We cannot wonder that there shoidd have licen very varj'ing interpretations given of words that allowed so wide a field for conjecture. Some of these are, for vari- ous reasons, worth noticing. (1) The feeling of some early Amters that the coming of the wise men was the fulfilment of the prophecy which spoke of the gifts of the men of Shcba and Seba (Psa. Ixxii, 10, 15; compare Isa. Ix, G) led them to fix on Arabia as the country of the magi (Justin MartjT, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Cypri- an, in Spanheim, Dub. Erang. 1. c), and they have been followed by Baronius, Maldonatus, Grotius, and Light- foot. (2) Others have conjectured IMesopotamia as the great seat of Chalda?an astrology (Origcn, Horn, in Matt. vi and vii), or Egypt as the countrj^ in whicli magic was most prevalent (iMej-er, ad loc). (3) The historical associations of the word led others again, with greater probabilitj', to fix on Persia, and to see in these magi members of the priestly order, to which the n.ime of right belonged (Chrysostom, Theophj-lact, Calvin, 01s- hausen), while Hyde {Rel. Pers. \. c.) suggests Parthia, as being at that time the conspicuous Eastern monarchy in which the magi were recognised and honored.
It is, perhaps, a legitimate inference from the narra- tive of Jlatt. ii that in these magi we may recognise, as the Church has done from a vcrj- early period, the first Gentile worshippers of the Christ. The name, by itself, indeed, applied as it is in Acts xiii, 8 to a Jewish false prophet, would hardly prove this; but the distinctive epithet "from the East" was probably intended to mark them out as difTcrent in character and race from the Western magi, Jews, and others, who swarmed over the lioman empire. So, when they come to Jerusalem, it is to ask, not after " our king" or " the king of Israel," but, as the men of another race might do, after " the king of the Jews." The language of the O.-T. prophets and
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the traditional interpretation of it are apparently new things to them. The narrative of Matt, ii supplies us with an outline which we may legitimately endeavor to fill lip, as far as our knowledge enables us, with infer- ence and illustration. Some time after the birth of Je- sus there appeared among the strangers who visited Je- rusalem these men from the far East. They were not idolaters. Their form of worship was looked upon by the Jews with greater tolerance and sympathj' than that of any other Gentiles (compare Wisd. xiii, 6, 7). What- ever may have been their country, their statement indi- cates that they were watchers of the stars, seeking to read in them tlie destinies of nations. They said that they had seen a star in which they recognised such a prognostic. Tliey were sure that one was born king of the Jews, and they came to pay their homage. It may have been simply that tlie quarter of the heavens in which the star appeared indicated the direction of Ju- dfea. It may have been that some form of the proph- ecy of Balaam, that a " star should rise out of Jacob" (Numb, xxiv, 17), had reached them, either through the Jews of the Dispersion, or through traditions running parallel with the O. T., and that this led them to recog- nise its fultilmcnt (Origen, c. Cels. i ; Hom. in Num. xiii ; but the hypothesis is neither necessary nor satisfactory; comp. Ellicott, Hulsean Lectures, p. 77). It may have been, lastly, that the traditional predictions ascribed to their own prophet Zoroaster, leading them to expect a succession of three deliverers, two working as prophets to reform the world and raise up a kingdom (Tavernier, Travels, iv, 8), the third (Zosiosh), the greatest of the three, coming to be the head of the kingdom, to con- quer Ahriman and to raise the dead (Du Perron, Zend- A V. i, 2, p. 46 ; Hyde, c. 31 ; Ellicott, Hulsean Led. 1. c), and in strange fantastic ways connecting these redeem- ers with the seed of Abraham (Tavernier, /. c. ; and D'Herbelot, Bibliolh. Orient, s. v. Zerdascht), had roused their minds to an attitude of expectancy, and that their contact with a people cherishing like hopes on stronger grounds may have prepared them to see in a king of the Jews the Oshanderbegha (•' Homo Mundi," Hj-de, /. c.) or the Zosiosh whom they expected. In any case they shared the " vetus et constans opinio" which had spread itself over the whole East, that the Jews, as a people, crushed and broken as they were, were yet des- tined once again to give a ruler to the nations. It is not unlikely that they appeared, occupying the position of Destur-i\Iobeds in the later Zoroastrian hierarchy, as the representatives of many others wlio shared the same feeling. They came, at any rate, to pay their homage to the king whose birth was thus indicated, and with the gold, and frankincense, and myrrh which \vere the customary gifts of subject nations (comp. Gen. xliii, 11 ; Psa. Ixxii, 15 ; 1 Kings x, 2, 10 ; 2 Chron. ix, 24 ; Cant, iii, G ; iv, 14). The arrival of such a company, bound on so strange an errand, in the last years of the tyran- nous and distrustful Herod, could hardly fail to attract notice and excite a people among whom Messianic ex- pectations had already begun to show themselves (Luke ii, 25, 3§). " Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." The Sanhedrim was convened, and the question where the Jlessiah was to be born was formally placed before them. It was in accordance with the subtle, fox- like character of the king that he should pretend to share the expectations of the people in order that he might find in what direction they pointed, and then take whatever steps were necessarj^ to crush them. See Hekod. The answer given, based upon the traditional interpretation of Mic. v, 2, that Bethlehem was to be the birthplace of the Christ, determined the king's plans. He had found out the locality. It remained to deter- mine the time: with what was probably a real belief in astrology, he inquired of them diligently wlien they had first seen the star. If he assumed tliat that was" con- temporaneous with the birth, he could not he far wrong. The magi accordingly were sent on to Bethlehem, as if they were but the forerunners of the king's own hom-