A king for the Jews, a refuge in Egypt: the Magi, Herod and the return to Nazareth

Matthew 2 belongs to Matthew's account of Jesus' birth and early childhood, material found only in this Gospel. Matthew, who wrote for readers steeped in the Old Testament (see the class on Matthew 1 for the debates over his identity, date and sources), uses the story to show that the infant is the Messiah and that the world's response to him is already divided. Luke tells a different set of events: the shepherds, the presentation in the temple, and a return to Nazareth (Luke 2). Luke does not mention the Magi or the flight to Egypt, and Matthew does not mention the shepherds or the census. Scholars who accept both accounts as history see two selections from a larger story, and some propose that the family went to Nazareth after the presentation and later to Bethlehem or back, though the Gospels do not say. Others think that Matthew's account is more shaped by Old Testament patterns.

The setting is the last years of Herod the Great, who ruled Judea under Rome from 37 BC and died around 4 BC. The Jewish historian Josephus describes him as a gifted builder, including the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, and as a king of brutal suspicion who killed members of his own family to protect his throne. A story in which he orders a massacre of infants fits what Josephus reports of his character. Josephus does not mention the killing of the Bethlehem boys, and some scholars take that silence as a reason for caution. Others note that Bethlehem was a small village, so that the number killed was probably small, and that Josephus did not record every crime. The text itself gives no number.

When Herod died, the kingdom was divided among his sons. Archelaus received Judea, Samaria and Idumea (with the title of ethnarch) and ruled until he was removed by Rome around AD 6. Herod Antipas received Galilee. This explains why Joseph, returning from Egypt, avoids Judea and goes to Galilee (verse 22).

The 'Magi' (Greek magoi) were learned men from the east. The word could refer to priests and astrologers of the Persian tradition, and also to any practitioner of the arts of dream interpretation and star-watching. Matthew does not say how many they were, where exactly they came from, or that they were kings. He says only that they came from 'the east', probably Persia, Babylon or Arabia, which fits the interest in the stars and the long Jewish presence in Babylon.

Matthew 2 is narrative with five Old Testament quotations or allusions at its turning points. In Matthew's story the events are moved by God, who speaks in dreams (verses 12, 13, 19, 22), directs a star, and brings the family out of danger. The narrative builds a contrast. Gentile outsiders come to worship; the king and the religious leaders in Jerusalem, who know the Scriptures, do not.

The quotations need care. Matthew's four 'fulfillment' texts (2:6, 15, 17-18, 23) do not all work in the same way. The Micah quotation (verse 6) is a direct prophecy of a ruler from Bethlehem. The Hosea quotation (verse 15) is not a prediction at all in its original setting: Hosea 11:1 looks back to the Exodus, when God called Israel his son out of Egypt. Matthew sees Jesus as repeating and completing Israel's history, which scholars call typology, the pattern in which events and people in the Old Testament prepare for a greater one in Christ. The Jeremiah quotation (verses 17-18) takes a text of lament about the exile and finds its pattern repeated in Bethlehem's grief. The fourth (verse 23) cites 'the prophets' without a single identifiable source. The class takes each one on its own terms and does not require them all to be predictions.

The chapter should also be read with Exodus in mind. A tyrant orders the death of Hebrew baby boys (Exodus 1:22), a child escapes, and God later says that those seeking the child's life are dead, in words close to Exodus 4:19. Matthew does not state the parallel, but his language invites it.

Verses 1–2

Jesus was born 'in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod'. The Magi ask where is 'the One who has been born King of the Jews'. That title is used elsewhere in the Gospel in a Gentile mouth: Pilate asks Jesus if he is 'King of the Jews' and the same words are on the cross (27:11, 37). 'We saw His star in the east' (literally, at its rising) does not tell us what the star was; scholars have suggested a conjunction of planets, a comet or a supernatural sign, none of them proved. Some link it to Balaam's oracle of a star rising out of Jacob (Numbers 24:17), an echo Matthew does not state. They have come 'to worship Him'. The Greek word (proskuneo) means to bow down, and it is used here for a child, which is how Matthew's readers would notice that something more than honour for a human king is meant.

Verses 3–6

Herod 'was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him', and the reason is fear of what he might do. He calls the chief priests and scribes, who answer from Micah 5:2: the ruler will come from Bethlehem. Matthew's wording differs from both the Hebrew and the Greek texts of Micah, and it adds a line from 2 Samuel 5:2, 'who will be the shepherd of My people Israel', that God said to David. The result joins a Bethlehem birth to a Davidic shepherd-king. The irony is that the experts know exactly where the Messiah is to be born and do not go.

Verses 7–12

Herod's request to 'worship' is a lie. The star 'went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the Child was', and they were glad. Verse 11 says they came to 'the house', not a stable, and that they saw the Child with Mary. The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh are valuable and appropriate for a king; Isaiah 60:6 and Psalm 72:10-11 speak of Gentiles bringing gold and incense to Zion. The old Christian reading that gold stands for kingship, frankincense for deity and myrrh for death is a later meditation and not in Matthew. Warned in a dream, they go home another way.

Verses 13–15

An angel again speaks to Joseph in a dream, and Joseph again obeys at once, travelling by night to Egypt. Egypt was a common refuge for Jews, and Jewish communities were there, including a large one in Alexandria. The quotation, 'Out of Egypt I called My Son' (Hosea 11:1), applies to Jesus words said first of Israel. Matthew sees Jesus as the true Son who passes through Israel's experience of exile and exodus.

Verses 16–18

Herod, 'filled with rage', kills the boys 'two years old and under', which fits the date he had learned from the Magi. Matthew cites Jeremiah 31:15, where Rachel, the ancestress of the northern tribes who was buried near Bethlehem according to Genesis 35:19, weeps for her children as they are taken into exile. Ramah is a few miles north of Jerusalem. The next verses of Jeremiah 31 speak of hope and a new covenant, and many readers think Matthew expects the reader to remember them.

Verses 19–23

After Herod's death the angel again speaks, using language close to Exodus 4:19. Joseph hears that Archelaus rules Judea and, warned in a dream, goes to Galilee and settles in Nazareth, a small village. The last quotation, 'He will be called a Nazarene', cannot be traced to a single Old Testament text. Scholars suggest several explanations: a play on the Hebrew netzer, 'branch', in Isaiah 11:1; a link to the word nazir, one set apart; or the idea that 'Nazarene' stood for the contempt that the Messiah would meet, as John 1:46 suggests. Matthew's plural, 'the prophets', suggests that he has a theme rather than one verse in mind.

The central teaching is that the true king of the Jews has come and that the response to him divides the world. Gentiles who read the stars come to worship; the political and religious establishment of Jerusalem is disturbed or indifferent. This anticipates the pattern of the whole Gospel, in which outsiders such as the centurion (8:10) respond and insiders refuse. It also points toward the end, when Gentile nations are included in the commission to make disciples (28:19).

The chapter also teaches the providence of God. He guards the child through dreams, a star and a journey, yet he does not prevent the deaths of the innocents in Bethlehem. The Bible does not explain that grief, and Matthew does not try; he places it beside Jeremiah's lament and leaves it there. God's plan is not undone by Herod's cruelty, and the suffering of the children is not hidden. The child who is saved from the king's sword will himself be handed over to a ruler's sentence.

Finally, the chapter shows how the Old Testament is understood as one story. The exodus, the exile and the hope of a Davidic king all come together in the child. The Scriptures are not only a store of predictions. They record patterns of God's saving action that find their center in Jesus.

Matthew 2 shows Jesus as king, as Israel's representative and as a new Moses. As king, he is the promised ruler from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), the Davidic shepherd of God's people, and the Gentiles come to honour him as Isaiah 60 and Psalm 72 said the nations would honour Zion's king. The title 'King of the Jews' sets him against Herod, who is a king by Rome's appointment. It also looks ahead to the cross, where the same title is written above him.

As Israel's representative, he is the Son called out of Egypt. Hosea 11:1 first described the nation. Matthew applies it to Jesus because Jesus relives Israel's story in order to bring it to its goal: in chapter 3 he passes through the waters, in chapter 4 he spends forty days in the wilderness, and in chapter 5 he gives the Law from a mountain. This is typology, which means the Old Testament pattern finds its fullest form in him.

As a new Moses, he is the child who escapes a murderous king, as Moses did in Exodus 1-2, and he is the one for whom God says, in words from Exodus 4:19, that those seeking his life have died. That parallel is an echo, since Matthew never states it, but the shared language is hard to miss. The difference is that Moses delivered Israel from slavery, while Jesus will, in the angel's words from the previous chapter, save his people from their sins (1:21). The gifts and the worship of the Magi anticipate what Paul says will happen at his name: every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10-11).