{"id":5068,"date":"2008-12-22T05:26:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T09:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=5068"},"modified":"2014-12-20T09:12:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T14:12:37","slug":"the-slaughter-of-the-innocents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2008\/12\/the-slaughter-of-the-innocents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slaughter of the Innocents"},"content":{"rendered":"

After<\/a> the wise men came,<\/p>\n

behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Then Herod slaughtered all the two-year olds and all the one-year olds and all the babies<\/a> in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

Joseph and his family being saved from Herod is part of the Christmas story, and Herod killing the other children is part of the story of Joseph and his family being saved.<\/p>\n

What does it mean? You can say that its just what happened, it doesn’t have to have a meaning–but while the Christmas story is true story, its still a story, and stories mean things. Humor me. What does it mean?<\/p>\n

I know a gal who wanted to be merry and spiritual and happy at Christmas but who just felt oppressed by the whole, long Christmas season. She discovered that she could do it, but only if she set aside a day around Christmas to, I guess, mourn. She said she needed a day to be gloomy and somber and go to the temple and think about the dead, and that made the Christmas spirit in the rest of the Christmas seasons doable for her.<\/p>\n

Maybe the slaughter of the innocents serves role of contrast. Its the dark night, in which a Star can be seen.<\/p>\n

Bye, bye<\/a>, lully, lullay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
\nBy, by, lully, lullay.
\nLullay, Thou little tiny Child.
\nBy, by, lully, lullay.<\/p>\n

O sisters, too, how may we do,
\nFor to preserve this day;
\nThis poor Youngling for whom we sing,
\nBy, by, lully, lullay.<\/p>\n

Herod the King, in his raging,
\nCharged he hath this day;
\nHis men of might, in his own sight,
\nAll children young, to slay.<\/p>\n

Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
\nAnd ever mourn and say;
\nFor Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
\nBy, by, lully, lullay<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the wise men came, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-doctrine","category-scriptures"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5410,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}