Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [146]
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox beliefs also grew to include the idea that Mary was bodily taken into heaven and reunited with her soul, in what is called the “Assumption,” another concept not founded on any biblical event. The Assumption, based on the sixth-century Feast of the Dormition (“falling asleep”), was formally defined as an article of faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
Protestant denominations depart from Roman Catholics on the subject of the Virgin Mary when it comes to both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. While the Virgin Birth remains an essential doctrine for most Christians, modern scholars have questioned some of the inconsistencies and issues of translation with respect to Mary and Jesus’ birth. Recently, some Christian theologians have begun to cast doubt on the concept of a “Virgin Birth.” Like all matters of the Bible, it is ultimately left to individual faith.
BIBLICAL VOICES
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, “Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.” When King Herod heard this he was perturbed and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote.” (Matt. 2:1-5 NJB)
Were there really “Three Kings” and where did they come from?
Leaving out all of Luke’s elaborate details about imperial census-taking (which would have happened ten years after Herod died), Matthew’s birth account focuses on King Herod, who is told that a new king of the Jews, a “Messiah” (Christ), has been born in Bethlehem. In a move that would have reminded every Jew of the Pharaoh’s order at the time of the birth of Moses, Herod orders the slaughter of all the male infants under two years old in Bethlehem. Herod issues this horrifying command after an unspecified number of “wise men” stop by Jerusalem to ask where the newborn “king of the Jews” is to be found. They have heard a prophecy of it and have seen an astrological sign—a star—telling of it.
So who were these “wise men” who appear only in Matthew? And were they Kings? And were there three of them?
The original Greek calls them Magi, the source of the word magician. The Magi were originally a clan of the Medes, who formed the priestly class in Persia—modern-day Iran. By the time of Jesus, the word magi had come to refer to professional practitioners of magic or astrology. There is no hint of them being royalty, other than the “fact” that they received an audience with Herod. Nowhere does Matthew even say that there were only three of them. The only clue that there are three Magi is the three gifts they bring the child. There is no reason why three gifts must mean three people. The fact that Herod orders the death of children under two even suggests that the “wise men” may have arrived in Jerusalem well after Jesus’ birth. Although some translations refer to Jesus as an infant at the time of the Magi’s visit, Jesus is called a “child” in others. The mention of a star guiding the “wise men” offers a hint that they were astrologers.
Despite the later folktales spun around them, and the establishment of a popular holiday called “Three Kings’ Day,” the Magi are anonymous. Their legendary names—Balthasar, Melchior,