Monday, November 16, 2009

The three kings. Please this is not intended to be sacrilegious, irreverent or facetious ?

The three kings travelled a very long way to arrive in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. Does the bible give any indication of how they knew of this event other than 'we have seen the star in the east .....'?

The three kings. Please this is not intended to be sacrilegious, irreverent or facetious ?
This is a very interesting account, isn't it? It is found at Matthew 2:1-12. As other posters have brought out, these men were not kings: they were magi, astrologers, from the East. The account does not say how many they are; tradition numbers three because three gifts are mentioned. They did not arrive on the night of Jesus' birth; verse 11 states that the time of their arrival, the young child and Mary were in a house. Moreover, considering that Herod put to death all children two years and under makes it clear that Jesus himself could have been a toddler by this time. The Greek word rendered "young child" also allows for Jesus to have been as much as two years old.





Upon arriving, they did not go to Bethlehem, but to Jerusalem, where they inquired as to the whereabouts of the child. It was Herod who summoned the astrologers and it was Herod who sent them to Bethlehem. The account relates that the star they had seen while in the East now stopped over the child at the house. That they brought gifts to a new king has very little to do with his birthday and very much to do with the fact that it was in harmony with the practice of that time. Compare, for instance, 1 Kings 10:10 and 2 Chronicles 32:23.





As to how they learned of this event, consider the following: they were led, not directly to the child but rather, to Herod, who wanted to destroy the child. Also, the account does not mention divine intervention until the child's life was threatened. A consideration of the entire account would lead to the reasonable conclusion that their information concerning this event was not from a divine source.
Reply:In Christian tradition the Magi, also known as the Three Wise Men, The Three Kings, or Kings from the east, are Zoroastrian judicial astrologers or magi who according to the Gospel of Matthew came "from the east to Jerusalem", to worship the Infant Jesus, who they are described as thinking was "born King of the Jews". According to Matthew, they followed a star, and as they approached Jerusalem, Herod tried to trick them into revealing where Jesus was, but once they had found Jesus they left by a different route. According to Matthew, upon finding Jesus, the magi gave him an unspecified number of gifts, amongst which are three highly symbolic ones.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_kings
Reply:if you are going to be precise, they did not arrive on the night Jesus was born. the Word said they saw a child. it took a long journey to get to where He was. shining star's answer was very good.
Reply:The three kings were also astronomers. The conjunction of three major planets in the sky pointed out the birth of a great leader of mankind, so they knew that someone special was being born.





Civilization in those days was highly developed and people were more precise %26amp; schooled in mathematics and science. I read this in a book on astronomy and exactly this theme.
Reply:The 3 kings were astrologers and it is believed that they were from Persia. The star was a conjunction of planets that had aligned with each other to give the appearance of one bright star, According to astrology and the planets involved (since they were astrologers they were aware of this and it is speculated based on astrological formations that would have occurred around this time period that one of them was Jupiter and Jupiter was related to the Jews and kings at this time), it was determined that a great king of the Jews was born and Jerusalem was the capital of the Jews at that time. that is why they went to Jerusalem and inquired as to his whereabouts.
Reply:i think it says an angel came down and told them about it, but not sure
Reply:Technically speaking, there is no possible way to prove that there were "3" kings. Nice song, but it is without basis. They brought 3 gifts: gold, francincense and myrrh; but that doesn't mean that there were 3 people. It could have as few as 2 guys carrying these 3 gifts amoung them. Or it could have been 500 of them, plus their slaves and servants. (That small army would have made King Herod sit up and take notice!)





They were called MAGOS (Magi) which is a Greek word that was used to describe Babylonean religious leaders. And they came from the east. East of Israel was the nation of Babylon.





Now, think back in history to the highest prophet that ever spoke from Babylon - Daniel. As we read in Daniel 6:3 because of the Spirit that was in Daniel, the king put Daniel in charge over the entire realm. And that was even before the entire lion's den event. After the lion's den Daniel's influence was even greater.





It was given to Daniel to know the time of Messiah's arrival, right down to the year. He was also given the celestial events that would be a sign of Messiah's coming (the alignment of the planets in the constellation of the House of Judah, etc). Since he was the head Magi and had such a strong influence over them, his words were passed down through the generations as to exactly when Messiah would arrive and what events in the sky would confirm the time of his coming. The Magi knew exactly when to start their journey based on Daniel's teachings to them.


No comments:

Post a Comment