“ Out of Egypt I Called My Son ” ( Matt 2 : 15 ) Mosaic Aspect of Jesus ’ Divine Sonship

“Out of Egypt I called My Son” is a quotation from Hosea. Matthew’s use of it as a ‘direct prophecy’ is considered problematic by some scholars for Hosea wrote it as a merely historical reflection. How should we resolve this problem? Typological approach might be the best way to understand it by which consideration of the events around Jesus’ birth as the fullest expression of divinely intended fulfillments of Old Testament “prophecies” is possible. The evangelist presents double typologies: on one hand, he retrospectively refers to the exodus of Israel and applies it to “new exodus” through Jesus, but on the other hand, he refers to Moses and presents discontinuity and continuity of the divine work of salvation in the person of Jesus. He highlights the Mosaic aspect of Jesus’ divine sonship which underlines further his presentation of Jesus as David’s son (1:1) and his messianic and royal role in the coming of the Kingdom of God (4:17). ABSTRAK “Dari Mesir Kupanggil Anak-Ku” adalah kutipan dari kitab Nabi Hosea. Penggunaan teks ini sebagai suatu ‘nubuat langsung’ oleh Matius dianggap bermasalah mengingat Hosea menuliskannya sebagai sebuah refleksi historis saja. Bagaimana sebaiknya kita memahami kutipan ini? Pendekatan tipologis mungkin adalah cara terbaik untuk memahaminya di mana peristiwa-peristiwa seputar kelahiran Yesus bisa dimengerti sebagai ekspresi penuh dari pemenuhan “nubuat-nubuat” Perjanjian Lama sesuai kehendak Allah. Penginjil Matius menghadirkan tipologi ganda: di satu pihak, dia merujuk pada ‘eksodus’ bangsa Israel dari Mesir dan mengaplikasikannya pada “eksodus baru” lewat Yesus; sementara itu, di pihak lain, ia merujuk pada Musa untuk menggarisbawahi diskontinuitas sekaligus kontinuitas karya keselamatan Allah dalam diri Yesus. Lewat tipologi ini, Penginjil Matius menggarisbawahi dimensi Mosaik dari designasi Yesus sebagai Putera Allah sekaligus melengkapi penegasan sebelumnya tentang Yesus sebagai Putera Daud (1:1) dan peranan mesianik-Nya dalam kedatangan Kerajaan Allah (4:17).


Introduction
In the birth narrative of Jesus, we read the story of the flight of the infant Jesus to Egypt and his return to the land of Israel (Matt 2:13-23).
Matthew presents these events as fulfillment of Old Testament 'prophecy' found

ARTICLE INFO
in Hos 11:1, "Out of Egypt I called My Son" (Matt 2:15). As the text of Hosea is merely a historical reflection, Matthew's understanding as a direct prophecy fulfilled later appears to be problematic. Accordingly, the evangelist is, among others, judged as to have erroneously read Hosea's text as a direct prophecy fulfilled in Jesus. How should we understand this Matthew's use of Hosea?
What approach should we use to read this quotation to understand Matthew's theological ideas presented through this story?

Method
This study will try to understand Matthew's use of Hos 11:1 using a typological approach by which we can understand "fulfillment" in a broader sense. A brief explanation of this approach will be presented below. Before doing so, we will see briefly how grammatical-historical approach cannot give us satisfactory reading of this Matthew's quotation.

The Flight to Egypt
Matt 2:13-23 is a text (one unity) that describes the flight of infant Jesus (and his family) to Egypt and his return to the land of Israel. The author relates this story dividing it very well in three subsections using three fulfillments of Old Testament "prophecies". Matt 2:13-15 is the story of the departure to and sojourn in Egypt preceded by the appearance of the angel of the Lord to Joseph who commands him to take the child Jesus and his mother to Egypt, for Herod was willing to search and destroy him. This subsection ends with the Old Testament fulfillment of Hos 11:1, "Out of Egypt I called my son". The return of child Jesus (and his family) is described in the same way of how the story of departure is told: the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and commands him to leave for the land of Israel. But due to fear of Archelaus, Herod's successor, Joseph goes to the region of Galilee, to a town called Nazareth. This subsection ends with Old Testament fulfillment, "He shall be called a Nazarene" (2:19-23). 1 The departure and return subsections flank the second one concerning the killing of children in Bethlehem by Herod. Herod commands the killing of children out of his anger to the Magi, and also out of his anxiety about the "child king" Jesus (cf. 2:2). This subsection ends with a quotation from Jer 31:15, "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more." The text (2:13-23) is also connected with one another by the presentation of Herod: Herod was willing to destroy the child (subsection 1); Herod killed all children in Bethlehem (subsection 2); Herod died (subsection 3).
This brief study will focus on the first subsection in which we find the quotation from Hos 11:1. It is evident that Matthew quotes it from the Masoretic Text, "and out of Egypt I called My Son" ‫לבני(‬ ‫קראתי‬ ‫,)וממצרים‬ and not from LXX which alters "my son" into plural (τέκνα), a translation ad sensum indicating all

Quotation problems
This quotation is not free from problems. G. K. Beale mentions three problems related to it: 3 (1) in Hosea this verse is a merely historical reflection, but Matthew clearly understands it as a direct prophecy that is fulfilled in Christ; (2) Hosea attributes to all the nations, but Matthew attributes to the individual Jesus; (3) Hos 11:1 reference to Israel coming out of Egypt first introduces the holy family with Jesus entering into Egypt, and it is only later 1 This 'quotation' is completely confusing, for it apparently cannot be found in Old Testament; even nothing seems to resemble it. Many proposals have been suggested to solve this problem. An observation by Menken might give a picture of this problem and possible solutions. He himself draws a conclusion that this 'quotation' is composed with the help of analogous verses: Judge 13:5, in Matt 2:21 that Jesus and his parents come out Egypt. Logically, this quotation should be part of the third subsection.

Approaches
In response to these problems, there are various opinions of scholars.
There are essentially two approaches 4 to Matthew's use of Hos 11:1. (1) The approach that attributes error to Matthew. Matthew is considered to have mistakenly read Hos 11:1 as a prophecy that will be fulfilled later. The fulfillment was manifested in Jesus (with his family) who flew to Egypt and then returned to Israel in Galilee. Matthew's reading is erroneous, for Hos 11:1 is, in fact, a historical reflection on the original exodus, thus it is not a prediction of the future but rather a reference to God's work of saving the people of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land in the past. 5 (2) The approach that supports Matthew's hermeneutic by attributing to Matthew a revelatory insight into the sensus plenior of Hosea. In this point of view, inscrutable hermeneutics is attributed to the Holy Spirit, 6 by which God inspires the prophets to deliver his own message and not of the prophets themselves. These approaches and conclusions are usually made because Matthew is being judged using a "grammatical-historical" interpretative method. 7

Typological approach
4 See David L. Turner, Matthew, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 90-91. 5 Barclay, for example, argues that Matthew typically used to quote as prophecy about Jesus any text which can be made verbally fit, even though originally it had nothing to do with the question in hand, as a way to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Anointed One of God. Concerning this quotation he writes, "It can be seen at once that in its original form this saying of Hosea had nothing to do Jesus, and nothing to do with the flight to Egypt. It was nothing more than a simple statement of how God had delivered the nation of Israel from slavery and from bondage in the land of Egypt." William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Rev. and updated, vol  Beale also supports this typological approach, arguing that Matthew's typological interpretation of Hos 11:1 is stimulated by Hosea's own typological understanding of that verse implied in his whole book. Hosea himself, after alluding to Israel's exodus out of Egypt (11:1), relates briefly the history of his nation, who did not respond faithfully to God's deliverance of them out of Egypt (11:2-5). Accordingly, God will judge them (11:6-7). But out of compassion, God will restore his people (11:8-11). Thus the main focus of Hosea is Israel's future eschatological "return from Egypt", in which the people and the king are compared to "lion" (Hos 11:10-11/Num 23 & 24). Identification of this "lion" is difficult. It is possibly the king coming "out of Egypt" in Num 24:7-9 but eventually refers to God himself. In this perspective of end-time return from Egypt (i.e., latter-day restoration of Israel), Matthew might use Hos 11:1 in his Gospel. The king coming "out of Egypt" is a latter-day Davidic king who will lead Israel's return to God in the latter days (Hos 3:5). Hosea's "son" (11:1) appears to be the people of Israel who did not respond faithfully to God's deliverance in the first exodus but shall be restored. Matthew seems to present Jesus as the "son" (2:15) in contrast with Hosea's "son", i.e., unfaithful Israel

Conclusion
Using the typological approach we have seen so far that Matthew the Evangelist presents double typologies through this quotation: exodus typology and that of Moses. The typological approach shows the possibility to see