Bible chapter guide

Matthew 2

Magi from the east follow a star to Jerusalem asking for the newborn king of the Jews; Herod sends them to Bethlehem, where they worship the child and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh. Warned in dreams, they go home another way, Joseph flees to Egypt, and Herod kills the boys of Bethlehem.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

Matthew tells the birth from the side of King Herod. Magi arrive in Jerusalem asking where the newborn king of the Jews is, and the question alarms Herod, who learns from the chief priests and scribes that the prophet Micah named Bethlehem. The star leads the Magi on to a house where they find the young child with Mary, and a dream sends them home without reporting back. Joseph, warned in a dream of his own, takes the family to Egypt by night, Herod has the boys of Bethlehem two years old and under killed, and after Herod's death the family settles not in Judea, where his son Archelaus now rules, but in Nazareth in Galilee.

What the lab shows, and where to look

In the Bethlehem scene of Places of Jesus, this chapter is the Magi stop, told in two moments. The first sets their question in Herod's Jerusalem, using the Temple Mount model; 'At the house' moves to Bethlehem by day, with more than three travellers and their servants at the door, because Matthew does not count them. The same stop sets five readings of the star side by side, each with its own evidence level. The village stop shows the Herodium on the south-eastern skyline, Herod's fortress and his burial place, and the last stop follows the family south-west towards Egypt by night. 'The common picture vs the text' lists where the Christmas card parts from Matthew, and the Matthew 2:1 page follows the verse across the labs.

Questions people ask

When were the Magi at Bethlehem?

Not on the night of the birth. Matthew has them enter a house and find 'the young child' (2:11), and Herod kills the boys "from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men" (2:16). That points to a visit some months after the birth, perhaps up to two years. The crib scene with shepherds and Magi side by side joins Luke's story to Matthew's; neither Gospel puts them together.

Strongly supported

How many Magi were there, and were they kings?

Matthew does not say how many. He names three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, and tradition gave one visitor to each gift; by the 6th century they had names. They became kings through Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60, read as prophecy. Matthew calls them magi, a word for Persian priestly scholars who watched the stars and read dreams.

Textually stated

What was the star of Bethlehem?

Matthew says only that the Magi saw it in the east and that it went before them and "stood over where the young child was" (2:9). No ordinary star or planet moves and stops like that, so many read it as a sign given for the purpose. Others propose the meeting of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC (Kepler's suggestion), the comet or new star in Chinese records for 5 BC, or an angel. The lab sets these side by side and does not choose.

Speculative

Did Herod really kill the boys of Bethlehem?

Only Matthew records it; Josephus, who tells a great deal about Herod, does not. Bethlehem was a small village, so the boys killed may have been few, too few perhaps for a historian to note. The act fits what Josephus does tell of Herod's last years, when he had three of his own sons put to death.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

See the places of Jesus on the map

People in this chapter

Herod the Great

Places

Egypt Bethlehem

Also in this chapter

Birth of Jesus Magi from the east come to worship Herod's massacre and the flight to Egypt Jesus grows up in Nazareth

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
Matthew neither counts the Magi nor calls them kings. Three gifts led to three visitors; “kings” came from Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60.
The common picture: Three kings.
Textually stated
Joseph took the child and his mother by night to Egypt and stayed until Herod's death, then settled in Nazareth.
Textually stated
Matthew does not say how many Magi there were; he names three gifts.
Textually stated
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem, entered the house, worshipped the child and gave gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Textually stated
The star led the Magi to the house “where the young child was” (2:9–11), some time after the birth.
The common picture: The star shone over the stable on the night of the birth.
Textually stated
In Matthew, the chief priests and scribes answer Herod with Micah's words: the Christ is to be born in Bethlehem of Judea.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)