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

(d) The chief priests, that is, such as were of Aaron's family, who were divided into twenty-four orders. 1Ch 24:5 2Ch 36:14.

(e) They that expound the law to the people, for the Hebrews take this word for another, which means as much as to expound and to declare.

People's New Testament

2:4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes together. Literally, high priests. The high priests, and perhaps the heads of the twenty-four courses of priests, are included. See 1Ch 24:1-19. The scribes were the successors of Ezra, the official copyists of the Scripture, who naturally became its expounders, and were the theologians of the time of Christ. The priests, as the head of the Jewish religion, and the scribes, as the chief expounders of the Scriptures, were the proper persons to answer Herod's question.

Where Christ should be born. This demand concedes: (1) That the Jews expected a Messiah; (2) That the Scriptures had foretold his coming; (3) That the very place of his birth had been pointed out.

Wesley's Notes

2:4 The chief priests - That is, not only the high priest and his deputy, with those who formerly had borne that office: but also the chief man in each of those twenty - four courses, into which the body of priests were divided, 1Chron 24:6-19. The scribes were those whose peculiar business it was to explain the Scriptures to the people. They were the public preachers, or expounders of the law of Moses. Whence the chief of them were called doctors of the law.

Scofield Reference Notes

[2] Scribes

Gr. "grammateis," = "writer." Heb. "spherim," "to write," "set in order," "count." The scribes were Song called because it was their office to make copies of the Scriptures; to classify and teach the precepts of oral law See Scofield Note: "Mt 3:7" and to keep careful count of every letter in the O.T. writings. Such an office was necessary in a religion of law and precept, and was an O.T. function 2Sam 8:17 20:25 1Ki 4:3 Jer 8:8 36:10,12,26. To this legitimate work the scribes added a record of rabbinical decisions on questions of ritual (Halachoth); the new code resulting from those decisions (Mishna); the Hebrew sacred legends (Gemara, forming with the Mishna the Talmud); commentaries on the O.T. (Midrashim); reasonings upon these (Hagada); and finally, mystical interpretations which found in Scripture meanings other than the grammatical, lexical, and obvious ones (the Kabbala); not unlike the allegorical method of Origen, or the modern Protestant "spiritualizing" interpretation. In our Lord's time, to receive this mass of writing superposed upon the Scriptures was to be orthodox; to return to the Scriptures themselves was heterodoxy--our Lord's most serious offence.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together-The class of the "chief priests" included the high priest for the time being, together with all who had previously filled this office; for though the then head of the Aaronic family was the only rightful high priest, the Romans removed them at pleasure, to make way for creatures of their own. In this class probably were included also the heads of the four and twenty courses of the priests. The "scribes" were at first merely transcribers of the law and synagogue readers; afterwards interpreters of the law, both civil and religious, and so both lawyers and divines. The first of these classes, a proportion of the second, and "the elders"-that is, as Lightfoot thinks, "those elders of the laity that were not of the Levitical tribe"-constituted the supreme council of the nation, called the Sanhedrim, the members of which, at their full complement, numbered seventy-two. That this was the council which Herod now convened is most probable, from the solemnity of the occasion; for though the elders are not mentioned, we find a similar omission where all three were certainly meant (compare Mt 26:59; 27:1). As Meyer says, it was all the theologians of the nation whom Herod convened, because it was a theological response that he wanted.

he demanded of them-as the authorized interpreters of Scripture.

where Christ-the Messiah.

should be born-according to prophecy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-8 Those who live at the greatest distance from the means of grace often use most diligence, and learn to know the most of Christ and his salvation. But no curious arts, or mere human learning, can direct men unto him. We must learn of Christ by attending to the word of God, as a light that shineth in a dark place, and by seeking the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And those in whose hearts the day-star is risen, to give them any thing of the knowledge of Christ, make it their business to worship him. Though Herod was very old, and never had shown affection for his family, and was not himself likely to live till a new-born infant had grown up to manhood, he began to be troubled with the dread of a rival. He understood not the spiritual nature of the Messiah's kingdom. Let us beware of a dead faith. A man may be persuaded of many truths, and yet may hate them, because they interfere with his ambition, or sinful indulgences. Such a belief will make him uneasy, and the more resolved to oppose the truth and the cause of God; and he may be foolish enough to hope for success therein.