Matthew 2:1 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Matthew 2:1-12)The wise men come to pay the homage to this child who is the Saviour of the world. The Greek word magi indicates that these were scholar priests from the East, some say from Persia, others say from the regions of old Chaldea. They were wise men, not kings. The idea of kings is just legend; the Bible says magi, wise men: scholar priests, not kings. Daniel the prophet was one of these scholar priests in Babylon. He was taken captive from Jerusalem as a lad in 605 BC, and then many years later the Chaldeans were conquered by the Medes and the Persians. What these scholar priests belonged to, of course, was a false religion, though Daniel worshipped the true God. They were great astronomers, and they were also astrologers. Not only did they study the stars – and many of the early discoveries of the solar system come from that period and started the understanding of astronomy – but they were also astrologers. They believed, wrongly, that the movements of the stars affected events on earth in human life. They studied ethics too, after a manner, and they studied all religions that they could get their hands on, and they had access to Jewish writings, to the prophecy of Daniel, to the Old Testament Scriptures. Many Jewish people had been deported to those regions, taking their Scriptures with them, including the predictions of Messiah. So they came to Jerusalem because they had an expectation of the birth of the Messiah, the Christ. However confused their own religious background, they knew about the one who would come. They had the prophecies of Daniel, and they would have known that many of the things that he predicted had already come to pass. He had spoken of the Chaldean Empire being defeated entirely by the Medo-Persian forces. He had prophesied that they in turn would give way to the Greek empire and then the Roman. Daniel spoke of the coming of the Son of God, who would bring in righteousness, the coming of the Saviour of the world. Then when that amazing star appeared, they knew how to interpret it: the so-called Star of Bethlehem. This was something special and could not be related to the known stars with which they were familiar. It was a special phenomenon and they understood that it was an indication of the arrival, the birth, of the one who was long predicted down the centuries. This is Herod the Great, in his closing years, a ruthless, cunning individual. He was a great builder of wonderful buildings, but not so much for the public good. They were just the grand projection of himself. He ruled over the Jews on behalf the Roman Empire and was really a Roman ruler, not a Jew. His father was an Edomite and his mother an Arab. He was a most insecure man – people who are very powerful, very often are – and ruthless in defending his crown and his position. ‘There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.’ This was the natural place to go. One who would be King of the Jews would surely be born at Jerusalem, they thought. So they made this long journey.