Loading...Here now is the sixth of my twelve favorite Christmas posts of years gone by, in our celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
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QUESTION:
My Bible group had a good time yesterday comparing Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of the Christmas story. One question that came up was why would Matthew relate the story of the Magi?
RESPONSE
Ah, it’s a great question and – as it turns out – an important one for understanding the Gospel of Matthew. The story is found only in this Gospel (But this time of year, who can keep ones mind from jumping to: “We Three Kings of Orient Are….”), and it is filled with intriguing conundra.
For example, why would pagan astrologers from the East be interested in knowing where the King of Israel was born and come to worship him? Were they doing this for all babies who were bound to become kings of foreign countries? How does a star lead them to Jerusalem and then disappear and then reappear and lead the Magi not just to Bethlehem but stop over a *house*? How does a star stop over a house? If Herod really sent out the troops to kill all the boys of Bethlehem, two years and under, why is there no report of this in any historical records (e.g., Josephus)? If it’s true that Joseph took Mary and Jesus and whisked them away to Egypt (a rather long walk; it’s 460 miles or so from Bethlehem to Cairo) and waited there till Herod’s death before returning (another rather long walk), how can Luke be right that the family stayed in the Bethlehem/Jerusalem area for a bit over a month and then returned directly home to Nazareth up in Galilee? Etc. etc.
These various points contribute to the common scholarly view that Matthew’s story is almost certainly legendary.
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Just curious as to why you picked Assyria as the source for the Magi? I had heard that they were the priestly/scientists/astronomers from the Parthian Empire. The Parthians were polytheistic but had also adopted much of Zoroastrianism as they saw themselves as the “spiritual” successor to both the Greeks and the Persians.
Yeah, I can’t think of a good reason, now that you mention it. They are from “the East” but that’s all we know. Anything else is guesswork. made especially difficult by the fact that it’s a *tale*, not a historical memory; so did Matthew himself actually have a location in mind? Probably not….
If the star could lead the magi to Jesus’s home, it could’ve done so in the first place without leading them to Herod. I understand Matthew was telling a story of scriptures being fulfilled, but theologically, he is putting God in a bad position of causing the slaughter of the innocents. Is Matthew aware of this side effect?
I wish I knew. It’s part of what I talk about in my course The Darkside of Christmas (www.bartehrman.com/darkside)
Bart, can you add the web address/date of the original blog post to these Twelve Days?
I’m interested in seeing people’s comments on them.
Thanks.
I’m looking to see if it’s possible. There was a weird glitch when we reposted them, and we need to figure out if we can get back to the originals. Arg. Technology… If so, we’ll put the links all together in one post.
I assumed the Matthew Magi story was influenced by the historical visit of King Tridates I to Rome to be crowned by Caesar Nero in 66CE. Tridates brought Magi with him and they proclaimed Nero a god. The Gospel of Matthew was written about a decade later and the author wanted to point out that if Caesar Nero could be visited by Magi and proclaimed a god then the future King and Son of God, Jesus must have been visited by Magi too.