{9} After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. {10} When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. {11} On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
Do you see the part where it talks about the THREE Wisemen?
Me neither.
See, people always assume that because there were three gifts, there must have been three Magi. But the reality is, the Bible doesn't actually say. We just know there was more than one wiseguy, and they brought three presents to Baby Jesus.
Who was, in fact, uh, not a baby anymore.
*shocked face*
"On coming to the house..." *buzzer sound* Jesus was born in a stable. The mention of him being in a house suggests that it was a while after Jesus's birth when the However-Many Wisemen showed up. Mary and Joseph had relocated to somewhere a little less animalistic to raise the son of God.
To me that makes more sense anyway, because the star the Magi followed wouldn't have appeared until Jesus was actually born. I mean, the star was said to represent a king's birth, not his due date. So the Wise Men didn't see the star in the West--
Hm? Do I have it wrong? Was the star in the East?
In verse 2 up there, the Wise Men do say, "We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
And then there's...
*hums The First Noel*
"They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the East beyond them far."
We've come to think of the star being in the East because of that song, and sometimes because of the Bible verse. But guess what?
That's not what the Wise Men meant.
The star was leading the Magi to the West. The Wise Men were IN the East, probably somewhere around Iraq, I believe. So when they say "We saw his star in the east," they don't mean the STAR was in the east; they mean that THEY were in the east when they saw it.
The Not-Such-A-Baby-Anymore Jesus was westward in Bethlehem, near Jerusalem. So yeah. The Star was in the West, the Magi were in the East.
And there you have it. Three commonly known "facts" about the Wise Men busted.
So, with only four days until Christmas, I'mma give you this:
FOUR WISE MEN :D
~Stephanie
That's what bugs me. The entire nativity scene is wrong. Wise men, Jesus age, the location where it happened, the supposed Dec 25 date.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they're called Magi and not wise men is note worthy as God made known what he thought of Magi earlier on in the Bible.
Another question is why did the star lead the Magi to Herod first, who's only goal was to find Jesus to kill him, especially since he'd already announced Jesus birth by means of angels to shepherds when Jesus was actually a baby in a manger?
I think the Wise Men visiting Herod was more a courtesy call. I also wonder if they had recently lost sight of the star and needed guidance, because of how it says in verse 10, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed." Kinda makes it sound like they were relieved.
ReplyDelete~Stephanie