Johnny Skeptic

The only reason that Matthew concocted the story of the three wise men was to try to validate his interpreation of Micah 5:2. He wanted to prove that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but there is not any credible evidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Condraz23

It may have been ball lightning...

"Ball lightning reportedly tends to float or hover in the air and take on a ball-like appearance. Its shape has been described as spherical, ovoid, teardrop, or rod-like with one dimension being much larger than the others. The longest dimension reported is between 15 and 40 centimeters. Many are red to yellow in colour, sometimes transparent, and some contain radial filaments or sparks. Other colours, such as blue or white occur as well. Sometimes the discharge is described as being attracted to a certain object, and sometimes as moving randomly."

Derec

Led by a bottle, more like.

JEST2ASK

Interesting ... 15 - 40 cm how far away could that be seen ... How long does the formation persist ... and these wisemen - had never heard or seen of such occurances before and mistook it for a star ... Are you suggesting that it lasted long enough for the journey from their homeland in the EAST (no country / no city detail given) to Jerusalem then re-appeared once Herod after consulation with the priest / scribes etc sent them to Bethleham ... where it hovered close enough that it was over a single dewelling

The Evil One

Let's see, shall we?

I've already posted the relevent chunk of the Bible:

The star "stood over" where Jesus was. There's your answer.

If you want something more specific, the answer is "nobody knows". Presumably the author of the Matthew narrative had some kind of mental picture in his mind's eye when he wrote this down, but since what he wrote wasn't terribly specifc, we can never be sure exactly what he was trying to imply.

IMO all the speculation about ball lightning, comets, and meteors etc. is wholly unnecessary. We know that Matthew was prone to making up wild and extravagant tall tales. Why should we suppose that this particular tall tale must necessarily be founded in an actually-occurring physical phenomenon?

Boro Nut

It's not that difficult. Just turn up thereabouts at Christmas time and follow the crowd.

Boro Nut

Roger Pearse

Surely they used their in-camel Tom-Tom?

Honestly you wonder about some people sometimes...

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Wolfie

It could have been an EBE (extraterrestrial biological entity) hovering over the edifice (not getting into the house/cowshed argument!) in its interdimensional transport.

angela2

Cheeze, I was hoping someone would have interesting information since I have to preach on this passage Sunday. Anyway a good website is http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...emen/magi.html

David,

According to this website there are secular documents reporting visits from magii later in the first century. Also, Herod the Great is reported to have died in 4 AD. This isn't the same Herod who had the run-in with John the Baptist. That's his son.

Herod the Great is the only member of his family who was designated King of the Jews (by Rome), just as scripture reports.

And yes, it wasn't a stable but a house as you will find in the NRSV. Wherever they started, it took a while for them to arrive.

The magii came because they saw Jesus birth star. They believed that a star appeared at a person's birth. How they knew about the Jewish prophecies isn't clear. If they came from Babylonia, it would make sense that they knew the story because of the long Jewish captivity there. Interestingly, Herod, who claimed to be a Jew as it suited him, didn't know the story and had to go to his advisers.

GakuseiDon

You need to book ahead though -- the place gets booked out at Christmas time. No wonder Joseph and Mary couldn't find a vacancy!