“What about those wise guys?”
Prepared for GMF, Feb.11, 2024
Why should we be asking,
Does a title like that make you wonder, if I, in my old age, have gotten my calendar in the wrong place, or the wrong season?
Well, what about this: is it better if I say “Get those stinky camels out of the stable – there’s a baby in there!?” Or how about “Don’t mess with my beautiful manger scene?”
After all, it was Matthew – whoever he was that wrote that account –, who decided that it was appropriate to include an interview of a group of “wise men from the East” (nobody ever said there were three) — on the very heels of the narratives of song and story about a group of over-worked shepherds. That was the choice of whoever arranged “The Gospel of Matthew”—perhaps several centuries later — and not of anyone who was present at the time.
Mainly, those two events are treated together because they were introduced many years later, by folks who were enamored by the “baby in the stable” picture, and the wealthy foreigners who came to “worship” him, but who were completely ignorant of a number of very clear facts. Here are a few of them.
- They were overlooking the very obvious statement that at the time of Jesus’ birth, the shepherds were spending the night “in the fields”. The only time that would have happened, was during the spring lambing season not the middle of winter. Normally, the flocks would have been herded into their sheepfold at night, where they would be safe from predators while their shepherds slept.
But in the spring lambing season, in a crowded sheepfold, baby lambs would easily get stepped-on, so any careful shepherd would spend the night in the field to defend his flock from wild animals, and to aid them in any difficult deliveries.
- The visiting “wise men” were from the East. They were “following a star.”
There is no Old Testament record of the Israelites having any interest in the stars. In fact, it was forbidden to them. Ever since the trauma of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, any attention to the stars – and the “science “or “wisdom” of astrology – was strictly prohibited! The only mention of astrology in the Old Testament is in the book of Daniel, who was taught by those very captors!
Astrology, in the Middle East, had been common ever since the 18th century BC in India, and was widely practiced in the Assyrian Empire in subsequent millennia. It had long ago spread its tentacles into the area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where Jewish ancestors had spent many years in captivity.
The only reference to the stars in Jewish records was the occasional statement of something like “as many as the stars of heaven”, or “too many to count”! There was absolutely NO deference to any super-human guidance or information in Jewish behavior or information.
Might God in his wisdom have been offering his former enemies, the perpetrators of his people’s exile, a second chance at his favor, in a language and culture that they could understand?
- This prohibition by the Jewish leaders did not pertain to the puppets of their Roman conquerors, of course. So it was no surprise that when the “wise men” consulted with Herod (the Roman flunky), he was eager to know the details of their mission. He needed their “wisdom” to figure out how to save his own position from the one who was “born king of the Jews”! The time and place of that discovery was needed in order for him to prepare his own line of defense!
- The distance from the travelers’ homeland to Bethlehem has been reported to be about 1578 miles! One source calculated that distance as requiring at least 4 months of travel (although that source did not specify if it was on foot or on camels). Nothing is said in the Biblical record as to how they traveled, or for how long. Nothing is said, either, about camels, in the Biblical account. But the Jewish couple and their little one was surely by that long of a time in somewhat better accommodations than a stable!
- Herod, who had never been a fan of Jewish regulations, probably gave a considerable degree of credibility to the astrologers ’esoteric “knowledge”. Herod quizzed them on the time of the star’s appearance. As a puppet king under the Roman Empire, he would have had no qualms concerning the Hebrew prohibition of astrology. He seems to have believed it, since (Matthew 2:12-20) after ascertaining the time deduced by the astrologers, he responded by ordering his militia to the gruesome killing of all the babies under the age of 2! He saw in the new-born “King of the Jews” a threat to his own abusive power.
Most “ordinary folks” had neither the knowledge nor the means to defend their children from that terrible destruction! No wonder Matthew records “great mourning” in the local populace!
- The Magi (another designation of the “wise men”—note the similarity to the word “magic”–) were long gone before Joseph and Mary realized the enormous practicality of their gifts! Let alone their value!
Who could have known that the lowly couple would have had a need for gold – to finance their needs during a couple years as exiles in a strange country?
Frankincense was not only burned for incense in many countries’ religious ceremonies, but also used in the treatment of many illnesses, and, interestingly, in later years as antidote for many bacteria!
Myrrh could only be obtained by the very wealthy, and was used to honor gods, or people of high rank, or to ward off “evil spirits”!
All of these could have provided much- needed income for the years of the family’s exile!
- Herod had ordered the foreigners to bring him word about where this child was, obviously in order to dispose of him. They followed the instructions (clearly from the true God) in a dream, not to return to Herod. The last mention of those gentlemen was simple: they defied Herod’s orders, and took a different road back home.
So – what about these “wise guys”? Their chronicler gives very few clues. But here are a few.
They followed what they knew – or thought they knew. They were willing to investigate what they perceived that they had seen.
They brought expensive gifts — which MAY have been a provision for needs of which neither they nor the recipients were aware. They brought gifts of honor, or practicality, or both. At any rate, the gifts were highly portable – a little bit goes a long way!
There is no Biblical record of their asking – or receiving – any favors or rewards, either from royalty (Herod), or from the little family, or from whoever or whatever they discerned as “God.”
Maybe there is a reason why so much of the account is so undefined.
Maybe it is intended that we pay less attention to what someone IS or WAS, and more to what (or whom) they are seeking.
Maybe we need to ask ourselves what WE are seeking, and what sort of guidance we are following.
Maybe, having given what we can, and learned what we can, we can also become “wise guys”!
Maybe, if we have truly worshiped, we, too, will “take another route home.”
The Pioneers' New Testament 