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Mat_2:1.[366] Γεννηθέντος ] The star is to be considered as appearing contemporaneously with the birth (Mat_2:7). But how long it was after the birth when the Magi came, is ascertained approximately from Mat_2:16, according to which, even taking into account all the cruelty of Herod, and his intention to go to work with thorough certainty, the arrival of the Magi is most probably to be placed somewhat more than a year after the birth.
[366] See on the history of the Magi, Thilo, Eusebii Emeseni oratio περὶ ἀστρονόμων , praemissa de magis et stella quaestione, Hal. 1835; Münter, Stern der Weisen, 1827; Roth (Catholic), de stella a magis conspecta, 1865. In reference to chronology based upon astronomical observation, Ideler, Handb. d. Chronol. II. p. 339 ff.; Anger in the Zeitschr. f. histor. Theol. 1847, p. 347 ff.; Wieseler, chronol. Synopse u. Beiträge z. Würdigung d. Evang., 1869, p. 149 ff.; also in Herzog’s Encykl. XXI. p. 543 f.; Seyffarth, Chronol. sacr. 1846; Weigl, üb. d. wahre Geburts- u. Sterbejahr J. Chr. I., Sulzbach 1849; Keim, Gesch. J. I. p. 375 ff.
δέ is continuative, leading on to another history connected with the birth of Jesus which has just been related.
Βηθλεὲμ (house of bread) τῆς Ἰουδαίας , to distinguish it from Bethlehem in the tribe of Zabulon, Jos_19:15. Our village (Bethlehem Ephrata, Gen_35:16; Gen_35:19), designated in Joh_7:42 as κώμη , was situated in the tribe of Judah (Jdg_17:9; Jdg_19:1; 1Sa_17:12), six miles to the south of Jerusalem, now the little manufacturing town Beit lachm. See Robinson, Pal. II. p. 379 ff.; Tobler, Bethl. in Paläst. 1849, and the relative articles in Herzog and Schenkel.
ἐν ἡμέραις ] ëÌÄéîÅé , Gen_26:1; 2Sa_21:1; 1Ki_10:21.
Ἡρώδου ] Herod the Great, son of Antipater, received in the year 714 U.C. from the Senate the dignity of king through the influence of Antony, by whom he had been not long before made tetrarch, but first came into the actual possession of his kingdom after the capture of Jerusalem by himself and Sosius in the year 717, and died, after a brilliant and flagitious reign, in 750. See concerning the whole family of Herod, Schlosser, Gesch. d. Fam. Herodes, Lpz. 1818; Ewald, Gesch. d. Volks Isr. IV., and Gesch. Chr. p. 95 ff. ed. 3; Gerlach in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1869, p. 13 ff.; Hausrath, neut. Zeitgesch. I. and II.
μάγοι ] The Magi ( îÈâÄéí ) constituted, amongst the Persians and the Medes, of whom they formed, according to Herod. i. 101, one of the six tribes, a distinguished priestly caste, and occupied themselves principally with the knowledge of the secrets of nature, astrology, and medicine. Herod. i. 32; Xen. Cyr. viii. 3. 6; Diog. Laert. i. 1–9; Aelian. V. H. ii. 17; Porphyry, de abst. an. iv. 16; Cic. de div. i. 41; Plin. N. H. xxiv. 29, xxx. 2; Curt. iii. 3. 8. Amongst the Babylonians also (Jer_39:3) there was, at the time when the Chaldean dynasty was in power, such an order, of which Daniel became the president (Dan_2:48). The name of Magi was then generally transferred, without distinction of country, to all those who had devoted themselves to those sciences, which, however, were frequently also accompanied with the practices of magic and jugglery (Act_8:9; Act_13:6; Act_13:8). See Wetstein, and Müller in Herzog’s Encykl. VIII. p. 675 ff.
ἀπὸ ἀνατ .] belongs to μάγοι , Magi from the East—that is, Oriental Magi. The position of the words most naturally suggests this connection; but the article ( οἱ ἀπὸ ἀνατ .) is not required, because μάγοι is without the article (in answer to Fritzsche, who connects it with παρεγένοντο ). The indefinite expression, eastern lands (Mat_8:11, Mat_24:27; Luk_13:29; Rev_21:13), is to be left in its indefiniteness, and in so doing we are to assume that the evangelist himself had no more precise information at his command. If Arabia has been thought of (Justin. c. Tr. 77 f.; Epiphanius, Tertullian, Maldonatus, Jansen, Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, Lightfoot, Michaelis, Kuinoel, de Wette, Wieseler), or Persia (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Calvin, Beza, Calovius, Petavius, Casaubon, Wolf, Olshausen), or Parthia (Hydius), or Babylonia (Paulus), or even Egypt (Möller, neue Ansichten in loc.), yet we have no sure hold, even in a slight degree, either in the very indefinite ἀνατολῶν , or in the nature of the presents in Mat_2:11. It was entirely baseless to determine their number from the threefold gifts, and to regard them as kings[367] on account of Psa_68:30; Psa_68:32; Psa_72:10; Isa_49:7; Isa_60:3; Isa_60:10 (especially since the fifth century; yet Tertullian, c. Marcion, already takes this view). Are we to think of heathens (so most expositors, including Olshausen, Krabbe, B.
Crusius, Lange, de Wette, Ewald, Hilgenfeld, Bleek, Keim), or of Jews (v. d. Hardt, Harenberg in the Bibl. Brem. VII. p. 470 ff.; Münter, Paulus, Hofmann, L. J. von Strauss geprüft, p. 249; Rettig in the Stud. u. Krit. 1838, p. 217)? In favour of the first, the question, Where is the new-born King of the Jews? is decisive. And how appropriate was it to the idea of Messiah, that the very first-fruits of the distant heathen appeared to do homage to the King of the Jews (Isa_60:3 ff.)! The expectation of the Jews, that their Messiah was to rule over the world, might at that period have been sufficiently disseminated throughout the foreign countries of the East (Sueton. Vesp. iv.; Tac. H. v. 13; Joseph. B. J. vi. 5. 4) to lead heathen astrologers, for the object in question, to the Jewish capital. Comp. Dio Cass. Hist. R. xlv. 1; Suet. Oct. xciv.
Ἱεροσόλυμα ] In the capital they expected to find, if not the Babe Himself, at least the most certain information regarding Him.
[367] According to Bede, their names also have been commonly given as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar (see Petr. Comestor. Hist. schol. 8), but also differently. See Beza in loc., and Paulus, exeget. Handb. I. p. 204.