No longer the 3 Wise Men!

"The Three Wise Men who followed the star to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the baby Jesus may not have been all that wise -- or even men"

After hundreds of years of being known as the 3 Wise Men, the Church of England want you to consider them as the 3 Magi. Forget they were men and forget they were wise, because of the definition of the word "magi". Perhaps it's a bit of feminism or perhaps the Church is trying to be more politically correct, but can you change the image of the "nativity scene" in your mind?

"A committee revising the latest prayer book said the term "Magi" was a transliteration of the name used by officials at the Persian court, and that they could well have been women.

"Magi is a word which discloses nothing about numbers, wisdom or gender embodied in the term," a Synod spokesman said on Tuesday after the revision was agreed by the Church of England's parliament which meets twice a year."

www.cnn.com...

ermm...where is the Christian view on this?

Well, I think they are wrong, although ive never heard this before. First they say (may not) have been wise, then they say they want you to consider them the
three magi.


Im going to read the link and let you know what I think after work.




peace.

I've heard that there were almost definitely more than three "wise men", but I've never heard of them possibly being women. Wether there were 3 or 100, male or female, wise or dumb as rocks it doesn't matter to me. The thing is, even though I'm a Christian, it doesn't matter to me. The whole "Jesus being born" aspect of it seems to be more important to me.

There probably more than three kings, but since there were the three gifts, it was just shortened to three. No accurate count was given, so the amount of gifts was as good a thing to go on as anything else.

i don't think it matters the number of them, but that one of them could have a been a woman and they weren't necessarily wise, but perhaps more like a person of position...

I am curious to know how those who believe the story feels about this.

Wisdom is relative! What one considers wise, another may consider dim-witted!

I was always of the opinion that they were astrologers anyway. I think they have been known as 'Magi' for quite a while.

This is what Snopes has to say about them ...

Mathew 2:1 tells us:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem . . .

That's it. Matthew doesn't say how many wise men came from the east, doesn't mention their names, and doesn't provide any details about how they made their journey.

It has generally been assumed that the wise men (or magi) were three in number because Matthew 2:11 makes mention of three gifts: " . . . they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh." The number of wise men is not specified in the Bible, however, and some Eastern religions have claimed up to twelve of them made the journey to Bethlehem.

Continued here

Maybe the star of Bethlehem was a spaceship?

Originally posted by worldwatcher
i don't think it matters the number of them, but that one of them could have a been a woman and they weren't necessarily wise, but perhaps more like a person of position...

Well, as was said, they were likely astronomers/astrologers (or at least had them in their employ). That type of occupation could have given them the connotation of "Wise Men', as astrology was serious business back then.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
"The Three Wise Men who followed the star to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the baby Jesus may not have been all that wise -- or even men"

After hundreds of years of being known as the 3 Wise Men, the Church of England want you to consider them as the 3 Magi. Forget they were men and forget they were wise, because of the definition of the word "magi". Perhaps it's a bit of feminism or perhaps the Church is trying to be more politically correct, but can you change the image of the "nativity scene" in your mind?

"A committee revising the latest prayer book said the term "Magi" was a transliteration of the name used by officials at the Persian court, and that they could well have been women.

"Magi is a word which discloses nothing about numbers, wisdom or gender embodied in the term," a Synod spokesman said on Tuesday after the revision was agreed by the Church of England's parliament which meets twice a year."

And this should be controversial because? The books have always said "three magi". "Wise men" is just an example of bad interpretation. They were mystics from the East. More specifically the area they called Babylon and Persia. They were astrologers, historians and mystics mostly. And the fact that these three people almost had Jesjuah killed as a child, and lead many people to the assumption that Jesjuah had his power from Ba'al (Babylonian astrology) and was killed like Mithra (the Christ of the Babylonians), is often ignored or overlooked. That's a mystery.

And why people doesn't understand why we hear nothing about Jesjuah after the age of 12, is just as great a mystery. When a Jewish boy becomes 13, he is Bar Mitvahed, he becomes an adult. His Torah education starts and he receives his first Tefillin. Likeways the girls become women at the same time, and they often receive two Sabbath candle stands. Jesjuah, being the son of a teacher (naggar, which also means carpenter) was probably educated a teacher, and when we hear about him again, he is a highly spirited master (Rabbouni) and a teacher in the Holy Scriptures with authority in the Law (Rabbi). Do you think you become a master rabbi by studying the Torah in a year? It takes a lifetime to become wise enough to be a Rabbi. The time we hear about Jesjuah again, is when his house is built and his marriage is confirmed. Something which would mean that his education was completed and he could finally "go out and play with the big guys", teach and preach in the Temple and in the synagogues. If Jesjuah hadn't been married, he could not have done these things. Period.

But when we look at how the Romans want to have their Jesus, we get a couple of hints. They say he was born in a time of year and under circumstances which would have killed him. They also say John was baptising Jesjuah in a time of year when they would have died if they were standing in the water all day long. They say Jesjuah wasn't married, that his wife was a whore, that he was white and that he hated the Jews. Go figure.....

Blessings,
Mikromarius

[Edited on 19-2-2004 by Hamilton]

big win for the feminists here!
i like it that they took their own initiative to do this sort of thing, rather than being pressued for 300 yrs.
i like it. magi is a much cooler word than wise man

The text says Magi. Why should this have anything to do with feminism. Not a single female magi has ever lived. It was a secret society for men. Most like the Freemasons these days. It was a Babylonian mystic school.

Blessings,
Mikromarius

so? i dont understand the feminist mind, but believe me, if someone admits it cudve bin a female, its a win for them.

Some interesting comments from cassiopaea.org, true or not?

Q: (L) What date, counting backwards in our calendrical system, was Jesus born on?
A: 01 06 minus 14.
Q: (L) What time of day was he born?
A: 6 am.
Q: (L) Was there any unusual celestial event in terms of star or planet alignments at that time?
A: No.
Q: (L) What was the star the Magi saw in the East that led them to the place where he was born? Was there an event where the Magi came to present gifts?
A: Close.
Q: (L) Who was it that came to present him gifts?
A: 3 prophets.
Q: (L) What country did these prophets come from?
A: Iran. Also known as Persia.
Q: (L) Was Jesus an individual who had psychic or unusual powers from birth?
A: Close.
Q: (L) Did he have an awareness from the earliest times of his life that he was in some way special or chosen?
A: yes.
Q: (L) What was the "star" that indicated to the prophets...
A: Spaceship.
Q: (L) What kind of space ship?
A: Mother.
Q: (L) Where did this mothership come from?
A: Other realm.
Q: (L) Does that mean other realm as in dimension or density?
A: Yes.
Q: (L) Do we know of these other realms or densities as other star systems or planets?
A: Partly.

Interresting to see that they say he was born on 17th of May, the same day we here in Norway celebrate our indipendence and constitution and all the children wave their tri-colour crosses in the air. The 4th of July 14,000 BC was when God created the Heavens of Egypt. "He built his sanctuary high as the Heavens, like the Earth he founded for ever."

Blessings,
Mikromarius

So the great Cassiopeans have weighed in on this one too. I was a little worried we might never have learned the truth...

Did they explain why the Mother Ship was there? They didn't drop him off, as another Cassiopean "text" talked about some dude who was the biological father of Jesus.

It looks like the church is changing stuff around a bit.
That is one of the worst things you can do is change what the bible says because thats means
eternal Damnation.