Our Savior openly admitted that he had always had a spiritual army at his disposal: “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26.53). It seems to me that those legions of angels who were ready to do the bidding of Jesus in Matthew 26 are identical to the multitude of the heavenly host, the stratia, that is out on the fields of Bethlehem. Throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, he had numerous encounters with demons, the cohorts of Satan. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil, and Satan reciprocated by trying to destroy Jesus. . . Verbrugge asks, ”How does this military imagery, then, intersect with the Christmas story? He explains, “In chapter 2 we discussed the evidence in the Bible that Christmas was the beginning of a celestial war. Godet calls them a “troop of angels.” The NRSV has a footnote by the word “host” and indicates that in Greek this word means “army.” . Most commentators, however, understand this word as a large choir.”ĭr. In either case, the word has strong military connotations. . What the NIV translates as “heavenly host,” Luke Timothy Johnson translates as “the heavenly army.” Christopher Evans refers to the “angels as the divine soldiery,” and F. On occasion the word could be used as an alternate for the Greek word strateia, which denotes a military expedition. Where is the military imagery in Luke 2:13? Listen carefully: The word that Luke uses for “host” is the Greek word stratia, a word that in classical Greek almost invariably denotes an army or a company of soldiers. This passage fits in with one of the two main themes I have been exploring in this book, namely, that Christmas is the beginning of war. In doing so, I discovered something I had never realized before and something that is rarely mentioned and never discussed in detail in commentaries on Luke. I decided to revisit this passage in Luke 2, reading it in the Greek New Testament to see if there was something I may have missed. I, too, have always had this picture in my mind. . But. I doubt if there is anyone who does not envision this scene as a huge company of angels dressed in choir robes, perhaps complete with sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses, singing praise to the newborn king. praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2.13– 14 NIV). ![]() That angel was soon joined by a “great company of the heavenly host. Verbrugge writes, “One of the most familiar elements of the Christmas story in Luke 2 is the appearance of the angel to the shepherds. In his book, A Not-So-Silent Night: the Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters, Verlyn D. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2.8–14). ![]() For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ![]() Image © Lumo Project through Free Bible Images All rights reserved
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