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From where did the wise men come?
Matthew: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him” ([ii, 1, 2]).
By the “East” was meant Persia or India, and from one of these countries the Magi are popularly supposed to have come.
Justin Martyr says: “When a star rose in heaven at the time of his birth, as is recorded in the ‘Memoirs’ of his Apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognizing the sign by this, came and worshiped him” (Dialogues, cvi).
If they came from Arabia, as this Christian father declares, they came not from the East, but from the South.