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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2. τεχθείς. This form is rarely if ever found in classical Attic; see Veitch sub voc. τίκτω and cp. Luk 2:11—the only other passage where this tense-form occurs in N.T.
ὁ τεχθεὶς βασιλεύς. One who was born king—whose title was hereditary—would bring special fear to Herod.
βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. A title unknown to the earlier history of Israel and applied to no one except the Messiah. It reappears in the inscription over the Cross (ch. Mat 27:37).
In estimating the Jewish conception of the ‘kingdom of heaven’ and of the Messiah who is the central figure of that thought, account should be taken of the awe with which the Oriental regarded the person of a king, who was far more highly exalted above his subjects than Western ideas admit (cp. Rawlinson’s Herod. VII. 13). The βασιλεὺς in this sense is to be distinguished from the petty prince or regulus who, like Herod, assumed the imperial title of βασιλεύς.
εἴδομεν … ἤλθομεν, keep the strict aoristic force ‘we saw’ … ‘we came.’
αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα. The simplest explanation of this is that a star or meteor appeared in the sky to guide the Magi on their way first to Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem. It is, however, quite possible that the Magi were divinely led to connect some calculated phenomenon with the birth of the ‘King of the Jews.’ Among many conjectures may be mentioned one recently propounded by Prof. Lauth of Munich. It appears to be proved that the dog-star Sirius rose heliacally, i.e. appeared at sunrise, on the first of the Egyptian month Mesori, for four years in succession, viz. 5, 4, 3, 2 before our era. The rising of this star of special brilliance on the first of this special month (Mesori = birth of the prince) would have a marked significance. By the Magi it might well be connected with the prophecy of ‘the star of Jacob’ (Num 24:17), and become the cause of their journey to Jerusalem. This theory explains Herod’s edict, Mat 2:16, for the destruction of all male children ‘from two years old and under,’ for, as according to the date assigned to the Nativity of Christ, the arrival of the Magi at Jerusalem would coincide with the year 3 before the Christian era, the star had appeared for two years.
The theory, supported by Alford, which identifies this ‘star’ with a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, forces the meaning of the word ‘star,’ is inconsistent with the latest chronological results, and is shown to be scientifically impossible by Prof. Pritchard in Dict. of the Bible, sub voc. ‘Star of the Magi.’
The connection of the birth of the Messiah with the appearance of a star is illustrated by the name Barcochab (‘Son of a Star’), assumed by a false Messiah who appeared in the year 120 A.D. It has also been noticed that in the Cartouche or Egyptian royal symbol of Vespasian (see note ch. Mat 2:6 ad fin.), the word ‘God’ is for the first time expressed by a star. (Dr Lauth, Trans. Bib. Arch. Soc. IV. 2.)
ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ. Probably ‘at its rising.’ If the ordinary interpretation ‘in the East’ be adopted, it would be an unusual, perhaps an unexampled, instance of the singular in this sense. The suggested rendering suits the technical language of the astrologers.
προσκυνῆσαι. A favourite word with St Matthew as with St John. Its occurrence thus early in the Gospel strikes the note of the Gospel of the Great King. προσκυνεῖν is used of the servile prostration before an Oriental monarch. Cp. Herod. VII. 13, where a striking instance of this subservience is recorded: οἱ Πέρσαι μὲν ὡς ἤκουσαν ταῦτα (views entirely opposed to their own) κεχαρηκότες προσεκύνεον. This connection gives point to the word as used ch. Mat 20:20, where see note.