Another Christian Myth

Hi all (well, is it really “all” or should I say “Hi some”),

A man has to keep his promises and since I am a man (or at least want to be one )here is another christian myth around the Christmas story to be exposed:

As you all know three wise men came to visit baby Jesus in the stable. These three wise men brought presents with them for Jesus: myrrh, frankincense and gold. Is this story really true? Or have parts of it changed in time?

Let’s look at the Biblical text (ESV). See Matthew 2:1: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

And verse 11: And 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.

The other 3 evangelists don’t tell this story. So, what can we learn from these verses? I think two things:

1. We can not be certain that three wise men came to visit Jesus. Matthew only mentions “wise men”. I guess that this error came into existence because three gifts are mentioned: myrrh, frankincense and gold.
2. The wise men didn’t visit Jesus while he was in the stable. As we saw in my last post, we can’t even be sure Jesus was born in a stable. Matthew says “going into the house”. It might be anything, even the inn that was closed on the night Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem.

I hope this gives you more insight in what is correct in Biblical stories. And I also hope that you are challenged to read the Bible to get to know the truth. Because we can disclose any myths on Christmas, but I want to point out that the most important happening at Christmas was the actual birth of Jesus Christ. He was born into this world to show us the Kingdom of Heaven and to die for us, so we might have eternal life!