‘Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? for we saw his star in the east (or ‘at its rising'), and are come to pay him homage.”
Matthew makes quite clear here that he is dealing with what he sees as historical facts. He could not have made it more obvious. If he did not believe that it really happened then here he was being deceitful. He declares that Jesus was born, without going into detail (in line with his emphasis on Joseph, the son of David, and not on the bearer, Mary), that it was in Bethlehem of Judea, and that it was in the days of Herod the king, that is, of Herod the Great who died between 5 and 1 BC. The ‘of Judea' differentiates this Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem, from other Bethlehems such as Bethlehem in Zebulun, which was north west of Nazareth (Bethlehem means ‘the house of bread' or ‘the granary'). All this agrees with Luke and yet is distinctive. And all is clearly intended to be historical.
It should be noted that Matthew had had no reason to mention Bethlehem before this (he has not mentioned places). In chapter Matthew 1:18 ff, apart from the opening summary in Matthew 2:18 a, the recognition of Mary's pregnancy probably occurred in Nazareth, and Joseph might well have posted there to deal with the matter, with only verse 25 occurring in Bethlehem. But at that stage place was hardly of importance. Indeed it is normal for Matthew to be indistinct about geography except when he thinks that it matters. And here geography only became of importance when the birth took place.
(Matthew appears to deliberately ignore the use of place names, so much so that when he does use them we need to prick up our ears and ask why. In this chapter he mentions Bethlehem (four times) and Nazareth but in each case so as to connect with a quotation from Scripture. He mentions Nazareth and Capernaum in Matthew 4:13 again connected with a ‘that it might be fulfilled' statement. Thus the first straight mention of a place name in Matthew is Capernaum in Matthew 8:5 (‘his own city' in Matthew 9:1) followed by ‘the country of the Gadarenes' in Matthew 8:28. After that the next place name is Gennesaret in Matthew 14:34. We would not have known that Jesus visited Chorazin and Bethsaida, along with Capernaum, had it not been for His condemnation of them (Matthew 11:21). In general He visits ‘cities and villages'. Thus NOT to have a place name mentioned is normal for Matthew).
‘Magi from the East.' The word ‘Magi' could indicate either ‘high level' astrologers or crude magicians. The context suggests the former. Their interest in and response to the message of the stars indicates it. There is nowhere any indication of magic. These are distinguished men who read the stars as part of their studies. We are not told whether ‘the East' indicates Babylon, Persia or Arabia. The point is that they came, with their caravan, from distant, and possibly mysterious, places.
Note on Herod the Great.
By this time Herod the king had been on the throne for over thirty years. Although a tyrant he generally kept the peace, was loyal to his Roman masters, and was adept enough to keep in with different emperors. He was usually militarily successful, and engaged in splendid large-scale building, including commencing the building of the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem. He established spectacular athletics contests, and was skilled in providing famine relief. In some ways therefore he was a good ruler. But there was a very much darker side to his character. Certainly those who were heavily and brutally taxed in order to pay for his building projects did not appreciate it, nor did they like the added brutality of the ‘games' which the Romans and Greeks delighted in. Furthermore being an Idumaean (Edomite Jew) he was looked on as a usurper by many of the Jews, and in return treated the high priesthood with contempt, installing and removing high priests (whose tenure was Scripturally life-long) at will, and he similarly removed all the powers of the Sanhedrin. He was a brute of a man, and had a very cruel streak which became worse with increasing paranoia. He struck out left, right and centre at any whom he saw as rivals, even members of his own family, and overall behaved with total arrogance towards the Jewish leadership (which they on the whole attempted to reciprocate), and even at times towards the people as a whole. In his declining years he executed his wife and three of his sons, and finally died hated by the nation. His aim had in fact been that his death be turned into a bloodbath, and he had left instructions accordingly so as to ensure that there would be mourning at his funeral, but these instructions were fortunately not carried out. Such a man would have seen the slaughter of twenty or so innocents at Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16) as just a sideshow.
End of note.
Note on Bethlehem.
We know that Mary was originally growing up in, and living in, Nazareth. We know nothing about where Joseph was living over the period before his marriage, and he may have had businesses in both Nazareth and Bethlehem, living at the family home when in Bethlehem. Or he may simply have lived at Bethlehem. He may well hardly ever have seen Mary. The marriage would almost certainly have been an arranged one. However, once the position with regard to Mary was settled in his mind he would go to Nazareth in order to sort things out. On their marriage taking place they would return to Bethlehem at a time when Mary was ‘great with child' (there is no indication in the Gospels that the birth happened on the night of their arrival in Bethlehem). At the time when all the family gathered for the enrolment mentioned in Luke the guest chamber (kataluma - resting place, not necessarily an inn and possibly the guest chamber) may well have been taken over by his father and his relatives. This would explain why he and Mary had to sleep downstairs on the ground floor in what would be seen as a normal ‘bedroom' even though it was shared with the domestic animals in accordance with good Palestinian practise. This in order to make room for everyone at a difficult time. The fact that he slept there does not mean that normally he did not live in Bethlehem. Nor would the room have been especially uncomfortable, while the manger would be utilised because it was both comfortable and warm. (Were it to have happened in my household it would not be the first time that I have given up my bedroom for guests).
So once the marriage had taken place Mary naturally joined her husband in Bethlehem. When, however, circumstance rendered Bethlehem unsafe Nazareth was a natural place to go to, once they had been warned to avoid Judaea. (They were not ‘directed' to Nazareth, even though it turned out to be within God's purposes. They were simply directed to avoid Judea). And from then on Nazareth was ‘home'.
To suggest that this does not accord with Luke 2:39 is ultra criticism. In Luke that verse is simply a bridging verse between events, and summarises a period in Jesus life that ends up in Nazareth. It is not particularising. Luke simply has no interest in providing the intermediate detail.
End of note.
Matthew then goes on to describe how some Magi (learned men who were also astrologers) arrived in Jerusalem from the East, asking concerning the birth of a ‘King of the Jews', the typically Gentile way of describing the King of Israel (e.g. Matthew 27:11; Matthew 27:29; Matthew 27:37). For no sooner had they gathered from the stars that a special King of the Jews was shortly to be born, or had been born, then Jerusalem would have seemed to them the best place to make for. It was the ancient central city of the Jews. (We note that there is no suggestion that they ‘followed the star'. The ‘star' that they had seen would have been no longer visible as such. But the star, which was quite possibly a conjunction of another heavenly light with Jupiter, had by its appearing told them all that they wanted to know. Many people might have seen an extra bright star which had appeared for a short while, but for most it would have passed them by as simply a curiosity. Bright stars were not all that unusual, apart from to those in the know. But these men constantly watched the stars, and connection with the planet Jupiter would have brought out the importance of this young prince to the ‘wise', and thus these men had come to acknowledge Him and pay Him homage.
‘In the East.' This should probably be translated ‘at its rising', indicating a special astronomical phenomenon, or it could signify that they had spotted it immediately on its occurrence.
It should be noted that reference to the ‘star which arises out of Jacob', in Numbers 2:7 refers to the ruler himself. It is therefore irrelevant here, and Matthew gives no indication of any connection with it.