Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 2:1-12, Magi at Herod's court
Magi from the east arrive in Jerusalem asking for the newborn king of the Jews. Herod consults his scholars, sends the visitors to Bethlehem, and they go home another way.
Matthew 2:1-12, in every translation this tool compares.
Foreign visitors arrive in Jerusalem looking for a newborn king, and the news unsettles Herod and the whole city. The temple experts know from Micah where such a ruler should be born, yet it is the outsiders who travel to Bethlehem and pay him homage with costly gifts. Warned in a dream, they slip home without reporting to Herod. From the very start the child is set up as a rival to the reigning king.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/magi-and-the-star\/","n":"Magi and the star","s":"Eastern astrologers and dream readers, respected across the empire for reading the sky. A star that meant a new king meant danger for the old one.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/herod-the-great\/","n":"Herod the Great","s":"Rome's king of Judea from 37 to 4 BC: an Idumean, a great builder, and a ruler who killed anyone he saw as a threat, his own family included.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/teachers-of-the-law\/","n":"Teachers of the law","s":"Trained experts in the law of Moses, also called scribes, some local and some from Jerusalem, who taught by citing earlier teachers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
Bowing low was how Persians honored kings and gods, and the gifts recall Isaiah 60:6 and Psalm 72:10, where the nations bring gifts; Bailey reads the scene as moving the glory promised to Jerusalem onto the child. Wright calls the story political: "What he tells us is political dynamite." Wilkins gives a reason for Herod's alarm: after earlier invasions from the east he had ringed his eastern border with fortress palaces, and a large party of easterners could look like a threat. Carson, Moo and Morris put Herod's death in late March or early April of 4 BC, so the birth fell before that, probably between 6 and 4 BC. The star has been matched with a comet reported in 5 BC and with a conjunction of planets in 7 to 6 BC; Carson, Moo and Morris think neither identification certain, and doubt that a star which went ahead of the magi and stopped over the place was a natural phenomenon at all. Wilkins adds the views that it was a new star recorded by Chinese and Korean astronomers, a supernatural light, or an angel.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 2:1-2, 2:4-6, 2:8, 2:11 and 2:12
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 2:4, 2:5-6, 2:11 and 2:12
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 3, The Savior, the Wise Men and the Vision of Isaiah
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part One, comment on Matthew 2:1-12
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 1, The Synoptic Gospels, section Gospel Chronology, Jesus' Birth
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 2:3 and sidebar The Christmas Star
