What Does Matthew 2:2 Mean?
Saying, Where is the one who has been brought forth King of the Jews? For we perceived his star in the east, and came to bow down before him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.THE KEY
The “east” where the star appears is literally “the rising”, and the same Greek word can name the Branch who springs up.
THE MEANING
A sign rising at the edge of sight draws the visitors toward a kingship they do not expect to find in a child. They arrive and bow down; the Greek verb proskyneō (προσκυνέω) means “to bow down” or “prostrate oneself,” making their recognition a bodily posture.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that kingship is recognizable only where power is already expected: here the sign appears far away, and the king is found in a child.
THE ROOT
ἀνατολή
anatolē
GROWS FROM
ἀνατέλλω
anatellō
To rise, come up, or spring forth.
The Greek word for “east” is anatolē (ἀνατολή), meaning “rising” or “sunrise.” In the Greek text of Zechariah 6:12, anatolē (ἀνατολή) is also the title translated “Branch,” so the star’s direction carries the language of something springing up, not only a place on a compass.
ALSO GROWS
anatellō: To rise or spring up, as the sun does.
ἀνατέλλω
Its verb form makes the star’s “east” an emergence, not merely a location.
anatolē: A rising, sunrise, or east; in the Greek text of Zechariah 6:12, “Branch.”
ἀνατολή
The same word joins the star’s rising direction with the image of a shoot coming into view.
THE PATTERN
The sign of the arriving ruler draws distant peoples and kings into recognition.
I see him, but not now; I gaze upon him, but not near. A star shall tread out of Jacob, and a rod shall rise out of Israel, and shatter the edges of Moab, and lay low all the children of Sheth.And nations shall walk to your light, and kings to the glow of your rising.All kings bow down before him, and all nations serve him.THE THREAD
And speak to him, saying, Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the Sprout; and he shall sprout up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.In the Greek text of Zechariah, the title translated “Branch” is anatolē (ἀνατολή), meaning “rising” or “east”, the same word Matthew uses for the star’s direction. What appears to be a location also carries the image of what rises and springs forth.
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