The rest of the article:
They are said to be the descendants of Seth, the third son of Adam, and to belong to a sect that believed in silent prayer.
Perhaps the biggest divergence from the traditional Nativity story is that according to The Revelation there were “scores” of Magi.
It gives a detailed account of their prayers and rituals.
The story relates that Seth passed down a prophecy that a star would appear that would signal the birth of God in human form. The Magi waited thousands of years until the day the star appeared.
>The Bible does not say “three” Magi. It was only assumed to be three because of the three types of gifts given.
How does it differ from Matthew? Is it Gnostic? (The Gnostics wrote fictional gospels from the eye-witness point of view of just about every character, no matter how minor.) My supposition is that if the gospel is Syriac, and the characters Chinese, the answer is likely “no,” it wouldn’t be Gnostic.
Even if it’s merely fiction, it may give rich insight into what Syriacs supposed might reasonably have happened; the magi being Chinese, instead of Babylonian presents us with the possibility of a completely different astrology.
Were the Magi actually Aztecs?
Hmm? Now that is a long journey.
The Bible never says where they are from or how many
I thought they were from Orientar.
The Revelation of the Magi, reputedly a first-hand account of their journey to pay tribute to the son of God,...
It is an eighth-century copy of a story first written down nearly half a millennium earlier, less than 100 years after the Gospel of Matthew, the original source of the Bible story.
8th century, is in the nine hundreds. "Half a millenium earlier" is in the four hundreds. The event itself was a handful of years into BC.
What we have here is Christian folklore from four centuries after the fact. Interesting in and of itself, but doesn't necessarily tell us much that's accurate about the event itself. Matthew's very spare account would be more reliable, even if it wasn't inspired scripture.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three wise men, only that gold, frankincense and myrrh were given to the Christ Child, who was not in the stable but in a house (Matthew 2:11).
He was probably about two years old when they arrived. That’s why Herod issued the order to kill all boys two years old and under. It would make sense that they came from a great distance, following God’s special star to guide them to Jesus.
Interesting find as a work of pseudo-history.
Where does a person go to read the original text?
This is available on Amazon as an audio book for $1.86.
This is indeed an interesting connection with China. Chinese astronomers recorded a new star in the constellation Capricorn in March--April of 5 B.C.E. which was visible for over 70 days. This new star could have been a nova (short for the Latin nova stella = ``new star''). A nova is caused by a white dwarf gathering enough material, usually from a nearby companion in a binary system, onto its surface to raise the surface pressure high enough for a thermonuclear explosion. The white dwarf's increase in brightness may be a factor of 10,000 to over one million. The increase to peak brightness is very rapid, within a few days, while the fading away to invisibility usually takes a few months. The new star observed by the Chinese would have appeared in the east several hours before sunrise (remember Matthew 2:2 ``...we observed his star at its rising''). However, Matthew 2:9 implies that the object was later visible in the south when the wise men headed south toward Bethlehem after their visit with King Herod. A nova would not have moved that much. The constellation Capricorn is well away from the galactic plane (by 30--40 degrees), where most stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way) are found. A nova occurring in Capricorn would be a very rare event.
Explains why Herrod looked confused and said " aw hell kill anything 2 and under ".