And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field (staying there, probably in huts or tents), keeping watch, х fulassontes (G5442) fulakas (G5438) tees (G3588) nuktos (G3571)] - rather, 'keeping the night watches,' or taking their turn of watching "by night." From this most critics, since Lightfoot, conclude that the time which, since the fourth century, has been ecclesiastically fixed upon for the celebration of Christ's birth-the 25th of December, or the midst of the rain season-cannot be the true time, as the shepherds drove their flocks about the spring or Passover time out to the fields, and remained out with them all summer, under cover of huts or tents, returning with them late in the autumn. But recent travelers tell us that in the end of December, after the rains, the flowers come again into bloom, and the flocks again issue forth. The nature of the seasons in Palestine could hardly have been unknown to those who fixed upon the present Christmas-period: the difficulty, therefore, is perhaps more imaginary than real.
But leaving this question undecided, another of some interest may be asked-Were these shepherds chosen to have the first sight of the blessed Babe without any respect to their own state of mind? That, at least, is not God's way. No doubt, as Olshausen remarks, they were, like Simeon (Luke 2:25), among the waiters for the Consolation of Israel; and if the simplicity of their rustic minds, their quiet occupation, the stillness of the midnight hours, and the amplitude of the deep blue vault above them for the heavenly music which was to fill their ear, pointed them out as fit recipients for the first tidings of an Infant Saviour, the congenial meditations and conversations by which, we may suppose, they would beguile the tedious hours would perfect their preparation for the unexpected visit. Thus was Nathanael engaged, all alone but not unseen, under the fig tree, in unconscious preparation for his first interview with Jesus. (See the note at John 1:48.) So was the rapt seer on his lonely rock "in the spirit on the Lord's day," little thinking that this was his preparation for hearing behind him the trumpet-voice of the Son of Man, (Revelation 1:10, etc.) But if the shepherds in his immediate neighbourhood had the first, the sages from afar had t he next sight of the newborn King. Even so still, simplicity first, science next, finds its way to Christ. Whom,
`In quiet ever and in shade Shepherd and Sage may find; They who have bowed untaught to Nature's sway, And they who follow Truth along her star-pav'd way.' (KEBLE)