Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 3
Number six. How far did the Magi travel to see Jesus? It’s good one for Christmas season that we just came out of.
Speaker 2
Yeah. And I think while we were going, going through the stats, the commonality of this question every year increases towards December and Christmas. There are different interpretations of who the wise men from the east are. Like, where is the east? When a Jewish person in the Bible describes someone from the east, where are they coming from?
Speaker 1
We’re getting this from Matthew two, verse one, I believe.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Matthew two, verse one. 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. Most generally in the Bible, when someone is referred to as coming from the east, it’s either Northern Arabia, Syria, or Mesopotamia as the east. And if this were indeed the case, then it would probably have it’s like about 400 miles at the most at the farthest part of Syria. So it probably would have taken them two to three weeks is a suggestion that most people give. Have you thought of this? Because I’ve thought of this a little bit, but I want to hear what you have to say before I share the rest.
Speaker 1
I hope I don’t take what you’re going to say, but what we do know is they come eventually. The Bible says, well, first Matthew two one says after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it says, these people arrived in Jerusalem from the east. So we know, okay, first it’s the time after Jesus was born. And then they go and speak to Herod. And after they speak to Herod, Herod says, oh, please swing by after you find the Messiah and tell me where I can find him. And God warns them and these guys go a different way. They don’t tell Herod. And then Herod later goes and causes a massacre. This is Matthew 216. And he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men. He flew into a rage and he gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under. So why did he pick two years old or under? He knew the time when the star appeared because the wise man told him, if you look earlier up. So it’s possible that the wise man showed up sometime when Jesus was around one year old or less newly born or two years old.
Speaker 2
A couple of years. Yeah. Just as the end of that verse says, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. And that’s right. The Bible mentions that phrase twice in Matthew 216. And we are in the chapter in verse seven. And so if we take an adjustment of if it takes two to three weeks for people to travel 400 miles on camel, some people have suggested if it might have taken them as long as two years based on the time that Herod reckoned from the wise men that it’s possible that the wise man could have been from China. There’s about 4000 miles of straight line roughly from China to Israel. And they would have had to take a circuitous route. They could have come from anywhere. I like to think that they came from Asia, like China Asia, they caused such a stir. They must have been very different looking. Syrians and Arabians aren’t that different in their face as Judeans.
Speaker 1
They were all Semitic.
Speaker 2
Yes. And I like to think that these calls such a stir and they’re from the east, that they could have looked very different. They could have come from China. That’s what I like to think.
Speaker 1
Yeah. That’s what’s exciting. The possibility it could have been that far away.
Speaker 3
That’s a long way to travel.
Speaker 1
Yeah. And that’s why maybe it took two years.
Speaker 3
If that’s really how long it took traveling by foot in that era. No public transportation like you have today. No trains, no cars, no buses, no planes.
Speaker 2
And to think that the whole time they were following the star, they must have been astronomers because they’re like, this is unusual and they must have searched the writings and it was a big deal. I think it was a really big deal. I think they were beyond area.
Speaker 1
Yeah. What’s interesting is earlier around Christmas time, we had Saturn and Jupiter pretty much line up and looked like one big bright star. And people were calling it a Christmas star and suggesting maybe that was what happened during time of Jesus birth. But I don’t think that was the case because as we were just talking about, the wise man would have been following that star for a substantial period of time to find Jesus. And plus just having Jupiter, Saturn up in the sky isn’t going to point them to the location of the Messiah. So it was probably a grouping of Angels or something like that that guided them, took them where they needed to go.
Speaker 2
And it was one of the signs for people who were looking for a Messiah because it was a prophesied time period. And so there were people in Jerusalem awaiting the coming of the Messiah. He should be born by now if XYZ is supposed to happen by the end of this prophecy. And I think it caused an uproar because they didn’t have news back then. Everything was word of mouth. And so I think it must have caused enough of an uproar, enough of excitement so that people start talking about it so that people are mentally and spiritually prepared for the message that the Messiah was soon to bring. I don’t think it was. Oh, some shepherds heard this. No, it was shepherds. It was wise men. It was lots of people talking about this.
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. And then when he would go up to Jerusalem, you go up to the Temple, then there was miraculous events happening there too.
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