Matthew 2:3

And all Jerusalem] They had good reason to be troubled. Only two years before, in a similar fit of jealous fear, Herod had slaughtered all the leading Pharisees (Jos. 'Antiq.'

17. 2).

the Second Missionary Journey. Joining the Apostle at Troas (Acts 16:10), he accompanied him to Philippi, where he was left behind, seemingly in pastoral charge of the newly-established Church (Acts 17:1). There he remained some years, probably engaged in evangelising the district, until St. Paul revisited Philippi on his Third Missionary Journey. He then accompanied the Apostle to Cæsarea, and Jerusalem (Acts 20:6; Acts 21:1), and finally to Rome (Acts 27).

Who was this companion? He cannot have been Silas (Silvanus), who was present at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:22), and would therefore have used the first person in describing it; nor Timothy, who is spoken of in the third person (Acts 17:14); nor Titus, who was a companion of the Apostle before the we-sections begin (Galatians 2:3), and therefore, had he been the author, would have begun the we-sections earlier. There remains Luke, who, in harmony with the indications of Acts, appears as a companion of St. Paul only in the later Epistles (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11), and who was certainly, as Acts indicates, with St. Paul at Rome (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). In Colossians 4:14, Luke is called the 'beloved physician,' and this again suits the author of Acts, who has an unusual (probably a professional) knowledge of medicine, and shows considerable acquaintance with the technical terms of the Greek medical writers (for instances see Acts 3:7; Acts 9:18; Acts 12:23; Acts 13:11; Acts 28:8, etc.). Internal evidence, therefore, points with certainty to a companion of St. Paul, and with considerable probability to St. Luke, as the author.

relation to God, and destined to establish the kingdom of God on earth.

Gifts] It was, and is, the Eastern custom not to approach monarchs and princes without a gift: Genesis 43:11; 1 Samuel 10:27; 1 Kings 10:2. The Magi brought to Jesus the most costly products of the countries in which they lived, as if to show that nothing is too precious to be used in the service of God. It is a mistake to think that spiritual worship is necessarily a bare worship, or that religion is purest when it is most divorced from art. Art and the love of beauty are among God's greatest gifts to man, and it is right that man in. worshipping should render of his best to God. The mystical interpretation of the gifts (gold, symbolising Christ's Royalty; frankincense, or incense, His Divinity; myrrh, His Passion, cp. John 19:39) is questionable. The Magi would not know that He was actually divine, still less that He would suffer.