A Prophecy Misused?
(Unwrapped: the Truth about Christmas #25)
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Matthew says that Herod's slaughter of the boys in Bethlehem fulfilled a prophecy from the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:15).
At first it looks as if he is misusing a prophecy that was not about the birth of Jesus at all.
But the wider context of the prophecy Matthew quotes talks about God making a new agreement with his people.
The Gospels record that Jesus applied this promise of a new agreement to himself – a new agreement that was sealed by his death.
The writers of the rest of the New Testament also understood Jesus as fulfilling Jeremiah's prophecy of this new agreement.
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