The Bible does not say the wise men followed the star from their homeland, only that they saw it in the east (Matthew 2:1-2). Indeed, they initially came to Jerusalem, to the palace of King Herod, where one would expect a “king of the Jews” (Herod’s title) to be born (Matthew 2:2). It was only after they left Herod’s palace, intending to go to Bethlehem as the king had advised them (Matthew 2:4-8), that they again saw the star, which “went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was (Matthew 2:9). Some early Christian traditions held that this was an angel in the guise of a star. Angels or “sons of God” are compared to stars in a number of biblical passages (Job 38:7; 14:12; Daniel 8:10; Revelation 1:20; 12:4, 7; Jude 1:13) and in early various pseudepigraphic texts, and even the fallen angels are so designated.
