Messengers

Herod tells the wise men to search for the Child king, and when they find Him to “bring me word” ( apaggelo ) so that Herod too might worship.  the verb becomes important at the end of Matthew’s gospel, when an aggelos appears at the open tomb, and both soldiers and women run off to report ( apaggelo ) the news.

The chief priests and scribes who receive the news from the soldiers don’t come to the tomb to worship Jesus.  They are Herod’s heirs.  But the Twelve receive the report of the women-angels, and at the end of the gospel are doing with sincerity what Herod pretended to desire: Worshiping Jesus.

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