Thread: Who were the 3 Wise Men of the Bible?

Originally Posted by Questerr

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

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

Originally Posted by Durandal

Here they are:

Originally Posted by Durandal

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.

Originally Posted by KSigMason

That is one theory.

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 Μάγου) 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.

Originally Posted by MisLed

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Durandal

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.

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.

Originally Posted by MisLed

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.

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.