Matthewchapter 2

Speaks with:Matthew 2×6 Luke 2×5 John 7×4 Numbers 24×2 Exodus 1×2 Matthew 1×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Magi from the east follow the star to Herod's Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem. Gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Joseph's flight to Egypt with the child, Herod's slaughter of the innocents at Bethlehem, and the return to Nazareth. Three fulfillment formulas close the chapter (Mic 5:2; Hos 11:1; Jer 31:15).

Context

Gospel · Matthew — Matthew overview

A. 1–12 Wise Men Follow the Star to the Child
B. 13–15 Flight into Egypt by Night
C. 16–18 Herod Kills the Children of Bethlehem
D. 19–23 Home at Last to Nazareth

The outline

A.Wise Men Follow the Star to the Childvv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →
B.Flight into Egypt by Nightvv. 13 to 15
Read vv. 13 to 15 →
C.Herod Kills the Children of Bethlehemvv. 16 to 18
Read vv. 16 to 18 →
D.Home at Last to Nazarethvv. 19 to 23
Read vv. 19 to 23 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Out of Egypt have I called my son

Type

Hosea remembers the exodus as a father's word: when Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. Matthew reads the verse forward. The child Jesus is carried into Egypt and called out again, then passes through the wilderness, reliving Israel's story and standing where Israel fell.

This is Matthew's own way of reading Scripture, stated in his own fulfilment formula. Jesus does not merely quote Israel's story; he walks it, and where the first son murmured in the wilderness, the true Son obeys.

Hosea 11:1
Israel the son called out of Egypt
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Matthew 2:14-15 you are here
The child carried into Egypt and called out
Matthew states the fulfilment himself: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.
Matthew 4:1-4
Forty days answering forty years
In the wilderness Jesus answers the tempter with the words Moses gave Israel in its own wilderness years.

The descent into Egypt

Pattern

The Exodus happens here first, to one family, centuries early: famine drives them down, Pharaoh takes what is not his, the LORD plagues Pharaoh, and they go up enriched.

The first occurrence of a thing in Scripture sets its meaning. Egypt is established here as the place you go when you stop trusting the promise, and the place God brings you out of with your hands full.

Genesis 12:10
A famine drives Abram down into Egypt
He goes without being told to, six verses after the promise.
Genesis 12:17
The LORD plagued Pharaoh
God defends a promise the man carrying it had just put at risk.
Genesis 12:20
Sent away with all that he had
He leaves richer than he came, which is the last beat.
Genesis 46:3
Fear not to go down into Egypt
Now the whole house goes, and God promises to bring them up again.
Exodus 12:35
They go up out of Egypt enriched
The same five moves, now to a nation.
Matthew 2:15 you are here
Out of Egypt have I called my son
Matthew applies Hosea 11:1 to Christ.

The world behind this chapter

Matthew 2

When

The last years of Herod the Great and the accession of his sons · c. 5–4 BC, with the return from Egypt shortly after Herod's death

Where

Jerusalem's palace, the village of Bethlehem, the road to Egypt, and finally Nazareth

Who first heard it

Jewish readers who knew Herod's reputation firsthand

The history

The magi were not kings and the text never numbers them. The word describes a priestly class of scholars from the east — Persia or Babylon — who studied the stars, interpreted dreams, and advised royal courts. A large Jewish community had lived in Babylon since the exile, so Hebrew prophecy was known in that world.

Herod the Great was a client king: Rome let him rule Judea so long as he kept it quiet and paid up. He was a spectacular builder and a murderous paranoid. Josephus records that he executed his wife Mariamne and three of his own sons on suspicion of plotting. Killing the infants of a small village fits everything else known about him.

Bethlehem was a village of perhaps a few hundred people. The number of boys under two would have been small — a dozen or so — which is why no Roman historian bothered to record it. It was one more local cruelty in a reign full of them.

Egypt was the obvious refuge. It lay outside Herod's jurisdiction, the journey was well travelled, and Alexandria held one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. On the return, Matthew notes that Herod's son Archelaus held Judea — a ruler so brutal that Rome removed him in AD 6, which is exactly why the family settled north in Galilee instead.

What it meant to them

A Jewish reader would feel the pattern immediately: a wicked king killing infant boys, a child preserved, a return out of Egypt. Matthew is putting Jesus where Moses stood, and behind Moses, Israel itself.

There is a sting in it, too. Foreign stargazers travelled for months to worship him; the chief priests could quote the right verse about Bethlehem without walking the six miles to look. Matthew's readers, pushed out by their own leaders, were being told the pattern started early.

Sources cited

Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Matthew 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 2 · How Jewish tradition read this as messianic

Star of Jacob -> star at Jesus' birth; Onkelos; NOTE Bar Kokhba used it too (shown honestly, R4).

Numbers 24:17→

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of…

Read the whole verse

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.

Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)

v. 6 · Spoken beforehand, fulfilled here · Quoted here

Bethlehem; chief priests cite to Herod; Targum reception.

Micah 5:2→

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

quoted explicitly in the New Testament; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)

v. 11 · How Jewish tradition read this as messianic

royal psalm; Targum 'the King Messiah... Son of David the King'; kings bring gifts (reception tier R4).

Psalms 72:1→

Endow the king with Your justice, O God, and the son of the king with Your righteousness.

Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)

v. 15 · A picture of Christ

Out of Egypt I called My Son

Hosea 11:1→

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

MannaFest topical index

v. 17 · A picture of Christ

Rachel weeping for her children

Jeremiah 31:15→

This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

Study this chapter

What

Worship

Matthew 25 verses
- Matthew 2:2asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
- Matthew 2:13When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
- Matthew 2:19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.
- Matthew 2:20“Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are now dead.”
- Matthew 2:22But when he learned that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,
- Read Matthew 2 →
Luke 25 verses
- Luke 2:4So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, since he was from the house and line of David.
- Luke 2:10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
- Luke 2:16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger.
- Luke 2:20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, which was just as the angel had told them.
- Luke 2:39When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
- Read Luke 2 →
John 72 verses
- John 7:42Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
- John 7:52“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”
- Read John 7 →
Numbers 242 verses
- Numbers 24:8God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.
- Numbers 24:17I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.
- Read Numbers 24 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Exodus 12 verses
- Exodus 1:10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
- Exodus 1:22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
- Read Exodus 1 →
Matthew 12 verses
- Matthew 1:20But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
- Matthew 1:24When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and embraced Mary as his wife.
- Read Matthew 1 →
Exodus 42 verses
- Exodus 4:19Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.”
- Exodus 4:22Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,
- Read Exodus 4 →
Micah 51 verse
- Micah 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
- Read Micah 5 →