Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of King Herod. Afterward, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. They asked where the child born king of the Jews was. They had seen his star in the east, they said, and had come to pay him honor.
After seeing the star in the east, the magi traveled to Judea and first entered Jerusalem. They did not conduct a silent search but openly asked the city where the newborn king could be found. Although they had come to honor a king, the child was not in Herod’s palace.
Herod was troubled by this news, and Jerusalem was troubled with him. He assembled the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked where the Christ was to be born. They answered that it would be Bethlehem in Judea, because a prophet had spoken of a ruler who would shepherd Israel coming from there.
Herod connected the visitors’ question about a newborn king with the expected Messiah. The religious leaders answered from the prophetic text: though Bethlehem was small among Judah’s towns, a ruler who would shepherd Israel would come from it.
Herod secretly called the magi and learned from them when the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and told them to search carefully for the child. When they found him, he said, they were to report back so that he too could go and honor him.
Unlike the magi’s public arrival, Herod’s inquiry about the star’s timing took place in secret. He did not accompany them to Bethlehem, and the religious leaders are not said to have gone either. The visitors left Jerusalem carrying the location supplied from the prophecy and the king’s request for a report.
The magi set out after hearing the king. The star they had seen went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. They were filled with joy when they saw it. Entering the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary.
Their great joy came when the star they had seen in the east appeared before them again. It led them not merely to Bethlehem in general but to the place where the child was. In this scene Jesus was in a house, and the visitors found him there with Mary.
They bowed down before him. Then they opened their treasures and presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. That night they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod.
The magi bowed before the child and directed their homage to him. They opened the treasures carried on their journey. From them they brought out gold, frankincense, and myrrh and placed the gifts before the child.
Herod had asked them to return with the child’s location, but a warning in a dream redirected their journey. They did not take their discovery back to the king. The road by which they left Judea was not the road by which they had come.
The magi went home to their own country by another route.