---
title: Matthew 2:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-2-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-2-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 2:10
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 2:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "On seeing the star, they rejoiced with great joy."

## JW Usage

The Watchtower teaches that the star was not from God but a device of Satan, since it led the astrologers first to Herod, whose response was the massacre of the infants. Witnesses do not celebrate the nativity, and the joy of the magi is not treated as a model for anything. Astrology is condemned, and the visitors' occupation is emphasised.

## Protestant Usage

Matthew shows no discomfort at all. He records the joy without qualification, and in the next verse the magi fall down before the child and present their treasures. If the writer had thought the whole episode satanic, this is an odd way to tell it. There is a larger point behind the argument about the star. These are Gentile astrologers — outsiders, practising something Israel's law condemned — and God meets them where they are, using something in their own frame of reference to bring them to Christ. That is the same pattern as Paul at the Areopagus, preaching from a pagan altar and quoting a hymn to Zeus. It is worth raising gently in a conversation about whether things with pagan associations can be redeemed. Matthew's answer is that God has already done it — he drew idolatrous stargazers to the manger. Note also verse 11: the magi fall down before a child. Compare Acts 17:23, Luke 2:13, Psalms 24:1.

## NWT Issue

The following verse is where the NWT's practice shows. Matthew 2:11 reads "falling down, they did obeisance to him." The Greek verb is proskyneo, and the NWT translates it "worship" when God is the object but "do obeisance" when Jesus is — the same word, rendered two ways according to who receives it. The distinction is not in the Greek. It appears again at Matthew 14:33 and 28:9, and most sharply at Hebrews 1:6, where God tells the angels to render it to the Son.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Holidays Are Not Pagan — Read Jeremiah 10 to Verse 5](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Colossians 2:16-17 / Jeremiah 10:5 [Practice]