Well, okay,
now, the birth of Christ. This is some big stuff. And it’s important to get it
right, starting with the Christmas decorations!
Yeah, I
know, that made no sense. But this is where we have to start. You see, that
Nativity scene you put out, it’s wrong. Yeah, the three guys holding the gifts,
they weren’t there.
The Magi—AKA
the three Wise men (oh, and the numbers vary. Three and seven are most common,
but there could have been more wise men)—were not present at the birth. This is
a fact. They couldn’t have been. The Magi were from far in the east, and they
were astrologers. The sign that told them of Christ’s birth was the Christmas
star. It was brand new in the sky, and they consulted books of prophecy about
it, got together, and made a trek to the west to find the new king.
The star
isn’t the only evidence. When they first arrived, they went to pay their
respects to King Herod. After their visit, Herod made the decree to kill every
boy that was younger than two years old. So from this we know that it took a
significant amount of time to travel across Asia to reach Israel. The exact
time was not known, but chances are it was between twelve and eighteen months
after the birth, assuming Herod would want some kind of buffer in his estimate
(we really can’t assume that because he wasn’t the brightest of kings, but
we’ll say for the sake of argument).
So if you
want to be more correct with your Nativity scene, nix the wise guys from the
party.