The Visit of the Wise Men
Verses 1-2: “Beth-lehem of Judea” was also called Ephrath. The town is five miles south of Jerusalem. Its name in Hebrew means “House of Bread.” This Judean city was the birthplace of King David. It was the original city of Joseph’s ancestors. According to (Luke 2:1-7), Joseph and Mary traveled there from Nazareth and Jesus was born in a stable after they arrived.
“Herod the king” was known as Herod the Great, and was the son of Antipater, an Edomite. He became king by Roman decree in 43 B.C.
“Wise men” were originally the priestly caste among the Persians and Babylonians. These Magi from the East were experts in the study of the stars. Tradition claims that there were three royal visitors who were also kings. However, there is no real historical evidence to verify this.
“Born King of the Jews:” The wise men naturally come to Jerusalem, the royal capital of Israel, seeking one whom they thought was to be born a king, on the basis of their calculations of the stars.
“His star” could not have been merely a natural phenomenon, since it led the wise men to Jerusalem and later to Bethlehem. It almost certainly was a divine manifestation used by God to indicate the fact and place of the Messiah’s birth.
Matthew 2:1 “Now when Jesus was born in Beth-lehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,”
in Bethlehem of... Fulfilling Mic. 5:2. Bethlehem was 5 miles south of Jerusalem.
Beth-lehem is known as the city of David. This is the city of the birth of David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ (Luke 2:4-7), as predicted by Micah the prophet (5:2; Mat. 2:5-6). In the New Testament it is mentioned only in the Gospels and always in reference to Christ’s birth.
came wise men... Greek: magoi, wise men. Their number, nationality, and country are unknown. They were a priestly hereditary caste that uttered prophecies, explained omens, interpreted dreams, and practiced divination (Dan. 2:2, 2:48; 4:9).
days of Herod... known in history as Herod the Great, because of his loyalty to Rome, was given authority over Israel and the title of king (37 to 4 B.C.). To win the favor of both Romans and Jews he carried out lavish building projects, including the cities of Caesarea and Samaria, and the new temple at Jerusalem. Herod had 10 wives and the deserved reputation of being a cruel, unscrupulous despot.
Because of hatred and ambitions for power among families, and because of Herod’s consuming suspicion that someone might usurp his throne, he even executed one of his wives and his three oldest sons. Thus, the act of murdering all of the young male children in the region of Bethlehem, in an effort to eliminate the One whom the Magi had called King of the Jews, fits Herod’s character (verses 1-16). When Herod died, Rome divided his kingdom among three sons: Archelaus (verse 22), Antipas “the tetrarch” (verse 14:1), and Philip (Luke 3:1).
In A.D. 325 Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine built a church over some caves traditionally regarded as the birth site. In the sixth century Emperor Justinian I, built on the same site a larger church which is now called the “Church of the Nativity.” No archaeological remains from the first three centuries of the Christian era have been discovered. Today, Bethlehem is primarily an Arab town called Beit Lahm with about 15,000 inhabitants.
His Infancy
Though not all scholars agree on the timing of the arrival of the Magi from the East, they apparently came some time after the birth of Jesus. Jesus and Mary and Joseph, though still in Bethlehem, were now in a house (Mat. 2:11), and Jesus was called a Child (paidion, Mat. 2:9, 2:11) rather than a newborn Infant (brephos, Luke 2:12).
The exact identity of the Magi is impossible to determine, though several ideas have been suggested. They have been given traditional names and identified as representatives of the three groups of peoples that descended from Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. More likely they were Gentiles of high position from a country, perhaps Parthia, northeast of Babylon, who were given a special revelation by God of the birth of the King of the Jews.
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