Who were the 3 Wise Men of the Bible?

I'll tell you...

They were 3 scouts to the King at the time. Herod I believe. I will provide more proof. but until then...

discuss.

 

Moe, Larry and Curly Joe...

... according to Wycliff's Bible commentary...

... they aren't specifically identified.

 

Who says there where 3? I don't think the Bible specifically mentions them by name, nor even gives the number. 3? Could be 300. I guess we would have to chalk it up to oral tradition outside any sacred texts.

Going off the Bible, it is highly unlikely they where spies or scouts for King Herod. They where Magi. Magi where actually the high priests of the old Persian Pagan religion before Zoroastrianism.

 

What is the point of this thread OP?

 

Actually that not completely true. They visited King harod on their way to see jesus and Harod asked them to come back and tell him the child's location, when they told him where they were going.

Some accounts have them as Nobility/royalty, some as just wealthy philosophers

 

Some say they were Persian Magi, possibly followers of Zoroastrianism.

 

Herod.

 

they knew the prophecies of Daniel. They probably travelled about eight or nine hundred miles. They brought gifts and they worshipped the King. Persian, probably out of Iran.

 

Persian Astrologers and worshippers of Ahura Mazda (aka Zoroastrians).

 

Here they are:

 

It seems ironic in a way for 3 stars to have been characterised as three astrologers, but there you have it.

 

That is one theory.

 

Actually. If you want to see the terrible beauty of God's plan for his son then you should watch The Star of Bethlehem or visit Bethlehemstar.net It's awesome.

 

So, the magi were men who 1) read and believed God's Word, (Daniel and prophesy)2) searched for Jesus, 3) recognized Christ's value 4) humbled themselves to worship Jesus, and 5) obeyed God rather than man for they were warned by an angel of the Lord not to return to Herod the king.
So obviously they were not worshippers of any false god. They were actual wise men.
Their names are not mentioned in the bible. But we know their names from tradition.

A common misconception is that they visited the babe Jesus in the stable. That isn't so. Look at scripture. They visited him when he was in a house or his home, of course with his mother and earthly father. That means, Jesus was probably at least 2 years old at the time of their visit.

 

Here's another interesting topic. WHO were the Herods? Where did the first one come from? How did he get into the position of ruler. What he did and what his son's did.

 

Granted. No claims should be accepted without factual basis, and conversely facts should never be rejected out of hand.

So, let us examine a few:

http://zoroastrianastrology.blogspot.com/
It should be noted that due to the destruction of Zoroastrian texts first by Alexander of Macedonia and then by Arabs and successive regimes, much direct information on Zoroastrian history and philosophy has been lost and comes to us indirectly through Greek and Babylonian sources. For instance, medieval Zoroastrians had lost knowledge of Persian-Zoroastrian Achaemenian King Cyrus the Great (and for that matter most of Achaemenian history other than scattered references to King Darius the Great). Much of our information on King Cyrus comes from Classical Greek authors such as Xenophon, Herodotus and Strabo, from Babylonian inscriptions and even from the Jewish and Christian Bibles. In addition, modern archaeology allows us to reconstruct a lost and forgotten history.

Iranians (Persians) are in the unfortunate circumstance of learning their own classical-Achaemenian history through recycled accounts. The same holds true for Persian-Zoroastrian astrology and cosmology which was disseminated westward during Achaemenian times.

The Achaemenian Persian Empire included Babylon and all of the Middle East including Asiatic Greece. Colonies of Persians including the magi lived throughout the Persian Empire including Egypt. Babylon was close to the Persian Empire's summer capital Susa and was a capital of the ninth satrapy (imperial autonomous province). The Persians further developed Babylon into an international centre of learning and science. A number of surviving Babylonian and Greek works were written or acquired by the Greeks during Persian rule.

In this manner, much information while authored by Greeks and Babylonians, is Persian-Zoroastrian in origin, and many classical Hellenic authors acknowledge their source. In relation to astrology, they cite Zoroaster, Ostanes or the magi in general as their source. Zoroastrians have often be called magians.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Μάγος
Μάγος

Ancient Greek

[edit]Etymology
Of Old Iranian origin presumably akin to Old Persian/Median �������� (maγu-) and Avestan moġu-. Both attested Old Iranian words are hapaxes, and of indeterminable meaning. Probably unrelated to Av. maga- (cognate with Skt. magha-, "gift"). Attestation in Greek predates attestation in Old Iranian.

...

Noun
Μάγος (genitive Μάγο&#965 m, second declension; (Magos)

1. name of a Median tribe. This usage is only attested once; Herodotus Histories 1.101.
2. title of Iranian priests (typically interpreted as Zoroastrian). Compare e.g. Herodotus Hist. 1.132f, Xenophon Cyropedia 8.3.11, Porphyry Life of Pythagoras 12, Heraclitus apud Clemens Protrepticus 12, etc.

Note: the two meanings are frequently conflated as one, giving "name of a Median priestly tribe" or similar.

The three "wise men" of Nativity fame were in fact "magoi," translated as magi and meaning the same as what's given above. They were wise men (astrologers) from the East who purportedly followed Christ's star. Persia (Iran) is, of course, to the east of Israel. However, since the Nativity and the rest of the Gospel story is also a solar myth, you have to look beyond the selected allegorical images to the sky. Just as Jesus personifies the Sun and his parents are Virgo and Boötes, so are the three Magi the three stars of Orion's belt, which in fact point towards Christ's star, which is Sirius.

The details of how it all fits together are described here: http://www.usbible.com/Astrology/star_of_bethlehem.htm

6. "Wise" is falsely translated from the Greek magos, which denotes they were magicians. Or in this case, they were astrologers. In those days, astrologers were believed to be wise and learned men.


Figure 5. On December 25 at midnight, the three wise men came from the east on its way to setting in the west.

Figure 6. On December 25 at 3:00 P.M., the three wise men reappear in the east.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

1. At 4:00 PM, Sirius emerges above the horizon-astronomy handbooks list Sirius as the brightest star next to the sun (Figure 7). The three stars in Orion align towards Sirius.


Figure 7. An hour later at 4:00 P.M., Sirius, the Star of Bethlehem rises. A straight line from the belt of Orion to Sirius points to the birthplace.

MANGER

Matthew says Jesus was born in a house; Luke says he was born in a manger. They do not contradict as much as it appears. A house defines one of the twelve sectors of the Zodiac. The manger is more specific in pointing to the house of Capricorn. There are reasons for the choice of manger.

The zodiac constellation preceding Capricorn is Sagittarius, half man half horse. As the sun descends, the horse is seen to be riding down towards its stable, or manger, into Capricorn. Also, it is a dark time of the year and mangers are dark places.

In the legend of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, when Hercules was in Capricorn, he was to clean out the stables of King Augeas

11and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matt. 2:11)

7And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.(Luke 2:7)


Figure 8. Sagittarius.

 

The mythological child-killing Herod of the Nativity is the constellation Serpens Caput, also the dragon (=serpent - the Greek language had one word for both) in Revelation 12 who is described as standing before the woman (Virgo/Mary), waiting to devour her child when it's born.

 

Your site is ignorant. Matthew does not say jesus was born in a house. It says that the magi visited him in a house. When Jesus was born and placed in a manger in a stable, very shortly afterwards, Joseph was warned to take the baby and his mother away to Egypt until it was safe, meaning when that particular herod died. They made their way out of the area and into egypt where they lived for a time until it was safe to return to nazareth.

 

Possibly, and it can also refer to satan. Regardless. It was God that set those stars and planets in the heavens to come together to show not only the birth but also the death of Christ.

 

You're grasping. She had to give birth in a manger, but was then allowed to go into some house? I trust USBible on this more than you.

Also, the bit of the story about fleeing from danger is also echoed in Revelation 12.

Revelation 12:1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

 

Mary did not give birth in a manger. She gave birth in the stable and placed the babe in a manger.

 

Well, let's just review the accounts, then.

Matthew first:
1:24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
2:1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Hmm... Matthew says nothing about an inn. Nothing about a stable or a manger.. Mary and Joseph were simply placed at home, in a house, in this account, just as USBible says.

Luke 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

No house involved here - just the manger! Lukes goes on to talk about angels visiting shepherds, and claims those shepherds went and found baby Jesus. No mention of the Magi that I can find in this account.

All in all, Luke is pretty darned different from Matthew in his account! He wasn't even aware of the bit about fleeing to Egypt, apparently. The details differ in almost every respect.

 

you don't know what a manger is obviously. Do ya think mary climbed into the trough to give birth!! Get back to me.

 

Durandal, have you ever watched Zeitgeist? I think you'd like the theory they push as you are discussing some of the very things they pushed in the film.

 

Travellers in time and space. "We" needed 632 years and 2 month to build "their" Cathedral.

http://youtu.be/77xYPUtN67I
http://youtu.be/-xPMgKW7hME