Visit of the Magi (2:1-12)

I won't talk about the whole of this visit here, but just a few things that pop out at me right away:

1. The magi did not visit Jesus at the manger! What? It is more likely (especially from the account in Luke about Jesus' dedication in the temple) that the magi came at some point between the Holy Family's return from Jerusalem and Jesus' two year birthday. I just like to throw that one in because of our preconcieved idea that the magi visited Jesus at the manger, but the text does not state this.

2. There were more than three people among the magi! I will not try to pinpoint exactly how many magi there were (the text does not say, so there could be three, or there could be more). However, it would only seem likely that there were many, many people with the magi (possibly thousands) in order to make the trek from Persia, i.e., a great caravan would have been needed to make the journey through the desert. Also, it is unlikely that three guys would have caused such a stir and troubled all of Jerusalem, as well as Herod (2:3). Finally, there would be no need for three lone guys to travel another way home, as to bypass Jerusalem, in order to go unnoticed (2:12). I assume three guys by themselves could have gone unnoticed if they needed, but rather a great caravan which must have gone another way in order to not be noticed in Jerusalem.

3. The star could be an angel! I am not going to expound on this, but it seems probable that it could be such. For example, some interpret this as the prophecy of Balaam in Num. 24, but there the star is the Messiah, here the star announces the Messiah. Also, a star does not move to the point where it stands over a place; hmmm....

4. These Gentile wise men were the first people to call Jesus the King of the Jews. Yet, all the people in Jerusalem, the scribes of the people, who knew where the Messiah would be born, would not go to receive Him. This also stands in great contast to the man Herod, who was Idumean, but had converted to Judaism, who thought himself king of the Jews. There is born, in a small town of Judea, the true King of the Jews!

Thats all for today, I am really going to try to post more frequently, although I am really busy with this school project.

Tomorrow I want to look at a couple of the cool meditation points from this pasasage.