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The life of Christ

Wise men from the east worship the child

4 BCInferred from Scripture

Matthew 2:1–12; Micah 5:2; Numbers 24:17

Guided by a star, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem asking for the newborn King of the Jews. Directed to Bethlehem, they found the child with Mary and offered him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11 (World English Bible)
Great SeaEgypt: the placeisn't recordedWise menfrom the eastNazarethJerusalemBethlehemGaza1. To Bethlehem for the census (Luke 2:4)2. Flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:14)3. Return to Nazareth(Matthew 2:21–23)Routes are illustrative; Scripture doesn't give the roads taken.Coastlines simplified
Nazareth to Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, and the return to Nazareth (Luke 2; Matthew 2).

Herod was alarmed, and so was all Jerusalem. The chief priests and scribes told him from Micah 5:2 that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. Herod sent the wise men there, asking them to report back so that he could “worship” too. The star led them to the house where the child was, and a dream warned them to go home another way.

The wise men were probably astrologer-scholars from Persia or Babylon. Matthew doesn't say how many there were; the tradition of three comes from the three gifts.

Places

JerusalemBethlehemJudeaEast

Dating notes

Ussher: early 4 BC, before Herod's death that spring. By then the family was living in a house (Matthew 2:11), and Herod's order to kill boys up to two years old suggests the star had first appeared some time earlier. The month shown is estimated from the order of events in Ussher's harmony, so that events of the same year appear in sequence.

Open on the timelineRead Matthew 2:1–12