58. The chief writers on the subject have been: Münter (u.s.), Ideler (u.s.). and Wieseler
(Chronol. Synopse d . 4 Evang. (1843), and again in Herzog's Real-Enc. vol. xxi p. 544,
and finally in his Beitr. z. Würd. d Ev. 1869). In our own country, writers have, since the
appearance of Professor Pritchard's art. ('Star of the Wise Men') in Dr. Smith's Bible
Dict. vol. iii., generally given up the astronomical argument, without, however, clearly
indicating whether they regard the star as a miraculous guidance. I do not, of course,
presume to enter on an astronomical discussion with Professor Pritchard; but as his
reasoning proceeds on the idea that the planetary conjunction of 747 a.u.c., is regarded as
'the Star of the Magi,' his arguments do not apply either to the view presented in the text
nor even to that of Wieseler. Besides, I must guard myself against accepting his
interpretation of the narrative in St. Matthew.
59. De Stella Nova &c., Pragæ, 1606.
60. Cosmos. vol. i. p. 92.
61. By the astronomer, Dr. Goldschmidt. (See Wieseler, Chron. Syn. p. 72.).
62. A somewhat different view is presented in the laborious and learned edition of the
New Testament by Mr. Brown McClellan (vol. i. pp, 400 -402).
Only two things are recorded of this visit of the Magi to Bethlehem: their humblest
Eastern homage, and their offerings.63 Viewed as gifts, the incense and the myrrh would,
indeed, have been strangely inappropriate. But their offerings were evidently intended as
specimens of the products of their country, and their presentation was, even as in our own
days, expressive of the homage of their country to the new-found King. In this sense,
then, the Magi may truly be regarded as the representatives of the Gentile world; their
homage as the first and typical acknowledgment of Christ by those who hitherto had been
'far off;' and their offerings as symbolic of the world's tribute. This deeper significance
the ancient Church has rightly apprehended, though, perhaps, mistaking its grounds. Its
symbolism, twining, like the convolvulus, around the Divine Plant, has traced in the gold
the emblem of His Royalty; in the myrrh, of His Humanity, and that in the fullest
evidence of it, in His burying; and in the incense, that of His Divinity. 64
63. Our A.V. curiously translates in v. 11, 'treasures,' instead of 'treasury -cases.' The
expression is exactly the same as in Deut. xxviii. 12, for which the LXX. use the same
words as the Evangelist. The expression is also used in this sense in the Apocr. and by
profane writers. Comp. Wetstein and Meyer ad locum. Jewish tradition also expresses the
expectancy that the nations of the world would offer gifts unto the Messiah. (Comp. Pes.
118 b; Ber. R. 78.).
64. So not only in ancient hymns (by Sedulius, Juvencus, and Claudian), but by the
Fathers and later writers. (Comp. Sepp, Leben Jesu, ii. 1, pp. 102, 103.)
As always in the history of Christ, so here also, glory and suffering appear in
juxtaposition. It could not be, that these Magi should become the innocent instruments of
Herod's murderous designs; nor yet that the Infant-Saviour should fall a victim to the
tyrant. Warned of God in a dream, the 'wise men' returned 'into their own country another
way;' and, warned by the angel of the Lord in a dream, the Holy Family sought temporary
shelter in Egypt. Baffled in the hope of attaining his object through the Magi, the reckless
tyrant sought to secure it by an indiscriminate slaughter of all the children in Bethlehem
and its immediate neighborhood, from two years and under. True, considering the