Annotation IX

”We have seen his star.” — Matthew 2:2

Whether the prophecy of Numbers 24 is to be understood of the star seen by the Magi.

Ambrose [Catharinus], bishop of Compsa [Conza], in the second book of [his] Annotations, refutes Thomas Cajetan; because, examining this passage, [Cajetan] denied that that Balaamic prophecy of Numbers 24 — “A star shall arise out of Jacob,” etc. — signified the rising of the star which pointed out Christ’s birth: against the authority of all the holy fathers, among whom Jerome, in the first commentary on Matthew, says: “For the confounding of the Jews — that they might learn Christ’s nativity from the gentiles — a star arises in the East, which Balaam (whose successors [the Magi] were) had known by prophecy would come to be. Read on this the book of Numbers.” This [says] Jerome.