Monday – Gospels

Reading – Matthew 1-2

Highlight Verses:

“After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

🎶“We three kings from Orient are, Tried to smoke a rubber cigar…”🎶

Oops, wrong song.

That little parody song that us boys used to sing when I was a kid was so messed up.

But then, so is our concept of the wise men.

• The Bible never calls them kings.

The word translated “wise men,” or “magi” normally referred to the priests of Zoastrianism, a religion widely practiced in that dat in an area that stretched from modern Iran to Pakistan.

How cool is it that God would use a misguided religion to point people to Jesus. But I digress.

• The Bible never says how many there were.

The idea that there were three is inferred from the three different gifts.

• The Bible never states the names of the wise men.

The common names used in western culture come from an 8th century translation of a lost 6th century Greek document. Not the Bible.

• The Bible doesn’t say when they arrived.

The tradition of January 6th, twelve days after Jesus’ birth, is very unlikely. The wise men most likely began their journey some time after the birth. They had a long journey and stopped to meet with Herod first.

Also, the term child is used to describe Jesus, not infant.

So why would I blast the traditions about the wise men?

While these traditions don’t have any real impact on theology, we tend to accept them without question.

One of the values we have at our church is, “We always ask, ‘What does the Bible say?’”

If we blindly accept these traditions,

what other traditions do we accept that could be drawing people away from important truths.

It is important to base what we believe on the truth in the Bible by studying it and finding what it really says about those beliefs.

Is there anything that you accepted as truth that you found out the Bible said something different?
What is your method for studying the Bible?