By Dr. Ann Nyland
At this time of year, many of us see nativity scenes every time we leave the house. These usually feature three Wise Men looking at the newborn baby Jesus or handing him little gifts. You'd be hard put to find someone who doesn't think that three Wise Men actually visited the newborn baby Jesus.
Does the Bible say three Wise Men gave gifts to a newborn baby Jesus? No! You won't find this in the King James Version, the NIV, The Message, you won't find this in any Bible version!
What does the Bible say? The Bible says that after Jesus was born, Wise Men traveled hundreds of miles to Jerusalem to look for the one who would be called the "King of the Jews". When Herod heard this, he got quite upset because the Senate had appointed him Ruler of the Jews some time earlier and he was a ruthless guy known for murdering his competition. He called a meeting of the chief priests and Bible scholars to ask if they knew anything about this. They told him that the one who would be called "King of the Jews" would be born in Bethlehem.
Herod then called the Wise Men to a secret meeting, and told them to look for this child in Bethlehem and report his whereabouts to him. He pretended his intention was to go there to worship him, but they didn't fall for that! Anyway, they headed off to Bethlehem and found Jesus in a house, as we are told in Matthew 2:11. Now instead of heading back to Herod, they took off in the other direction back to their own country.
Matthew 2:16-17 says that when Herod realized that the Wise Men had made a fool of him, he got extremely angry. He ordered the death of all the male children up to the age of two years old in Bethlehem and the whole area around it. Verse 17 says that he'd figured out the age from the information supplied by the Wise Men. So any Bible version you pick up will say the same thing - there were no Wise Men present when Jesus was baby, not a single one! They found Jesus as a child close to the age of 2 and living in a house. Remember that after Jesus was born, the Wise Men traveled many hundreds of miles from Persia to Jerusalem to look for him. It took them a while to get there - remember, they couldn't catch a plane!
Now, the Bible doesn't mention the number of these "Wise Men". No doubt the number "three" came into popular belief because they were three different types of gifts - and notice there were not three gifts, just different types of gifts!
History tells us that "Wise Men" were very wealthy, multi-millionaires in today's terms, and traveled with cavalry for protection for themselves and all their luxurious stores. Persians were known in those times for their over-the-top luxury. When they found Jesus, it is highly unlikely that they handed him little gifts the size of a shoe box, as those nativity scenes suggest. More likely it took several people to unload all the treasure from the camels! Gold, frankincense and myrrh were very expensive gifts, this is all well documented historically.
Dr. Ann Nyland is an ancient Greek language scholar and lexicographer known as the translator of The Source New Testament available at http://www.smithandstirling.com Her research field is word meaning from New Testament times.
I would be careful with anything from Nyland. She published not only the book you mentioned, but this one as well:
Study New Testament For Lesbians, Gays, Bi, And Transgender: With Extensive Notes On Greek Word Meaning And Context