The story in Matthew 2 is organized around four scriptural quotations (2:5–6, 15, 17–18, and 23) that ground Jesus’s identity as king and bringer of restoration and authorize Jesus as true king of Israel. The chapter also serves to introduce a key conflict in Matthew’s story. Jesus as Messiah-King, even in his infancy, is understood as a threat to the existing political structures represented by Herod (73–4 BC), king of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Near Eastern territories beyond Galilee. Herod, an Idumean by ethnicity, was granted rule over the Jews by Rome in 40 BC because of his allegiance. His position as king is emphasized at 2:1, 3, 9. The Jewish leaders (“chief priests and teachers of the law”; 2:4), whom Herod consults when he hears about a rival “king of the Jews,” should …