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 be born. In this verse they tell him by quoting from the Book of Micah.

Content

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The World English Bible translates the passage as:
For a collection of other versions see

Analysis

This verse is taken from. Unlike the previous time Matthew quoted the Old Testament in the wording does not seem to be taken from the Septuagint, rather it seems to be an original translation from the Hebrew. Matthew's version differs substantially from both the Septuagint and Masoretic.
Matthew's translation has several important differences from that found in the Septuagint. The King James Version of Micah 5:2, based on the Septuagint, reads:
Ephratah was a town near the Bethlehem in Judea. Some disambiguation is needed as there was at least one other town named Bethlehem at the time. Both referencing a larger neighbour and the province were accepted methods of disambiguation at the time, but the question is why Matthew changes the form. Two other references to Bethlehem being in Judea in and show that Matthew felt that showing Jesus was born in Judea was important. In this verse he does not use the same spelling he did previously, thus also linking to the Old Testament figure Judah.
The second line is almost reversed in meaning by the author of Matthew. The original states that Bethlehem was a town of little importance that great thing would happen in. Matthew states that it is not a town of little because great things would happen there.
Brown also reports that Matthew replaces the word ruler in the original, perhaps to emphasize that despite what most Jews were predicting the messiah would not be a political figure, only a spiritual one.
The portion of Micah where this quote is found is clearly discussing the messiah and states that like King David the messiah's origin would be in Bethlehem. At the time it was not widely accepted that the messiah would necessarily be born in Bethlehem, just that his ancestors would have been. It was thus not considered essential for a messiah to be someone born in that town, but it was considered a reasonable locale for a messiah to originate. Far more reasonable than the peripheral and little known town of Nazareth in Galilee where Jesus grew up.