Section 2:1–12
Wise men came and honored Jesus
In this section, Matthew showed his readers that:
(a) Jesus was indeed born in Bethlehem as scripture predicted (even though he would later move to Nazareth, and people considered him to be a Nazarene).
(b) The Jewish religious teachers who knew the law did not go to worship the king of the Jews. It was the Gentile wise men who worshiped him.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The Visit of the Wise Men (NET Bible)
-or-
Visitors from the East (Good News Translation)
Paragraph 2:1–2
2:1a
This verse part begins with the Greek conjunction that many English versions translate as “Now” here. Here “Now” means “at that time.” It does not mean “today.” Many English versions, including the Berean Standard Bible, do not translate the Greek conjunction here, but rather let the context indicate that what follows took place at that time. In some languages, it may be natural to begin 2:1a by translating this Greek conjunction to show that what happens in this section happened after the preceding section and “during the time of Herod” as 2:1b indicates. For example:
Now (English Standard Version)
After Jesus was born: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as After Jesus was born tells us the setting of the time that the wise men came.
Here are some other ways to begin this section:
⌊One day,⌋ after Jesus was born
-or-
When Jesus was born (Contemporary English Version)
The main clause in this verse is in 2:1c. In some languages, it may be more natural to translate the main clause before the background information. See the General Comment after 2:1c for some ideas.
Jesus was born: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as was born is passive.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
• As a passive verb. For example:
Jesus was born
• As an active verb. For example:
⌊Mary⌋ gave birth to Jesus
-or-
⌊Mary⌋ bore Jesus
in Bethlehem: The word Bethlehem is the name of a village about eight kilometers (five miles) south of Jerusalem. Another way to translate this word is:
in ⌊the village/town of⌋ Bethlehem
in Judea: The word Judea is the name of a province in the country of Israel. Another way to translate this word is:
⌊the province/region of⌋ Judea
2:1b
during the time of King Herod: The phrase during the time of King Herod refers only to the time when Herod was king. It does not refer to the thirty or so years of his life before he became king.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
during the reign of King Herod (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
during the time when Herod was king (Good News Translation)
-or-
when/while King Herod was ruling
This phrase is also background information. See the General Comment after 2:1c for other ways to translate this phrase.
2:1c
The Greek of 2:1c begins with a word that is often translated as “behold.” It literally means “look” or “see.” This word focuses attention on what follows. It indicates that what follows is important, unexpected, or amazing. In this passage, the wise men unexpectedly arrived in Jerusalem. The Berean Standard Bible omits this word.
If you have a term that gets the attention of people and is natural in this context, you should consider using it here. Here are some examples:
suddenly
-or-
Look!
-or-
unexpectedly
This word also occurs in 1:20 and 1:23. Consider how you translated it there.
Magi: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Magi refers to men who studied the movement of stars and planets. They believed that the movement of stars and planets could predict future events.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
astrologers (Revised English Bible)
-or-
men who studied the stars (Good News Translation)
-or-
men who watched the stars to learn the future
-or-
men who could tell the meaning of the stars
Some English versions such as the Berean Standard Bible transliterate this Greek word as Magi.
from the east: The phrase from the east means that the wise men came from a country or countries that were east of Jerusalem. Their journey probably took a long time. Your translation should not indicate that they were from nearby.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
from eastern lands (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
from a country to the east
arrived in Jerusalem: The word Jerusalem is the name of the main city of the province of Judea. It was the most important and largest city in that region. Strangers such as the wise men would naturally go there when searching for someone.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
arrived in ⌊the city of⌋ Jerusalem
General Comment on 2:1a–c
In verse 2:1, 2:1c is the main clause and 2:1a–b add background information. You may want to change the order of the clauses in this verse to better show what is the main clause and what is background information. One way to do this is to put 2:1c earlier in the verse. For example:
⌊One day,⌋ 1csome astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem. 1a⌊This happened⌋ after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea. 1bAt that time, Herod was the king of Judea.
-or-
⌊One day,⌋ 1aafter Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, 1csome astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem. 1bAt that time, Herod was the king of Judea.
© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.