- Matthew 2:2. Was the star of Messiah natural or Supernatural?
- Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
- Everywhere throughout the East men were looking for the advent of a great king who was to rise from among the Jews. The expectation partly rested on such Messianic prophecies of Isaiah as Isaiah 9, 11, partly on the later predictions of Daniel 7. It had fermented in the minds of men, heathens as well as Jews (Ellicott).
- Partly they learned this expectation rested on the words of Balaam (Numbers 24:17), “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre.”. According to the hieroglyphics of the East, and the figurative language of prophecy, stars are emblems of princes, it was very natural for them to consider the rising of a new star as foretelling the rise of a new king (Benson).
- Was the star (as Kepler conjectured) natural, the conjuncture of the planets Jupiter and Saturn appearing as a single star of special brightness, or supernatural; visible to all beholders, or to the Magi only?
- The “wise men” were sharers in the Messianic hopes of the Jews. They were watchers of the signs of the heavens, and they undertook a four months’ journey (if they came from Babylon, Ezra 7:9; more, if they came from Persia; Ellicott).
- From the time of the Babylonish captivity, the Jews were dispersed through all the provinces of the Persian monarchy (Esther 3:8; 8:17; 9:2; 9:16); and many of the people of the land became Jews. Now it was one principal article of their faith to believe in and expect the appearance of the promised Messiah. Wherever they came, they would spread this faith and expectation; so, it became so general.
