NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible CBSB_Digital Sampler | Page 34
1610 | Matthew 2:1
The Magi Visit the Messiah
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
Judea, u during the time of King Her
od, v Magi a from the east came to Jerusa
lem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who
has been born king of the Jews? w We saw
2
2:1 u Lk 2:4-7
v Lk 1:5
2:2 w Jer 23:5;
Mt 27:11;
Mk 15:2; Jn 1:49;
18:33-37
x Nu 24:17
of the groom’s parents. Most people in antiquity supposed
that a man and woman together alone for even a short
time (less than an hour) would give way to sexual tempta-
tion. This would be all the more the case with those who
were young; young men were considered particularly
prone to passion. On average Jewish men married when
about 18 to 20, with their brides in their mid-teens (some-
times even as young as 12 to 14). Yet Joseph and Mary
abstained from intercourse before J esus’ birth. On the
first night of a wedding feast, intercourse would normally
rupture the bride’s hymen, and the bloody sheet could
be displayed as proof that she had entered marriage as a
virgin. By making love on the first night of their wedding,
Joseph and Mary could have proved that she had a virgin
conception. Yet God’s plan was not merely a virgin con-
ception, but a virgin birth (v. 23). Joseph and Mary chose
God’s honor above their own.
his star x when it rose and have come to
worship him.”
3
When King Herod heard this he was
disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4
When he had c alled to
geth
er all the
a 1 Traditionally
wise men
2:1 – 2 Magi from the east came to Jerusalem. It was com-
mon for dignitaries to come and congratulate a new ruler.
Magi undoubtedly came with a significant caravan. Magi.
These were a famous class of astrologers and dream-inter-
preters who served the Persian king. Their title appears in
the most common Greek version of the OT only in Daniel,
where it applies to Daniel’s enemies; this is not surprising,
since astrology, as a form of divination, was forbidden in
Scripture. Yet these Magi come to worship the new king
(vv. 2,11); as Matthew often emphasizes, God calls followers
from unexpected places (cf. 3:9; 8:10 – 12; 12:41 – 42; 21:31).
2:2 star. Some scholars think this is a conjunction of
the heavenly sign that Persians associated with Judea
together with the one they associated with kingship.
Others associate it with other reported celestial anoma-
lies about this time.
2:3 he was disturbed. Although Scripture forbade astrol-
MATTHEW 2:1
H
Herod the Great
erod the Great achieved power in Judea with Roman backing; he brutally sup
pressed all opposition. Herod was a friend of Marc Antony but, unfortunately,
an enemy of Antony’s mistress Cleopatra. When Octavian (Augustus) Caesar
defeated Antony and Cleopatra, Herod submitted to him. Noting that he had been a
loyal friend to Antony until the end, Herod promised that he would now be no less
loyal to Caesar, and Caesar accepted this promise. Herod named cities for Caesar and
built temples in his honor.
Ethnically Herod was an Idumean (an Edomite); his ancestors had been forcibly
converted to Judaism, and he built for Jerusalem’s God the ancient world’s largest and
most magnificent temple. Politically astute, however, Herod also built temples honor
ing the divine emperor Augustus and made lavish contributions to Gentile cities in or
near his territory. Among his other reported politically savvy acts was the execution of
members of the old Sanhedrin who opposed him; he replaced those council members
instead with his own political supporters. He did not usually tolerate dissent. When
some young disciples of religious teachers took down the golden eagle that Herod had
erected on the temple, he had them executed.
Most of our sources about Herod focus on his acts in Jerusalem, but the character
of Herod that they reveal fits what Matthew says about him. So protective was Herod
of his power and so jealous of potential rivals that his more popular brother-in-law,
a very young high priest, had a drowning “accident” — in a pool that archaeology
shows was very shallow. When his favorite wife Mariamne, a Maccabean princess,
was falsely accused of adultery he had her strangled, though he later named a tower
in his palace in her honor. He executed two of his sons who were falsely accused of
plotting against him. Five days before he died he executed another son (the one who
had falsely framed the other two).
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