I hate the mythicism that has arisen from the gospel accounts of the wise men. Well, most of the nativity story really. Of course, I'm not even convinced that any of it happened and if it did, a lot of it was exaggerated, but the reading comprehension of modern Christians is astounding. For example, show me a passage in the Bible that says there were three wise men? Go ahead. I'll wait. You won't find it because it isn't there. There is a mention of three gifts, but there could have been two guys or a hundred. The common narrative also puts the wise men at the birth of Christ, but reading the actual written story, it seems that they wandered around for a bit, asked for directions, and eventually stumbled upon the child thanks to a meteorite hanging about the house for an unspecified amount of time that no one else noticed. I've read this part several times because it just doesn't make sense and hasn't since I was a teenager. Did it really say it hovered over the house? Or were they astrologers who were reading the stars? And how does that work if you are a Christian, because I was taught that astrology was witchcraft and mostly fake. But folks, it says "...and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." (Matthew 2:9) This implies that the thing was moving ahead of them and stopped over the house. Not a sign from the heavens, a literal object. Let's also not forget their quick-stop at Herod's palace because they were originally mistaken and thought that an actual Prince had been born to the King. Another one. By the by Herod had many sons and it was well-known that this was not really a source of pride for Herod. All it was was more competition for the throne and he had several of his sons (along with other various family members) killed. And once they were set straight the guy got super suspicious and then tried to kill a whole bunch of babies. There probably weren't that many young babies in Bethlehem....but WHY were they still in Bethlehem? They were supposed to be there for the census or taxes or somethign. The census (which historically we know didn't take place at this time anyway) only lasts a few weeks at most, it's not a year long process. It's only a 33 hour walk (with no animals) from Nazareth to Bethlehem. At most it would take 4 days to get back and forth. Even if you gave Mary a few weeks to heal, eventually you have to go home. I mean, did Mary and Joseph move to Bethlehem or were they there for the census? Make up your mind Bible. At this point, the whole story just sounds so far-fetched. Even if your reading comprehension is excellent, the story itself in a historical context just doesn't make sense. It reads like someone who was writing something 70 years after the actual events and realized there were some plot holes so they tried to fix all the plot holes in one short chapter.
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AuthorThis is a personal, but secret, blog archiving my deconversion from a Christian to a non-believer. Archives
December 2020
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