Matteo 2:4

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

Not the entire Sanhedrin, or Great Council of the Jewish people, for that included also the elders, many of whom Herod had put to death, but the chief priests, the present incumbent of the office as well as former high priests; and the scribes, who were also political officers, assisting the civil magistrates in the role of confidential secretaries and statisticians. All of these were men of letters.

Here again was a political move planned to strengthen Herod's tottering prestige: to be summoned to a secret meeting might be thought a rare distinction by the Jewish leaders. And Herod, accustomed as he was to commanding, in this instance was very careful about couching his request in polite, though urgent, terms. The question he submitted was a theological one: Where, according to the transmitted records, according to the accepted tradition, is the birthplace of the Christ?

The answer of the Jewish theologians savors of a hidden satisfaction: