Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.'” – Matthew 2:1-2
These “wise men from the east” were astrologers from Babylon who specialised in the studies of the stars, both science and superstition. The Bible never refers to them as kings, nor how many there were. At least two because it’s plural, but there were enough of them to stir up the whole Jewish capital (Matthew 2:3). In ancient times, astrology and astronomy were not separate disciplines. If anyone would recognise a new light in the heavens, it would be them, that was their profession. So just as God used the profession of the Jewish shepherds to find the right stable cave, He now uses the profession of these ancient astrologers/astronomers to notice that there’s a new light up in the heavens.
Their knowledge of the birth of the Messiah would have come from two sources. The first source, dealing with the star, would be the prophecy of Balaam found in Numbers 24:17. In this prophecy, the sceptre of kingship rising out of Israel is connected with a star out of Jacob. In other words, the coming of the King of the Jews will be signalled by a star. By profession, Balaam was also an astrologer who came from the city of Pethor located on the banks of the Euphrates River in Babylonia (Numbers 22:5; Deuteronomy 23:4).
The second source, dealing with the timing, would be the Book of Daniel which provided them the timetable for the Messiah’s First Coming (Daniel 9:24-27). When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, not only did he save the lives of all the Babylonian wise men, but he also became the head of the Babylonian School of Astrology. However, Daniel did not receive revelation from the stars but from the Creator of the stars. Through Daniel’s faith, many of the Babylonian astrologers turned away from the worship of the stars and began worshipping the God of Israel. So a line of Babylonian wise men from generation to generation worshipped Jehovah, the true God; and having the book written by their former head, they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the King of the Jews.
With Balaam’s prophecy and the Book of Daniel, we have a double Babylonian connection here. Just as God interacted with Balaam in the Hebrew Scriptures, He made sure that the astrologers of Babylon would have had knowledge of the star in relation to the coming Jewish King. Then centuries later, Daniel would have expounded Balaam’s prophecy to the Babylonian wise men as to when that star of Jacob would appear.
Now while these wise men in Matthew’s Gospel had the Book of Daniel, they did not have the Book of Micah which prophesied the location of the Messiah’s birth to be in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). For these wise men, the logical place where the King of the Jews would be born was Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, that’s why they went to Herod first.
