Commentary on the Gospels

The Visit of the Magi
Matthew 2:1-12

Exposition

Verse 1. The opening declaration settles beyond any dispute that Jesus was born before the death of Herod the Great in 4 B.C. Indeed, it shows that His birth preceded his death by an interval long enough to include the visit of the wise men.

If we have been correct in surmising that Jesus was born on January 6th in 5 BC, His birth preceded Herod’s death by more than a year. After His birth, Mary and Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem for the purpose of dedicating Him to the Lord (Luke 2:21–24). This visit must have taken place at least forty days later because under Jewish law, a woman who had given birth to a male child within the last forty days was considered ceremonially unclean. She was therefore not permitted to enter the Temple until she had completed her days of purification (Lev. 12:1–4). Immediately after the visit of the wise men, Mary and Joseph fled the country, so their short trip to Jerusalem to take care of legal obligations must have come first. Since that trip came at least forty days after Jesus’ birth, it must have been more than forty days after Jesus’ birth that the wise men saw Him. Here we have overthrown another common misconception. Many pictures of the manger scene include the wise men, but the wise men actually came at least forty days later.

If Jesus was born on January 6th of 5 BC, the trip to Jerusalem fell on February 14th, still more than a year before Herod’s death. This interval allows plenty of time for the events in Matthew 2.

Shortly after Jesus was born, a group of dignitaries known in English tradition as wise men traveled from Mesopotamia to Jerusalem and gained an audience with Herod the king (Matt. 2:1–12). Who were the wise men? The Greek word so translated is magoi, which has evolved into the English word "magi,"¹ another traditional name for these visitors from the east. The singular form, magos, is based on the Old Persian word magus, source of the English word "magic."² The connection between magi and magic will become evident as we proceed.

The magi who came to Jerusalem were not the only ones in the ancient world who bore this title. For centuries it had been used for the priestly sages of Persia.³ Originally, the magi or magians were a tribe of the Medes, the nation allied with the Persians at the beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire.⁴ Several centuries before Christ, Persians (a term that became inclusive of Medes) embraced the religion known as Zoroastrianism,⁵ founded in the early 500s BC by the man generally known as Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra).⁶ Since the peoples of Persia and India were both of Aryan descent, it is probable that before Zoroaster’s time, the Persians had a religion very similar to the Hinduism pervasive in India. But Zoroaster introduced startling new doctrines.

1. He said the universe is not an eternal cycle, as Hindus believe, but was created in the beginning by a supreme god, whom he named Ahura-Mazda.⁷
2. He divided gods and spirits into two classes, the good spirits under Ahura-Mazda and the evil spirits under Angra Mainyu, who was the supreme embodiment of evil.⁸
3. He renounced the worship of idols.⁹ In Zoroastrian temples, the supreme god was worshipped by a perpetual sacred fire.¹⁰
4. He taught that death separates the good among men from the wicked, the former going to a place of delight, the latter to the realm of darkness.¹¹

Some liberal scholars argue that much of the Old Testament was shaped by Zoroastrianism as a result of the Jews living under Persian domination for two hundred years. The Jews supposedly derived many of their religious concepts—including angels, demons, Satan, and even one supreme deity—from Zoroastrianism. But in rebuttal we can say that all these doctrines may be found in Old Testament books that predate the Persian period. If there was any religious borrowing between Hebrews and Persians, it must have gone in the opposite direction. Zoroastrianism probably arose as a result of Hebrew influence on the Medes. In the late eighth century BC, the Assyrians conquered the king of Israel whose throne was in Samaria. Afterward, many of his people were removed from their homeland and resettled in Media (2 Kings 17:6). The date of this mass migration was 732–720 BC.¹² It is therefore very possible that Zoroaster himself was a man of Hebrew descent.

After Zoroaster’s time, the Persians conquered the Babylonians and became rulers of the Middle East. They conferred honor on the magi by giving them special priestly functions.¹³ Eventually, the magi became well known throughout the ancient world for their mastery of occult science, especially astrology and the interpretation of dreams and omens.¹⁴ In an attempt to spread their influence, the magi traveled widely and actively sought converts. It is recorded that they were expelled from Rome in 139 BC, about 134 years before the birth of Christ.¹⁵

In New Testament times, the term magus was applied indiscriminately to any worker of magic. Hence, the connection between the words "magic" and "magi." Two sorcerers identified as either a magos or a user of magic arts are mentioned in the Book of Acts (Acts 8:9, 11; 13:6, 8).¹⁶ One is Simon, known to early Christians as Simon Magus, who held the Samaritans in bondage before Philip brought them the gospel, and another is Elymas, who opposed Paul when he preached to Sergius Paulus, governor of Cypress.

Matthew’s likely purpose in telling us that the wise men came from the east is to distinguish them from ordinary sorcerers. He is suggesting that they were true magi from Persia, members of a ruling caste there who still held to a religion with exalted though imperfect ideas. He does not want us to confuse them with ordinary sorcerers allied with powers of darkness and involved in corrupt practices.

Matthew does not tell us how many magi came to Jerusalem. The old tradition that there were three is a mere guess based on the number of gifts. In very early attempts to recreate the Christmas story, it was easy to imagine that each gift was borne by a single wise man. The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh therefore required three givers. In time, tradition elaborated the idea of three magi by giving them the names Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. By the early Middle Ages, they were pictured as belonging to the three races of mankind. Caspar was a Japhethite from Tarsus in Asia Minor, Melchior was a Semite from Arabia, and Balthazar was a black Hamite from Ethiopia. Between them they represented the whole gentile world.

Recognizing that a tradition may be nothing more than imagination filling a vacuum of facts, we should view with skepticism all the details that have been added to the Christmas story. The most secure conclusions we can reach about the magi is that their number is unknown and unknowable and that they all probably came from the same place: most likely from Persia, the homeland of the magi.

Verse 2. The reason that the magi offered for coming to Jerusalem must have shocked Herod and his courtiers. They said that they came to worship the newborn king of the Jews, for they had seen His star in the east. Why did they think that a king deserving the adoration of people in distant lands would be born in Judea? It is hard to imagine any grounds for such an expectation apart from Old Testament prophecy. It seems inescapable that they knew certain Scriptures foretelling the birth of the Messiah.

From the extent of their knowledge, we can be fairly sure which prophecies they knew. Since they readily understood the significance of the star that rose in the west, they must have remembered the prophecy given through Balaam, who declared, "There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel" (Num. 24:17). Also, since the star did not escape their observation, they must have known approximately when it would appear. It follows that they must have been familiar with yet another Old Testament prophecy—the one in Daniel 9:25 revealing when the Messiah would be born (Dan. 9:25). It says that Messiah the Prince would come 69 weeks after the order to rebuild Jerusalem.

As members of the Zoroastrian priesthood in Persia, the magi evidently had access to historical records that made it easy for them to compute the date of Christ’s coming. We do not know the details of their calculation, but they certainly knew that the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem came at some time during the first century of the Persian Empire. Perhaps they even knew about Artaxerxes’ ruling in 445 BC authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild the city and the wall. Like all other students of this prophecy, they no doubt recognized that the 69 weeks are 69 periods of seven years, coming to a total of 483 years. If they added 483 years to the date of Artaxerxes’ decree, they would have found that the terminal date was about forty years beyond their place in history. It was only reasonable to suppose that the prophecy was looking ahead to the time when the Messiah would actually assume princely power. Therefore, history had advanced to the time when He should be born.

The magi were not alone in drawing from Daniel 9:25 a prediction as to when the Messiah would come. Several writers in the first century AD including the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius agreed that an ancient oracle was a principal cause of the Jewish revolt in AD 66.¹⁷ This oracle inflamed zeal for independence from Rome because the Jews construed it to mean that the time had arrived for a world ruler to emerge from Judah. Josephus makes it clear that the oracle in question was Daniel’s prophecy of the 69 weeks. In hindsight, we can see that the Jews put the terminal date about thirty years too late. The reason is that they were deprived of accurate historical data. But we may assume that better records were available to the magi.

Application

Among all the masses who lived in the Middle East, the only ones who knew approximately when the Messiah would be born and who noticed the star announcing His birth were a few sages in Persia. Why did their wisdom exceed everyone else’s? Because they were devoted seekers after truth that could illuminate the meaning of life. Specifically, they were untiring students of divine revelation. They searched historical records and Hebrew writings. They kept a vigilant watch on the movement of stars. As a result, they alone were able to read God’s message in the sky.

Their achievement beautifully illustrates the principle, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). It follows that if we want to know whether God exists, or find His will for our lives, or to discover His plan for the world He created, we must embark on a deep and diligent and honest search for the right answers.

Exposition

Although the magi knew when the Messiah would come, and although they expected His coming to be preceded by a unique celestial event in the form of a star, they did not know exactly where to find Him. The best they could do was come to Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, hoping that He belonged to the household of the present king. It is therefore evident that they were ignorant of the prophecy in Micah 5:2, giving Bethlehem and not Jerusalem as the Messiah’s birthplace. Why were they familiar with only a portion of Old Testament prophecy?

The answer requires that we consider again the history of the magi. During the days of the Persian Empire, they likely absorbed the religious lore and occult science of the Babylonian wise men who preceded them. If so, the writings that the magi inherited and studied undoubtedly included those of Daniel, who had been chief among the wise men of Babylon (Dan. 2:48). Perhaps they also knew the older Scriptures of the Jews because the Jews had taken these to Babylon when, following Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah, they went there as captives. Thus, in the libraries of Babylon were likely found the books of Moses but perhaps not the works of later prophets such as Micah.

Earlier we pointed out that the magi were likely raised to be followers of the Zoroastrian religion, which shared many ideas with the true religion of Israel. Their religious background may explain why, without any special divine revelation, they wanted to find the Christ child.

Yet their willingness to engage in this difficult and costly search may have had a much deeper foundation than their roots in Zoroastrianism. We have already shown that Zoroaster, founder of this Persian religion, may have been a man descended from Hebrew captives transplanted by the Assyrians in the cities of the Medes. Since the name "magi" originally referred to a tribe of the Medes, it is very possible that the magi were also men of Hebrew descent. Their background may truly be the key unlocking the mystery concerning why they came to worship the Christ child. Perhaps they had rediscovered their heritage and, at the time of Jesus' birth, were affirming their faith in their ancestors' God, the God of Israel.

Verse 3. Once Herod heard the wise men explain their presence in Judea, he was shrewd enough, or his advisers were shrewd enough, to believe them. It was obvious that they were not there to meddle in Judean politics, but to fulfill a quest laid upon their hearts by a mysterious star. What they were zealously seeking was the newborn king of the Jews. Evidently Herod and many others understood that they were referring to the Messiah long awaited by the nation of Israel, because Herod’s response was to ask the religious leaders "where Christ should be born" (Matt. 2:4).

Although Herod pretended to follow the religion of the Jews, he was an old reprobate lacking any real interest in the things of God. He himself had never bothered to examine Scripture, and he put no faith in its teachings. As far as he was concerned, the Jewish hope for a Messiah who would deliver them from Rome was wishful thinking. Yet he was worried about the star. Although he was irreligious, he was, like everyone else in the ancient world, a believer in signs and omens. He could not dismiss from his mind the possibility that a child with high destiny had indeed been born in his kingdom. Before him stood magi reputed to be the world’s leading experts in interpreting celestial events, and they were so confident that such a child had been born that at great personal cost they had traveled a long way to see him.

Herod could by no means share their excitement. He was protective of his person and dynasty to the extent of being insanely paranoid. He had killed three of his own sons and one of his own wives, thinking they were his enemies.¹⁸ Therefore, the supposed birth of a child with claims upon the throne greatly troubled Herod. He saw the child as a threat to himself, and he instantly resolved to snuff out the child’s life. He did not feel that he must submit to whatever the stars dictated. He felt rather that he could overrule the stars and force events to take a different course.

Although we can understand why the queries of the wise men upset Herod, we find the reaction of the Jewish people rather puzzling. Matthew reports that "when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him" (Matt. 2:3). It is evident that the coming of the wise men to Jerusalem was public knowledge. The people of the city must have also understood that the magi were seeking the Messiah. Why then did news of His birth arouse them to fear? These Jews hated Herod and would have welcomed with great enthusiasm any new leader who showed Himself capable of overthrowing Herod and Roman domination. But even more so they would have welcomed the Messiah, for not only would He liberate them, but He would rule in righteousness, as the best of all kings.

The mystery dissolves if we understand that the magi came from the Parthian Empire, which included Persia as well as other territory east of Palestine. Not only was it was a strong empire that Rome could never subdue; it was also an empire always sitting on the verge of war with Rome. One tradition states that the magi arrived in Jerusalem with an escort of one thousand Parthian soldiers, having another 7000 waiting for them back at the Euphrates River.¹⁹ Although likely overblown, this tradition seems to reflect the real historical situation. A party of high-ranking men carrying valuable gifts surely realized that they risked attack and robbery. Coming with an armed escort, if numbering only in the dozens or hundreds rather than in the thousands, made good sense.²⁰

The professed mission of the wise men must therefore have raised questions behind the scenes. Was it likely that these high-ranking Parthians were simply on a religious pilgrimage? Political pundits on the streets of Jerusalem may have whispered doubts to the drifting multitudes. They may have spread the theory that the Parthians were taking first steps to set up a new king more to their liking than Herod. For all who gave credence to this rumor, the coming of the magi was a hostile overture possibly leading to war.

The Jews had good reason to impute political motives to the Parthians. A Parthian army had come to the city about 35 years earlier, at a time of instability, and installed a puppet regime under a ruler named Antigonus.²¹ A few years later, Herod assumed power and sent Antigonus to be executed,²² but when the magi came to Jerusalem, the Parthian Empire still loomed as a formidable threat to Roman control of Palestine. Especially if the magi were indeed escorted by Parthian soldiers, the Jews may have feared that their visit signaled a new challenge to Roman power in Judea. After all, Herod was very sick, with only a few more months of life remaining in his diseased body, and it was obvious to his advisers as well as to many of his subjects that the future of the Herodian dynasty was in doubt.

Verse 4-6. After a lifetime of neglecting the prophesies, Herod was unable to tell the magi where to find the Christ child. Therefore, he called in all available experts on the Scriptures, including the high priests and the scribes, and demanded that they provide the answer. It is to their credit that they readily satisfied him. They did know where Christ would be born. Indeed, the answer was common knowledge. Any average Jew could have given it to Herod (John 7:40-43). That he himself did not know it shows the enormity of his ignorance.

The religious teachers told the king that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. As authority for their answer, they cited the prophecy in Micah 5:2. Yet what they chose to quote is curious. They did not tell him the prophecy in its entirety, but omitted the last part. They went through it far enough to affirm that the future ruler of Israel would be born in Bethlehem, but they left out the stupendous revelation that He would be more than a man. He would be the very One who exists in eternity, "whose goings forth have been from of old, form everlasting." In other words, the Messiah would be God Himself in the flesh.

We might imagine two possible reasons for the omission. First, the religious leaders knew that Herod was extremely dangerous. Therefore, they hid from him any suggestion that the Messiah might be God, fearing that if they so exalted the Messiah, Herod would see Him as a much greater threat, not because Herod believed in God, but because he would assume that anyone who claimed to be divine in some sense would be far more able to draw all Jews to His side in opposition to their present ruler. Thus, by treating the Messiah as a mere man that prophecy happened to mention, the religious leaders were shielding themselves from Herod’s ferocity. But a second possible reason for the omission is simply this. In Jesus’ day, most of the rabbis had poor understanding of Messianic prophecy. They expected a Messiah, but they thought he would be just a man with supernatural powers. They had no idea that God Himself, in the person of God’s Son, would descend from His place transcending creation and take human form. When the scribes read Micah’s prophecy to Herod, perhaps they skipped over the conclusion because they themselves did not know how it tied in with the rest. They did not wish to read anything that they themselves could not explain to Herod.

Verse 7-8. The coming of solemn sages from a faraway land put Herod in a great quandary. How could he get rid of them without risking an international crisis or even war? How, moreover, could he dispose of the new threat to his throne if indeed the child foretold by Micah had been born? Herod was fierce and paranoid, but not without well-refined skill as a manipulator and deceiver. He therefore responded to the wise men as if he were glad to hear of the child’s birth. He even pretended that he too was eager to pay homage. But first the child must be found. So, he gave the magi permission to search for the child in Bethlehem, and he instructed them that if they were successful in their quest, they should return and tell him where the child was.

Did the magi believe Herod? These were men sophisticated in the ways of the world, perhaps with experience as advisers to kings, and undoubtedly they knew something of Herod’s reputation. Moreover, Herod’s behavior should have raised suspicion that he was lying, for he questioned them at length as to the time when the star appeared. It was evident that he wanted to know exactly when the child was born. Why? His age made no difference if Herod wanted to worship Him. But it was critical if Herod viewed Him as a threat to eliminate, for then he needed information that would help him identify the child if the wise men failed to return. Yet the wise men apparently detected no guile in Herod. Later, they avoided Jerusalem on their way home only because God warned them about Herod’s intentions. We see in this account just how good Herod was at fooling people.

Liberal scholars view the story of the wise men as pure fiction, of course. They say that in the real world, Herod would never have sent the magi to Bethlehem. Upon hearing that a rival had been born there, he would have sent his soldiers six miles down the road to dispose of the threat, whether by killing the one child if he could be found or by killing all the children in the vicinity. But these scholars have assumed that the magi were a few travelers of little consequence—that Herod did not need to please them. But in fact they were highly valued citizens of a neighboring country much stronger than Herod's kingdom, and he could not afford to antagonize them. He had reason to fear both the Parthians and his Roman overlords. If he offended or mistreated the magi, the Parthians might retaliate, and his Roman overlords might censure him for jeopardizing the uneasy peace between Rome and the Parthian Empire.

Verse 9-10. What was the star that guided the magi? For a full discussion, see the article dealing at length with this question.

When the magi first sighted the star after leaving Herod, they were overjoyed. Its reappearance confirmed that they had not undertaken their long journey in vain. They could see that its purpose was to guide them, and so guided, they were certain to find the baby. The basic cause of their rejoicing was therefore confidence that their journey would end in success.

Verse 11. By now, more than forty days after Christ’s birth, Mary and Joseph had found much better lodgings in Bethlehem. They were living in a house. Later developments in the story strongly suggest that the house was not their property, so presumably they were either renting it or staying there as guests of the houseowner. Since more than a month had passed since their arrival in town, Joseph must have found a way to support his family, which now included a child. It seems likely that he had begun to practice his trade of carpentry.

Here the story again contradicts popular ideas. The crèche normally includes wise men as well as shepherds, even though the wise men probably never saw the stable or the manger where Jesus was born. They came later, to a different place; namely, to a house in Bethlehem.

With them they brought sumptuous gifts suitable for a king. These were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Frankincense was the type of incense burned on the altar in the Temple. Myrrh was the perfume commonly packed into the wrappings of a dead body. The three gifts were not random choices, but were selected under divine influence to convey rich meaning. Their chief significance lies in how they give tribute to the child's name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Frankincense, the offering to God, recognized His deity, affirmed by the name Lord. Myrrh, the fragrance that would wrap His body crucified for our sins, recognized His humanity subject to death, affirmed by the name Jesus. Gold, the treasure of kings, recognized His Messianic kingship, affirmed by the name Christ.

Notice that the magi did not hesitate to give highly valuable gifts to a poor carpenter living in one of the humble dwellings belonging to an unimpressive little village. Here is another hint that the magi were students of prophecy. The picture of the coming Messiah that we find in Isaiah 53 certainly presents Him as a figure not at the top of society, but at the bottom (Isa. 53:1–3). But did it not endanger the little family to pour treasures upon them? Surely, wicked men would have learned of their new wealth and, at first opportunity, used cunning or violence to seize it for themselves. This scenario can be set aside for two reasons.

1. If the wise men anticipated that the holy family would lack strong protection, they probably did not put great riches into their possession. For their sake, they scaled down the size and number of gifts so that, with God's help, Joseph could hide them securely.
2. As we will learn in the next lesson, God did protect their valuable new possessions in a remarkable way.

Matthew says that the magi fell down and worshiped Jesus. Since Zoroastrianism strictly forbade the worship of any idol or living creature, this gesture by the wise men shows that they had progressed beyond their childhood religion and come to a knowledge of the true God revealed in the Scriptures. The same Scriptures that taught them about the coming child must also have taught them that He would be God in the flesh and therefore worthy of worship. The magi were no longer priests of a false religion, but, in modern terms, they were saved men serving God.

Matthew tells us that the magi worshiped "him" (singular masculine).²³ A Catholic must find it puzzling that the text does not say the magi worshiped "them." The object of worship was not the Holy Family, or even the Madonna, but the child alone, for He alone was sinless and divine and therefore worthy of adoration.

The visit of the magi dramatized the child’s place in the history of mankind. As Simeon prophesied, He would be a light to the gentiles (Luke 2:25–32). So it was fitting that His birth should be recognized and celebrated by a few chosen gentiles serving as proxies for all the gentiles who would someday adore the child also.

Verse 12. We need not suppose that the wise men had to find lodgings in Bethlehem. They no doubt traveled with a caravan bearing all the gear necessary to camp anywhere along the way. After seeing the child, they resorted to their tents for the evening and went to sleep.

But during the night, God warned them through a dream that they should not return to Herod. Most readers naturally assume that they did not depart from Bethlehem until the next morning, but, as we will show in our discussion of verse 13, this common reconstruction of events is not supported by the wording of Matthew's account. Our best surmise as to what really happened is that the magi awoke right after their dream and immediately, in the midst of night, departed from Bethlehem, following a course that would quickly take them away from Jerusalem. Perhaps they traveled straight down toward the Jordan Valley along the same road that brought Mary and Joseph into Bethlehem. Having made the descent, they would have turned north and then, after reaching Jericho, would have crossed the Jordan River and hastened eastward back to their homeland.

We can imagine that they moved rapidly. If they had a strong escort, they did not need to fear arrest, but no doubt they wanted to outrun any emissaries that Herod might send out to overtake and question them. As a result, Herod never saw them or heard from them again.

The magi's worship of the Christ child is a model for us, for we too are gentiles come from afar.

1. Why did they come? They came in obedience to a star announcing the birth of the child prophesied in Scripture. We too should come to Jesus as Scripture requires, in humble faith confessing our sins and seeking the mercy of God.
2. What did they bring? They brought costly gifts, thereby teaching us that we too should give Jesus our very best. We must invite Him to shape our lives and use our talents as He sees fit.
3. How did they approach Him? They came with joy and knelt in adoration, just as we too should worship Him, acknowledging Him not only as sovereign over all creation, but specifically as our personal God and King.

Aside from Bible-believing Christians like us, few people today believe the story of the wise men. So let me point out two compelling evidences that Matthew's account should be accepted as reliable history.

1. Many scholars agree that Matthew’s Gospel was probably the first to be written; also, that it was especially well suited to a Jewish audience. Would Matthew have included the story of the magi if it never happened? Many early readers could have easily evaluated whether it was true by relying either on their own recall of events late in Herod’s reign or on the recall of others, perhaps their elders. If it was true, they would have nodded in assent to Matthew’s account, for an exotic consort of magi whose coming troubled all Jerusalem surely left a deep impression on everyone’s memory. Failure to remember any such event would have cast grave doubt on the writer’s truthfulness. Matthew’s inclusion of the story, with evident confidence that it would not be questioned, therefore creates a strong presumption that he is telling the truth.
2. Matthew reports that after the wise men left Judea, Herod sent soldiers to kill all the infants in Bethlehem. This report is entirely consistent with what Josephus tells us about Herod’s conduct in his last days. Always a ruthless king, he then became especially vicious and murderous. Among his last orders was the execution of his own son.²⁴ At about the same time, he issued to his subordinates a grisly command: that they should summon all the leading men of the nation to visit him, detain them in a stadium for chariot races, and then, immediately upon his death, slay them with darts. Why? To assure that the nation would respond to his death with mourning rather than rejoicing. After Herod was gone, it was a happy escape from tragedy when the many men taken into custody were released instead of being killed.²⁵