EPIPHANY (B)

And on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Mt 2:1-12

v. 1 - When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem.

Bethlehem of Judea: See Luke 2:1-7 for the Lucan account of how Jesus came to be born at Bethlehem although he was brought up at Nazareth.

For Bethlehem as David's home, see e.g. 1Sam.16.

The place is called Bethlehem of Judea, because there was another Bethlehem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15).

In the days of Herod the king: Herod was king from 37-4 B.C.

Wise men (magoi): The word could be used in either of two senses: wise man or magician. The only other magus in the New Testament is Elymas in Acts 13:6ff, and he is clearly a magician. Possibly Matthew also meant the word to be understood in this sense, and this o certainly how Ignatius of Antioch understood the passage: `From that time [i.e. the appearance of the star] all sorcery [mageia] and every evil spell began to lose their power; the ignorance of wickedness began to vanish away; the overthrow of the ancient dominion was being brought to pass, since God was appearing in human form unto newness of life eternal' (Letter to the Ephesians, 19).

v. 2 - …saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star* at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

The Magi ask for the king of the Jews, because they themselves, are Gentiles and Jews did not call themselves Jews; Jews would say, either the Christ, as in v. 4; or the King of Israel, as in 27:42.

For a star as the sign of a king, see Num. 24:17. “A star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel. The planet Jupiter apparently crossed the paths of Venus and Saturn in 7 B.C., and there may be some reference to this in Matthew.

v. 3. When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Herod the king and all Jerusalem do not rejoice at the news, but are troubled. The word is used again at 14:26 of the terror of the disciples. And in both places it is the fear which comes from unbelief.

v. 4. Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, i.e. the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jews: There may be a reference here to Ps 2:2, as in 22:34, 26:3.57.

vv. 5-6. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

The prophecy is from Mic. 5:2, but it is not given in the LXX translation nor is it an exact rendering of the Hebrew text, 2 Sam 5:2. It may have been combined with the Micah prophecy; combining of similar Old Testament passages was a regular feature of rabbinic study of t scriptures.

v. 7 - Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.

From v. 16 it seems that the star had appeared two years earlier.

v. 10 - They were overjoyed at seeing the star.

With the great joy of the magi, compare the great joy of the women in 28:8.

v. 11. And on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And they fell down and worshipped him: Worship of Jesus is a feature of this gospel, in contrast to Mark's.

Gold and frankincense and myrrh: Detailed symbolic meanings have been found in these three gifts; but they may all be gifts suitable for presentation to a king - see Ps. 72:15 (gold), Isaiah 60:6 (gold and frankincense), Ps. 45:8 (anointing a king with myrrh), Song of Songs 3:6, etc. (frankincense and myrrh); or they may be the materials used by magicians: by offering them to Jesus, they are declaring the end of their practices.