No big deal. Jupiter, known for thousands of years as the Planet of Kings, dancing out a halo above Regulus, known for as many years as the Star of Kings. A coronation. And it appeared directly over central Israel for anyone watching from Babylon. Each of the words means King. For complete details visit www. By the way… those wise men of the Christmas story, and Daniel from years earlier, and Balaam from years before that… were all from a nation that is known today as Iraq. In the history of Israel, Bethlehem is uniquely the city of David.
And it was from there that God was to send the deliverer of His people. One theory is that they might have been Kings of the Yemen, as during this time the Kings of Yemen were Jews. Three is only a guess because they brought with them three gifts: but however many there were of them, they probably would have had many more servants with them. They were certainly men of great learning. The word Magi comes from the greek word 'magos' where the english word 'magic' comes from.
Magos itself comes from the old persian word 'Magupati'. This was the title given to priests in a sect of the ancient Persian religions such as Zoroastrianism. Today we'd called them astrologers. Back then astronomy and astrology were part of the same overall studies and 'science' and went hand in hand with each other. The magi would have followed the patterns of the stars religiously.
They would have also probably been very rich and held high esteem in their own society and by people who weren't from their country or religion. They had seen an unusual new star in the sky, and knew that it told of the birth of a special king in Israel.
Eusebius and Epiphanius, reasoning from Matthew , put the coming of the Magi two years after His birth. And others have thought the 6th of January selected for convenience, rather than as having any direct chronological connection with the event. If we now ask the grounds upon which, aside from this tradition, the coming of the wise men is placed so soon after the birth, and before the presentation in the Temple, the more important are these: first, "now when Jesus was born" Matthew , implies that the one event speedily followed the other.
Second, directly after the presentation, Jesus went with His parents to Nazareth Luke 2 , and that therefore the presentation must have been preceded by their visit. Thirdly, at the coming of the Magi, Herod first heard of the birth of Jesus, but if the presentation at the Temple had previously taken place, he must have heard of it, as it had been made public by Anna Luke But none of these reasons is decisive.
There is nothing that proves that they came as soon as He was born, or that an interval of two months may not have elapsed. God hid them from Herod until His purposes were fulfilled. This is the same God who sustained Elijah in Sidon, the native region of Jezebel until the rains fell.
Scripture declares in Colossians "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Therefore the Lord was not a baby when the wise men visited Him with their gifts. But certainly He was well under two years old in His earthly abode when the wise men saw Him. This becomes obvious because king Herod decreed children under the age of two to be slaughtered.
Thus though we are not told at what age the wise men saw Jesus I may guess thatHe was certainly above one year old but below two years old because our Lord is being repeatedly addressed as child Jesus not baby Jesus by the Inspired writer.
Therefore the picture of our Lord which we see in Christmas cards showing wise men falling down or kneeling before Him while Lord Jesus lying in a manger has no scriptural basis.
Gary Wofford The facts in the Bible don't give us either detail of when or where the Magi found Jesus. Luke 2 tells us clearly that Mary and Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem and that Jesus was born there. Then, Mary and Joseph went to the purification rights in Jerusalem. This is done at 40 days after the birth of a child. So Jesus likely stayed in Bethlehem days 0 to almost 40 days of age. Mary was considered "unclean" until these rights were completed.
The rights take 40 days to complete, so after 80 days old, they went back "to their own town of Nazareth. The Bible doesn't tell us how old Jesus was or where he was when the Magi visited, but after 80 days old he moved to Nazareth and likely stayed there until his visit to Egypt.
Herod ordered the killing of the babies in and around Bethlehem under two years old, but that doesn't mean that Jesus was almost two when the Magi arrived, though that has been the traditional teaching. Herod instructed the Magi to go to Bethlehem and search for the child. They may or may not have followed those instructions and may or may not have found him there. There are several possibilities for finding him in Bethlehem.
The Magi could have visited before 40 days of age, but that seems highly unlikely because of the distance they likely travelled. Jesus could have possibly moved back to Bethlehem between 80 days and the Magi visit, which is also unlikely. The most likely answer, in my opinion, is that the Magi may have found him in Nazareth after searching for him. After the stay in Egypt, they went back to Nazareth and likely stayed there since at 12 years old, they took Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Jesus likely grew up in Nazareth from 80 days until the trip to Egypt and from the return from Egypt for the rest of his childhood.
Luke 2 does not say they found him in Bethlehem in a house. It states that they found him with Mary in a house. So once again, we are not told where they found him except that he was in a house. I have said "likely" many times to emphasize that these things make sense, but we do not have specific details on the exact timing or place of the visit of the Magi. So the real answer is that despite all of the depictions from greeting cards, Hollywood, and church traditional teaching, we do not know for sure either answer and, therefore, should be very careful not to assume that we do and be adamant of the unknown details.
Gary Wofford, M. Alexander Reznikov Where and when did the wise-men meet Jesus? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. According to modern scholars the last voyage of Herod to Rome took place in the late summer of 12 BCE.
They decided a future great king of the Jews was just born and hurried to the nearby capital to worship him. They came to Jerusalem in the late morning so the star was invisible in the daylight. But there was not a suitable baby in the palace. That is why the Magi did not show any emotions. To Bethlehem, the Magi followed the road winding through the hills, not the star. The second time the Magi saw the star after it had stopped over the place where the child was. Thus suddenly in front of them in the gap between the clouds, the Magi saw the same star hanging over the house with the Holy Family.
During the short time of the observation the clouds were moving, not the star.
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