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Is there archaeological evidence for the wise men of Matthew's Gospel?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
The author of Matthew's Gospel did not use the term 'wise men', he said that magi followed a star from the east. The magi were priests of the Zoroastrian religion which the Jews had encountered during the Babylonian Exile. While there is plenty of evidence that the magi certainly existed, and were often known throughout the ancient Near East as "wise men" because of their learning, there is no evidence that any magi ever really visited Jesus. Moreover, there is no scientific explanation for a star to lead the wise men westward to Jerusalem, then south-east to Bethlehem and somehow point to the exact house in which Jesus was born. Stars just can not do that.
John Shelby Spong (A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) says that among people he knows in New Testament circles, the universal assumption is that Matthew's magi, or wise men, were not actual people. He says that Matthew was writing Christian midrash.
In more recent times, the Zoroastrian connection became less important, and the priests began to be called wise men, or sometimes "three kings". Historically, the wise men were a literary fiction.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
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How do you follow the north star west as the gospel said that the wise men came from the east?
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Did the wise men see Jesus in a manger?
The wise men (magi) of Matthew's Gospel saw Jesus in a house (Matt 2:11), not a manger.The manger is part of Luke's Gospel.
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Did the three wise men ride horses?
Unless we rely on the Bible, everything is speculation, and the Bible does not mention horses.Incidentally, Matthew's Gospel only tells us that there were three gifts, but does not tell us there were exactly three wise men. In fact the very existence of the wise men of Matthew's Gospel is open to doubt.
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What is the estimated cost of the trip for the three wise men?
The visit of the three wise men is found in Matthew's Gospel. We do not estimate the cost of their trip because it did not really happen and the wise men did not really exist.John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) says that among people he knows in New Testament circles, the universal assumption is that the wise men were not actual people. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that the purpose of the wise men in Matthew's Gospel was contribute to the Moses parallelism, for in Jewish legends of Jesus' time the pharaoh received information from wise men. Ian Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence) says the hard reality is that Matthew offers insufficient historicity (and the story of the wise men and the star appears only in Matthew) for anyone to be confident that there was a star at all. Matthew was writing Christian midrash.
Does Luke's Gospel record the story of the Wise Men at Jesus' birth?
A:No. Although Lukewas written a few years after Matthew, the author was unaware of Matthew's Gospel or what had already been written about the birth of Jesus. As a result, he had no way of knowing about the wise men and could not write about them. The gospels do agree when they rely on the same sources - Mark's Gospel and the hypothetical 'Q' document.
What gospel containsthe story of the magi?
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How long did the wise men take to meet Jesus when he was born and what place did they come from?
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The conjunction of which planets formed the star of Bethlehem?
It has been suggested that there was a conjunction of planets in 3 BCE. However, this could not have been the star of which Matthew wrote in his Gospel. Matthew wrote of a star in the east during the reign of Herod, who died in 4 BCE.The author of the the Gospel According to St Luke knew nothing of the story of the wise men visiting Jesus, but had poor shepherds visit him instead. Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's Anglicans, has described the story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and says there is little evidence that they existed. If we accept that there were no wise men, then there need not have been a star of Bethlehem.
What is another word for the wise men?
A:The author of Matthew's Gospel did not actually refer to 'wise men'. He called them magoi in the original Greek text of the Gospel, which translates to 'magi' in Latin and English. The magi were priests of the Zoroastrian religion practised in the regions of modern Iran and Iraq. The author of Matthew's Gospel was simply seeking to show that even the priests of this great religion would want to come and worship Jesus.
How long did it take for the three kings to get to Jesus?
The Bible never mentions three kings who visited Jesus, but Matthew's Gospel does talk of magi who followed a star westward to Jerusalem then south-east to Bethlehem, where they found the baby Jesus. The word magi actually refers to Zoroastrian priests, but it is usually translated into English as 'wise men'. The wise men, in turn, are sometimes referred to as kings, but we should remember that it was the biblical author's intention to refer to them as priests.There is no historical reference to the magi, wise men or kings, nor are they mentioned by Luke's Gospel, so we must rely solely on Matthew's Gospel for information about these people, but this Gospel does not say when the wise men or kings began their journey or when they arrived in Bethlehem. Therefore, we can not say how long their journey took.Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's Anglicans, has described the story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and says there is little evidence that they existed. John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) calls Matthew's story of the magi, Christian midrash and says that among people he knows in New Testament circles, the universal assumption is that the magi(the kings) were not actual people. If there were no wise men, kings or magi, then we can never answer how long their journey took.
