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Bible References
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, (Matthew 2:1 KJV)
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Wise-men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1 ASV)
Now Jesus having been born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, behold magi from the east arrived at Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1 DBY)
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1 WEB)
And Jesus having been born in Beth-Lehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, lo, mages from the east came to Jerusalem, (Matthew 2:1 YLT)
Interlinear
Mt 2:1 Now /de/ when Jesus /Iesous/ was born /gennao/ in /en/ Bethlehem /Bethleem/ of Judaea /Ioudaia/ in /en/ the days /hemera/ of Herod /Herodes/ the king, /basileus/ behold, /idou/ there came /paraginomai/ wise men /magos/ from /apo/ the east /anatole/ to /eis/ Jerusalem, /Hierosoluma/
The Fourfold Gospel
XIII. EASTERN WISE-MEN, OR MAGI, VISIT JESUS, THE NEW-BORN KING. (Jerusalem and Bethlehem, B.C. 4.) Mt 2:1-12
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It lies five miles south by west of Jerusalem, a little to the east of the road to Hebron. It occupies part of the summit and sides of a narrow limestone ridge which shoots out eastward from the central chains of the Judaean mountains, and breaks down abruptly into deep valleys on the north, south, and east. Its old name, Ephrath, meant “the fruitful.” Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Its modern name, Beitlaham, means “house of meat.” It was the home of Boaz and Ruth, of Jesse and David. The modern town contains about five hundred houses, occupied by Greek-church Christians. Over the rock-hewn cave which monks point out as the stable where Christ was born, there stands a church built by the Empress Helena, A.D. 325-327, which is the oldest monument to Christ known to men. Bethlehem was a suitable birthplace for a spiritual king; as suitable as Rome would have been a temporal king. We do not know when the town received its name, nor by whom the name was given, but as God had chosen it as the birthplace of Jesus for many centuries before the incarnation, he may have caused it to be named Bethlehem, or “house of bread,” with prophetic reference to Him who is the “Bread of Life.”
Of Judaea. Called thus to distinguish it from Bethlehem of Zebulon (Jos 19:15).
In the days. It is difficult to determine the exact year of Christ’s birth. Dionysus the Small, an abbot at Rome in A.D. 526, published an Easter cycle, in which he fixed the birth of Christ in the year 754 of the city of Rome (A.U.C.). This date has been followed ever since. But Jesus was born before the death of Herod, and Josephus and Dion Cassius fix the death of Herod in the year 750 A.U.C. Herod died that year, just before the Passover, and shortly after an eclipse of the moon, which took place on the night between the twelfth and thirteenth of March. Jesus was born several months previous to the death of Herod, either toward the end of the year 749 A.U.C. (B.C. 5) or at the beginning of the year 750 (B.C. 4).
Of Herod. This man was born at Ascalon, B.C. 71, and died at Jericho, A.D. 4. His father was an Edomite, and his mother an Ishmaelite. He was a man of fine executive ability and dauntless courage, but was full of suspicion and duplicity, and his reign was stained by acts of inhuman cruelty. He enlarged and beautified the temple at Jerusalem, and blessed his kingdom by many other important public works.
The King. The life of Herod will be found in Josephus’ The Antiquities of the Jews, Books 14-17. He was not an independent monarch, but a king subject to the Roman Empire.
Wise-men. This word designates an order, or caste, of priests and philosophers (called magi), which existed in the countries east of the Euphrates, from a very remote period. We first find the word in Scripture at Jer 39:13, in the name rab-mag, which signifies chief magi. This class is frequently referred to in the Book of Daniel, where its members are called magicians, and it is probable that Daniel himself was a rab-mag (Da 5:11). The order is believed to have arisen among the Chaldeans and to have come down through the Assyrian, Medean and Persian kingdoms. The magi were, in many ways, the Levites of the East; they performed all public religious rites, claimed exclusive mediatorship between God and man, were the authority on all doctrinal points, constituted the supreme council of the realm, and had charge of the education of the royal family. The practiced divination, interpreted auguries and dreams, and professed to foretell the destinies of men. They were particularly famous for their skill in astronomy, and had kept a record of the more important celestial phenomena, which dated back several centuries prior to the reign of Alexander the Great. They were probably originally honest seekers after truth, but degenerated into mere imposters, as the Bible record shows (Ac 8:9-11 and Ac 13:8). Nothing is said as to the number who came nor as to the country whence they came. The number and quality of the gifts has become the foundation for a tradition that they were three kings from Arabia, and during the Middle Ages it was professed that their bodies were found and removed to the cathedral at Cologne. Their shrine is still shown there to credulous travelers, and their names are given as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
From the east. Probably from Persia, the chief seat of the Median religion. Jews dwelling in Persian provinces among the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites (Ac 2:9) may have so prepared the minds of the magi as to set them looking for the star of Bethlehem. But in addition to the knowledge carried by captive Israelites, the men of the East had other light. The great Chinese sage, Confucius (B.C. 551-479), foretold a coming Teacher in the West, and Zoroaster, the founder of the Persian religion, who is thought to have been a contemporary of Abraham, had predicted the coming of a great, supernaturally begotten Prophet. To these Balaam had added his prophecy (Nu 24:17). Moreover, the Septuagint translation made at Alexandria about 280 B.C. had rendered the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek, the language of commerce, and had carried the knowledge of Hebrew prophecy into all lands, and had wakened a slight but world-wide expectation of a Messiah. The Roman writers, Suetonius (70-123, A.D.) and Tacitus (75-125, A.D.) bear witness to this expectation that a great world-ruling king would come out of Judaea. But all this put together can not account for the visit of the magi. They were guided directly by God, and nothing else may have even influenced them.
Came to Jerusalem. They naturally sought for the ruler of the state at the state’s capital. They came to Jerusalem after Jesus had been presented in the temple, and taken back to Bethlehem, and, therefore, when the infant Jesus was more than forty days old. They must have come at least forty days before the death of Herod, for he spent the last forty days of his life at Jericho and the baths of Callirrhoe; but the wise men found him still at Jerusalem. Jesus must, therefore, have been at least eighty days old when Herod died.
(TFG 40-43)