The Star in the East

The wise men came from the east—from the anatolai, or the “lands of the rising sun.” That is also where they saw the bright star: en tē anatolē, in the eastern sky, shining in the direction of sunrise (Matthew 2). This is the first strange thing. Maybe we picture the wise men “following the star” in a physical sense, pointing their camels toward it like a GPS beacon hovering over the otherwise unmarked coordinates of some unheeded donkey shack in Bethlehem. That’s what it looks like they’re doing on most greeting cards, anyway.