Matthew 2:4 is the fourth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. The magi

Biblical Magi

The Magi Greek: μάγοι, magoi), also referred to as the Wise Men, Kings, Astrologers, or Kings from the East, were a group of distinguished foreigners who were said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh...

 have informed King Herod

Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...

 that they had seen portents showing the birth of the King of the Jews

Jewish Messiah

Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...

. In this verse he calls together leading figures of Jerusalem to find out where Jesus was to be born.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

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 World English Bible

World English Bible

The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...

 translates the passage as:

Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of

the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 2:5

Most scholars take the reference to "all the chief priests and scribes" as referring to the Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...

, the council of leading religious figures that played an important role in governing. Some have argued that the phrase "all the chief priests" is incorrect as there was only one chief priest at the time. Brown

Raymond E. Brown

The Reverend Raymond Edward Brown, S.S. , was an American Roman Catholic priest, a member of the Sulpician Fathers and a major Biblical scholar of his era...

 notes that this phrase occurs in other contemporary documents and refers to the leading priests and also the former chief priests.

A more important difficulty with this passage is its historical implausibility. Records from that period show that Herod and the Sanhedrin were sharply divided and their relations acrimonious. Schweizer states that Herod calling and consulting with the council is "historically almost inconceivable." Schweizer believes that the introduction of the Jewish leaders is simply a device so that there will be someone to quote the Old Testament passage that appears in Matthew 2:6

Matthew 2:6

Matthew 2:6 is the sixth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The magi have informed King Herod that they had seen portents showing the birth of the King of the Jews. Herod has asked the leading Jewish religious figures about how to find out where Jesus was to...

. As with the wording of the previous verse many scholars also see this linking of the Jewish leaders and Herod as an example of Christian anti-Semitism. Gundry

Robert H. Gundry

Robert Horton Gundry is a Biblical scholar. He received a B.A. and a B.D. degree from the Los Angeles Baptist College and Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Manchester University in Manchester, England in 1961 and has taught for several decades at Westmont College in California...

 agrees that the verse is politically motivated and a deliberate foreshadowing of the persecution of Jesus and his church by the leaders of Jerusalem. He notes that at the time the priest were largely Sadducees

Sadducees

The Sadducees were a sect or group of Jews that were active in Ancient Israel during the Second Temple period, starting from the second century BC through the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The sect was identified by Josephus with the upper social and economic echelon of Judean society...

 while the scribes were mostly Pharisees

Pharisees

The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...

. Thus the specific mentioning of the two groups might be a deliberate attempt to tar both leading Jewish factions.

Also notable about this verse is that King Herod, who has only heard that the King of the Jews

Jewish Messiah

Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...

 had been born, asks about the Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

, or the messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

.

That the magi, who first noted the star, do not know and are not even asked about where the messiah might be born is a sign that they are ignorant of Jewish scripture. This is evidence to Brown that they are Gentiles, which is also supported by verse 12's suggestion that they were foreigners: "And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way." John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...

believed that they were from Persia.