Matthew 2:10-11 vs. “What Child Is This?”

Chris Tomlin (feat. All Sons & Daughters) · checked 2026-08-21

What we checked

PassageMatthew 2:10-11 chapter ↗

Translation shownBSB (Berean Standard Bible)

Presents itself asinspired-by

Categorynot a quote

AlbumAdore: Christmas Songs of Worship · 2015

Words addressed tonot addressed to God (sung about Him)

Teaching or experienceteaching (states truths)

Graded against the standard

Quotation criteria not graded: this song never presents its words as scripture

Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard

✓Reverent treatment

✓ What's good

Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no reference, no verse framing, nothing presented as scripture
The refrain answers its own question with the same thing Matthew 2:11 records happening, that this child is received with worship
Keeps all three gifts Matthew names, and keeps them as gifts brought in worship rather than as tribute or payment
The text is public domain and has been printed and indexed for over 150 years, so the wording can be checked against the 1871 first printing rather than taken on trust
The second stanza's answer to its own question is a point of doctrine the rest of the New Testament supports, even though it is not in this passage

⚠ Cautions

Matthew 2:11 puts the magi at a house. The manger and the shepherds in the first stanza are Luke's, so the scene the carol paints belongs to neither Gospel on its own
Matthew gives no interpretation of the gifts. Reading myrrh as a sign of burial is a long tradition, but it is laid over this passage rather than drawn out of it
Matthew gives no number of magi and never calls them kings. The carol's widening of the invitation to poor and royal alike is the poet's line, not the passage's
The sung text varies. Hymnary records refrain variants across hymnals, and the UMC's History of Hymns notes an omitted half stanza, so the version in front of you may not be the version someone else knows
Worship Together's page for this recording lists Isaiah 9:6 as the song's scripture reference, so even the platform that lists it is not sending singers to Matthew 2

Verse Proof

Matthew 2:10-11

The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight. On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

Matthew is writing the second scene of his infancy account. Magi from the east have followed a star, stopped in Jerusalem, and been pointed to Bethlehem by Herod's scribes reading Micah. These two verses are their arrival. Three details in them are easy to miss and matter here: the star's reappearance produces joy, the place they enter is a house rather than a stable, and the worship comes before the gifts. Matthew never says how many magi there were, never calls them kings, and never says what the three gifts mean. The chapter moves straight on to a warning dream and the escape to Egypt.

What the song says, described not quoted

The carol opens with a question about the identity of a child asleep in Mary's arms while shepherds keep watch and angels sing over him. The refrain answers the question in a single declaration, naming him as Christ the King and urging the hearer to hurry and praise him. The second stanza asks why he is lying in such poor conditions and answers with the reason he came, which in the fuller text runs on into images of nails and a spear. The third stanza turns to the hearer and tells them to bring the three gifts, naming incense before gold, and to make room for him in the heart. No verse is quoted and no reference is given anywhere in the text.

Matthew 2:11 reports one event that happened once: the magi opened their treasures and presented three gifts. The carol's third stanza turns that report into an instruction aimed at the person singing, who is told to bring the same three things. It also lists them in a different order and shortens frankincense to incense, which is a metre decision and not a statement about the text. The larger shift is the setting. Matthew says the magi came to the house. The carol's opening stanza is Luke's scene, with the manger and the shepherds, and the third stanza carries Matthew's gifts into it. Hymnary indexes the carol to both Luke 2 and Matthew 2:1-12, and the UMC's History of Hymns describes its first stanza as a condensing of Luke 2:8-16 and its last as drawing on the magi. So the picture the carol paints is a harmony of two Gospels, put together by the poet. One more thing is added rather than shifted. Matthew records the gifts and offers no interpretation of them. The familiar reading in which myrrh signals a burial is a tradition laid over the passage, not a line in it, and the carol's own death imagery sits in the second stanza rather than the third. Hymnary indexes those lines to the passion narratives in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19, which is where that content comes from.

· Not a quote: The carol cites no verse and never says it is quoting. It assembles Luke's manger scene and Matthew's gifts into a single picture. It turns Matthew's report of what the magi did into an instruction to the singer.

▸ Official upload. Now listen with the proof in mind.

Matthew never says what the three gifts mean, and never puts the magi at the manger.

Why it matters

For most people the nativity is one scene, and this carol is one of the places it gets built. Shepherds and magi stand at the same manger because carols, cards and school plays have always put them there. Neither Gospel does. Matthew's magi arrive at a house and Herod's later order, aimed at boys two years old and under, suggests some time has passed. None of that makes the carol wrong, because it never says it is reporting. It matters because a picture learned by singing is very hard to unlearn by reading, and the difference between the two accounts is one of the things Matthew's chapter is doing on purpose.

Is it safe to dwell on?

Sung on repeat, this song fixes your attention on God.

What repetition plants here is a declaration of identity, and it is a good one to have planted. The carol asks who the child is and then answers, and the answer is the thing Matthew 2:11 shows rather than argues: this is the one people fall down in front of. Almost every word is about him, which is why the dwelling tag is God rather than mixed. The second thing it plants is the composite picture, shepherds and magi at one manger, and that will settle in alongside the declaration whether you intend it or not. Neither is a reason to stop singing. It is a reason to read Matthew 2 through once in December, so the carol has the chapter behind it instead of standing in for it.

Helpful comparison

The carol is also a shortened thing in its own right, and the shortening is documented. Dix's original poem ran to five stanzas in "Four Joyful Hymns for Christmas Tide", printed in London around 1865, and Hymnary describes the hymn text as Dix's own modification of it. Three stanzas were set to GREENSLEEVES for Bramley and Stainer's "Christmas Carols New and Old" in 1871, which is the version nearly everyone sings. Hymnals then kept editing: Hymnary records some that replace the refrain's third line with a repeat of its opening declaration, and the UMC's History of Hymns notes its hymnal leaving out the original second half of a stanza. This is the ordinary life of a hymn text, and it is the reason a carol is worth checking against a printed source rather than against memory.

Sources

Chris Tomlin, What Child Is This? feat. All Sons & Daughters (ChrisTomlinVEVO) · (the recording checked for this proof; oEmbed returns author_name ChrisTomlinVEVO)
Hymnary.org text authority, "What Child is this, who, laid to rest" · (author W. Chatterton Dix, public domain, 250 hymnals; the text described as Dix's own modification of his poem "The Manger Throne, 1865"; refrain variants across hymnals; the scripture index listing Luke 2, Matthew 2:1-12 and the passion narratives)
Hymns and Carols of Christmas, "What Child Is This" version 1 · (the 1871 first printing in Bramley and Stainer's "Christmas Carols New and Old, First Series", carol 14, with the editor's variant notes)
Hymns and Carols of Christmas, "The Manger Throne" · (Dix's original five-stanza poem, from "Four Joyful Hymns for Christmas Tide", London: G. J. Palmer, circa 1865, with textual variants noted)
UMC Discipleship Ministries, History of Hymns: "What Child Is This" · (Dix as an Anglican layman and insurance manager; the first stanza as a condensing of Luke 2:8-16; the final stanza drawing on the magi's gifts; the hymnal omitting the original second half of a stanza)
Worship Together, What Child Is This (Chris Tomlin) · (the publisher's page: CCLI 7050421, three verses with a refrain and no added sections, scripture reference given as Isaiah 9:6, writer listed as Chris Tomlin)
Wikipedia, Adore: Christmas Songs of Worship · (album released 23 October 2015 on sixstepsrecords and Sparrow; track 7 features All Sons & Daughters and credits the words to William Chatterton Dix)
Wikipedia, What Child Is This? · (text written 1865, set to GREENSLEEVES and first published in 1871 in "Christmas Carols New and Old" edited by Bramley and Stainer)

Corrections

2026-09-06 This entry argued from "the publisher" when it meant worshiptogether.com. That site is the song-resource platform Capitol CMG Publishing runs, not the song's publisher, and it carries songs Capitol CMG does not publish, so a scripture list on it is the platform's rather than the songwriters'. The site had already corrected this wording on the Ephesians 2:4-6 entry on 2026-08-07. The finding is unchanged; only who published the reference.

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