Matthew 2:4

After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ¹  he asked them where the Christ ²  was to be born.

1Ch 24:4-19; 2Ch 34:13,15; 2Ch 36:14; Ezr 7:6,11,12; Ezr 10:5; Ne 12:7; Ps 2:2; Jer 8:8; Mal 2:7; Mt 7:29; Mt 13:52; Mt 21:15,23; Mt 26:3,47; Mt 27:1; Mr 8:31; Lu 20:19; Lu 23:10; Joh 3:10; Joh 7:32; Joh 8:3; Joh 18:3; Ac 4:5; Ac 6:12; Ac 23:9

¹ tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.