posted July 14, 2015 02:05 PM
I wanted to share with everyone a post I made on this Facebook Group I'm a part of: Who were The (Three) Wise Men in The Bible???
The purpose of this post is to find out who The (Three) Wise Men REALLY were.
To begin, we'll start with a brief summary of what happens in The Bible. In The Bible, during the supposed birth of Jesus, men travel from the east to Jerusalem. The men are described as "wise men". Upon their arrival, they begin asking the people of Jerusalem where they could find the "King of the Jews". They tell them that they have seen a star, which led them to the approximate location of Jesus (Jerusalem). King Herod heard of this and became worried. He gathered the chief priests and scribes, attempting to discover where The Messiah would be born. They all said that Bethlehem was the location, according to prophecy. King Herod then called forth these men, asking them the time in which this star appeared, and eventually sending them to Bethlehem to find Jesus. His instructions were to find Jesus and then send word back to him, so that he could "come and worship him too". The men go to Bethlehem, and follow the star until they see it above the resting place of Jesus. With joy, they enter the building (which is translated as "house", but to be fair, can also be translated as "dwelling", hence the word choice here) and bow down to Jesus, upon seeing him with his mother. They present him with gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Later on, they go to sleep and have a dream that they should not return to King Herod. The Bible attributes this dream to "God". Shortly after their departure, an Angel appears to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt. The Angel claims that King Herod wants to kill Jesus. This implies that The (Three) Wise Men were to go back to their own country (The Bible actually uses the word "country" when describing this), without returning to King Herod, in order to prevent an attack on Jesus. Although there is no specific number mentioned for the number of Wise Men, the number of gifts given (three) is traditionally seen to imply that there were only three of them. *Summarized from Matthew 2:1-13*
The story is a nice little story that you would hear in Church every Christmas. But...who are The (Three) Wise Men? What makes them wise, in the first place? How could a star reveal to them the birthplace of a supposed Messiah? There are so many questions, with few answers, if you use the traditional interpretations of The Christian Church. A typical Christian answer may say, "God revealed information to them regarding The Messiah, and then used the star as an easy and visible way to guide them there". Well, that sounds like a great response, until you realize that they were sent to the wrong city! Why would they be in Jerusalem if Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem? Furthermore, these men were obviously not Jews, or else they would have already known that Bethlehem was the correct city (as the chief priests and scribes had proper knowledge of this, and would have shared this during Sabbath services). So we're in a bit of a dilemma here: Either God is a liar OR The (Three) Wise Men weren't Jews OR BOTH. Let's focus on the "OR BOTH", shall we?
The Greek word used to translate "wise men" in The Bible is "magos". If we look in a Lexicon/Concordance for this word, we can find this as the definition (taken from http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/magos.html, the definition may vary slightly based on the source you look at):
1. a magus
a. the name given by the Babylonians (Chaldeans), Medes, Persians, and others, to the wise men, teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, augers, soothsayers, sorcerers etc.
b. the oriental wise men (astrologers) who, having discovered by the rising of a remarkable star that the Messiah had just been born, came to Jerusalem to worship him
c. a false prophet and sorcerer
So, let's get this straight....two out of the three definitions include "astrologer" in them. All three definitions include something Esoteric/Occult. The (Three) Wise Men went to Jerusalem because they followed a star. Is any of this starting to make more sense to people now?
Another important thing to mention is that The Church has hidden the truth in front of our eyes, for such a long time. Whether done intentionally or unintentionally, I do not know. But considering how obvious this information is, with just a little bit of studying, it is incredibly hard to believe that this came about by mistake. Perhaps the modern leaders of The Church are unaware of this, but leaders of the past have been known to have a desire to control the masses, and the coverup for this story would have been necessary for the survival of Christianity. What people don't realize is that Christianity has secretly revealed the true definition of "wise men" for years. It did so by referring to these men as "The Biblical Magi" ("Magi" being the plural of "Magus").
To understand more about who these men were, let's look at what a Magus/Magi actually is. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of Magus is "a member of a priestly caste of ancient Persia; a sorcerer". If one were to research the history of Persia, one would find that the main Religion practiced at the time was Zoroastrianism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/history/persia_1.shtml). Therefore, a Magus would have been a Zoroastrian Priest. Other dictionary definitions for Magus include "Zoroastrian Priest" instead of just "Priest' (Dictionary.com or the Wikipedia entry for "Magi" for examples). Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, was a Magician and an Astrologer (among other titles). He heavily influenced those areas, and became known as a legend among the Greeks (http://www.britannica.com/topic/Zoroastrianism). It would then make sense that his followers would be involved in similar practices, and further study of Persia can find that they have connections to Astrology (they were known for their discovery of the "Royal Stars"), for example. While it is still debated (and hard due to the lack of sources to review), it is possible that early Zoroastrian texts illustrate Zoroastrians and Zoroastrian Priests using Astrology, which wouldn't be surprising. Depending on the definition you use, magic can be seen as a dead giveaway.
It is because of this that King Herod slaughtered all children two and under. He used the Astrology of the Wise Men to determine that this timeframe would have been the time that Jesus would have been born. That is, if you take this as a historical record of what happened. (The Bible even admits this in Matthew 2:16, remember that the time he asked for was in regards to the star)
Yet, The Bible claims to be against Magic/Sorcery and things that are against the Hebrew/Christian God (Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Leviticus 19:31, Exodus 22:18, Galatians 5:19-21). Remember the commandment "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me"? It's a little strange that the Christian God is teaming up with the Zoroastrian God!
Topic Closed
Lindaland
posted July 14, 2015 02:05 PM
posted July 14, 2015 04:51 PM
posted July 14, 2015 05:06 PM
