Matthew 2:1

MATT. 2

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King, behold, Wisemen came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1)

Bethlehem of Judaea distinguishes between the two Bethlehems in Israel. One of them was in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15,16) and the other in Judaea. Micah had firmly foretold the birth of the Messiah in the Judean Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The word BETHLEHEM means "place of bread"; and it seems quite appropriate that "The Bread of Life" should have been born in a place with such a name. Located six miles south of Jerusalem on the road to Hebron, it has existed since 1,500 years before Christ and has boasted many great names among its citizens, including that of David the king.

In the days of Herod the king is as near as Matthew comes to giving the date of Jesus' birth, a point on which there is much difference of opinion among scholars and commentators. H. Leo Boles makes the date 4 B.C. Dummelow makes it not later than 6 B.C. Encyclopedias usually date the reign of Herod the Great as 37 B.C. to 4 B.C. Now, if it could be ascertained with accuracy that Herod died the year our Lord was born, then the date would lie approximately 4 B.C. However, some scholars like Dummelow, understand Matthew 2:16 as a reference to a period of waiting and searching while Herod tried to find the wise men and get a report from them. The two years thus lost would move the birth of Christ back to 6 B.C. H. Leo Boles and others refer the "two years" to the time the wise men lost finding Christ. This would suppose the star to have appeared two years before Christ was born. Slight difficulty is encountered by either position. No one can say certainly exactly when the birth of Christ occurred. Fortunately, this is not an important difficulty.

Herod the king was Herod I, called the Great, no less than nine members of whose family are mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. He was, in short, a monster. Josephus details his pride, cruelty, and blood-lust, as they supported his merciless and implacable ambition. It was indeed "night" when our Lord was born with such a man upon the throne. Others of Herod's dynasty mentioned in the Bible are: his four sons, (1) Herod Philip I, the first husband of Herodias (Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17); (2) Herod Antipas, the second husband of Herodias, who was rebuked for his incestuous marriage by John the Baptist (Mark 6:17); (3) Herod Archelaus (Matthew 2:22); (4) Herod Philip II (Luke 3:1); (5) a grandson, Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1); (6) a great-grandson, Herod Agrippa II, before whom Paul made his defense in Acts 25 and Acts 26; (7) a great-granddaughter, Bernice, common law wife of her own brother, Agrippa II, and a mistress of both Vespasian and Titus (Acts 25; Acts 26); (8) Drusilla, another great-granddaughter, the wife of Felix (Acts 24:24); and (9) Herodias, wife of Herod Philip I, by whom she had Salome, and later, wife of Herod Antipas who was rebuked by John the Baptist. The numerous mentions of Herod's name in this wondrous second chapter of Matthew which details the birth of the Saviour is like an oft-repeated sour note in what is otherwise a perfect orchestral rendition.

There came wisemen ... These were MAGI, that is, astrologers. Boles pointed out that Daniel "was made president of this order in Babylon (Daniel 2:48), and that Jeremiah spoke of this class among Babylonians."[1] The number of the wise men who came to visit Jesus is not known. The conjecture that there were "three" probably rose from the fact that three kinds of gifts are mentioned - gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Dummelow, among many, noted the spiritual implications of the worship from the wise men and called it: "A prophecy of the succeeding centuries, in which the chosen people have persistently rejected the Messiah, and the Gentiles have accepted him."[2] The translation "wise men" is a fortunate rendition of the Greek term "magi," since the truly wise of all ages are indeed those who bow down and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of those wise men to Christ has been compared to the experience of certain ones who come to Christ now: (1) They followed a little light, the star. (2) They arrived at the wrong place. (3) They asked for more light. (4) They did not received it from men but from God's word, the Bible. (5) They followed the additional light which they obtained from Micah 5:2. (6) They found the Lord in Bethlehem, (7) Lo, the star came; and it appeared that they had not lost any light but kept all they previously had. (8) They worshipped him. (9) They returned another way! Many, in groping their way out of denominational strife and error, have retraced the steps of those original wise men. Martin Luther loved the spiritual lesson derived from this incident. He said, "When the wise men relied upon their judgment and went straight to Jerusalem without consulting the star, God lifted it out of heaven and left them bewildered to make inquiry of Herod who then called his wise men, and they searched the Scriptures. And that is what we must do when we are bereft of the star."[3]

[1] H. Leo Boles, Commentary on Matthew (Nashville, Tennessee: Gospel Advocate Company, 1961), p. 37.

[2] J. R. Dummelow, One Volume Commentary (New York: Macmillan Co., 1937), p. 627.

[3] R. H. Bainton, Here I Stand (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), p. 368.