What Does Matthew 2:4 Mean?
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he asked them where the Anointed One was to be born.
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
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.THE KEY
The title “Christ” means “the Anointed One,” so the question asks where this marked identity is born.
THE MEANING
This question comes to you now: where is the Anointed One to be born? It asks for more than a place; the title names someone marked through anointing, and the verse holds the question open.
THE ROOT
Χριστός
Christos
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint, applying oil; Χριστός names one who has been anointed.
English can make “Christ” sound like a surname, but Χριστός (Christos, “the Anointed One”) carries the act of anointing within the title. The question is about the birthplace of the one marked by that act.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: to anoint
χρίω
This verb names the action contained in the title Χριστός (Christos, “the Anointed One”).
chrîsma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This noun names the anointing itself, showing that the title and the act share the same Greek root.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the promised one through the language of anointing across Hebrew and Greek.
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers sit down together against the LORD and against his anointed one, saying,How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the Anointed One.THE THREAD
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.Matthew’s question uses Χριστός (Christos, “Anointed One”), while Acts says God ἔχρισεν (échrisen, “anointed”) Jesus from the same root χρίω (chriō, “to anoint”). The title in Matthew carries the very action Acts names.
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