<p><span>2:4&nbsp;</span><em>And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born</em><span>- The priests are repeatedly described in the OT as the priests&nbsp;</span><em>of Yahweh</em><span>. Now they are merely the priests of the people, just as the OT &quot;the feasts of Yahweh&quot; become 'feasts of the Jews' in the Gospels. They hijacked Yahweh's religion and turned it into their own religion, meeting the basic religious needs of humans, rather than accepting His Truth for what it was. Biblically there was to only be one chief priest- but Israel now had several, hence the plural&nbsp;</span><em>chief priests</em><span>.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>&quot;Be born&quot; is Gk.&nbsp;<em>gennao</em>. Messiah was procreated, gendered, beginning within the womb of Mary- a concept incompatible with theories of a literal pre-existence of Christ.</p>
<p>Herod understood that the wise men were seeking the Messiah. This indicates that they were Jews who understood Messiah to be the King of Judah in David's line.</p>