Bible verse wall art
Matthew 2: the wise men follow the star
Luke brings shepherds to the manger; Matthew brings foreigners from the east. His second chapter is the story behind every Epiphany pageant, and it is darker and stranger than the Christmas card version.
Matthew 2 print
Matthew 2 · King James Version
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy
Who were the wise men?
Matthew calls them magi, a word used for learned men of Persia and Babylon who studied the heavens. He never says there were three and never calls them kings. The number comes from the three gifts, and the royal crowns come from later readers who linked the scene with Psalm 72, where kings bring presents, and Isaiah 60, where a multitude of camels arrives bearing gold and incense.
They reach Jerusalem asking, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east. The question alarms King Herod, who calls the chief priests and scribes. They point to the prophet Micah: out of Bethlehem shall come a ruler who will shepherd Israel.
What does “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy” mean?
Herod sends them on with a lie, asking them to report back so he can come and worship too. As they leave, the star they had seen goes before them until it stands over the place where the young child is. Verse 10 is the line on our poster: When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Matthew piles up the words for gladness, as if one were not enough for travelers who had crossed so much country on a sign.
They enter the house, not a stable, and find the young child with Mary his mother. They fall down, worship him, and open their treasures: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Christians have long read the gifts as tributes to a king, to God and to one who would die, since myrrh was used in burial. Warned in a dream, the magi go home another way.
The shadow of Herod
The chapter then turns grim. Joseph, warned by an angel, takes Mary and the child into Egypt by night. Herod, finding he has been deceived, orders the killing of the boys of Bethlehem aged two and under, and Matthew hears in it the voice of Rachel weeping for her children from Jeremiah 31. After Herod's death the family returns and settles in Nazareth.
Many churches celebrate the visit of the magi at Epiphany on January 6, the twelfth day after Christmas. The Wise Men on Camels print, with its long road and its bright star, is Christian wall art that can stay up from Advent through the Epiphany season.
A star out of Jacob
Readers have long connected Matthew's star with an old oracle in Numbers 24, where the seer Balaam, himself a man from the east, says: there shall come a Star out of Jacob. Matthew does not quote it, but the echo is hard to miss.