Now I’ve grown up watching plays and manger scenes which all have 3 Magi or Wise men. I’ve sung the song “We Three Kings.” Yet, the Bible does not tell us how many Wise Men came to see Jesus.
We know, from Matthew 2:11 that they came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Common sense, and tradition, would then suggest that there were 3, each bearing a gift. However, there could have been 2 (with one bearing 2 gifts) or more than 3 (with a couple bearing the same gift, or a couple bearing no gift).
Though tradition says there were 3, let’s not be too insistent on this point.
Just heard an interesting interview the other day with speculations that the wise men were followers of Zoroastrianism - http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/ataglance/glance.shtml - certainly seems to be plausible.
ReplyDeleteQuite possibly. I think it is neat that God chooses to use various things to accomplish His will:
ReplyDelete- He used Israel's enemies to carry out His chastisement on Israel in the OT
- He may use a "natural" chain of events (as some describe the plagues to be) but in accordance to His timing and His will