Matthew 2:7 - Exposition

Then Herod, when he had privily called the Wise Men . Secrecy was doubly necessary. He would not publicly commit himself to acknowledging the rights of the new King, and he would give no opportunity for others to warn the Child's parents of the dangerous interest that Herod was taking in him. Duplicity was very characteristic of Herod; cf. his assassination of Aristobulus the high priest (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 15.3. 3), and his alluring his son Antipater home to death (ibid., 17.5. 1). Inquired of them diligently ; learned of them carefully (Revised Version); "lerned of hem bisili" (Wickliffe); ἠκρίβωσεν παρ αὐτῶν . The stress is not upon Herod's careful questioning, but on the exact information that he obtained. What time the star appeared . Although this is not the literal translation, it may, perhaps, represent the sense of the original ( τὸν χρόνον τοῦ φαινομένου ἀστέρος ) , the participle characterizing the star in its most important relation—its appearance, and the words being treated as a compound expression (cf. John 12:9 , John 12:12 ). Herod supposed that the birth of the Babe was synchronous with the first appearance of the star. The translation, however, of the Revised Version margin, "the time of the star that appeared," better suits the exact wording ( χρόνον , not καιρόν ; φαινομένου , not φανέντος ) , the phrase thus including both the first appearance and also the period of continuance (cf. Grotius, "non initium, sed continuitas"). But it is difficult to see What Herod would have learned from this latter particular. Some even think that the star was still visible (Plumptre; Weiss, 'Matthew'), but in this case the joy of the Magi in Matthew 2:10 is not satisfactorily explained.