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1 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. 2 They said, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? For we saw his star rising and have come to honor him.” 3 Herod was troubled when he heard this, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 He gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem in Judea, for it has been written through the prophet, 6 ‘And you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Comments

The word magus (plural magi) originally referred to the priests of the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism, but later came to refer to any person skilled in arcane knowledge like astrology or soothsaying (hence the English words magic, mage, and magician). In the ancient world, unusual astronomical phenomena were assumed to portend great events, often the birth or the death of a king or leader.

There have been many proposals for what exactly the magi saw in the sky that drew them to Jerusalem in search of a newborn king: possibilities include a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and Regulus; Hailey’s Comet; or a nova from the Andromeda Galaxy. Whatever the nature of this “star” may have been, it is less important than Mt’s purpose for telling this story: to remind the reader that though Jesus may be the newborn king of the Jews, he is also a savior come for all peoples. These “magi from the east” serve the same function as Jesus’ foreign female ancestors in the genealogy.

The prophecy quoted in 2.6 is Micah 5.1. Bethlehem was the hometown of David, whose legacy the Messiah was expected to inherit and revive.

Outside Mt, there is no record of magi coming to Jerusalem in search of a newborn king, or of Herod learning of and feeling threatened by the birth of a messiah. However, it would be in keeping with what we know of his character. Herod the Great (ca 72 - 4 BC; not to be confused with the three other Herods mentioned in the NT) was a paranoid and bloody ruler, who executed one of his wives and three of his sons as perceived threats to his rule.