1. Matthew 2:2 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

How did the ancient world regard extraordinary appearances of stars?

Matthew 2:2 (ESV)

2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

In the Greco-Roman world, it was commonly held that the birth (and death) of great men was heralded by the appearance of a star or a similar heavenly phenomenon (meteorite or comet).1