www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Visit of the Magi in Scripture

If we look closer at the story, I think we might see that it actually was years after his birth that they arrived.
They were already living in a house and that is why Herod had all the children 2 and under slaughtered.
Any comments?
Stephanos I
PS also there is a wonderful video (I dont know how much credence we can give it) called the Bethlehem Star. Based on a Nasa projection of the skies around the time of the birth of Christ.
It makes the claim that the star was the alignment of Jupiter (the King) with Leo (the Lion) and Virgo.

About two, at least.

First, Herod instructed that all children in Bethlehem of two years or under should be killed.
Second, travel time: from Ctesiphon to Judea is a bit of a haul at a time when fifteen miles was a good day's travel. From the time the star appeared to the time they arrived, the Magi must have spent at least six months on the road, assuming they didn't get side tracked or lay over at various cities. And that is if they knew immediately what they saw, were able to drop everything, and depart immediately.

Third, Mary and Joseph did not offer a lamb and a dove, the normal offering at the Presentation of the first born, but rather two doves, which was the alternative offering for the poor. If the Magi had already arrived, they would have had enough wealth in gold, frankincense and myrrh to make the full offering.

For anyone interested, when my husband made a pilgrimage trip to Mt. Athos, one of the monasteries,(Moni Agiou Pavlou/Monastery St. Paul) had the treasure of the *actual* gifts of the Magi!

I never know that they existed, but then Mt. Athos has many religious treasures such as the belt worn by the Virgin Mary.

They bring them out for pious pilgrims to venerate.

The gifts themselves have also been criticized as mostly useless to a poor carpenter and his family.

In the Monastery of St. Paul of Mount Athos there is a 15th century golden case containing purportedly the Gift of the Magi. It was donated to the monastery in the 15th century by Maro, daughter of the King of Serbia George Vragovitch, wife to the Ottoman Sultan Murat II and godmother to Mehmet II the Conqueror (of Constantinople). Apparently they were part of the relics of the Holy Palace of Constantinople and it is claimed they were displayed there since the 4th century AD.

It this it? [bethlehemstar.net] Someone posted it on another site.

I like this for some levity on the "facts" [youtube.com].
It came from The Deacon's Bench [blog.beliefnet.com] .

St. Francis did create the first live creche scenes as a means of teaching about the nativity.

At La Porziuncola Nuova [knightsofsaintfrancis.com] at the Shrine of St. Franicis here in SF they had a lovely small nativity scene in olive wood from the holy land. The cave was made from a large tree burl that was hollowed out and open in some places. It was quite wonderful!

Bless, Father,

I think there is no question that a significant period of time had elapsed and, if you skim some of the earlier posts in the thread, you'll find that same point made.

Many years,

Neil

Thank you Neil. That must be it, though for some reason I thought I posted a link to an article. I probably didn't.

By any chance would it be possible to create a sticky that tells us exactly how to do searches for posted material over a year old ?

That is it! Bingo!
Stephanos I