Inquired diligently (jxp(Bacev). Better learned accurately. The verb is formed from dxpos, at the point or end. The idea is, therefore, he ascertained to the last point ; denoting the ex- actness of the information rather than the diligence of the search for it. Compare ver. 8, “Search out carefully” (axpt- Bas). So the Rev. for dilegently.
What time the star appeared (rov ypovoy Tod patvopévov aatépos). Lit., the time of the appearing star. Herod asks, “ How long does the star make itself visible since its rising in the East ? rather than “ At what time did i appear ?”
12. Being warned (ypnpatioSévres). The verb means to give a response to one who asks or consults : hence, in the pas- sive, as here, to receive an answer. The word therefore implies that the wise men had sought counsel of God; and so Wycliffe, “ And answer taken in sleep.”
22, WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IIL.
16. The children (rots watéas). Male children, as is indi- cated by the masculine form of the article, and so Rev.
23. The prophets. Note the plural, as indicating not any one prediction in particular, but a summary of the import of several prophetic statements, such as Ps. xxii, 6, 8; Ixix. 11, 19 ;"Isas lini. 2, 3, 4.
A Nazarene. A term of contempt (compare John ii. 46, and vii. 52). The very name of Nazareth suggested insignificance. In Hebrew it meant sprout or shoot. The name is prophetically given to the Messiah (Isa. xi.1). In Isa. x. 33, 34, the fate of Assyria is described under the figure of the felling of a cedar- forest. The figure of the tree is continued at the opening of ch. xi. concerning the Jewish state. The cedar throws out no fresh suckers, but the oak is a tree “in which, after the felling, astock remaineth” (Isa. vi. 13; compare Job xiv. 9). There isa future then for Israel, represented by the oak. ‘ There shall come forth a shoot from the stock of Jesse, and a twig from his roots shall bear fruit.” As David sprang from the humble family of Jesse, so the Messiah, the second David, shall arise out of great humiliation. The fact that Jesus grew up at Naz- areth was sufficient reason for his being despised. He was not a lofty branch on the summit of a stately tree; not a recog- nized and honored son of the royal house of David, now fallen, but an insignificant sprout from the roots of Jesse; a Nazarene, of an upstart sprout-town.