When the Magi arrived in Jerusalem, scripture records,
(1) Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,(2) 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.[Matthew 2:1–2 KJV]
Pay close attention to verse two where it reads, “For we saw His star in the east.” This is the only explicit mention of what has become commonly known as the star of Bethlehem—a convenient label used to refer to whatever it was the Magi saw. Volumes have been written speculating and hypothesizing precisely what this was, but it all starts here—“we saw his star in the east.” [1]
As is often the case, scripture frequently contains details that are not always apparent at face value, and such is the case here as well. In the record in Matthew involving the Magi there are three remarkably similar phrases in English, found in verses one, two, and nine.
- Verse one: “…there came wise men from the east…”
- Verse two: “…we have seen his star in the east…”
- Verse nine: “…the star, which they saw in the east, went before them…”
In the Greek, two of these three phrases are virtually identical, but the third however is slightly different and thereby reveals a key point in discovering what the Magi saw. The phrase “in the east” in verses two and nine is en te anatole in Greek, while the phrase “from the east” in verse one is apo anatolen. Anatole is singular—anatolen is plural.
The key to understanding both of these phrases and therefore the distinction between them, is to understand that the Greek word anatole does not literally mean “east” in either usage.The word “east” is only an implication derived from how the word anatole is commonly used. [2] The word anatole literally means “a rising” and is used in secular Greek literature to refer to the rising of the sun. [3] [4] Therefore, when the word is used in the singular, anatole, it means what it literally means—a rising. When it is used in the plural however, anatolen, it refers to the repeated risings of the sun, and therefore by implication the direction East.
To clarify, allow me to be blunt.
- When used in the singular, the word anatole should be translated “rising” or an equivalent. To translate it “east” is incorrect.
- When used in the plural, the word anatolen can appropriately be implied to refer to the direction East, and it is correct to translate it that way.
Other uses of anatole and anatolen in the Bible bear this out. Singular uses refer to a rising, whereas plural uses refer to the direction East. [5]
Thus, the New International Version renders these verses correctly.
…and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” [Matthew 2:2 NIV]
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. [Matthew 2:9 NIV]
This distinction helps us know what to look for, a celestial object in the rising.
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[1] Note the Magi referred to it as “his” star, using the Greek personal pronoun autou.
[2] The concept of using the word for rising to refer to the direction east (where the sun rises) is common to many cultures and has analogs in many languages—the Latin Orient, French Levant, Russian Vostok, Greek Anatolia, and Hebrew Mizrahi, plus others, literally mean “rising” but are all used to imply the direction east.
[3] Thayer’s Greek Lexicon.
[4] Or the rising of the moon, or a star, planet, or other celestial object.
[5] See Matthew 8:11 (plural), Matthew 24:27 (plural), Luke 1:78 (singular), Luke 13:29 (plural), Revelation 7:2, 16:12, 21:13 (all plural).
Copyright 2018 © Tim Keyes