Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
Ver. 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem] The house of bread, that bread of life that came down from heaven, John 6:50, and dwelt among us in this city of David, otherwise called Ephrata, that is, fruit bearing; and situated (they say) in the very navel and centre of the earth, because in him all nations should be blessed: here was Jesus born, by mere accident in regard of his parents (who were brought hither by a tyrannical edict of the emperor, forcing all, even great bellied women, to repair to their own city to be taxed, though it were in the deep of winter), but by a sweet Providence of God, to fulfil the Scripture and to settle our faith.
In the days of Herod the king] When the sceptre was departed from Judah, and the times were grown deplored and desperately wicked. Joseph found his brethren in Dothan, i.e. in defection; so did Christ, when he came: scarcely were there four, or fewer, found, that waited for the consolation of Israel. Then, also, when among the poor Gentiles a plentiful harvest, a very great number of elect, were ready ripe,Matthew 9:37; Luke 10:2; John 4:35. Then, when cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit, aut pactio (Flor.), then came the Prince of Peace into the world, when all was at peace throughout the world.
Behold, there came wise men] Neither kings nor cunning men, but sages of the East, Θεωρητικοι, contemplative persons, philosophers, interpreters of the laws of God and men (μαγοι, מהנים). The tale of the three kings of Cullen is long since exploded.
To Jerusalem] So misreckoning of a point they missed the haven, and had like to have run upon the rocks. Had they met with the shepherds of Bethlehem, they had received better intelligence than they could from the learned scribes of Jerusalem. God hath chosen the weak of the world to confound the wise, 1 Corinthians 1:27,28. Surgunt indocti et rapiunt coelum, et nos, cum doetrinis nostris, detrudimur in Gehennam (August. Confess. viii. 8). None are so far from Christ, many times, as knowing men. Some of the scribes and Pharisees were very atheists, for they knew "neither the Father nor the Son." Ulpian the chief lawyer, Galen the chief physician, Porphyry the chief Aristotelian, Plotinus the chief Platonist, Libanus and Lucian the chief orators of that age, were all professed enemies to Christ. No Church was founded at Athens, Acts 17:16, which yet Demosthenes calls the soul, sun, and eye of Greece, Euripides the Greece of Greece, Thucydides and Diodorus the common school of all men, the mart of good learning, &c.; ψυχην, και ηλιον, και οφθαλμον ελλαδος. ελλαδυς ελλαδα. κοινον παιδευτηριον παντων ανθρωπων. The greatest clerks are not always the wisest men in the affairs of God. Howbeit, learned Nathaniel, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, masters in Israel, were disciples to our Saviour; lest, if he had called simple men only, it might have been thought, quod fuissent ex simplicitate decepti, that they were deceived out of their simplicity, saith one.