In the second of my mini series of short blogs about Christmas, I’m looking at the common misunderstanding of the “wise men” or “kings” that you see portrayed in every school nativity around the country.
Who or what were they?
This part of the story of the birth of Christ is found in Matthew 2:1, which in the KJV talks about “wise men” coming from the east. Other translations render the verse as “kings”. More accurate translations render the verse as “astrologers”, because indeed these men were Magi. The phrase is a Latinisation of the Greek word “magos”, which generally referred to priests of zoroastrianism, who were known for star worship and astrology.
How many where there?
The scripture doesn’t say. Commonly, people believe there were three of them because of there supposedly being three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. However there could have been other gifts, and the quantity of each gift is not stated, so there could have been two or more Magi. We don’t know the exact number.
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