When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
All Commentaries on Matthew 2:9 Go To Matthew 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
As soon as Herod had heard the answer, though doubly authenticated, both by the authority of the Priests, and the passage from the Prophets, he yet turned not to worship the King that was to be born, but sought how he might put Him to death by subtilty. He saw that the Magi were neither to be won by flattery, nor awed by threats, nor bribed by gifts, to consent to this murder; he sought therefore to deceive them; “he privily called the wise men;” that the Jews, whom he suspected, might not know of it. For he thought they would incline the rather to a King of their own nation.
Or, the star appeared to them long time before, because the journey would takeup some time, and they were to stand before Him immediately on His birth, that seeing Him in swaddling clothes, He might seem the more wonderful.
“Concerning the young Child,” he says, not ‘of the King;’ he envies Him there gal title.
