Matthew 2:11 - Exposition

And when they were come into the house . For after the enrolment the caravanserai would not be so crowded ( Luke 2:7 ). But whether it was now the caravanserai or a private house, we have no evidence to show. They saw ( εἶδον , with the uncials and most of the versions). The translators in this case followed the text of the Complutensian and of Colinaeus' edition, rejecting the false εὗρον of the Vulgate and the Received Text . The young Child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him ( Matthew 2:2 , note). In this latter clause Mary is not mentioned. And when they had opened . Neither the Authorized Version nor the Revised Version brings out the exact correlation of the six aorists in this verse. Their treasures (so the Revised Version); perhaps, more strictly, treasuries , coffers. There is the same ambiguity about "treasure" in old English (cf. Jeremiah 10:13 ; Jeremiah 51:16 ; Eeclus. 43:14) as in the Greek. They presented unto him gifts . Thus fulfilling in germ the predictions of offerings being made to Messiah and Messiah's people by the Gentile nations ( Isaiah 60:1-22 .; Haggai 2:7 ; Psalms 72:10 ). Presented ; offered (Revised Version). The verb used ( προσφέρω ) seems to lay stress on the persons to whom and by whom the offering is made, the personal relation in which they stand to each other; ἀναφέρω (cf. Bishop Westcott, on Hebrews 7:27 ) and παρίστημι on the destination and use of the offering ( James 2:21 ; Romans 6:13 ). Observe the three stages in this verse—vision, submission, consecration. Gifts ; without which one does not approach an Eastern monarch (cf. 1 Kings 10:2 ). Gold, and frankincense, and myrrh . Wealth and delights, the material and the aesthetic.