HEBREW WORD STUDY – SHEPHERDS
–‫רעיא‬
Luke 2:8 “And there were shepherds in the same country abiding
in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.”
We hear this Christmas story so much around this time of year
that we never really stop to think about it or wonder about
some obvious questions. As a child I often thought of these
questions, but I simply put them out of my mind.
I had
questions like, “Why was the night watch so important that the
Bible made sure to mention it and when did the shepherds sleep
if they stayed up all night watching their sheep?”
But a
question which was more important was, “Why did the angels
appear to this particular group of shepherds and why to
shepherds in the first place?” Another question I thought
about was why were there a group of shepherds, did they not
work alone?
These were some of the key questions I planned to ask once I
got to Bible college but somehow the answers I got just did
not satisfy me. I got answers like they watched by night
during certain times of the years. Shepherds often let their
sheep graze together and when they did they used the
opportunity to share local gossip. As to why God chose to
reveal the birth of His Son to shepherds, well shepherds were
the lowest class of people, sometimes they were even criminals
and outcast. They were filthy, dirty scum of the earth types.
After hearing that I really did not want to call my Jesus a
Shepherd nor did I want to call my pastor a shepherd (although
I met a few pastors I would call a shepherd in that context).
I soon learned about something called Christian audibles.
Christians hate to admit that they do not have an answer for
everything, especially Christian teachers, so they will
formulate some sort of answer that borders very close to I am
not sure. I know as a teacher I used to be pretty good at
calling Christian audibles. You usually know you have been
given a Christian audible by that funny taste you get in your
mouth after hearing the answer.
Anyway, it is Christmas and that time of year to again revisit
these age old questions and see what kind of answers we can
come up with this year. First let’s take a look at this word
shepherd that is used in this passage in Luke. The Greek uses
the word poimenes which means to feed or to protect. It is
also a word for pastures as that is where the shepherd feds
his sheep.
The Latin word for shepherd is pastor as in
pasture where we get the idea that your pastor is your
shepherd whose job it is to spiritually feed you.
These shepherds in Luke were good shepherds because they were
keeping watch over their flocks by night. Actually, I am not
sure where the idea of shepherds being the scum of the earth
came from. Often a shepherd was a young teenage, usually the
youngest of the family who were charged with keeping watch
over the family enterprise. If no son were available some
outsider would be hired. Sure you might get some dirt bag who
would dummy up his resume but for the most part you ran as
much of a background check as you could on your candidate as
you were entrusting him with your whole store. I mean if you
own a 24 hour convenience store you are not going to hire some
ex-con to manage your store who will walk home with a bag of
groceries after closing up for the night. You are going to
hire someone you can trust. In fact from my study of ancient
cultures I find that a shepherd was a well-respected
profession in those days, every mother dreamed of her son
becoming a shepherd, seriously. So the idea that God sent his
angels to the lowest scum to announce the birth of his Son
just doesn’t historically hold water.
The next question then is why did God reveal the birth of his
son to shepherds and to these particular shepherds and why
were they grouped together. I think I found the answer to
that in the Jewish Talmud. It was there I learned that the
sheep which were to be used for the daily sacrifice in the
temple were to be feed in the Bethlehem pastures.
These
shepherds had charge of the most important sheep of all, the
seh or sacrificial lambs. Such sheep were not left entrusted
to just one shepherd but a team of shepherds, most likely from
the tribe of Levi. They provided round the clock watch. There
were four night watches where the shepherds worked in shifts.
There was the evening watch, the midnight watch, the cock
crowing watch and the morning watch.
I have seen many a
nativity play where the shepherds are laying on the ground
fast asleep when suddenly they are awakened by a bright
light. Boloney! The Bible clearly says they were watching
their sheep by night.
The Greek words used here is
phulassontes phuloakas which literally means guarding in the
guardhouses of the night. The shepherds in Bethlehem who were
guarding (not watching) these sacrificial lambs worked around
the clock sleeping in established guard houses when not on
their shift. These pastures were specifically owned by the
temple for the raising of the yearling ewe lambs. These were
not your nomadic shepherds wandering all over the place. A
sacrificial lamb had to be without blemish and without spot so
they required extra special care and only the best of the best
shepherds were chosen for this elite task of guarding these
little lambs.
The Aramaic word used in the Peshitta for shepherd is ra’a.
This comes from a Semitic root which expresses the idea of a
deep passion.
These are the good shepherds who feel such
passion for their sheep and their duty to guard these sheep
that they would lay down their lives for these sheep. Jesus as
the good shepherd was a ra’a.
The angels appeared to the best of the best of these elite
Levitical shepherds, I know they were the best of the best
because they had the most difficult watch, the midnight
watch. You see there is an ancient Jewish tradition that the
Messiah would come at midnight. If they were indeed Levites,
they would have been anticipating the arrival of the Messiah
at midnight. It is also very likely that Jesus was born at
midnight.
Here’s the real kicker, for these elite, dedicated ra’a
(shepherds) to leave their seh sacrificial lambs, to abandon
their duties, they must have been convinced that they were
going to worship the true ra’a (shepherd) and seh sacrificial
lamb. They probably realized that their jobs were done, there
was no longer a need for the seh sacrificial lambs for the
true seh sacrificial lamb had arrived.
Merry Christmas,
Chaim & Laura