to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two brothers and two sisters, as well as her
parents, were always very skeptical about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course,
at this time they knew nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome that she
thought her son was destined to become a great teacher.
122:3.4 Gabriel's announcement to Mary was made the day following
the conception of Jesus and was the only event of supernatural occurrence connected with
her entire experience of carrying and bearing the child of promise.
4. JOSEPH'S DREAM
 122:4.1 Joseph did
not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child until after he had
experienced a very impressive dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger
appeared to him and, among other things, said: "Joseph, I appear by command of him who now
reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear,
and who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life shall
become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but they will hardly
receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will he reveal that they are the
children of God." After this experience Joseph never again wholly doubted Mary's story of
Gabriel's visit and of the
promise that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to the world.
122:4.2 In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David.
Nothing was ever intimated about Jesus' becoming a "deliverer of the Jews,"
not even that he was to be the long-expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the Jews had
anticipated, but he was the world's deliverer. His mission was to all races and
peoples, not to any one group.
122:4.3 Joseph was not of the line of
King David. Mary had more of
the Davidic ancestry than Joseph. True, Joseph did go to the City of David, Bethlehem, to be registered for the Roman census, but that was because, six generations previously,
Joseph's paternal ancestor of that generation, being an orphan, was adopted by one Zadoc,
who was a direct descendant of David; hence was Joseph also accounted as of the "house of
David."
122:4.4 Most of the so-called
Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to apply to Jesus long
after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries the Hebrew
prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these promises had been
construed by successive generations as referring to a new Jewish ruler who would sit upon the throne of David and, by the
reputed miraculous methods of Moses, proceed to establish the Jews in
Palestine as a powerful nation, free from all foreign domination.
Again, many figurative passages found throughout the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life
mission of Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some
episode of the Master's earth life. Jesus himself onetime publicly denied any connection
with the royal house of David. Even the passage, "a maiden shall bear a son," was made to
read, "a virgin shall bear a son." This was also true of the many genealogies of both
Joseph and Mary which were
constructed subsequent to Michael's career on earth. Many of these lineages contain much
of the Master's ancestry, but on the whole they are not genuine and may not be depended
upon as factual. The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed to the temptation to
make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find fulfillment in the life of their
Lord and Master.
5. JESUS' EARTH PARENTS
 122:5.1 Joseph was a mild-mannered man,
extremely conscientious, and in every way faithful to the religious conventions and
practices of his people. He talked little but thought much. The sorry plight of the Jewish people caused Joseph much sadness. As a youth, among his
eight brothers and sisters,
he had been more cheerful, but in the earlier years of married life (during Jesus'
childhood) he was subject to periods of mild spiritual discouragement. These temperamental
manifestations were greatly improved just before his untimely death and after the economic
condition of his family had been enhanced by his advancement from the rank of carpenter to
the role of a prosperous contractor.
122:5.2 Mary's temperament was quite
opposite to that of her husband. She was usually cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and
possessed an ever-sunny disposition. Mary indulged in free and frequent expression of her
emotional feelings and was never observed to be sorrowful until after the sudden death of
Joseph. And she had hardly
recovered from this shock when she had thrust upon her the anxieties and questionings
aroused by the extraordinary career of her eldest son, which was so rapidly unfolding
before her astonished gaze. But throughout all this unusual experience Mary was composed,
courageous, and fairly wise in her relationship with her strange and little-understood
first-born son and his surviving brothers and sisters.
 122:5.3 Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic
understanding of human nature from his father; he inherited his gift as a great teacher
and his tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother. In emotional
reactions to his adult-life environment, Jesus was at one time like his father, meditative
and worshipful, sometimes characterized by apparent sadness; but more often he drove
forward in the manner of his mother's optimistic and determined disposition. All in all,
Mary's temperament tended to
dominate the career of the divine Son as he grew up and swung into the momentous strides
of his adult life. In some particulars Jesus was a blending of his parents' traits; in
other respects he exhibited the traits of one in contrast with those of the other.
122:5.4 From Joseph
Jesus secured his strict training in the usages of the Jewish ceremonials and his unusual acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary he derived a broader viewpoint of
religious life and a more liberal concept of personal spiritual freedom.
122:5.5 The
families of both Joseph and Mary were well educated for their time. Joseph and Mary were educated far above the
average for their day and station in life. He was a thinker; she was a planner, expert in
adaptation and practical in immediate execution. Joseph was a black-eyed brunet; Mary, a
brown-eyed well-nigh blond type.
122:5.6 Had Joseph lived, he undoubtedly
would have become a firm believer in the divine mission of his eldest son. Mary alternated between believing
and doubting, being greatly influenced by the position taken by her other children and by
her friends and relatives, but always was she steadied in her final attitude by the memory
of Gabriel's appearance to
her immediately after the child was conceived.
122:5.7 Mary was an expert weaver and
more than averagely skilled in most of the household arts of that day; she was a good
housekeeper and a superior homemaker. Both Joseph and Mary were good teachers, and they saw to it that their
children were well versed in the learning of that day.
122:5.8 When Joseph was a young man, he was
employed by Mary's father in the work of building an addition to his house, and it was
when Mary brought Joseph a cup of water, during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the
pair who were destined to become the parents of Jesus really began.
122:5.9 Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at Mary's home in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one years old. This marriage
concluded a normal courtship of almost two years' duration. Shortly thereafter they moved
into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with the assistance of two
of his brothers. The house was located near the foot of the near-by elevated land which so
charmingly overlooked the surrounding countryside. In this home, especially prepared,
these young and expectant parents had thought to welcome the child of promise, little
realizing that this momentous event of a universe was to transpire while they would be
absent from home in Bethlehem of Judea.
122:5.10 The
larger part of Joseph's family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of
Mary's people ever believed in
him until after he departed from this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to
the idea of the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler. Mary's ancestors had
been prominently identified with the Maccabean activities of the then but recent
times.
122:5.11 Joseph held vigorously to the
Eastern, or Babylonian, views of the Jewish religion; Mary
leaned strongly toward the more liberal and broader Western, or Hellenistic, interpretation of the law and the prophets.
6. THE HOME AT NAZARETH
 122:6.1 The
home of Jesus was not far from the high hill in the northerly part of Nazareth, some distance from the village spring, which was in the
eastern section of the town. Jesus' family dwelt in the outskirts of the city, and this
made it all the easier for him subsequently to enjoy frequent strolls in the country and
to make trips up to the top of this near-by highland, the highest of all the hills of
southern Galilee save the Mount
Tabor range to the east and the hill of Nain, which was about the same height. Their home was located a
little to the south and east of the southern promontory of this hill and about midway
between the base of this elevation and the road leading out of Nazareth toward Cana.
Aside from climbing the hill, Jesus' favorite stroll was to follow a narrow trail winding
about the base of the hill in a northeasterly direction to a point where it joined the
road to Sepphoris,
 122:6.2 The home of Joseph and Mary was a one-room stone structure with a flat roof and an adjoining
building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low stone table,
earthenware and stone dishes and pots, a loom, a lampstand, several small stools, and mats
for sleeping on the stone floor. In the back yard, near the animal annex, was the shelter
which covered the oven and the mill for grinding grain. It required two persons to operate
this type of mill, one to grind and another to feed the grain. As a small boy Jesus often
fed grain to this mill while his mother turned the grinder.
122:6.3 In later
years, as the family grew in size, they would all squat about the enlarged stone table to
enjoy their meals, helping themselves from a common dish, or pot, of food. During the
winter, at the evening meal the table would be lighted by a small, flat clay lamp, which
was filled with olive oil. After the birth of Martha, Joseph built an addition to this
house, a large room, which was used as a carpenter shop during the day and as a sleeping
room at night.
7. THE TRIP TO BETHLEHEM
 122:7.1 In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married),
Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census should be made
which could be used for effecting better taxation. The Jews had
always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to "number the people," and this, in
connection with the serious domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea,
had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this
census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod,
where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.
122:7.2 It was not necessary that
Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment—Joseph was authorized to register for
his family—but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying
him. She feared being left alone lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again,
Bethlehem being not far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible
pleasurable visit with her kinswoman Elizabeth.
122:7.3 Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was
of no avail; when the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared
double rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth, Joseph
was reconciled to Mary's going along, and they cheerfully departed from Nazareth at the break of day.
122:7.4 Joseph and Mary were poor, and since they
had only one beast of burden, Mary, being large with child, rode on the animal with the
provisions while Joseph walked, leading the beast. The building and furnishing of a home
had been a great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the support of his
parents, as his father had been recently disabled. And so this Jewish couple went forth from their humble home early on the
morning of August 18, 7 B.C., on their journey to Bethlehem.
 122:7.5 Their first day of travel
carried them around the foothills of Mount Gilboa, where they camped for the night by
the river Jordan and engaged in many speculations as to what sort of a son
would be born to them, Joseph
adhering to the concept of a spiritual teacher and Mary holding to the idea of a Jewish Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrews nation.
122:7.6 Bright and early the
morning of August 19, Joseph
and Mary were again on their
way. They partook of their noontide meal at the foot of Mount Sartaba, overlooking the Jordan valley, and journeyed on, making Jericho for the night, where they stopped at an inn on the
highway in the outskirts of the city. Following the evening meal and after much discussion
concerning the oppressiveness of Roman rule, Herod, the census enrollment, and the
comparative influence of Jerusalem and Alexandria as centers of Jewish learning and culture, the Nazareth travelers retired for the night's rest. Early in the
morning of August 20 they resumed their journey, reaching Jerusalem before noon, visiting
the temple, and going on to their destination, arriving at Bethlehem in midafternoon.
122:7.7 The inn
was overcrowded, and Joseph
accordingly sought lodgings with distant relatives, but every room in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing. On returning to the
courtyard of the inn, he was informed that the caravan stables, hewn out of the side of the rock and situated
just below the inn, had been cleared of animals and cleaned up for the reception of
lodgers. Leaving the donkey in the courtyard, Joseph shouldered their bags of clothing and
provisions and with Mary
descended the stone steps to their lodgings below. They found themselves located in what
had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls and mangers. Tent curtains had
been hung, and they counted themselves fortunate to have such comfortable quarters.
122:7.8 Joseph had
thought to go out at once and enroll, but Mary was weary; she was considerably distressed
and besought him to remain by her side, which he did.
8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS
 122:8.1 All that night Mary was restless so that neither
of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and
at noon, August 21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow
travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world,
was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency,
and laid in a near-by manger.
122:8.2 In just the same manner as
all babies before that day and since have come into the world, the promised child was
born; and on the eighth day, according to the Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua
(Jesus).
122:8.3 The next day after the
birth of Jesus, Joseph made
his enrollment. Meeting a man they had talked with two nights previously at Jericho, Joseph was taken by him to a well-to-do friend who had a
room at the inn, and who said he would gladly exchange quarters with the Nazareth couple. That afternoon they moved up to the inn, where
they lived for almost three weeks until they found lodgings in the home of a distant
relative of Joseph. 
122:8.4 The second day after the
birth of Jesus, Mary sent word
to Elizabeth that her child had come and received word in return inviting Joseph up to Jerusalem to talk over all their affairs with Zacharias. The
following week Joseph went to Jerusalem to confer with Zacharias. Both Zacharias and
Elizabeth had become possessed with the sincere conviction that Jesus was indeed to become
the Jewish deliverer, the Messiah, and that their son John was to be his chief of aides,
his right-hand man of destiny. And since Mary held these same ideas, it was not difficult
to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City of David, so that Jesus might
grow up to become the successor of David on the throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in Bethlehem more than a year,
Joseph meantime working some at his carpenter's trade.
122:8.5 At the
noontide birth of Jesus the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their directors, did sing
anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these utterances of praise were not heard
by human ears. No shepherds nor any other mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe
of Bethlehem until the day of the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who
were sent down from Jerusalem by Zacharias.
122:8.6 These
priests from Mesopotamia had been told sometime before by a strange religious
teacher of their country that he had had a dream in which he was informed that "the light
of life" was about to appear on earth as a babe and among the Jews. And
thither went these three teachers looking for this "light of life." After many weeks of
futile search in Jerusalem, they were about to return to Ur when
Zacharias met them and disclosed his belief that Jesus was the object of their quest and
sent them on to Bethlehem, where they found the babe and left their gifts with
Mary, his earth mother. The babe was almost three weeks old at the time of their visit.
122:8.7 These wise men saw no star to guide them to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of the star of Bethlehem
originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon, 7 B.C. On May 29, 7 B.C., there
occurred an extraordinary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a remarkable astronomic fact
that similar conjunctions occurred on September 29 and December 5 of the same year. Upon
the basis of these extraordinary but wholly natural events the well-meaning Zealots of the succeeding generation constructed the appealing
legend of the star of Bethlehem and the adoring Magi led thereby to the manger, where they
beheld and worshiped the newborn babe. Oriental and near-Oriental minds delight in fairy
stories, and they are continually spinning such beautiful myths about the lives of their
religious leaders and political heroes. In the absence of printing, when most human
knowledge was passed by word of mouth from one generation to another, it was very easy for
myths to become traditions and for traditions eventually to become accepted as facts.
9. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
 122:9.1 Moses
had taught the Jews that every first-born son belonged to the Lord, and that, in
lieu of his sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations, such a son might live
provided his parents would redeem him by the payment of five shekels to any authorized priest. There was also a Mosaic
ordinance which directed that a mother, after the passing of a certain period of time,
should present herself (or have someone make the proper sacrifice for her) at the temple
for purification. It was customary to perform both of these ceremonies at the same time.
Accordingly, Joseph and Mary went up to the temple at Jerusalem in person to present Jesus to the priests and effect
his redemption and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary's ceremonial
purification from the alleged uncleanness of childbirth.
122:9.2 There
lingered constantly about the courts of the temple two remarkable characters, Simeon a
singer and Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna was a Galilean. This couple were
frequently in each other's company, and both were intimates of the priest Zacharias, who
had confided the secret of John and Jesus to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the
coming of the Messiah, and their confidence in Zacharias led them to believe
that Jesus was the expected deliverer of the Jewish people.
122:9.3 Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected to appear at
the temple with Jesus, and he had prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the
salute of his upraised hand, which one in the procession of first-born children was Jesus.
122:9.4 For this occasion Anna had written a poem which Simeon proceeded to sing,
much to the astonishment of Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple courts.
And this was their hymn of the redemption of the first-born son:
| 122:9.5 |
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, |
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For he has visited us and wrought redemption for his people; |
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He has raised up a horn of salvation for all of us |
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In the house of his servant David. |
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Even as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets— |
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Salvation from our
enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; |
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To show mercy to our fathers, and remember his holy covenant— |
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The oath which he swore to Abraham our father, |
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To grant us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, |
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Should serve him without fear, |
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In holiness and righteousness before him all our days. |
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Yes, and you, child of promise, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
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For you shall go before the face of the Lord to establish his kingdom; |
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To give knowledge of salvation to his people |
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In the remission of their sins. |
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Rejoice in the tender mercy of our God because the dayspring from on high has now
visited us |
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To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; |
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To guide our feet into ways of peace. |
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And now let your servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to your word, |
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For my eyes have seen your salvation, |
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Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; |
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A light for even the unveiling of the gentiles |
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And the glory of your people Israel. |
122:9.6 On the way back to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were silent—confused and
overawed. Mary was much disturbed by the farewell salutation of Anna, the aged poetess,
and Joseph was not in harmony with this premature effort to make Jesus out to be the
expected Messiah of the Jewish people.
10. HEROD ACTS
 122:10.1 But the watchers for Herod were not inactive. When they reported to him
the visit of the priests of Ur to Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to appear before him. He inquired diligently of these
wise men about the new "king of the Jews," but they gave him little satisfaction,
explaining that the babe had been born of a woman who had come down to Bethlehem with her
husband for the census enrollment. Herod, not being satisfied with this answer, sent them
forth with a purse and directed that they should find the child so that he too might come
and worship him, since they had declared that his kingdom was to be spiritual, not
temporal. But when the wise men did not return, Herod grew suspicious. As he turned these
things over in his mind, his informers returned and made full report of the recent
occurrences in the temple, bringing him a copy of parts of the Simeon song which had been
sung at the redemption ceremonies of Jesus. But they had failed to follow Joseph and Mary, and Herod was very angry
with them when they could not tell him whither the pair had taken the babe. He then
dispatched searchers to locate Joseph and Mary. Knowing Herod pursued the Nazareth family, Zacharias and Elizabeth remained away from
Bethlehem. The boy baby was secreted with Joseph's relatives.
122:10.2 Joseph was
afraid to seek work, and their small savings were rapidly disappearing. Even at the time
of the purification ceremonies at the temple, Joseph deemed himself sufficiently poor to
warrant his offering for Mary
two young pigeons as Moses had directed for the purification of mothers among the poor.
122:10.3 When, after more than a year of searching, Herod's spies had not located
Jesus, and because of the suspicion that the babe was still concealed in Bethlehem, he prepared an order directing that a systematic
search be made of every house in Bethlehem, and that all boy babies under two years of age
should be killed. In this manner Herod hoped to make sure that this child who was to
become "king of the Jews" would be destroyed. And thus perished in one
day sixteen boy babies in Bethlehem of Judea. But intrigue and murder, even in his own
immediate family, were common occurrences at the court of Herod.
 122:10.4 The
massacre of these infants took place about the middle of October, 6 B.C., when Jesus was a
little over one year of age. But there were believers in the coming Messiah even among Herod's court attachés and one of these,
learning of the order to slaughter the Bethlehem boy babies, communicated with
Zacharias, who in turn dispatched a messenger to Joseph; and the night before the
massacre Joseph and Mary
departed from Bethlehem with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt. In order to avoid attracting attention,
they journeyed alone to Egypt with Jesus. They went to Alexandria on funds provided by
Zacharias, and there Joseph worked at his trade while Mary and Jesus lodged with well-to-
do relatives of Joseph's family. They sojourned in Alexandria two full years, not
returning to Bethlehem until after the death of Herod.
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Urantia Book: English edition
