Matthew 2:1

τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ γεννηθέντος. The year 3 before the Christian era has been fixed almost beyond a doubt as the date of the Nativity. The present year—1881—is therefore correctly A.D. 1884. The data on which the computation is founded are: (1) The first rule of Quirinus (Luke 2:2), which should probably be placed between the years B. C. 4 and A.D. 1 of the common era. Josephus mentions Quirinus as Governor in A.D. 6—nine or ten years after the true date of the nativity. The conjecture of a previous first governorship of Quirinus was made and ably supported by A. W. Zumpt. His conclusions are generally accepted. (2) The accession of Tiberius A.D. 14; thus the fifteenth year of Tiberius, in which Jesus was baptized (Luke 3:1-2) ended Aug. 19, A.D. 29. (3) The Paschal full moon; which fell on a Friday, 15th Nisan in A.D. 30 and also in A.D. 33. On one of these two dates the Crucifixion must have taken place. If the second be adopted as agreeing best with the other chronological notes in the gospels, Jesus was crucified on April 3 [o.s.], A.D. 33, when he may have been between 34 and 35 years of age. (4) The reign of Herod; which began in B.C. 36 and ended in B.C. 1. The last-named date has been accurately determined in a paper read before the Society of Biblical Archæology (June, 1871) by Mr J. W. Bosanquet,—which see for a learned discussion of the whole question.

ἐν Βηθλεέμ. St Matthew omits the circumstances which brought Mary to Bethlehem.

Βηθλεέμ (‘The House of Bread,’ cp. John 6:51), the city of David, situate on a limestone ridge a few miles S. of Jerusalem. The old name of Bethlehem was Ephrath or Ephratah; it is now called Beit-lahm. It is worthy of remark that no visit of Jesus or of his disciples to Bethlehem, his birthplace and the cradle of his race, is recorded.

Ἡρώδου τοῦ βασιλέως. Called afterwards, but not in his lifetime, Herod the Great; he was an Idumæan (Edomite) who, chiefly through the friendship of M. Antony, became king of Judæa. For date of reign see above. The title of βασιλεὺς distinguishes him from the other Herods named in the gospels. Antipas, who tried in vain to obtain the title, is called King by courtesy, Mark 6:14.

Herod was not an absolute monarch, but subject to the Roman empire, much in the same way as some of the Indian princes are subject to the British government, or as Servia was till recently subject to the Porte.

ἰδού. See note ch. Matthew 1:20.

μάγοι, originally the name of a Median tribe, who, according to Herodotus, possessed the power of interpreting dreams. Their religion consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies and of the elements. At this date the name implied a religious caste—the followers of Zoroaster, who were the astrologers of the East. Their tenets had spread widely; and as the East is a vague term, it is difficult to determine from what country these Magi came. A theory, stated below, connects them with Egypt, or at least with an Egyptian system of chronology. The common belief that the Magi were three in number is a mere tradition, which has been perpetuated by great painters. It was probably an inference from Matthew 2:11. Every reader of the Classics knows how common a failing it is with ancient annotators to state deductions from the text as proved facts. An equally groundless tradition has designated the Magi as kings, and has assigned names to them. The first part of this tradition is probably due to the words of Psalms 68:29; Psalms 72:11; Isaiah 49:23 and other passages. The special names Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior are supposed to indicate the three countries of Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt.

ἀπὸ�, plural, as always in later Greek (Polyb. and Plut.) in the sense of ‘the East,’ i.e. the quarter in which the sun rises, cp. αἱ δυσμαί, αἱ ἄρκτοι (Schweighäuser). Here for ‘the Eastern lands,’ cp. Anglo-French ‘the levant.’ This use is later, the classical meaning is ‘the rising,’ of the sun, moon, or stars, see note on next verse. By another later use ἀνατολὴ = ‘a branch’ or ‘shoot,’ hence ‘The Branch’ as a Messianic title.