MATTHEW 2:1-12

WHAT A JOY TO READ THIS GREAT STORY WHICH WE IDENTIFY WITH CHRISTMAS! What a priceless gift is God’s Word! “The Visit of the Magi” from the revered old King James Bible…  

^KJV Matthew 2:1-12 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, ² Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.  ³ When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  ⁴ And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. ⁵ And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, ⁶ And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.  ⁷ Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.  ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.  ⁹ When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.  ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.  ¹¹ And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.  ¹² And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

THIS IS THE FIFTH OF OUR SERIES OF MESSAGES ON CHRISTMAS. We have learned that Jesus’ birth was prophesied hundreds of years before the event. We have learned that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And the last two weeks we have learned about the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. This week, and because my study is running long – very long – this week and next the final week of Christmas studies – and New Year for this season, we will look into the Magi and their visit to see the baby Jesus. This is a blog, as you probably know, and not a seminary dissertation, so I occasionally allow myself some freedom in composition I would not normally do – as well as a few moments of relaxed grammar and personal punctuation. I hope you don’t mind.

“WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE”…

We three kings of orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.

Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide with thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain,
Gold I bring to crown him again
King for ever, ceasing never over us all to reign…..
Frankincense to offer have I, incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray’r and praising, all men raising,
Worship him, God most high, oh…..
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom, on myself
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Glorious now behold him arise, king and God and sacrifice
Alleluia, alleluia, heaven to earth replies…

THAT BEAUTIFUL OLD TRADITIONAL HYMN IS NOT FAR OFF SCRIPTURALLY. That is, all except the first three words…

THE “THREE KINGS” WERE NOT KINGS; THEY WERE, HOWEVER, “KING-MAKERS.”

LET ME GIVE YOU SOME SOLID HISTORICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE MAGI. “Solid” does not mean certain. One writer I read this week said that there is much ambiguity we must deal with in Matthew’s account of the Magi. “Ambiguity” can mean doubtful. I don’t like that term. It is not that the Scripture creates doubts. Another meaning for “ambiguity” is uncertainty. There is a difference, I would suggest. Rather than say there is reason for doubtfulness in Matthew’s account of “The Visit of the Magi,” I would rather we say that there are more than a few things we must say are uncertain. For example, the magi themselves. There is scholarly uncertainty surrounding who they were and where they came from. It is fascinating to read. I have spent a great deal of time this week reading; reading about the magi, their native land, the interval between the time of Jesus’ birth and the arrival of the magi, the “star,” and, mostly, Herod.

“MAGI” IS THE GREEK WORD IS μαγοι (ma-goy). It is the plural of the Greek word μαγος (ma-gos). A μαγος was not a king. Magi were almost certainly “an honorable class of astrologers” (Toussaint)

LISTEN TO THIS DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF MAGI FROM A GREEK LEXICON (a lexicon is a specialized dictionary), as it not only gives us further information on the magi but also sheds light on where they were from…

“’MAGI,’ THE NAME GIVEN PRIESTS AND WISE MEN AMONG THE MEDES, PERSIANS, AND, BABYLONIANS. They were great, powerful men. The Greek word μεγος (meg-os) is derived from the same stem as magi and means great, large, powerful (you will, of course, recognize this word from the many English words we get from it: e.g., megabyte [a megabyte is over a million bytes], megabuck [megabuck is another way of saying a million dollars], a megadose is an exceptionally large dosage, a megachurch is a very large church, a megaphone is something that magnifies the voice, makes it greater, larger, more powerful; you get the idea. I believe it would be wrong to see the magi as subdued, quiet types, hesitantly hanging in the shadows of events. They should more probably be seen as very bold, impressive, determined men – TAR). Magi specialized in the study of astrology (when astrology was a legitimate, serious science of the heavens – TAR), and enchantments and were thus also known as enchanters, magicians.” – Zodhiates

BIBLE STUDENTS WILL CERTAINLY CONNECT THESE MEN TO THE BOOK OF DANIEL…

^NAS Daniel 1:19-20 And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

^NAS Daniel 2:2 Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.

THE BABYLONIANS OR CHALDEANS OF DANIEL’S TIME WERE trusted, respected, powerful men who had close access to the king…

IT IS ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL PROVIDENTIAL TWISTS OF circumstance in the Bible that tells us Daniel went from a slave to actually become head of the magi in Babylon…

^NAS Daniel 2:48 Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

^NAS Daniel 5:11 “There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE MAKING A NEW TESTAMENT CONNECTION in which the word carries a negative sense…

^NAS Acts 13:6-8 And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician (that’s the Greek word μαγος [ma-gos] – TAR), a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for thus his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

NEGATIVE USES OF THE GREEK WORD FROM WHICH WE GET “Magi”…

AS YOU CAN TELL, WE ALSO GET OUR ENGLISH word “magician” from this group of words… “Magi”… “magic”…

^NAS Acts 8:9 Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.

“THESE WISE MEN OF MATTHEW 2 COULD HAVE BEEN EITHER fraudulent sorcerers of a more honorable class of astrologers. Here in Matthew, of course, they are the latter. From the east not only specifies their origin but also confirms this view of their calling. In the East where they came from they were definitely looked upon as professionals’ (Toussaint/TAR)…

I BELIEVE THE BEST GUESS IS THAT THE MAGI WERE PRIESTS of either the Medes, Persians, Babylonians… Maybe the term “Parthian” would be more accurate, the name used by some historians to include all the eastern powers of ancient times. The magi were wise men, astrologists (ancient astrology was for the most part more a science that a superstition, more astronomy than astrology), religious priests who were monotheistic (worshiping one God as opposed to the polytheism [the worship of many gods]) and who practiced blood sacrifice. They were a select tribe from the tribes of Media, and in this they were much like the Jewish Levites. I believe they were wise men who had become “god-fearers,” of the God of Israel, having been influenced by the Jewish Scriptures and the godly Jews taken captive and taken to Babylon…

THE NAS AND NIV CALL THEM “MAGI”; ALL THE OTHER ENGLISH translations call them “wise men”… Either is correct. “Magi” is not really a translation but a transliteration (simply bringing over the word into another language without translating it)…

MAGI, OR IF YOU PREFER, “THE WISE MEN,” TRAVELED FROM THE FAR EAST TO FIND JESUS. They could have come from Media; they could have come from Persia, they could have come from Babylon. All of these regions are correctly termed “the east.” They could have come from all three, from an area we now call Iran and Iraq. They arrived some time after his birth. Nor does the Bible give the number of these Magi. Tradition has them as three wise men or three kings and have given them the names of Balthazar, Gaspar, Melchior. Remember the Bible does not give names or numbers to the men who followed the star to where they found Jesus. Check out the information yourself in the Bible. – Internet…

WE SAW LAST WEEK THAT GOD COMES TO THE SIMPLE PEOPLE WHEN WE FOCUSED ON THE SHEPHERDS. You will remember we noted that the shepherds were at the bottom of the social ladder along with lepers and prostitutes. So, God comes to the poor, lowly, and unimportant. But this week, in bold contrast to the shepherds, we are seeing that God also comes to the sophisticated: the wise, well-respected, and powerful. God loves everyone. Christ died for everyone (that doesn’t mean, of course, that everyone is saved; you must appropriate God’s gracious love by faith in Christ).

BEFORE WE LOOK AGAIN AT THE FIRST VERSE, HERE ARE SOME fruits from my studies to keep in mind…

• The magi were not kings; they were magi or wise men or astrologers, but they were not kings. The idea that they were kings arose from a hasty reading of Isaiah 60:3 and Revelation 21:24…

^NAS Isaiah 60:3 “And nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. (The Hebrew word for “kings” מלך{mel-ek}] can also be translated “royalty”).

^NAS Revelation 21:24 And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. (Both these verses have more direct reference to Christ’s second coming).

• THERE WERE NOT 3 OF THEM. We don’t know how many there were; there could have been many, several hundred. We get the number “three” from the fact they did bring three gifts; the Bible tells us that.
• THEY PROBABLY DID NOT RIDE CAMELS; they probably rode Arabian horses, possibly magnificent steeds. A steed is not simply a horse; a steed is a spirited horse. It is likely that when they rode into Bethlehem they created quite an imposing stir…
• They were politically powerful men whose opinions could break or make a ruler…

“MANY ABSURD TRADITIONS AND GUESSES RESPECTING THESE ESTEEMED VISITORS found their way into popular belief and into Christian art. They were said to be kings, and three in number; they were said to be representatives of the three families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and therefore one of them is pictured as an Ethiopian; their names are given as Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, and their three skulls, said to have been discovered in the twelfth century by Bishop Reinald of Cologne, are exhibited in a priceless casket in the great cathedral of that city.” – Vincent

NOW LOOK AGAIN AT V. 1… Because time will not allow us to look at all the many fascinating details of this passage, we’ll spend most of our remaining time discussing the first three verses of Matthew 2. Then, after getting our facts straight, we will basically just read through the rest of the passage to see how it plays out. Here again the Word of God Almighty…

^KJV Matthew 2:1 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,

THE GREEK TEXT IS, AS ALWAYS, VERY HELPFUL IN ALLOWING US TO SEE important and fascinating details sometimes missed in our English translations. Our English translations are exceptionally good translations but no matter how good, they can never compare to the original language of the N.T. Let me show you what I mean in v. 1…

^KJV Matthew 2:1 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,

IN THE GREEK TEXT THE CONSTRUCTION (genitive absolute, a special kind of participle), the name “Jesus” comes prominently as the first word in the sentence. Word order in Greek is extremely important; it reveals to us the intended emphasis of the author. Matthew is immediately drawing our attention to Jesus.

JESUS – AND ONLY JESUS – IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

MATTHEW BEGAN HIS GOSPEL IN CHAPTER 1 BY IMMEDIATELY focusing on Jesus Christ in giving us and his (Matthew’s) Jewish readers the genealogy (the “pedigree”) of Jesus Christ. He showed that Jesus had the legal right to the throne of David, that, in fact, He was the Jewish Messiah. Matthew now begins chapter 2 by again focusing on Jesus Christ, only here the characters are Gentiles. In Chapter 1 the characters are Jewish; in chapter 2 the characters are Gentile. The Magi, as we will learn, were Gentiles.

THOSE FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOK OF MATTHEW AND THE WRITING STYLE OF THE GOSPEL WRITER will recognize in this passage a familiar pattern. Matthew, writing to an audience of mostly Jewish Christians emphasizes the theme of the kingship of Jesus. Jesus’ birth was the presentation of the King, the Jewish Messiah, the one prophesied to rule the world. As you know, in spite of the many prophesies in the O.T., i.e., Jewish Scripture, Jesus’ kingship was rejected by the Jews. In Matthew’s gospel it is easy to recognize the pattern of this rejection being set in contrast to the fact that many Gentiles worshipped Jesus Christ as Lord. Listen to how one commentator describes this Jewish rejection. “In chapter two Matthew indicates the existence of apathy on the part of Israel. Later he shows how Jewish opposition to the Messiah increases in its intensity, culminating finally in the death of the King” (Toussaint).

THESE MAGI, THESE GENTILES (NON-JEWS), WERE THE FIRST TO WORSHIP THE KING IN MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, and therefore in the entire N.T.

“IN THE DAYS OF HEROD THE KING”…  “This is the only date for the birth of Christ given by Matthew. Luke gives a more precise date in his Gospel (Lu 2:1-3), the time of the first enrollment by Augustus and while Cyrenius was ruler of Syria. More will be said of Luke’s date when we come to his Gospel. We know from Matthew that Jesus was born while Herod was king, the Herod sometimes called Herod the Great. Josephus makes it plain that Herod died B.C. 4. He was first Governor of Galilee, but had been king of Judaea since B.C. 40 (by Antony and Octavius). I call him “Herod the Great Pervert” in Some Minor Characters in the New Testament. He was great in sin and in cruelty and had won the favour of the Emperor. The story in Josephus is a tragedy. It is not made plain by Matthew how long before the death of Herod Jesus was born. Our traditional date of A.D. 1 is certainly wrong, as Matthew shows. It seems plain that the birth of Jesus cannot be put later than B.C. 5. The data supplied by Luke probably call for B.C. 6 or 7.” – Robertson

BABYLON WAS THE HOME OF ASTROLOGY, BUT we only know that the men were from the east whether Arabia, Babylon, Persia, Media or elsewhere. The Bible simply says “from the east.”

OUR ENGLISH TEXTS READ CORRECTLY “FROM THE EAST” BUT literally the Greek word ανατολη, (a-na-ta-lay) actually means rising. We get “east” logically from the fact the rising of the sun is in the east.

WE TALKED ABOUT BETHLEHEM LAST WEEK AND NOTED LUKE REFERS TO IT AS “THE CITY OF DAVID”…

^NKJ Luke 2:11 “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

DAVID WAS BORN AND LATER ANOINTED KING IN BETHLEHEM. That is why it is referred to as “the city of David.”

BETHLEHEM MEANS LITERALLY “HOUSE OF BREAD.” The Greek word suggests a place of fertility, a place of sustenance to meet need…

^NAS John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN IN BETHLEHEM. He who is the Bread of Life was fittingly born in the “house of bread.” He feeds spiritually all who come to Him in faith. There are practically unlimited jewels of connection and multiple meaning awaiting the student of Scripture…

MAYBE YOU HAVE WONDERED WHY MUCH REFERRED TO BETHLEHEM IS ALSO REFERRED TO AS “BETHLEHEM EPHRATAH” (better “Ephrathah,” as in NAS, NKJ – TAR) instead of simply “Bethlehem.” This was to distinguish it from another village called Bethlehem of Galilee.” I think that is an exquisite detail of Scripture that only reinforces the providential, supernatural birth of Jesus…

^NKJ Matthew 2:2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

AS I SUGGESTED, IT IS LIKELY THAT THE MAGI HAD BEEN ALERTED TO JESUS’ BIRTH BY READING THE HEBREW SCRIPTURE, the O.T. writings…

^NAS Numbers 24:17 “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, And a scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.

^KJV Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

I THINK THE WISE MEN WERE SINCERE BELIEVERS WHO HAD COME TO TRULY WORSHIP JESUS.

NEXT WEEK, LORD WILLING, WE WILL LOOK CLOSELY AT HEROD, A MAJOR CHARACTER IN THE STUDY OF JESUS’ BIRTH.

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm