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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 2:11 - 2:11
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And when they were come into the house - not the stable; for as soon as Bethlehem was emptied of its strangers, they would have no difficulty in finding a dwelling-house.
they saw - The received text has “found”; but here our translators rightly depart from it, for it has no authority.
the young child with Mary his mother - The blessed Babe is naturally mentioned first, then the mother; but Joseph, though doubtless present, is not noticed, as being but the head of the house.
and fell down and worshipped him - Clearly this was no civil homage to a petty Jewish king, whom these star-guided strangers came so far, and inquired so eagerly, and rejoiced with such exceeding joy, to pay, but a lofty spiritual homage. The next clause confirms this.
and when they had opened their treasures they presented - rather, “offered.”
unto him gifts - This expression, used frequently in the Old Testament of the oblations presented to God, is in the New Testament employed seven times, and always in a religious sense of offerings to God. Beyond doubt, therefore, we are to understand the presentation of these gifts by the Magi as a religious offering.
gold, frankincense, and myrrh - Visits were seldom paid to sovereigns without a present (1Ki 10:2, etc.; compare Psa 72:10, Psa 72:11, Psa 72:15; Isa 60:3, Isa 60:6). “Frankincense” was an aromatic used in sacrificial offerings; “myrrh” was used in perfuming ointments. These, with the “gold” which they presented, seem to show that the offerers were persons in affluent circumstances. That the gold was presented to the infant King in token of His royalty; the frankincense in token of His divinity, and the myrrh, of His sufferings; or that they were designed to express His divine and human natures; or that the prophetical, priestly, and kingly offices of Christ are to be seen in these gifts; or that they were the offerings of three individuals respectively, each of them kings, the very names of whom tradition has handed down - all these are, at the best, precarious suppositions. But that the feelings of these devout givers are to be seen in the richness of their gifts, and that the gold, at least, would be highly serviceable to the parents of the blessed Babe in their unexpected journey to Egypt and stay there - that much at least admits of no dispute.