And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:12)
At the end of Sunday’s Gospel for the Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus to the Magi – representing all nations – these mysterious Easterners dream together God’s dream.
Their journey had been prompted by observing a new star and linking it to a Jewish prophecy, likely that from the book of Numbers: "A star shall come out of Jacob; a scepter shall rise out of Israel" (24:17).
Upon arrival at Herod’s palace, they honed their search to Bethlehem. Herod’s scribes had quoted their own Scriptures wrongly, as the Gospel of Matthew recounts: they had said Bethlehem was "by no means least among the rulers of Judah" (Matthew 2:6) despite the fact that the text from Micah that they were citing (5:2) stated the opposite – that this town was the lowliest. Maybe Matthew includes this detail to show that the scribes had a worldly idea of the Messiah and so could not countenance him coming from a humble place.
