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1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, there came magi from the east to Jerusalem,

2 Saying, “Where is he who has been born 'King of the Jews?'” for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.“

3 When Herod the king had heard these things he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he asked them where the Christ would be born.

5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”Micah 5:2

7 After this, Herod called a private meeting with the wise men to discuss what time the star appeared.

8 and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I may go and worship him as well.”

9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and they saw the star continue to lead them until it came to rest over the house where the young child was.

10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11 And when they were come into the house, and they saw the young child with Mary his mother, they fell down and worshipped him; and they presented unto him treasure boxes full of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt,

15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.

17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled,
because they were no more.”xref Jeremiah 31:15

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,

20 “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

22 But when he heard that Archela′us reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

23 And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

In this chapter we see a contrast between the wise men who seemed to know all about the Jews and their king, versus the chief priests and rabbis, who even though they were aware of where “the Christ” would be born, they showed no interest in seeking him out or following him. Thus we see the beginning of a theme we will revisit throughout Matthew, which is a contrast between the Jews who reject Jesus and the romand and gentiles who all seem to intuitively recognize Jesus as the messiah.

There is an interesting problem here in that the term 'magi' is used, which from the Greek translation of Daniel 2 we know tells us are magicians and sorcerers. Acts 13:8 also explains that this word can mean sorcerer. So therefore we see that the people who are drawn to Jesus initially are not bible believing people but instead people who are drawn to sorcery or astrology.

We also see a very strange theology presented by these magi. First, the idea that someone could be born “king of the jews”. Secondly, they worship Jesus. The concept of worshipping a man would have been considered blatant idolatry; the idea that Jesus could be God would not be presented until at best decades, if not hundreds of years later – but it is completely in line with a pagan “wise man” or magi that had come from a foreign land and was not stepped in the tradition of a monotheistic God.

What do we know by their actions? No Jewish person expected the messiah to suffer and die for the sins of the world, or Herod (and later the Sadducees) would not have tried to kill him. They had expected, due to the messianic prophecies, a very different kind of messiah.

Point: Jesus is the messiah because he fulfilled messianic prophecy. Is this true? Is this what we see in practice?

[a] But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

  who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

  one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from of old,

  from ancient days.<cite>Micah 5:2</cite></blockquote>

What is Micah saying here? He is saying that the messiah would be a son of David. Why? Because David was born in Bethlehem. OTOH, Matthew tries to use this to explain that “the messiah must be born in bethlehem”. Further, one of the major features of the messianic times in Micah is the institution of world peace; i.e. one of the ways we will be able to know who the messiah is, is that during his lifetime peace will spread throughout the world. Therefore this passage does not support the idea that Jesus is the messiah but instead shows why he is not the messiah.

=== v. 15 Hosea 11:1

• Matthew 2:15 ”…that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

This claims specifically that Hosea 11:1 is about the Lord – “spoken of the Lord” and “by the prophet”.

Yet where we look in Hosea, we find that Matthew has made a claim that is not true:

• Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

This is not just quoting a verse out of context, but matthew specifically states this was spoken about God, while Hosea specifically says it was spoken about the nation of Israel.

=== v.17 Jeremiah 31:15

• Matthew: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled,
because they were no more.

• Jeremiah: Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted, because they are no more.”

In this passage Matthew is not directly misquoting the passage in Jeremiah. However, if you just read the next verse in Jeremiah you will find that Rachel is assured that her children will be returned to her. So we see that Rachel was not weeping for children who were murdered or killed, but rather she was weeping for children who were taken into exile (and that they would return from exile someday). So using this verse to show a “fulfilment” not only doesn't work but it has nothing to do per-se with the messiah and couldn't be used to prove who the messiah was.

=== He shall be called a Nazarine What's interesting about this passage is that it does not actually exist in the Hebrew scriptures. Although some Christians claim that this was from a prophet whose message had been passed down orally, this is not a direction the Christians want to go in for two reasons. First, if we admit the oral law then Jesus could be disqualified simply by going against the Chazal. But secondly the Hebrew scriptures were canonized by this time and so it would have been heretical to call a prophecy from the past valid for the current day by quoting a non-canonical prophet (because, canonical prophets were those whose message was for future generations).

Yet some Christians continue by saying that Matthew does not say “as it is written,” but “as he spoke”. This is not relevant because in the previous passages Matthew demonstrates this is merely the manner in which he is speaking; he had previously said of Hosea 11:1 “spoken … by the prophet”. The fact that earlier in Matthew 2:5 he uses “writes” merely underscores that there is no difference in meaning intended by using either term.

In any case, it is not just that this passage does not exist anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, but the city of Nazareth is never mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures at all.

=== Christian Answer Apparently one Christian answer to this is to deny the authenticity of the first two chapters of Matthew. Some Christians I have spoken to (ex. Giz.) state that the first two chapters of Matthew are pseudoephigraphical. The statement goes something like this, the Eboionites had a gospel of matthew which was a) written in Hebrew, and b) was missing the first two chapters. The source for this was presumed to be Bart Ehrman.