If we are to go by the popular pictures of the nativity, Jesus was born in a stable surrounded at one and the same time by his parents, a raft of animals and three wise men from the East. As we have noted before, Jesus was neither born in a stable nor cast out of the local hotels. But it certainly is true that wise men from the East followed a star and came to find Jesus.

There are two common assumptions made about the visit of the magi. First, based on Matthew 2:10-11, it is assumed they must have come some time after the birth because they find Jesus and his family in a house. But this assumption is based on the prior assumption that Jesus was born in a stable. If there was no room for Jesus in the inn so he was born in the stable, the house being referred to it is assumed must be somewhere else a little while after he was born.

Second, when Herod realises he had been tricked by the magi, he orders the mass killing of all children under two in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. Because Herod was wiping out everyone under the age of two, it is assumed that the wise men must have visited Jesus some considerable time after the birth for Herod to reach this conclusion.

Two things seem worth noting that make the first assumption faulty. First, Bethlehem Ephrathah is about 6 miles South of Jerusalem. We are not, then, talking many months journey to arrive in Bethlehem. Even had the Magi walked, they’d have made it in about 2 hours so there is no reason to assume a huge time delay between leaving Herod’s palace and arriving in Bethlehem.

Second, as noted at the top, Jesus wasn’t born in a stable. He was born in a normal family home. Ian Paul sets out the case fulsomely here. Related to that, as Stephen Carlson has convincingly argued here, the word translated inn is better understood to mean place to stay and there are various clues in the text to suggest that the lack of space was to do with the size of the room they were in. If Jesus was born in a normal family home, then the wise men could have turned up on the day he was born, finding ‘the place where the child was’ and go ‘into the house’ to worship him. Given it is only 6 miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, it is certainly practically possible.

On the second assumption, the text itself gives us some key details. Herod gets two important pieces of information from two different sources. First, in 2:4-5, he summons the chief priests and scribes to find out where the Messiah will be born and narrows his search to Bethlehem Ephrathah. Second, in v7, Herod finds out from the magi when the star in the East first appeared. Armed with those two pieces of information, he later attempts to kill all the children in the Bethlehem region aged two and under. We don’t know if the star rose when Jesus was born or whether it preceded his birth, the magi simply assert we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ The age of the child has been determined by the account of the wise men of when the star first rose to the point at which he decides to kill the children.

Second, the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and so left for their own country another way. Some time after the departure of the wise men (we do not know how much longer later), Joseph was also warned in a dream to leave Bethlehem and head to Egypt to escape Herod. Evidently, it wasn’t until Mary and Joseph had fled with Jesus that Herod realised he had been tricked by the Magi and began his assault on the infants in the region of Bethlehem. Herod did not realise he had been tricked by the Magi until they had left for their own country.

Finally, there are a range of things we simply don’t know. We don’t know if the star the magi saw rose when Jesus was born or whether it preceded his birth. The magi simply assert ‘we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ We don’t know how long Herod expected the magi to be in Bethlehem and return back to him in Jerusalem. Was he expecting a day trip, a week, a few months? Similarly, we don’t know how long the magi actually remained in Bethlehem. Whatever Herod was expecting, Matthew doesn’t tell us how long they actually stayed. We similarly don’t know how long after they left Bethlehem it took Herod to realise they weren’t coming back. It could have been a matter of days but may be a matter of months or longer. We don’t even know what specifically tipped Herod off that he’d been tricked. The natural assumption is the time elapsed, but Matthew doesn’t tell us what made him realise they weren’t coming back and when it became clear to him.

Taking all that together, what can we say about when the magi visited Jesus? Given Herod’s calculations, it was almost certainly within two years of the birth. But there is no reason to insist the magi themselves must have visited Jesus two years after his birth. There is good reason to believe that some time elapsed between the magi leaving Bethlehem and Herod realising he had been tricked. Just because Herod calculated the age of Jesus from the rising star to the date of his infanticide doesn’t mean that he was right about when Jesus was born. There is every reason to see him hedging his bets and taking the largest possible calculation to ensure he got his man, it doesn’t mean his calculation is correct. Nor should we believe that because Herod calculated two years up to his infanticide – even if he was right about the date – that the Magi had only just visited Mary and Joseph at that point. All of which is to say it is difficult to pinpoint but Longman and Garland suggest ‘The two-years-age limit was to prevent Jesus’ escape; the the time he was between six and twenty months old.’

What difference does it make to our understanding of the nativity? Frankly, not much. I’m not sure it makes a huge difference whether the magi were arriving early on or two years later (so I bet you’re glad you’ve bothered reading this far!) What is significant about the visit is not so much the timing as the point that, whilst the apparent king of the Jews rejects Jesus and seeks to kill him, those from outside Israel come to worship him. The religious leaders in Israel are also setup in the early chapters as in league with Herod, and therefore effectively in league with Rome by proxy, and Matthew’s narrative presents all of them in opposition to the Lord Jesus himself who is often recognised for who he is by those outside of Israel (like the magi) and those inside Israel who are similarly outcast by those who oppose Jesus.