Then (Good News Translation “So”) translates a particle which Matthew uses some ninety times. It is usually translated “then” but has a number of different functions, depending upon the context in which it is used. New English Bible translates “Next,” while New American Bible leaves the force of the particle implicit in the text. There are languages where one of these English solutions to Then will be acceptable, but many others will need a transitional phrase such as “When (or, After) Herod heard that….”
The wise men is here translated “the visitors from the East” by Good News Translation, though it was translated in verse 1 by Good News Bible as “some men who studied the stars.” This is merely an attempt to avoid the use of the technical term “astrologers” and at the same time to find a phrase which fits in naturally with English discourse structure. Similarly other translators should use a phrase that is natural in the discourse of their language, one that clearly shows these are the same wise men as in verse 1. It may be necessary to repeat the phrase used there, but translators may also say “those wise men,” “those men who were seeking the newborn king,” or “those men who studied the stars.”
Summoned … secretly is restructured by Good News Translation to read “called … to a secret meeting.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately,” and New English Bible has “Herod next called the astrologers to meet him in private.” Summoned … secretly has been translated by some in such a way that it seems Herod called the wise men to a meeting no one else knew about. This may be true, but generally the emphasis is on the fact that no one else was there, as in “Herod asked the wise men to come to a meeting at which no one else was present” or “… to meet with him by himself.”
Ascertained (so also New English Bible) translates a Greek verb used only here and in verse 16 in the New Testament. As Revised Standard Version indicates, the time is object of the verb, and since the idea of “exactness” is actually contained in the verb itself, Good News Translation renders “found out … the exact time.” Barclay translates “carefully questioned them” without stating explicitly that Herod learned the information. An American Translation, Phillips, New American Bible have the same wording as Good News Bible. One standard lexicon suggests the meaning “inquire carefully” for this passage. Some translators will use a phrase such as “asked them about what time the star appeared” or “about the time when the star appeared.” But others will be closer to Good News Bible with phrases such as “learned from them when the star appeared.”
In many languages it will be more natural to use direct discourse, as in “Herod asked them, ‘Exactly when did the star appear?’ ” or “… ‘Tell me all about the time when the star appeared.’ ”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .